The starting point of the return journey
The light in the space-time channel suddenly became chaotic and unstable. Qi Diao Yanfei and Zhaxi Pingcuo felt an unprecedented pulling force, pulling them towards a familiar yet unfamiliar coordinate.
When the dizziness wore off, they found themselves standing on a grassland covered in geraniums, with snow-capped mountains in the distance and prayer flags fluttering nearby. Familiar Tibetan songs drifted in on the wind, mixed with the cries of cattle and sheep and the ringing of bells.
"This is..." Qi Diao Yanfei looked around in disbelief. "Are we back? Back to the original grassland?"
Tashi Phuntsok closed his eyes and sensed it, his expression gradually becoming solemn. "The time is wrong. It should have been many years since we left here, but the time point in this space-time... seems to be shortly after we left."
As expected, as they approached the village they remembered, they saw a shocking scene—young Qidiao Yanfei, backpack on his back, sky-burial knife in hand, his face grim as he walked off into the distance. Meanwhile, another Tashi Phuntsok still lived in people's memories, having yet to experience the avalanche that changed everything.
"We've returned to the past," Qi Diao Yanfei whispered softly, "back to where our story began."
Just as they were confused, a familiar figure walked out from the void - it was Liana, a member of the Council of Guardians of Space and Time, but her form was more solid than in their memory, and she was surrounded by powerful space-time energy.
"Welcome home, or rather, welcome to the turning point of everything." Liana's tone was more serious than ever before. "Spacetime is collapsing, and you are the only ones who can fix it."
With a wave of her hand, she unfolded a panoramic view of space and time. Qi Diao Yanfei and Tashi Phuntsok were shocked to see that all the time and space they had experienced—the redwood forest, the Khampa family, the holy lake, the future Buddhist kingdom, the secret mountain and sea realm, the Star Academy—had been severely distorted and cracked. The fabric of space and time was shattering like a broken mirror, and the various eras began to interpenetrate and conflate.
"What's going on?" Tashi Phuntsok asked anxiously.
"It's backlash," Liana sighed. "The balance you established across time and space, while resolving local crises, has disrupted the larger order of time and space. It's like mending a web by focusing on a single node, only to lose the overall tension."
Qi Diao Yanfei recalled the teachings on cause and effect at Xingchen Academy: "Did our intervention...change history as it was supposed to happen?"
"It's worse than that." Liana pointed at the panorama of spacetime. "Your existence itself has become an anomaly in spacetime. Every time you travel, every time you interfere, a crack is left in the fabric of spacetime. Now these cracks have begun a chain reaction."
In the scene, they saw the poet Du Fu in Chang'an City lose the inspiration for his poem "Dreaming of Li Bai" because he failed the test of the poetic realm; the future Buddhist kingdom prematurely reached balance, resulting in a fatal flaw in the integration of technology and Buddhism; and the Chaos Girl in the secret realm of mountains and seas lost control of her power due to their interference, destroying the entire secret realm...
"No..." Qi Diao Yanfei took a step back. "We tried hard to help every time and space, but the result is destruction?"
Tashi Phuntsok held her trembling hand and said, "There must be a solution."
Liana nodded. "The Council of Time and Space has discovered the only solution—you must return to each key node, undo your intervention, and return history to its original course."
"How is this possible?" Qi Diao Yanfei said in disbelief. "The balance we established for those people we helped is going to be wiped out?"
"It's not about erasing everything, but about letting everything return to its proper track." Liana's eyes were full of sympathy. "Sometimes, the greatest mercy is not to intervene, but to let go."
As they hesitated, the entire grassland began to shake violently. Cracks appeared in the sky, and scenes from different eras flashed through them: Tang Dynasty palaces, futuristic cities, the fairyland of Yaochi...
"The space-time collapse has begun," Liana said urgently, "You must make a decision now!"
Qi Diao Yanfei and Zhaxi Pingcuo looked at each other and saw the same decision in each other's eyes.
"Tell us what to do," they said in unison.
Under Liana's guidance, they embarked on an unprecedented journey of repairing time and space.
Their first stop was Chang'an. They watched their younger selves about to enter Du Fu's poetic realm and prevented the act. Without outside interference, Du Fu and his family awoke as expected, and the poet channeled this experience into his enduring poetry.
"Sometimes, suffering is the source of creativity," Qi Diao Yanfei said softly, tears in her eyes. "We think we are helping, but in fact we are depriving."
The second stop was the future Buddha Kingdom. They witnessed the escalating conflict between the Buddha Kingdom and the Heart Demon Realm, ultimately achieving a fragile balance after a major battle. This balance, while imperfect, was the result of the self-regulation of that time and space.
“An imposed balance will eventually collapse,” Tashi Phuntsok lamented. “Only self-realized wisdom can truly endure.”
The third stop was the Mountain and Sea Secret Realm. They witnessed the Daughter of Chaos wreak havoc while lost, ultimately being subdued by the Secret Realm's own defenses. During her long confinement, she gained a true understanding of the relationship between chaos and order, ultimately becoming a more powerful and wise guardian.
"Growth takes time," Qi Diao Yanfei whispered, "We are too eager to see results."
Every repair to a spacetime was accompanied by pain. Watching those they had helped go through hardships again, watching the balance they had established being shattered, their hearts were torn apart again and again.
But at the same time, they also witnessed a gratifying sight: the Kangba family, after generations of struggle, finally found a way to cure the blood curse on their own; after losing their guidance, the Redwood Zen Monastery developed a more comprehensive practice system; and after surviving several crises, the Three Realms Inn established more comprehensive rules for time and space management...
“Every space and time has the ability to repair itself,” Tashi Phuntsok said with a sudden realization. “Our intervention may actually delay their growth.”
When the last space-time node was repaired, the space-time structure of the entire multiverse began to stabilize again. The cracks gradually healed, and the chaotic space-time flow returned to order.
But the cost is huge.
Qi Diao Yanfei felt her memories fading, her experiences of time travel slipping away like sand in an hourglass. Tashi Phuntsok's figure also began to fade, the power of the Guardian of Time and Space fading.
"This is the final price," Liana's voice seemed to come from far away. "In order to completely repair time and space, your memories of all these journeys will be sealed until the time is right."
Qi Diao Yanfei held Tashi Phuntsok's hand tightly and said: "Even if I forget everything, I will never forget loving you."
Tashi Phuntsok looked at her tenderly: "True love transcends memory and time and space."
Before they completely lost consciousness, they heard Liana's last words: "This is not the end, but a new beginning. When time and space need balance again, you will awaken again."
......
Qi Diao Yanfei opened her eyes and found herself standing on a familiar grassland, holding "The Biography of Poems of Tsangyang Gyatso" in her hands, with tears still on the corners of her eyes.
In the distance, a young shepherd was riding a horse towards her. That was the appearance of Tashi Phuntsok in her memory.
"Yanfei!" He called her name, his smile as bright as the sun. "I found a rare flower at the foot of the snow-capped mountains. I'll take you to see it tomorrow!"
Qi Diao Yanfei's heart was filled with an inexplicable mixture of sadness and joy. She didn't know where this emotion came from, but she felt that the happiness before her was so precious and so fragile.
"Okay," she replied with a smile, pressing the poetry book to her heart, "Let's go together."
In another dimension of time and space, Liana and the Guardian Council watched all this.
"Memory sealing is complete," a Guardian reported. "They have returned to their original time and space node, retaining their basic personality traits but erasing all experiences of traveling through time and space."
Another guardian lamented: "What a shame, they have accumulated such a wealth of wisdom and experience."
Liana shook her head. "That wisdom hasn't disappeared; it's simply transformed into subconscious instincts. When time and space need to be balanced again, these instincts will guide them to make the right choices."
She pulled up a spacetime prediction model: "According to calculations, the next large-scale spacetime crisis will occur in eight years. By then, they will reawaken, stronger and wiser than they are now."
"Eight years... is exactly the time when Tashi Phuntsok was destined to be hit by the avalanche."
Liana nodded. "The nodes of fate won't change, but the way they deal with it can. This time, they will have different choices."
On the grassland, Qidiao Yanfei and Tashi Phuntsok walked side by side in the sunset. For some reason, they both hummed the same ancient ballad, which they had learned together in some forgotten time and space.
“Do you feel,” Tashi Phuntsok said suddenly, “that we have known each other for a very long time, so long that it has lasted longer than this lifetime?”
Qi Diao Yanfei nodded, tears glistening in her eyes. "I feel the same way. It's as if... we've been in love for countless reincarnations."
They smiled at each other and held hands tighter.
At the edge of a distant holy lake, a black stone tablet stood quietly, with new inscriptions emerging on its surface:
"The traveler of time and space has returned home, carrying the seeds of wisdom hidden deep within.
When the balance is broken again, when time and space call again,
They will reawaken, more glorious than ever.
Because true love never dies;
True wisdom is never forgotten."
The lake reflected the figures of Qidiao Yanfei and Tashi Phuntsok walking away together. Deep within that reflection, countless scenes of time and space could be vaguely seen blooming layer by layer like lotus flowers.
Their journey seems to have returned to the starting point, but in fact it has changed all the destinations.
Somewhere deep within our consciousness, unnoticed, the wisdom of balance lies like a dormant volcano, waiting to erupt again.
And that day, when time and space need to be protected again, when the balance is broken again, they will surely awaken again and continue their unfinished mission with a more mature attitude.
Because the return journey of a time traveler is always a new starting point.
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