It was dark around him, but Fan could still move forward using just his eyesight.
As he traced the way out by memory, he came across something different at about ten feet or so from the cave opening.
There shouldn’t have been any obstacles, but now, a pile of rocks blocked him.
Fan studied genetic science, and the internship he did before his time traveling taught him some archaeology. He could tell from how the rocks were stacked and the dust on the cross-section that the pile came from an earthquake at least a few hundred years ago.
Fan still couldn’t believe that he had traveled forward in time 800 years, so he didn’t connect this earthquake to the tremors that he’d felt before the time traveling.
He wasn’t worried about the rocks blocking him, though. There was an opening within the pile; judging from the size of the opening and the marks on the dirt, this was how he had crawled into the cave.
He could leave the same way he came. It was the solution most people would reach.
The opening was narrow, or maybe Fan’s body was now bigger than he thought. He crawled like an earthworm for who knew how long inside the opening, until he finally saw a light up ahead and smelled . . . something like fresh air, but a bit different.
He tried hard to wriggle out of the opening, and then walked toward the cave opening, which looked the same as he remembered. But everything in his vision made him feel like he was hallucinating . . .
The cave opening had been on the side of a cliff, more than 160 meters above the ground, where you could see distant hills, thick green shrubs, and jade-like streams in the distance, but now . . .
Now, Fan could see nothing but an endless green. The green enveloped the entire opening of the cave, which seemed to have green branches thicker than what several people could grasp; the leaves were wider than any human body, and growing throughout were robust vines that were thicker than metal chains.
If his sense of perception was okay, if the terrain hadn’t changed from what he’d first seen, then wouldn’t these trees, which grew from the bottom of the valley to here, be at least 200 meters tall?
Fan thought his deduction was ludicrous, but the closer he got to the cave opening, the more accurate his hypothesis seemed to be. Seeing the way the branches gathered as they got closer to the ground, it was very likely they all came from the same tree.
If these smaller branches were already three, five meters across, then how big was the main tree? Fan couldn’t even imagine!
He marveled as he walked; now he could see further away from within the leaves and branches.
The land looked the same and the distant hills also remained the same shape as he recalled. The only difference: The mountains looked taller by at least 100 meters; they seemed almost distorted—not to mention, they were also full of these giant trees.
From between the leaves, not only could he see the distant hills, but more incredible sights.
The sky looked green; it was hard to tell if it was a toxic, yellow-green chlorine gas or some kind of dust invisible to the naked eye.
Under this kind of colored light, even the sunlight refracted into a peculiar shade of purple.
Fan actually wanted to experience this kind of sunlight, but it was a vain wish. The purple sunlight could only be admired from afar; anywhere closer was shrouded by these giant leaves and branches, which let in no light at all.
Not only did these trees grow to such an enormous size, but the sunlight looked surreal as well, and Fan could also hear a series of leaf-shaking shrieks from the distance.
What kind of primitive monsters made that kind of noise? Even though he had no idea what it could be, just hearing the sound made him feel very tiny in this world.
What kind of world had he time traveled to? Was this still the same world he remembered? Or was it just a similar-looking but otherworldly realm?
No matter what, he had definitely time traveled!
When he realized this fact, Fan’s face immediately covered with tears.
He didn’t feel guilty for time traveling—he was an orphan.
Not only was he an orphan, he was a homebody, too. He moved lethargically, had a weak build, and no social life to speak of. It was not weird for him to stay home two or three weeks at a time.
During the time he spent at home, other than eating, sleeping, or finishing any work, he mostly watched movies, played games, or read novels.
In his placid life, the top fantasy was having a gorgeous, gentle, crazy-in-love-with-him woman who also cooked, and time travel was his second fantasy.
It was only a fantasy. He couldn’t stop dreaming, but he knew, as a technical Ph.D about to graduate, the probability of this happening was less unlikely than one divided by 10 to the 66th power, the total number of atoms in the universe.
But he’d time traveled! So, what should he do first
Remembering the time-traveling books he’d read, he made sure to look around; when he turned his neck all the way to the left, he stopped dead as if he was a lopsided tree.
It wasn’t his neck having a spasm, but he just realized he wasn’t the only one at the cave opening.
He saw an incredibly stunning woman on his left. She was turned away from him, wore a ponytail, and had several metal javelins strapped to her back, which made for quite a striking picture.
She seemed to be half-head taller than Fan. From the side, one could see her round chest, covered only with a piece of animal hide, with a fullness that was ready to burst.
Her tanned midriff was exposed, showing silky skin over her trim, smooth abdominal muscles, revealing a raw beauty.
She wore animal skin on her lower body, too, which barely covered her shapely b.u.t.t. Even lower were two straight and toned legs. Without considering her other a.s.sets, just her legs alone would make models of the twenty-fifth century full of envy.
If there was anything to regret, it was that her face was covered by a mask, only showing a pair of almond-shaped eyes and thick, upturned brows.
Fan felt that he was in love with her at first look. He figured maybe he was getting what he had always craved. A woman this beautiful and vibrant was almost identical to the dream woman he had spent decades fantasizing about.
For an instant, Fan couldn’t stop talking, “My G.o.d, my Lord, my heaven, is my number one fantasy coming true, too?”