Tome of Troubled Times
Chapter 870: New Board

Chapter 870: New Board

Dragon Bird could not help but feel a twinge of pity for her little junior sister, who had to just happen upon the utterly shameless husband of her master.

She was not even really the one who killed the enemies. The actual master of the sacred saber Dragon Bird was right beside her, perfectly capable of retrieving it at any moment. Still, the Tome of Troubled Times recorded it thus:

Qingming. Ling Ruoyu, wielding the power of Dragon Bird, while only being at the Profound Gate Realm, slew the second-layer Profound Mysteries Realm Chang Wanchun and the third-layer Profound Mysteries Realm Li Huangquan. Sword Lake trembled, while gods and demons alike were shaken.

Due to the influence of a divine artifact, her position cannot be precisely ranked. The rankings have been adjusted to accommodate her accomplishment. Ling Ruoyu enters the tail end of the Ranking of Man.

Rank 72: Ling Ruoyu.

In every generation, new talents emerge, each reigning in splendor.

Ling Ruoyu nearly wept with frustration.

Now, everyone in the world knew that Dragon Bird was in the hands of some junior, and worse still, its exact location had been explicitly stated. How was she supposed to fend off the wave of wolves and tigers that would come for the saber? The ones aiming to snatch it would not just be at the Profound Mysteries Realm... Even those at the Profound Control Realm would be drawn in.

As for that lofty line “each reigning in splendor”? It made her sound like the protagonist of this generation, basking in peerless glory. But in truth?

Ling Ruoyu had always aimed high. She once dreamed of echoing her master’s legendary feat: delivering a thunderous debut on the Ranking of Man, storming straight into the fifties or sixties of the ranking, not dragging herself up from the bottom like some hanger-on.

The Rankings of Troubled Times from that year, the prodigious cohort of that generation’s hidden dragons, had since become an unrivaled tale immortalized in every storybook and teahouse. The moves of that year’s top-ranked cultivators—even their ostentatious flair—had been endlessly mimicked by generations since. And her master had been at the heart of it all...

Now look at me. All the credit went to the damn saber, and I barely clawed my way into the lowest rank, reeking of nepotism and favoritism. A disgraceful nobody riding on borrowed light. How absolutely fantastic.

Her dream of dazzling the world with her brilliance had been shattered, and it had even been replaced with the looming shadow of crisis.

Her master had once said, “The announcements of the Tome of Troubled Times are written by an insufferable blind scoundrel who has no other redeeming qualities besides being pretty to look at. If fate ever lets you cross paths with that blind woman, cut her down.”

As expected, Master was right.

Still, Ling Ruoyu was nothing if not a free spirit. What was done was done, and she had no time to wallow. She had confirmed that this so-called “ancient demon god” had no interest in taking Dragon Bird, so she hoisted the saber onto her back and prepared to leave. “I did not mean to intrude, senior. I’ll be taking my leave.”

Zhao Changhe followed her with a faint smile. “After what the Tome of Troubled Times just did to you, aren’t you afraid the moment you step outside, you’ll be torn apart?”

“There’s a branch of the Demon Suppression Bureau nearby. I can request protection from them.”

“Oh? So you’re one of theirs?”

“Not exactly.”

“Well, never mind, then. More importantly, what time is it? I’ve been sleeping for a few incense sticks, I presume.”

“It’s... the thirty-first year of the Great Han Dynasty, the thirty-first year of the Heavenly Han Calendar.”

So it really has been thirty years... Zhao Changhe let out a soft breath.

“Farewell, senior,” she said politely. Seeing that this “ancient demon god” senior was deep in his thoughts and no longer responded, Ling Ruoyu gave a formal bow and departed with Dragon Bird on her back.

Zhao Changhe rubbed his chin, silently watching her receding figure, but made no move to stop her.

That girl... She’s clearly Hongling’s direct disciple. Hongling actually took on a disciple? So this isn’t just some trivial karma, huh...

Years ago, Zhao Changhe himself had once tried to take Hongling as his master. That path had ended prematurely, the string of fate cut short. Given that, Yue Hongling would never take a disciple lightly. Whoever she tested, she would inevitably compare to Zhao Changhe. And most would fall short. If she had accepted this girl, it meant one thing: she had acknowledged that this child was worthy. Worthy of standing as the second Zhao Changhe and worthy of inheriting their legacy.

Lost in memory, Zhao Changhe was startled when a flickering apparition appeared before him. A twin-pigtailed girl stepped in front of him, arms crossed, glaring fiercely. “You just left me with that little girl and let her carry me off? Are you abandoning me?”

Zhao Changhe could not help but laugh. “That sword intent of hers practically screams ‘I am Yue Hongling’s disciple.’ And if she’s Hongling’s disciple, then by extension, she’s mine too. One day, if I ever decide to pass on my saber arts, maybe I will hand you over to her. Aren’t you quite suitable to be a generational heirloom?”

Dragon Bird was momentarily speechless. When he puts it that way, it really does sound reasonable... But am I really just any saber?

“I don’t care!” Dragon Bird flopped down in protest. “You can’t abandon me! You can’t just give me away! If you do, I’m rebelling!”

Zhao Changhe burst into helpless laughter. “I was joking. Do you really think I’d give you away for real?”

Dragon Bird kept rolling around, sulking. “Then why won’t you take me with you?”

“Every era has its protagonist. And right now, that little girl is exactly that—more clearly than I ever was. The rich aura of fate around her is almost ridiculous. Sticking with her is the fastest way to uncover whatever secrets are festering behind these new demonic cults. Besides, whatever you see, I see. Just consider it as doing some scouting on my behalf.”

“You really think that in an era where the demon gods have fallen and the ones remaining are all your wives... mortals could still stir up something significant?”

“Yes,” Zhao Changhe said calmly. “The Heavenly Dao never died. He was merely cast beyond the bounds of this world and could return at any moment. Back then, we only purged the obvious enemies. The damn thing had plans spanning two entire eras. Who knows how many sleeper agents He left behind, ready to ignite chaos within our realm? If we don’t pinpoint the heart of today’s upheaval, how can I feel at ease striking outward? One careless move, and we’d come back to find our home in ruins.”

“Then why didn’t He strike while you were asleep? Why wait until you woke up?”

“Woke up? Ye Wuming isn’t some pushover. Neither are my wives. With them watching the world like hawks, anything that thing tries has to be subtle and calculated. It’s likely that the moment He had been waiting for was meant to come before I awakened. I just woke up early... Has anything major happened in the world lately?”

Dragon Bird muttered, “Not much. I ran off. And River of Stars appeared.”

Zhao Changhe’s eyes narrowed slightly. “By all accounts, River of Stars appearing should have marked the true moment of my return. If they wanted to snatch you and Little Starry beforehand, that would’ve been the centerpiece of this campaign. But then this little girl crashed the script and woke me up early... Which, really, is what it means to be the protagonist.”

Dragon Bird: “...”

Wait a minute, wasn’t it my running away that started this whole mess? Shouldn’t I be the protagonist?

Zhao Changhe seemed to read her mind and chuckled. “It was your encounter with her that stirred up the storm. That’s why I’m not taking you back just yet. Stick with her for a while. She’s your cute little junior sister, isn’t she? Why the sudden attitude?”

Dragon Bird did not actually dislike Ling Ruoyu. She quite liked the girl, in fact. Just... as long as her lazy, useless master did not actually give her away. “But the girl clearly isn’t planning to carry me around. She’s acting like she’s going to hand me over to the capital.”

“I wouldn’t count on that. With fate like hers, trouble will find her even if she does nothing. Do you think you’ll be sent to the capital just like that? Relax. There’s no way that’s going to happen. Now come on, be nice and go back into the saber.”

Defeated, Dragon Bird folded her arms and sulked her way back, grumbling all the while.

Just outside Sword Lake, Ling Ruoyu had barely taken a few steps when a squad of fierce agents from the Demon Suppression Bureau surrounded her. “Miss Ling, please wait!”

Ling Ruoyu calmly took out a jade token.

The agents of the Demon Suppression Bureau: “...”

So she was one of theirs. More than that, she even outranked them. A cultivator at the Profound Gate Realm, bearing a jade token... Since the founding of the Demon Suppression Bureau, only one person had ever received such a backdoor pass—First Seat Tang had issued it back then to King Zhao.

This Ling girl... is clearly no ordinary figure.

Weary, Ling Ruoyu unstrapped Dragon Bird from her back and presented it with both hands. “This is the sacred saber, Dragon Bird. I now surrender it to the court. My mission is complete. I take my leave.”

“Please, Miss Ling, wait!” The squad leader offered an awkward smile. “Sword Lake is just a small place. We don’t have the strength to protect a sacred saber. Since you’re already our superior, wouldn’t it be best if you continued safeguarding it a while longer?”

Ling Ruoyu raised an eyebrow. “Small place? Langya’s right next door. Isn’t that a major command post? The Tome of Troubled Times has been flashing nonstop. Don’t tell me there isn’t anyone of note who’s coming over soon.”

“Lord Xuan Chong was ambushed en route. His status is currently unknown.”

Ling Ruoyu’s brow furrowed deeply. Sword Lake and the area around it are veritably in the middle of a storm now. If Bureau Chief Cui doesn’t arrive soon to take over, then even if Senior Xuan Chong gets here, he might not be enough to hold the line. I can’t afford to just stand here and wait; doing so will only court disaster.

With no better option, she sighed and said, “Then how about this, help me conceal my presence and escort me into the capital in secret. That should be feasible, right?”

The Demon Suppression Bureau agents all exchanged uneasy glances. “The road to the capital is undoubtedly under heavy surveillance. One misstep and everything could fall apart. If we may be so bold, Miss Ling, perhaps it would be wiser to lay low for now. Once Bureau Chief Cui arrives, there will be nothing to fear.”

“We can’t afford to wait,” Ling Ruoyu said flatly. She then seemed to be pondering, but after just a few moments of silence, her gaze sharpened. “Then we’ll do the unexpected.”

The Demon Suppression Bureau agents blinked. “What do you mean, Miss Ling?”

“In two days, the Marquis of Wu will be celebrating his fifty-fifth birthday. I’ve heard that Prime Minister Tang herself is expected to attend. Instead of sitting here like a tethered goat, I’d be better off sailing south along the Grand Canal, directly to Gusu. If the Prime Minister truly appears, everything becomes far simpler. Even if she doesn’t, that gathering will be a convergence of the world’s most powerful figures. The Marquis of Wu is both a regional overlord and a close friend of King Zhao. With him overseeing the saber, I can at last relinquish this burden.”

The squad leader thought for a moment and nodded. “Indeed, that’s a good plan. No one would suspect you’d head south with the sacred saber at a time like this. The journey will be far safer than the road to the capital.”

Ling Ruoyu added, “One more thing. I heard something along the way. Is it true that River of Stars has appeared over the Eastern Sea?”

“It is. We submitted a report to the capital just this morning. Bureau Chief Cui should already be aware.”

Ling Ruoyu gave a slow nod. “With that revelation, then not only Prime Minister Tang and Bureau Chief Cui... perhaps even Venerables Vermillion Bird and Black Tortoise, and maybe even my master herself, might be drawn to Gusu. It’s settled, then. Give me some cloth that I can use to wrap around Dragon Bird, and please prepare a boat for me. I’ll be departing as soon as possible.”

Beneath the lake, Zhao Changhe was still submerged, quietly sensing the girl perched at the bow of the Demon Suppression Bureau’s boat, a massive saber wrapped in cloth behind her back.

The sight amused him.

She did not need storms stirred by others. She sailed straight into the heart of the tempest herself.

“How much longer do you plan to avoid us?” A voice whispered in his ear.

Zhao Changhe turned, and through the gently rippling waters, Piaomiao’s figure emerged like a dream, a waterborne fairy cloaked in mist.

Now that he had exited the nested dimensional space, he was once again exposed to the mountains and rivers. Naturally, Piaomiao was the first to find him.

And it was not just her. Ye Wuming had already started penning her twisted, off-kilter chronicles for the Tome of Troubled Times—clearly keeping close tabs on everything. Whether the Heavenly Dao had noticed yet remained unclear... After suffering blow after blow, it was obvious that the Heavenly Dao’s grasp on worldly intelligence lagged far behind Ye Wuming’s. Her recent nonsense entry in the Tome of Troubled Times likely was not meant to trap Ling Ruoyu at all; rather, it was a smokescreen to fool the Heavenly Dao.

Listening to Piaomiao’s bitterness-laced voice, Zhao Changhe could only sigh. “I wasn’t hiding, I was in hibernation. I didn’t know anything. And don’t blame Jiuyou. She had her reasons.”

Piaomiao understood that too. Even now that she had found him, she would not go shouting it to the others. In fact, she finally understood why Ye Jiuyou had chosen to bear this alone.

But still—falling in love, only to be separated for thirty years right after? That wound did not fade easily. “Where is Ye Jiuyou now? What’s she doing?”

“When I awoke, she was already gone... My guess is she found a lead on the Night Palace and went to verify it. Only news of Ye Wuming could compel her to drop everything else...”

“And you?” Piaomiao’s voice suddenly rose with fury. “You threw your life away to help Ye Wuming. Thirty years vanished. Was she all you thought about? What were the rest of us, then?”

Zhao Changhe replied helplessly, “You think I did all this for her?”

Piaomiao did not believe a single word. “What else could it be? Ye Wuming intended to perish with the Heavenly Dao, handing the entire three realms over to you in the aftermath. If you felt nothing for her, wouldn’t that result be ideal for you? Why risk your life at all?”

“I did it because I knew I wouldn’t die,” Zhao Changhe said quietly. “We had contingencies for revival. You know that. You lent me your power yourself. Every time I advanced in cultivation, I carried an uneasy sense of instability. Only now, after doing this, do I feel completely unburdened. It was something that had to be done eventually, and that moment was the best possible time. Yes, I was wrong not to tell you beforehand. But our lives are long, limitless even. We have time.”

Piaomiao stared at him. Her expression was still icy, but she knew that he had a point. It made sense that he had not told them. Had he said anything, none of them would have agreed, not even her. She would have stopped him herself, let alone the others.

Zhao Changhe continued, “Unlike us, who had contingencies in place for revival, Ye Wuming already destroyed her physical body once. If she were to detonate her soul as well, then that would truly be the end—no turning back. We can’t afford that kind of irreversible move. If we later discover that the Heavenly Dao survived and we need her and Jiuyou to act in concert, but she’s already dead... then what? That’s why I had to stop that self-righteous lunatic from making her supposed brilliant little move.”

Piaomiao sighed. “Ye Wuming has schemed across two entire eras. If she truly made that decision, then she must’ve accounted for everything. That step was bound to succeed. But you just couldn’t bear it. You clung to excuses... that’s all.”

Zhao Changhe fell silent. He was not entirely certain whether Ye Wuming’s plan would have worked or not; in fact, maybe it would have. But he knew there was another path, one that did not require death.

And if death was not necessary, then why choose it?

“She still owes me. How dare she just choose to die like that without even asking? Always taking it upon herself to make the decisions, as if I need her to arrange my fate,” Zhao Changhe muttered through clenched teeth. “If someone’s going to take that witch down, it’s going to be me.”

Piaomiao gave him a sidelong glance, silently thinking, If some man could actually conquer that damnable woman Ye Wuming, maybe it wouldn’t be the worst outcome after all... This might even be something Jiuyou and I can work together on.

Out loud, of course, she said none of that. Instead, her voice was cool and even, “Now that the Heavenly Dao is not yet vanquished and danger still lingers, what’s your plan?”

“I just woke up. There are still too many uncertainties. I need to observe for a few days before making any moves,” Zhao Changhe said. “First, I need to find River of Stars. I returned the Back Eye to Ye Wuming, so there’s nothing tying me to her anymore. If she wants to vanish, we’ll never find the Night Palace again unless we have a key. That key is River of Stars.”

Piaomiao asked, “And if we can’t find her? Don’t tell me even your connection to her has been cut?”

“It has. Our connection is gone. After that final arrow, our connection was severed, letting her form her own domain. Now, I can’t even sense where she is.” Zhao Changhe’s voice dropped further. “And more importantly, I suspect the current rumors about River of Stars may be a trap.”

“So you’re sending Dragon Bird to investigate?”

“Dragon Bird and River of Stars lived together in my ring from the start. They fought each other and grew up side by side. Of everyone in the world, the one who knows River of Stars best isn’t me but Dragon Bird. If anything’s wrong with River of Stars, Dragon Bird will know at once. Meanwhile, I’ll remain in the shadows. As long as no one knows I’ve awakened, I can turn the tide from behind the scenes.”

Piaomiao stared at him for a long moment, her expression unreadable. At last, she whispered, “Why do I suddenly feel like you were better off asleep? Now that you’re awake, it’s nothing but schemes and burdens. Frankly, the world goes on just fine without you. Ye Jiuyou is the source of this era, and she’s had thirty years to cultivate in silence. Whatever level she’s reached now, you likely can’t even comprehend it. Do you really think you’re irreplaceable?”

Zhao Changhe leaned in shamelessly, flashing a grin. “Was that concern I just heard? Are you done being mad at me?”

Piaomiao leaned in closer, her breath warm against his ear as she murmured, “If you want me to forgive you... you’ll have to pay thirty years’ worth of dues in bed.”

Zhao Changhe had gone thirty years without so much as a kiss. Now, staring at this stunning woman in front of him, his self-control nearly snapped. He had long since wanted to be close with her, but she had been cold and distant. Now, she was teasing him?

Without hesitation, he reached for her waist sash.

But Piaomiao smiled sweetly and pressed his hand down, snorting coldly. “Unfortunately, whatever I feel... Yangyang shares. So, unless you want to announce to the whole world that you’re awake, you’d better hold it in.”

Struck down mid-pounce, Zhao Changhe clutched his frustrated lower half and nearly wept.

Lesson learned: Never piss off a woman. Even Piaomiao’s started playing dirty. Is there any justice left in this world...?