Chapter Sixty-Nine: A New World

The old man looked at him and asked, “Do you wish to possess this miraculous wisdom?”

Without hesitation, Zhang Mingyang replied, “Of course I do. With wisdom, I could change the entire world.”

The old man pondered for a moment, then waved his hand, and the city before them vanished. The black earth disappeared as well, and everything before Zhang Mingyang’s eyes turned into a mysterious blackness.

He found himself in a world of darkness, unable to see his own hand before his face. No sound reached him. Fear seized him, and he called out for the old man, but no voice answered.

“Sir! Where is this place? Sir?”

His desperate cries elicited no reply. In despair, Zhang Mingyang began to run about, seeking an escape from the world of blackness.

Just as he was about to lose his mind, the old man’s voice returned. “Young man, are you afraid?”

“Sir, where are you? Why can’t I see you? Have I gone blind? Why is everything black?”

Listening to Zhang Mingyang’s questions, the old man waved his hand again, and the world he had known returned—with color restored. Zhang Mingyang, who had been groping about, regained his sight and saw the world as before.

“Sir, what happened just now? Why did the world turn black?”

The old man smiled and replied, “How could the world turn black? You were merely in a new world.”

“A new world?”

Zhang Mingyang did not understand. “Sir, what is a new world?”

The old man answered, “A world that belongs only to you—a world you can change at will.”

“This…!”

“At will?” Zhang Mingyang considered the possibilities. He asked, “Sir, do you mean a world without time, without matter, without life?”

The old man nodded, “From the perspective of human thought, yes.”

“From the perspective of human thought?”

Suddenly, Zhang Mingyang thought of something. He pointed at the old man. “Sir, are you not human?”

The old man looked at his own body and replied after a moment’s thought, “I can be human, or not human—it all depends on how you perceive me.”

“That’s as good as saying nothing at all,” Zhang Mingyang shot him a glance.

Although Zhang Mingyang did not believe the old man’s words, he was still eager to know how this new world was formed.

---

“Sir, how is this new world created?”

The old man pointed to his own head. “By this.”

Hearing the same answer again, Zhang Mingyang was speechless. “Sir, can’t you say something else?”

The old man actually obliged, “Without knowledge, could humans become the rulers of Earth?”

He wasn’t wrong. Humanity had come this far through the evolution of the brain and the storage of knowledge. Without an advanced brain, people today would be little different from monkeys or apes.

“Sir, human knowledge is connected with the brain, but no one is born knowing everything. Everyone’s brain is used to acquire and store knowledge.”

The old man replied, “Have you ever considered that, one day, humans might create a new world just with their brains?”

“Create a new world with the brain?”

Zhang Mingyang pondered the question. “Do you mean creating a new world with the knowledge in the brain?”

The old man shook his head and closed his eyes.

Suddenly, a black sphere appeared before him, about the size of a basketball.

He opened his eyes and pointed at the black sphere. “Not knowledge, but imagination alone.”

“How is that possible!” Zhang Mingyang thought he must have misheard. What kind of brain could create a new space purely from imagination?

“Sir, you must be joking. People can imagine, but they cannot materialize their thoughts. You truly jest.”

The old man waved his hand, and the black sphere vanished. “As humans say, truth comes from practice. How do you know if you haven’t tried?”

“Impossible, utterly impossible.”

Zhang Mingyang shook his head, disbelief plain on his face. “If you were talking about creating a new world through knowledge and science, perhaps humanity could realize it in a hundred or a thousand years. But to materialize pure imagination? That’s science fiction!”

Seeing Zhang Mingyang still unconvinced, the old man continued, “The reason humans cannot create a new world is not due to a lack of knowledge, but because your brains have not fully evolved.”

“What does that mean?” Zhang Mingyang was confused. Could the human brain still evolve?

“Sir, can the human brain still evolve?”

The old man nodded. “How much do you really know about your own brain? Tell me.”

---

Zhang Mingyang thought for a moment and recounted what he knew. “The human brain is divided into left and right hemispheres, with tens of billions of neurons. Humans are the largest parallel processors, and even the world’s fastest computers are twenty orders of magnitude slower than the human brain. And…”

Before he could finish, the old man shook his head. “What you’ve described is what humans understand. Do you have any other thoughts?”

“Other thoughts?” Zhang Mingyang scratched his head, searching for ideas. “Does the fact that humans cannot live without their brains count?”

The old man closed his eyes, his chest rising and falling gently. Though no breathing could be heard, he seemed slightly irritated.

The old man opened his eyes and continued, “Have you ever considered that a person’s brain might be a universe—a separate space unto itself?”

Hearing this, Zhang Mingyang thought for a moment. If a person’s brain truly were a space, a universe, then the spaces created by the brain would be like planets? The more he thought about it, the more intriguing it became. “Sir, why do you think like this? Can the human brain really become a universe?”

The old man conjured the black sphere once more and pointed at it. “Look, I can create objects out of nothing because my brain is more highly evolved than yours. You cannot, because your evolution is not sufficient.”

Zhang Mingyang approached the floating black sphere, reaching out to touch it. But just as before, his hands passed right through.

“Sir, why can’t I touch it?”

The old man walked to the sphere, extended his right hand, and lifted it. “Because your brain and mine are not at the same stage of evolution. In other words, we exist in different spaces.”

“Then how can I evolve to be like you? This state is truly wondrous.”

The old man put away the sphere and was about to speak when Zhang Mingyang’s body began to tremble and blur into nothingness.

“What’s happening to me?”

Zhang Mingyang looked down at his flickering body, tried to grasp it but failed. He looked to the old man for help.

But the old man merely stepped back, gazing at Zhang Mingyang. “You must return now. We’ll meet again someday.”

With that, the old man disappeared, ignoring Zhang Mingyang’s desperate pleas.