Tome of Troubled Times-Chapter 916: Ending a World, Battle of Karma

When Sovereign Withered Wood mentioned that there were still many rogue demonic cultivators roaming the segmentum and asked if Zhao Changhe wanted him to handle them, Zhao Changhe did not even bother to give those remnants a second thought.

What truly concerned him was the possibility that Luo Chuan had an established base of operations. In the world of immortal cultivation, a stronghold meant danger of the highest order. A single cave abode made by a figure like Old Demon Han[1] could take several entire chapters just to describe. Such a cave abode could be filled with convoluted defenses and traps capable of driving invaders mad. Once the owner of the cave abode returned, those layered arrays would synergize with their power to devastating effect, turning any invasion into a massacre.

Thankfully, Ye Jiuyou had unexpectedly sensed the location of Luo Chuan’s base.

Now that they had drawn the snake from its hole and lured Luo Chuan to the Heavenly Tome’s domain, it was the perfect opportunity to strike and reduce his own base to ashes.

Ye Wuming hovered silently in the skies, eyes cold and watchful.

This was a newly formed world, radiating with a fierce, youthful vitality. Life burgeoned in every breath, as if all things had just been born. And yet, its nature was perilous to the extreme. This world resembled the purgatories and hells of legend. It was a space filled with lightning storms and seas of flames. The environment was extremely harsh, so even though it was vast, it was sparsely populated.

There were only a few demonic cultivators who occupied the land, each entrenched within a pocket of concentrated spirit qi, using it to forge their own cave abodes. But what the realm lacked in human presence, it made up for in exotic beasts, many of which held the potential to ascend as top-tier divine beasts with enough time. Given millions of years, some of them might even evolve into their races’ respective gods or emperors.

But for now, they were merely infants.

As Ye Wuming’s gaze swept the land, a rare trace of emotion flickered in her normally impassive eyes.

Following karmic threads, she traced the origin of this world. Across this era, she had been calling allies, slaying primordial demon gods, and systematically purging Luo Chuan’s influence from the Heavenly Tome’s world. However, Luo Chuan had not been idle either. While he competed for control of the Heavenly Tome, he had also been laying another foundation in secret, using what little authority he still retained over the Heavenly Tome to siphon its derived energies and launch his own Genesis experiment.

This realm was his creation. It was birthed from the remnants of chaos and annihilation, sculpted at the outer limits of existence. Here, he was the Heavenly Dao.

That explained why the Heavenly Tome’s world had seemed to lack certain elements. She and Zhao Changhe had originally thought Luo Chuan was suppressing them out of malice. Now, it seemed it went far beyond mere suppression. He had been draining them. This world of his was leeching off the Heavenly Tome to fuel its own creation. In essence, he was forging his own path to immortality on the backs of every living soul in the Heavenly Tome’s world.

He might have been planning this since the previous era. It was likely this very leeching that had delayed the awakening of Ye Wuming and her sister, trapping them in roles dictated by the “Heavenly Dao,” unable to break through their limits.

It was thus no wonder that Luo Chuan had been able to recover so rapidly from his injuries. He had been feeding off this world’s origin to heal. Moreover, not only had he recovered, he had even grown stronger.

And yet, for all this scheming across countless years, for all the energy spent in creating a new world, he had still failed to ascend to the next realm. Despite all the struggles that had taken place, and despite how much effort he had been putting in, he had still not broken through.

Perhaps it was that this fledgling world still lacked something critical, and that was perhaps why Luo Chuan was so desperate to seize the complete Heavenly Tome. It was likely that he intended to fuse it into his world and ascend beyond.

Ye Wuming’s eyes darkened.

All of Luo Chuan’s machinations, all the weight of his centuries of ambition, were built on the blood and souls of every creature in the Heavenly Tome’s world.

But now that the spirit of the Heavenly Tome has come here, this is where it shall all end. You want my world? Then I’ll destroy yours. It’s only fair.

Ye Wuming raised a hand, dots of starlight blooming in her palm, galaxies turning at her fingertips.

With a flick of her wrist, the stars plummeted, and heaven and earth were overturned.

BOOM!

A cataclysmic explosion erupted, and shockwaves reverberated across the entire world. The world’s residents only now realized something was terribly wrong, and their terrified eyes lifted toward the darkened sky.

The heavens were eclipsed, a pitch-black curtain replacing the infinite blue. Within this boundless darkness of night, two apathetic eyes emerged. They gazed down upon the land with a cold and pitiless light.

Throughout the entire world, bolts of lightning came crashing down, and flames rained.

“What’s happening?”

“Who summoned a world-ending heavenly demon?!”

A few bold powerhouses rushed out to investigate. When they reached the edge of the world, they saw Ye Wuming, her hair billowing as she floated in the night sky.

Her gaze shifted slightly, falling upon the surrounding demonic cultivators. That single glance, devoid of any warmth, chilled every heart present.

Who would have thought the world-ending heavenly demon to be such a beautiful woman... And yet her eyes were colder than any demon god’s. None of them felt like they were looking at a living being.

For half a second, silence reigned. Then someone found their voice and tried to speak.

But before any words could echo into the void, Ye Wuming swept across the sky in a silent arc with River of Stars.

There was no sound nor light. One of the nearest demonic cultivators was simply cleaved clean in two, his blood blooming across the void like a silent flower.

Everyone flinched back in horror.

That man had been the strongest among them, yet he had not lasted even a single exchange.

Her strength rivaled the Heavenly Dao.

Then, the Heavenly Dao’s voice echoed in the demonic cultivators’ minds, “Run. None of you are Ye Wuming’s match.”

The name Ye Wuming felt unfamiliar. And yet, it carried the weight of countless entanglements with the Heavenly Dao, stretching back through time.

The Heavenly Dao’s voice came again, “She’s unleashed a world-ending strike. You cannot stall her. Come to my coordinates. We’ll be trading homes with her!”

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Countless lights streaked across the sky as the demonic cultivators Luo Chuan had gathered here scattered in panic. It did not matter who Ye Wuming was or what the Heavenly Dao was planning. They all understood one thing: the world they were in truly was being destroyed!

Who could possibly expect something of the sort to happen? Imagine you’re just cultivating peacefully in your cave when some hot woman shows up and straight up nukes you!

No demonic cultivator capable of surviving the encirclement of the forces of the three great forbidden zones could be considered weak. Each one of them possessed their own unique abilities. In a blink, they vanished from the world.

Ye Wuming had no strength left to chase them, and her face had even gone pale.

Unleashing that world-ending power had strained even her. If not for having her heavens propped by a certain heaven-propping column, she would not have even been able to unleash such power at all.

Rumble!

Within the world created by Luo Chuan, heaven and earth collapsed.

Ye Wuming stared blankly into the apocalyptic lightning and flame that consumed the world before her. Old memories rose unbidden in her mind.

How familiar... The end of the ancient era had looked much the same.

She could no longer remember what sort of desperate resolve she had felt back then...

The only difference was that back then, Piaomiao had defended the mountains and rivers, preserving a sliver of life so a new era of humanity could rise again. But now, in this world, all that could flee had fled. The earth had crumbled. The firmament was no more. All life had been wiped out.

Ye Wuming’s gaze sharpened. She brought River of Stars down in a clean, decisive arc.

Outside the world, the surrounding space fractured, dense with cracks like a shattered spiderweb.

Crack...

It sounded like porcelain breaking. The entire world disintegrated. Fragments of space flew apart and were swallowed by the vast currents of the cosmos, never to return.

A smile of satisfaction lit Ye Wuming’s pale face.

Who dares say that the ancient Night Emperor brought forth the end of the world? This is what it truly means to end a world.

A world had been destroyed, a karmic debt had been paid in full.

It felt like a taut string in her heart had finally snapped, as if her very soul had found some measure of peace, and as if there was nothing left worth pursuing in this life.

Yet Luo Chuan, the true culprit, was still alive. Why, then, did it feel like she had already fulfilled her life’s purpose?

Even within River of Stars, Ling Ruoyu felt the same. As if her very existence had been leading up to this moment.

Ye Wuming murmured, “Yu’er...”

Ling Ruoyu answered, “I’m here.”

Ye Wuming said softly, “Do you feel as though your whole life was meant for this one strike?”

Ling Ruoyu scratched her head.

That can’t be right... My life’s only just begun. I’m still a girl, I still want to see Mom and Dad make up and take me back to Zhao Family Village for a visit...

“Just say what you’re thinking.”

“I still want to go play with Mom and Dad.”

Ye Wuming had not expected such a lowbrow response in the midst of a cataclysmic scene. She wanted nothing more than to pin the little brat down and give her a good spanking. Gritting her teeth, she snapped, “We’re not your mom and dad.”

Ling Ruoyu pouted. “Oh....”

“What kind of attitude is that?”

“Nothing... But if your purpose was that one strike, then are you not planning on striking Luo Chuan down?”

Ye Wuming turned to look toward the distant cosmos. “The one who hates him most... is your Aunt Jiuyou.”

Ling Ruoyu: “...”

Just now you said you weren’t my mom and dad. But now you’re referring to her as my aunt...

Ye Wuming realized she had misspoken and did not have the heart to continue bickering. Her figure began to slowly fade.

The Heavenly Tome in Zhao Changhe’s arms lit up faintly as the tome spirit returned to its rightful place.

Meanwhile, among the demonic cultivators who had fled the ruined world, some had already slipped away entirely. Others had begun rushing toward Luo Chuan’s coordinates. Demonic cultivators were nothing if not vicious in their resolve. Though they had no idea what exactly had transpired, the destruction of their home had ignited a fury few could contain.

But before they could reach the heart of the battlefield, they found themselves blocked at every turn.

“This path is closed.”

Each way out had been blocked by a woman.

The demonic cultivators scanned the faces before them. Each of the women was a peerless beauty, and each one of them exuded formidable power.

A strange feeling began to stir in their hearts.

It really felt like we were at the onset of a war between worlds triggered by the invasion of an otherworldly heavenly demon... But then why is it that all of the otherworldly heavenly demons are women, and why are they all so goddamn beautiful?

In truth, the likes of Yue Hongling, Huangfu Qing, and the others felt just as weird about the situation. From defending their world to fighting beyond its borders, with Ye Wuming likely already destroying the enemy’s very core... Did it not feel suspiciously like another iteration of the Langjuxu fight?

Perhaps the principles of the mortal world held just as true on higher planes.

There was no such thing as eternal defense. At the right moment, one had to strike first, sweeping away all threats and restoring peace to the world for generations to come. But to achieve that, someone had to stand as the unshakable pillar to rally everyone under a single cause....

Come to think of it, when did Zhao Changhe manage to rally even Ye Wuming under his banner? Or is it under his flagpole...

Yue Hongling’s longsword trembled slightly, its tip pointed at the sword-wielding demonic cultivator ahead. “I was expecting the segmentum to hold some formidable figures... But so far, there have been barely any at the Other Shore. Well, show me what swordsmanship the outside world has to offer.”

The fuck are you talking about the outside world? Aren’t you from the outside world?!

The demonic cultivators stood dumbfounded. For them, this whole battle had unfolded in a whirlwind of confusion and chaos.

For thousands of years, Luo Chuan had avoided involving outsiders in matters concerning the Heavenly Tome, fearing complications. In this regard, he and Ye Wuming shared the same mindset. But the current situation left no room for secrecy. He was now compelled to mobilize his full force, possibly even calling upon secret alliances with other forces.

Zhao Changhe had anticipated this all along. Once the battlefield extended to the cosmos, this was no longer a dispute to be settled behind closed doors within the Heavenly Tome’s world. This was now a war between factions, both internal and external.

As for the external side, it was still unclear whether Sovereign Withered Wood could be trusted. But when it came to his own forces, Zhao Changhe had never feared anyone. After all, having just too many damn wives was its own kind of battle plan.

* * *

While Ye Wuming was off enacting her world-ending judgment, Zhao Changhe and Ye Jiuyou were locked in a ferocious battle with Luo Chuan.

Clang!

Dragon Bird clashed against Luo Chuan’s flying sword with tremendous force. The flying sword spun wildly before returning to Luo Chuan’s grasp.

Dragon Bird quivered with excitement. “His sword’s no match for me!”

Once upon a time, Zhao Changhe could not even scratch Luo Chuan. It was only by sacrificing his own flesh and blood to fuel a strike that defied the Heavenly Dao’s order did he stand a chance. Now, a single swing of his saber could do the job.

Reforged with star iron, the new Dragon Bird possessed unmatched destructive power, rivaling Luo Chuan’s flying sword and perhaps even surpassing it in sheer ferocity.

The composition of a sword and a saber was only the foundation. What truly mattered was how well they harmonized with their master. In the clash of weapons, the once-pervasive aura of time’s erosion and life’s decay was cleanly severed by Dragon Bird. When it came to the laws of such forces, Zhao Changhe was now Luo Chuan’s equal.

Every step leading up to this had been for this final confrontation.

Zhao Changhe did not even respond to Dragon Bird’s gloating. He pressed forward with another powerful slash.

Luo Chuan’s flying sword arced back like a streak of light, clashing silently against the saber.

In that moment of contact, both men’s spiritual seas trembled. Their eyes glazed over, as if they were falling into an alternate reality.

“Zhao Changhe! I’ve had enough of you! Wake up and get out of my classroom!”

The familiar voice seemed to echo from an impossibly distant place. Zhao Changhe blinked dazedly.

Before him was a furious university professor in the middle of a lecture. Around him, classmates turned to look, their faces struggling not to laugh.

This dream had gone on far too long.

No longer was it a blur of saber strikes and deaths at the hands of wicked women. So many stories, so many arcs with proper beginnings and ends... So many grudges, triumphs, radiant warriors and lingering romances, so many glorious ascensions and epic battles...

Drunken songs on horseback, riding across the Grasslands, storming through the stars, was it all just a dream?

A dream?

Back again... Isn’t this what I always wanted?

No. It isn’t.

These days, even novel authors don’t dare to end with “it was all a dream.” Readers would fuckin riot.

My soul was forged by the passage of time, and my body tempered through a thousand cuts. Every detail is etched into my very being. How could any of it be false?

The blood Wanzhuang coughed up, Hongling’s unwavering glance, the instant Vermillion Bird took off her mask, the lazy figure of Lady Three in a storm on a deserted island.

Chichi copying scriptures, Sisi tangled in love, Yangyang beneath the eaves in her bunny hat, and Piaomiao engulfed in demonic qi yet unable to strike me down.

Jiuyou, who was lonely for countless years in the dark abyss, and that certain someone high above, watching helplessly as I used her face to clean my heaven-splitting saber.

If all that was a dream, then what’s this ache in my heart?

Trying to tamper with time, twist karma, invert cause and effect, and return everything to its origin?

This isn’t an illusion... This is a use of laws that closely mirrors my Severing Karma technique. It’s powerful, but it won’t work.

Because I never planned on going back. Even before I killed that witch, I’d already made up my mind.

She’s the real boss. You? Please. You’re not worthy.

A broad saber came crashing down on the professor at the podium. The cold gleam of its blade reflected the professor’s stunned expression.

The aged face cracked and shattered, revealing the effeminate features of Luo Chuan, now twisted in hatred. “Zhao Changhe, I’ve had enough of you...”

Zhao Changhe swung again, his voice calm and resolute as he said, “That’s the difference between us. I never gave you a place in my plans. Now fuck off, out of the classroom with you. I need to see Professor Ye Wuming.”

1. This is not actually a person in this novel’s plot. ☜