Chapter 525: Time Capsule

At noon that day.

Because Xiaoxiao and Taozi were one at work and one at school, and the next-door neighbors had also gone out to roam—evidently not coming back—Chen Shu and Ning Qing, like parents whose children were away, made a rather simple meal.

On a whim, Chen Shu stir-fried a basin of pickled cowpea with minced meat, a dish he hadn't made in a long time; without the neighbors, they would likely be able to eat it for several days.

He also boiled a pot of tomato meatball soup and stir-fried some Sweet and Sour Chinese Cabbage; that was lunch for today.

Although the meal was simple, it was very appetizing.

A couple of days ago, the neighbors had sent over a high-tech rice cooker; it looked like a large bucket and completely simulated the traditional process of steaming rice in a bamboo steamer—boiling the rice first, draining it, then inserting holes to steam it—resulting in rice that was distinct, fluffy, and delicious, and it was fully automatic, very high-end.

Chen Shu loved eating rice like this.

The neighbors had put in the effort.

The distinct steamed rice, paired with Sweet and Sour Chinese Cabbage, or a spoonful of pickled cowpea with minced meat—needing nothing else—was enough to eat several large bowls.

As expected, after the meal, aside from the Sweet and Sour Chinese Cabbage being finished by Qingqing, half a pot of tomato meatball soup remained, and that large basin of pickled cowpea with minced meat had only been consumed by about one-fifth; if it were just the two of them, it could last five days in the refrigerator.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, post-meal lethargy.

"Buzz buzz!"

The Mobile Phone suddenly rang.

Beauty with Eight-Pack Abs: Does anyone want to see the duel between Senior Sister Zhang Suannai and Senior Sister Wu Eiwei?

Beauty with Eight-Pack Abs: I recorded it.

Haoran: Send it over quickly.

Green Lamp Ancient Buddha: Amitabha, to tell the truth, the first moment I met her, this poor monk could tell that Benefactor Ji-Ba was definitely a person of great virtue.

Qingcai Keke: A Bodhisattva in the world! Send it, send it quickly!

Nameless Person: Post it for everyone to learn from.

Green Lamp Ancient Buddha: Is Benefactor Qingcai calling me?

Green Lamp Ancient Buddha: /Kind-hearted smile

"Emmm???"

Chen Shu immediately made the "subway old man" face.

Yet it really was the case—

High-Tier Cultivators of the Buddhist Sect are generally addressed as Venerable; to break it down, the Seventh Stage are Messengers, the Eighth Stage are Arhats, and the Ninth Stage are Bodhisattvas. Although this is primarily an honorific for High-Tier Buddhist Cultivators, except for a very small number of those with poor conduct, everyone generally addresses them this way.

Just like the Bodhisattva of the Calamity back then.

Dharma Master Tongdeng was already at the Ninth Tier Peak, so naturally, he deserved the title of Bodhisattva.

And although he was still young and had been at the Ninth Stage for less than two years, due to the upcoming war and the potential path to godhood in the future, the Buddhist Sect had already rushed to arrange his Golden Body into major temples; he was a genuine Tongdeng Bodhisattva.

It's just... why was the sense of dissonance so strong?

Thinking that this thing was revered by people as a Bodhisattva, receiving incense and worship from the world, and then coming to show off in front of him, Chen Shu felt completely uncomfortable.

It felt like ants were crawling on him.

Fortunately, the messages arrived in time, diverting this discomfort.

Beauty with Eight-Pack Abs: 【Video】

Beauty with Eight-Pack Abs: 【Video】

Beauty with Eight-Pack Abs: 【Video】

Three in a row, all quite long.

Chen Shu clicked on them one by one to watch.

The internet speed was slightly slow, loading sluggishly.

As soon as the video played, there was Sword Light filling the sky; as far as the eye could see, even the very edge of the sky was dyed jade-white by the Sword Light. The "knives falling from the sky" that people often talked about couldn't compare to this scene.

Wu Eiwei was the other extreme, her figure everywhere, as if she had a Clone Technique, each figure shuttling to the limit within the Sword Rain.

Chen Shu had already experienced the Ultimate Sword Dao.

"Oh my..."

Chen Shu watched with a grimace, sighing repeatedly; it was truly tragic, even the mosaics had been beaten out.

By the time he finished watching, the group owner had already spoken in the group.

Haoran: Why was it censored?

Green Lamp Ancient Buddha: It's human nature.

Qingcai Keke: Are you treating us as outsiders?

Gate of All Wonders: Yeah, yeah, we've been group members and comrades-in-arms for eighty or ninety years, sharing social death together; what is there that we can't see?

Qingcai Keke: /Raise hand in agreement

Nameless Person: At 36 seconds in the second video, how did Grandma break the Nüxia's fatal move? It was covered by the mosaic, I couldn't see.

Suddenly Silent: The angle wasn't good enough either; was there really no male comrade at the scene to watch the battle? I believe what a male comrade filmed would definitely be better than what a female comrade filmed.

Gate of All Wonders: I happened to be in Nanzhou at the time /Raise hand

Gate of All Wonders: I originally wanted to watch, but before the fight started, they beat me up first and poked my eyes out; it took a long time for them to grow back.

Haoran: This is why I don't go.

Grandma Always Says: @Zhaoyeqing

Grandma Always Says: 【Screenshot: Qingcai Keke: Are you treating us as outsiders?】

Grandma Always Says: 【Screenshot: Qingcai Keke: /Raise hand in agreement】

Zhaoyeqing: 1

Haoran: Beautiful!

Gate of All Wonders: Amitabha

Qingdeng Gufu: What a sin.

Qingcai Keke: /You...

Zhaoyeqing: Don't move from where you are @Qingcai Keke

Qingcai Keke:...

Qingcai Keke: When I die, bury me on the mountaintop. Don't hold a funeral service, no banging gongs and drums or singing and dancing, it's too noisy. Bury me quietly, donate my remains to the hospital for research, and tell my little cat-girl to study hard.

Haoran Zhengqi initiated a group video call.

Beauty with Eight-Pack Abs, Qingdeng Gufu, Nameless Person, Door of All Wonders, Suddenly Stopped Speaking, Grandma Always Says, Jiang Lai, 【Blank Nickname】, and Just Call Me Luo Huaian joined the group video call.

"Good grief!"

A whole bunch of you are lurking, aren't you?

And what the hell is this space?

There were already footsteps behind him.

Chen Shu closed the group chat immediately, turned around, face full of smiles, and kept calling it a misunderstanding.

That evening.

Taozi curled up on the floor, using the coffee table as a desk, writing her homework earnestly.

Her master sat right behind her, staring coldly at her textbook, making her afraid to use her own efficient problem-solving methods, forcing her to write exactly as the teacher taught.

On the other side of the sofa, Chen Shu, who had been beaten that afternoon, and Xiaoxiao, who had been beaten that evening for talking back to her sister, sat side by side, watching the news intently, which mentioned the Yi Emperor attending a certain ceremony.

The Yi Emperor had returned from Lanya, the Sect Master had also returned to the Spirit Sect, and the other Ninth Stage or near-Ninth Stage seniors should have returned from Lanya as well.

That Forbidden Land in Lanya had already closed.

This was not only because the time each Forbidden Land could be opened was limited and the naturally leaking Divine Power was also limited, but also because the Reed God was about to return to the Battlefield—it is said that it takes a certain amount of time to reach the "Battlefield" where the gods are from here, so he had to head there in advance to prepare early; this was also one of the reasons why no gods had returned casually in the hundreds of years since the Withered Plane was destroyed.

Although the Plane War at that time would be a war of Nine-Tier Cultivators, and the gods of both sides could not enter, it would still require wrestling with the opposing gods from a distance.

And it was not just the gods of both sides.

The neighboring planes that possessed life, civilization, and gods would also step in to help; the spread of the withering power in the Withered Plane was a cautionary tale, making these neighbors understand the principle that if the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold.

Chen Shu couldn't help but turn his head to look at the person beside him: "Xiaoxiao, is your project almost finished?"

"It's about to enter the testing phase."

"That's really amazing."

"Yes!"

"You're really thick-skinned."

"!"

"Is the performance of the Artificial Cultivator good?"

"It's super good."

The young girl met his gaze, then quietly glanced at her sister who was supervising Taozi's homework, wanting to say something but stopping herself.

Chen Shu guessed that what she wanted to say was something like "beating up my sister" or "ganging up on my sister in the future," but because she had just been beaten, although she was neither afraid nor particularly bothered by it, she didn't want to get beaten twice in one day, so she held it back.

"That's really amazing!"

"Yeah."

Whenever Chen Shu thought about such an amazing researcher, working so hard on development, only to get beaten when she got home, he felt exceptionally sad.

Just like himself...

End of 5028, Yuanzhou, Bai City.

Chen Shu held a chicken wing wrapped in pork intestine, Qingqing held a cup of lemon tea, and the two of them walked slowly, basking in the sun.

They walked slowly to the entrance of the Seventh Talent Academy.

The two looked at the stone sign at the entrance that read "Seventh Talent Academy," looked at each other, and then stepped inside together.

Four years of Talent Academy, from sixteen to twenty, is exactly the most youthful and pure age, where any emotion, good or bad, is scorching and vivid. And these four years of time were actually longer than university in his previous life, and also longer than university in this life, because it was a full four years, whereas university in his previous life was mostly only four years with only three spent on campus, and while university in this world had five years, it was only four years on campus, and each day was far less long than the Talent Academy.

The Talent Academy was from morning to night, staying together the whole time.

This place was full of their memories.

Chen Shu and Ning Qing chatted as they walked, talking about interesting things that happened in different places, talking about where things had changed compared to before and where things were still the same, and then stood in front of the celebrity list that had their photos and names, admiring them carefully, and even Ning Qing revealed a faint smile.

Then the two wandered outside the storage room.

Through the glass, one could see a large cabinet inside, the shelves filled with dense glass jars, with labels of different styles pasted on them, some of which had already faded, and each jar contained capsules of various colors.

Chen Shu leaned against the window to look, and exchanged a glance with Ning Qing.

"Hehe..."

"Stupid."

"Take them out and look?"

"As you wish."

Chen Shu lowered his head, pointed a finger, and the door lock opened.

Pushing the door open and entering, there was a smell of dust.

Whether it was the sunlight reflecting the trajectory of the dust or the dust outlining the shape of the sunlight, fine dust danced in the light beam, looking exactly like the scenes that would appear in TV dramas depicting memories, as if they were pulled back to the past for a moment.

The two searched side by side, and soon found the jar labeled "Class 1, Year 5020," and before Chen Shu could rummage through it, two capsules flew out.

Chen Shu turned his head, following the capsules.

He saw Ning Qing standing where the light shone, quietly holding out her hands, the two Time Capsules already having fallen into her palms, her palms white and tender, and she reached out to hand the capsules to him, tilting her head slightly, as if telling him that she had already found them for him, or perhaps signaling that he could open them.