Jiang He stared at the words in front of him, momentarily stunned.
What was the situation with those images just now? An Awakening Phenomenon?
But according to what he had heard, the awakening of extraordinary talents always 'ended in a flash,' and he had never heard of any 'phenomenon' or 'images.'
Was it because of his talent?
Jiang He's thoughts stirred, and the words before him changed—
Just like ancient divine beings were born with knowledge, extraordinary individuals, after awakening their talents, would automatically know relevant information, and could later understand their own condition at any time; this was also part of being an Extraordinary.
The current words were just a form of expression.
Talent Name: Time Transference
Description: With the 'Moment of Awakening' as the temporal node, your future branches into an infinite number of possibilities, and as the 'root' of these possibilities, you have gained the power to transfer the future and turn 'possibility' into 'reality.'
Effect: Each week, you can randomly reveal a future where you awaken a different talent, and summon your future self as a Heroic Spirit to the present.
While the Heroic Spirit exists, you gain the talent it possesses; when the Heroic Spirit disappears, you extract one of its abilities.
The summoned Heroic Spirit lasts for one week, and after disappearing and a cooldown period, can be summoned again.
Reveal the future, summon Heroic Spirits?
Jiang He racked his brain but couldn't find a similar entry in the 'Talent Encyclopedia' from his memories.
He could only try to understand the meaning of this talent himself—
“If time is a giant tree, branching at certain stages based on different possibilities…”
“Then, the moment I 'come of age and awaken my talent' is the 'critical node' where branches are formed.”
“At this moment, I might awaken the weakest talent, or the strongest, or even a Flame Spirit Guardian talent like Du Lingwei… and develop from there, forming different futures…”
“The Time Transference talent can summon these different future versions of me, decades later, to the present, and acquire their abilities…”
“It's almost like an insatiably greedy child, wanting every kind of future, unwilling to let go of any.”
Jiang He clarified his thoughts, and his breathing quickened.
This was definitely an ultimate talent of an unknown level, surpassing all currently recorded human talents, impossible to evaluate by grade or rarity!
What it represented was possibility!
Just for talents alone, he had one chance to reveal each week, which meant fifty-two times a year.
Even with bad luck, he might still draw a future with a rare talent, or if he was lucky, a future with a divine-grade talent!
Not to mention, summoning future Heroic Spirits itself represented Future Prediction; he could use this to understand what would happen in the future, and know important event nodes in the future…
“Dad, Mom, your son has made it big!!”
Jiang He was so excited he was trembling, and he kowtowed several more times to his parents.
To awaken a talent of this caliber, he didn't know how much hidden virtue they had accumulated to help him.
He would definitely not let his parents down.
Activate Talent: Reveal Future!
The light and shadows before him shifted, changing from text to a golden card.
The golden light on the card dimmed, golden specks fell away, revealing an image—
The background of the image was dark, a pale-haired young man sat in a chair, a healed scar on his neck, wearing a solemn black suit, his fingers intertwined, eyes downcast.
Text appeared below.
Time: Sixty Years Later
Talent: Spirit Speech
Description: By word, command all spirits.
Effect: Infuse extraordinary power into speech, giving it extraordinary effects.
With billions of talents recorded by humanity, Jiang He had already prepared for the first few draws to be useless talents, placing his main expectations on future prediction.
Yet, he didn't expect that the first time he revealed the future, he would uncover an extremely rare and powerful talent!
Jiang He remembered that this talent, named Spirit Speech, was recorded in the 'Talent Encyclopedia,' first discovered in 1992. Its user easily defeated a powerful Extraordinary with this talent and was rated as an S-grade talent!
One must know, Du Lingwei's Flame Spirit Guardian talent was only rated A-grade in the encyclopedia!
“My future self, sixty years from now, possessing an S-grade talent…”
Jiang He took several deep breaths, barely managing to control his excited emotions.
Then, he raised his finger and tapped the card in front of him.
Time Transference, Heroic Spirit Summon!
At this moment, the card shattered, turning into countless specks of light that swirled and gathered in the mourning hall, forming a pale-haired young man in a suit.
The young man opened his hollow eyes, his pupils focusing.
“Is this… the past?” The white-haired young man scanned his surroundings, his gaze landing on the two photos in the mourning hall, his eyes trembling slightly as he lowered them: “2029.”
“You summoned me.” He looked at the agitated Jiang He beside him, a smile playing on his lips: “Interesting.”
Jiang He was about to speak when he saw the white-haired young man ignore him, pull open the door of the mourning hall, and walk out.
The white-haired young man walked to the kitchen with familiar ease, opened the refrigerator, took out a bottle of iced milk, and started drinking it, as if he had returned to his own home.
No, he *had* returned to his own home.
After finishing the milk, the white-haired young man picked up an opened pack of cookies, stuffed them into his mouth, and looked back at Jiang He.
“Tell me, what is your talent?”
“…”
His future self was so rude.
No, did he need to be polite to himself?
Jiang He looked at the white-haired young man, who was devouring food in front of him, feeling a strange sensation of his left and right brains fighting; his excited mood cooled slightly.
Facing the question, he answered honestly.
“My talent is Time Transference…”
After Jiang He finished speaking, the white-haired young man also finished his cookies.
He wiped his mouth and couldn't help but exclaim, “How shameless, as expected of me.”
Seeing that he had already understood the situation, Jiang He's anticipation rose again, and he eagerly asked, “You are my future self, sixty years from now, who awakened the Spirit Speech talent… What is the future like? What is your current strength? Have you become an S-grade Extraordinary…?”
“Stop, stop, stop.” The white-haired young man interrupted Jiang He.
“We'll talk about those things later. First, I want to ask you… Are you a pig?”
Jiang He was stunned: “Huh?”
The white-haired young man almost had the words “I was actually so stupid back then” written all over his face, and he sighed: “Have you ever thought that your future self is not you?”
“Take me as an example. I have lived sixty more years than you. These experiences have shaped me, giving me a completely different way of thinking than you…”
“If I had lived an extremely failed life during that time, turning into a cynical, anti-social personality, even hating my past stupid self… In that situation, I am summoned by you, and I see that you actually possess such a shameless talent, and will definitely experience a better life than me in the future…”
“What do you think would happen?”
Jiang He felt as if he had been doused with a bucket of cold water; his excited mood had long since cooled, and his spine tingled with dread.
He spoke with difficulty: “You would…”
“I would kill you without hesitation, even if it might cause my own disappearance,” the white-haired young man said coldly.
“…”
Jiang He's Adam's apple bobbed.
He had just walked through the gates of hell?
Seeing Jiang He's expression, the white-haired young man smiled with satisfaction and raised a hand to pat his shoulder.
“However, you can rest assured now.”
Jiang He said: “…You are a good person?”
“Of course.” The white-haired young man smiled and nodded, walking to the sofa and sitting down: “I've tested it for you. As a Heroic Spirit summoned by you, my power cannot cause any harm to you… And, once I have the subjective intention to harm you, I will be unable to control my body… In simple terms, it just won't work.”
“However, you still need to be careful in the future—inability to cause subjective harm doesn't mean there are absolutely no problems.”
“As long as I harbor hostility towards you, there will always be a way to bypass the 'subjective harm' logic and threaten you through indirect, roundabout methods.”
Hearing the white-haired young man's reminder.
Jiang He nodded seriously: “Thank you.”
“No need to thank me. This is the first lesson I'm teaching you—maintain vigilance, even towards yourself.”
The white-haired young man said calmly: “As a 78-year-old elder, I still have many things to teach you… including what happens in the future that you want to know, and all the skills, extraordinary professions, and everything else that can increase power that I possess.”
“But you should already understand that I am not you, so none of this is free.”
“You must pay a price.”
Jiang He looked at the familiar face of the white-haired young man, silent for a moment.
Is this his future self?
Mature, meticulous… unfamiliar.
Even with a face similar to his own, he felt so strange.
Is this what growth is?
Jiang He took a deep breath: “I understand. So, what is the price?”
“Money.”
The white-haired young man suddenly laughed, a genuine longing in his eyes: “At this point in time, Uncle Cui's cold noodle shop is still open. Give me your phone, I'm going to buy a bowl of cold noodles!”
“Haven't eaten it in decades, I'm practically starving to death!”
“And Spirit Cow Fresh Milk, Crunchy Biscuits, Yishengxuan Fried Chicken, Frog Fish Vermicelli, Cao's Pork Hock Rice… It's not easy to come back sixty years, I must eat all of these things at least once!”
The white-haired young man rattled off a long list of foods as if reciting a menu.
Jiang He remembered the scene when he was just summoned and immediately ran to the kitchen to raid the refrigerator, and he suddenly understood.
Damn it, my future self is a foodie!
He talked for so long just to get money to eat!
“Oh, right.” The white-haired young man took the phone from Jiang He's hand and stood up, saying.
“You'll summon many different versions of us in the future, so you'll definitely need separate ways to address us.”
“I'll claim a name first—”
The white-haired young man looked at his reflection in the TV, and touched his hair.
“White-haired Jiang He… From now on, I'll be called Bai He.”