Tome of Troubled Times-Chapter 893: A Saber No Different From One’s Own Arm

Ye Wuming showed no reaction to such a direct declaration. Not even a ripple of emotion passed through her heart.

She had gotten used to the teasing over the past two days, whether it be in words or in actions.

Ever since his innermost desires had been laid bare before Papiyas, Zhao Changhe had stopped bothering with any pretense. His desires were already exposed, after all; there was no point in hiding them. Trying to conceal them any further would only invite mockery.

Yet even if the words struck no chord on the surface, they held a strange resonance deep within.

Just moments ago, she had been pondering whether he was trying to control her. Now, he had slapped that thought aside by saying that she mattered more to him than the mountains and rivers, and somehow, it landed. She did not know whether she ought to curse him for being a brainless horndog or secretly revel in the sentiment.

A thousand emotions surged and scattered, finally condensing into a long, wistful sigh within the Night Palace.

Ye Wuming rose and turned, stepping into the lotus pool.

Her bare feet brushed the water’s surface, rippling it gently.

Somewhere in the mortal realm, a person gazing at the moon saw the night sky shift.

For when the Heavenly Emperor walked, her steps shaped the very heavens. If she willed a storm, then thunder would roar and rain would fall.

And so, when she caught sight of Zhao Changhe lying beside the pregnant Xia Chichi in their dragon bed, thunder truly roared and rain began to pour.

A pair of drunken scholars had been drinking beneath the moon when the sudden downpour caught them by surprise. They fled indoors, drenched and sputtering only to look out moments later and find the sky perfectly clear. They hesitantly stepped back outside, only to be hit by a sudden blast of wind so fierce it made it hard to open their eyes.

“Did Father Heaven fall ill tonight?!”

“How do you know that the heavens is male and not some menopausal old hag...”

Rumble!

A lightning bolt struck the second man squarely, leaving him convulsing on the ground.

Ling Ruoyu gazed up at the sky. For the first time, she could sense a frustration emanating from the normally tranquil moonlight, as well as a subtle, creeping... loneliness.

“Birdy... You know, since we left, the way she looked at me has been stuck inside my mind. It felt like a thread was still attached to me. Do you think she’s lonely?”

The saber in her arms gave a low hum. “A look that tugs at your soul? Are you sure that thread wasn’t her manipulating your fate?”

“...Do you all really have that low an opinion of her?”

“She brought it on herself. She claims to defy the Heavenly Dao, but is what she does any different? Controlling lives, treating all beings as pieces on a board... When has she ever really cared what others think?”

Ling Ruoyu was stunned. “Wow, isn’t that kinda rich coming from you?”

“...It’s your father’s inner monologue. I’m in sync with him,” Dragon Bird said smugly. “Now do you finally understand the gap between you and me?”

“I just know that he stood up for me and didn’t even care about getting your materials.”

“That’s because he knew he’d get them anyway!” A twin-pigtailed girl leaped out of the saber, huffing in frustration. “Ever since you became human, you’ve been less and less human! You weren’t like this before!”

“You’re the one with poor vocabulary. You can’t even express yourself properly. Maybe you just misunderstood me.”

“Why can’t it be you the one with poor vocabulary? Hell, I’d even add poor comprehension skills on top of that!”

The two girls quickly got into a scuffle.

Ling Ruoyu could not overpower Dragon Bird without River of Stars and was soon pinned down. She shamelessly reached for River of Stars... and instantly reversed the tide, slamming Dragon Bird to the ground in a crushing counter.

The two girls lay there, glaring at each other, panting heavily. Dragon Bird growled, “Just you wait. I’m going to get reforged any day now.”

“Hmph. And you think I'll be afraid of you after that?” Ling Ruoyu released her, and the two lay back on the roof of the astronomical observatory, staring up at the stars. For a while, neither spoke.

Despite the bickering, the two were childhood companions who had grown up together inside a storage ring, and they were still the best of friends.

After a long silence, Ling Ruoyu spoke hesitantly. “Mom’s not as terrible as everyone thinks.”

Dragon Bird lay sprawled, soaking in the moonlight, voice lazy as she said, “Why are you defending her? If anything, you should hate her the most. She really did abandon you for an entire era. If that small fry surnamed Zhao hadn’t pulled you out and forged you anew, you’d still be an unfinished chunk of metal.”

Ling Ruoyu hesitated. “She didn’t have a choice. Back then, she didn’t have the power to finish forging me. All she could do was leave me for the future. And once Dad—uh, I mean Master Zhao—found me, she started steering him away from the path of vicious blood and toward River of Stars. That was her way of asking him to forge the sword. If not for me, I think he would’ve continued on the path of vicious blood forever.”

Dragon Bird blinked. “Why did you suddenly revert back to calling him Master Zhao? You were calling him Dad pretty naturally just a minute ago.”

“That was the agreement. I’m supposed to call him Dad in front of her, but now we’re not in front of her.”

“What’s the point of that? It sounds like taking your pants off just to fart.”

“It’s because they’re not really parents in the usual sense,” Ling Ruoyu muttered. “It’s kind of awkward. I mean, if you really want to get technical... are you the child of Zhao Changhe and Xia Longyuan?”

Dragon Bird visibly shuddered before snapping, “Of course not! What are you implying? You were forged by both Ye Wuming and Zhao Changhe personally, so you really are their brainchild. But me? Forget about a proper spirit, Dragon Bird originally barely had a little bit of sentience. I didn’t even have a human form. I was only awakened and given life because of Zhao Changhe. I’m nothing like that old Dragon Bird of Xia Longyuan’s. Also, that one was an emperor’s saber. Do I look like anything remotely imperial to you?”

Ling Ruoyu tilted her head and gave her a slow once-over.

Nope. She really did not look imperial at all.

From the moment River of Stars first met Dragon Bird, this girl had nothing to do with the dignity of royalty. She was just a lovable idiot.

Dragon Bird’s awakening was a product of the intertwined will and sentiment Zhao Changhe shared with the women at his side. It was no wonder, then, that her human form manifested so... chaotically. She resembled everyone and yet no one. Her essence reflected a transitional stage in Zhao Changhe’s cultivation journey. She was formed during a period when he had yet to fully establish his own Dao. As a result, her foundation was a jumbled tapestry of myriad influences, lacking in clarity and direction.

So, Dragon Bird had truly reached the point where reforging was no longer optional but imperative. She simply was not keeping up. Ling Ruoyu, intrigued by the thought, mused aloud, “So if you’re reforged... will your appearance change?”

“...The saber intent might change, but my appearance should be the same.”

“Not even your size? You’re staying this... small?”

“Small?!” Dragon Bird leapt up indignantly. “I’m bigger than you!”

Ling Ruoyu’s gaze flicked to Dragon Bird’s chest. Her expression grew unreadable. Flat as she was, the other was not much better... They were evenly matched in the worst way.

Dragon Bird caught the look and clutched her chest in despair. “Why are we even talking about this? Weren’t we discussing your parents?”

Ling Ruoyu fell silent for a long moment, then muttered, “I only brought this up to avoid talking about her. It’s just hard to put into words, you know? Besides, would you really call your master’s husband your dad?”

Dragon Bird gave it some thought. “Not really. Though he once tried to make me call him Dad as a joke. I never did, that smelly small fry.”

“Then why were you arguing earlier when I said they weren’t exactly my parents in the usual sense?”

“...Do I need a reason to argue with you?”

Ling Ruoyu let out a sigh, half in annoyance and half in amusement, but she had no more energy to spare on Dragon Bird’s nonsense. She only murmured, “Even though I understand all this, every time I see the way she looks at me, it still feels weird. It’s sad, almost. Do you ever feel that way, Birdy?”

Dragon Bird was silent for a moment. The closest she could imagine was being taken from Zhao Changhe and seeing the look in his eyes as she left. That alone stirred a pang of sorrow. “But does Ye Wuming really feel that deeply for you? She was still around when you were forged. She didn’t treat you any differently then. Now she acts like the perfect mother, but where was that love back then?”

“I don’t know...” Ling Ruoyu hugged her knees to her chest, resting her chin atop them, her voice barely a whisper as she continued, “I keep thinking, if only she hadn’t gone up to the heavens. Then maybe we could all be together. Why didn’t she stay...?”

Why didn’t she?

Ye Wuming stood in silence, watching the two girls whisper to one another. Her eyes, always shrouded, shimmered with an unreadable light. The world saw only layers of clouds in the night sky, never the truth of the heavens beyond.

Meanwhile, Dragon Bird grew animated again. “Want to stir the pot a little?”

Ling Ruoyu blinked. “Stir the pot? How? Are you thinking of slipping them aphrodisiacs like in those old mortal realm romance tales? That stuff doesn’t even work on them.”

“...” Dragon Bird looked scandalized. “What the hell kind of novels have you been reading? That’s what you took from your time wandering the jianghu?”

“I wandered the jianghu for martial arts, not romance,” Ling Ruoyu snapped. “And since you’re so full of clever ideas, why don’t you come up with something that’s not completely deranged?”

Dragon Bird tapped her chin with two fingers, lowering her voice dramatically. “What if you forge a love letter in Zhao Changhe’s handwriting and send it to her?”

“...Didn’t he already declare his feelings? That’s redundant.”

“You’re right,” Dragon Bird nodded sagely. “Reverse it, then. Write one in her handwriting and send it to Zhao Changhe. Break her pride and force the issue.”

Ling Ruoyu blinked slowly. “That actually makes a weird kind of sense. But I’ve never seen her handwriting.”

Dragon Bird huffed. “Idiot. You think Zhao Changhe has?”

Ling Ruoyu: “...”

Dragon Bird continued, “Just wing it. As long as the writing feels like it carries the essence of the Night Emperor, it’ll pass. Isn’t mimicking that kind of thing your specialty?”

From her perch above, Ye Wuming crossed her arms and tilted her head, exasperated beyond words.

Who are you calling an idiot... You haven’t learned a single ounce of your master’s cunning.

But for some reason, watching these two scheme against her did not anger her in the slightest. If anything, it was... endearing.

Her eyes locked onto Ling Ruoyu’s small form.

Will she actually go through with it?

Ling Ruoyu tugged at her hair in frustration, completely disheveled. She should not have asked Birdy for advice; every one of her ideas was as crooked as the last. And yet, somehow, she was not entirely against it either.

* * *

Zhao Changhe paid no heed to the shifting seasons or the schemes of children. He simply held the pregnant Chichi in his arms and rested peacefully through the night.

It was both a moment of companionship with his wife and child and a time for reflection and adjustment.

Xia Chichi said little, simply nestling happily in her husband’s embrace and drifting into a deep, content sleep.

To Zhao Changhe, reforging Dragon Bird was a matter of grave importance. The saber had followed him since the fourth layer of the Profound Gate and fought beside him through countless trials. Though he appeared calm on the surface, he placed far more weight on it than others could imagine. He returned that night with a hint of weariness and chose to rest, preparing to face the task with his best state of mind.

Yet when he rose the next morning and made his way to the astronomical observatory, he found Ling Ruoyu curled around Dragon Bird, both girls sound asleep.

The sight was... well, there was no better word for it than “adorable.” The sight was so endearingly soft that it tugged at his heart.

Am I getting old? Zhao Changhe mused, crouching down and flicking the saber’s hilt with a finger.

The twin-pigtailed girl stirred groggily and sat up with a dazed look. “Who hit me?”

Her eyes quickly found Zhao Changhe, and she jolted fully awake. “Are you here to hammer me?”

Would it kill you if you spoke like a normal person?! Zhao Changhe shot her a look. “I’m checking your condition first.”

Ling Ruoyu sat up, rubbing her eyes, her expression unreadable.

Zhao Changhe: “...”

He was sure she was about to call him a pervert. Instead, she said, “Want me to help hold Birdy down, Master Zhao? I’ve got experience.”

Zhao Changhe sighed inwardly. These two have definitely gone astray under my care. How am I supposed to face Hongling next time...

But truly, the one who had strayed was himself. Whether it was River of Stars or Dragon Bird, their understanding of being a sword or saber was fundamentally different from a human’s. From the perspective of River of Stars, Dragon Bird’s reforging was something to rejoice in, a tremendously important milestone for a friend. It was not at all akin to the strange associations human minds liked to make.

So when Ling Ruoyu ended up being flung out from the underground firmament by her master’s husband, she was completely at a loss as to what about she said wrong...

From below came Zhao Changhe’s voice, “Go summon your Aunts Vermillion Bird and Black Tortoise.”

Ling Ruoyu did not even need to move. That voice alone was loud enough, and those two were already nearby, so there was no doubt that they had heard everything.

Sure enough, just as she thought it, two streaks of light shot down into the ground. Huangfu Qing and Yuan Sanniang appeared beside Zhao Changhe, casting curious eyes toward Dragon Bird lying on the forge.

“Just that one piece of star iron? You don’t need to prepare anything else?”

“Well, in theory, adding any material beyond this world should suffice,” Zhao Changhe replied. “That would already make Dragon Bird no longer a weapon purely of this world. I chose this Void-Shattering Star Iron because I want to purge the remnants of earlier forging materials within Dragon Bird and replace them with this. Dragon Bird isn’t meant to be like River of Stars, a symbol of some greater meaning. It exists solely to embody destruction. It represents brute force or sheer power in my martial arts. One strike to shatter the void, to break all laws.”

Huangfu Qing smiled and said, “You really do have great hopes for Dragon Bird... The purer the purpose, the harder it is to achieve.”

Zhao Changhe said quietly, “That’s only natural. This is Dragon Bird, my most loyal companion, my right arm. She’s as much a part of me as my own limbs. How could I not hope for the best?”

Ling Ruoyu: “...”

“Just like last time, this forging process is pretty much me taking a step in my cultivation. Once Dragon Bird is reborn, I will have reached the pinnacle of the third layer of the Profound Control Realm.”

Inside the saber, Dragon Bird struck a triumphant pose. She was so elated she nearly flew out.

This was destiny. Their fates were intertwined. She was to him as his own arm was to his body.

Could that idiot River of Stars even compare?

Others would never realize how much the sword and saber were vying with one another in silence.

At that moment, Huangfu Qing asked, “What do you need from us this time?”

“The heat from the earth fire won’t be enough on its own. I’ll need your fire. Oh, by the way, how’s the Samadhi True Fire?”

“It’s a fascinating flame,” Huangfu Qing said softly, a wistful note in her voice. “It complements my own very well, but I have a feeling that it’s imperfect. The actual Samadhi True Fire should be stronger than me.”

A long, almost yearning sigh followed. Then she continued, “Changhe, one day, I’d like to travel beyond this world. I want to see the myriad realms with my own eyes.”

“That day isn’t far,” Zhao Changhe replied, gently placing Dragon Bird into the forge. With a subtle gesture, he guided the earth fire to rise. “I’ll focus on purging the remnants I no longer need from Dragon Bird’s body. Lady Three, I’ll need your help smelting this piece of Void-Shattering Star Iron.”

Lady Three rubbed her hands together with a grin as she held the piece of star iron. “Say, if we’re the ones refining this, doesn’t that make us Dragon Bird’s mothers, in a way?”

Zhao Changhe chuckled. “You always have been.”

With a soft smile, Lady Three cast the star iron into the flames and closed her eyes, guiding the smelting process with practiced grace.

Zhao Changhe shut his own eyes as well.

Reforging Dragon Bird was not merely a matter of upgrading a weapon; it marked the culmination of his journey through the third layer of the Profound Control Realm. Whether Ye Wuming had anticipated this, Zhao Changhe could not say. But if she had, then she had to know that the day Dragon Bird was reborn would be the day she could no longer suppress him.

Would she, for the sake of the greater good, simply watch from the sidelines or perhaps even lend her aid? Or would she choose to interfere, unwilling to let him grow too quickly?

The thought flickered through his mind, but Zhao Changhe had no time to linger on hypotheticals. His divine sense fully focused on Dragon Bird’s body, and within the flames, he began the meticulous separation of each unwanted component as they melted away.

Though weapon spirits did not feel pain, weakness was beginning to set in.

It was a strange sensation, like something fundamental being drawn out of her. The twin-pigtailed girl’s eyelids began to droop, her figure growing faint and translucent.

She knew she could not allow herself to drift into unconsciousness. If she fell asleep now, the one who awakened might no longer be her but an entirely new spirit. She had to hold on. Even as the blade ceased to be a blade, she had to preserve her will. This, too, was her path, her tribulation, the moment of her rebirth.

Her consciousness was now wholly bound to her master’s. Zhao Changhe’s ideal of pure, unadulterated power was merging with her own spirit. And so, the saber spirit became an extension of his will, just as the saber itself would become the extension of his arm.

As the molten Void-Shattering Star Iron flowed in, the blade was slowly infused with a power that could cleave through the void, a peerless sharpness and transcendent arrogance that held nothing but disdain for all worldly laws. From man to saber and from saber to man, energy flowed and resonance formed.

There had never been a so-called Birdy. That personality had always been nothing more than a truthful reflection of Zhao Changhe himself, with a colorful dash of all the temperaments he had been surrounded by—his fiercely proud, playful, commanding, lazy, and loyal consorts. Together, they had nurtured a shared spirit.

The fading figure of the twin-pigtailed girl began to solidify once more, gaining a palpable weight, almost like flesh and blood. At the same time, Zhao Changhe’s hammer descended with unrelenting force. His muscles swelled while his veins bulged like dragons. The raw, domineering energy surging through his arm was like a storm barely held in check.