Tome of Troubled Times
Chapter 793: Unraveling Mysteries

Chapter 793: Unraveling Mysteries

The secret realm hidden within the vast Hanhai had long eluded Vulture Beak’s forces. They had scoured the region for ages, knowing full well that Timur was hiding here, but they never managed to locate it, even until the day Timur erupted from the shadows and decapitated their tribal chief.

But for Zhao Changhe, who had burrowed through countless secret realms, and Lady Three, who was a core member of the Mounted Brigand Brotherhood, finding the door to a secret realm was as easy as finding the door to their own home.

By the time they reached Hanhai, Lady Three was still groggy from sleep. She rubbed her eyes lazily, only to see Zhao Changhe casually swinging his saber. Saber energy that blotted out the sky and covered up the earth rained down into the lake, scouring every crevice of its depths in an indiscriminate barrage.

Moments later, he pinpointed an unusual fluctuation of power. He did not hesitate; he simply grabbed Lady Three with his other arm and plunged straight into the water with a resounding splash.

Lady Three made no effort to think through the situation. Laughing, she wrapped her arms around his neck as they submerged, pressing her lips to his in a playful gesture as if she were helping him breathe underwater.

Of course, Zhao Changhe had long surpassed the need for breathing... and he found himself thinking that overwhelming strength robbed people of certain simple, human moments. If they had possessed this level of power back when they were adrift at sea, many things might never have happened.

And it would have been quite a shame if that had been the case.

Lady Three’s mind drifted elsewhere, but Zhao Changhe, kissing her all the while, had already drawn River of Stars. The sword pulsed with energy as he thrust it toward a particular point in the lake bed.

A rift in space tore open before them.

Before water could even surge into the rift, Zhao Changhe had already carried Lady Three through. The space sealed itself behind them almost immediately.

Lady Three pulled back slightly, studying him with intrigue. “You... You’ve learned how to control space as well?”

“No, but River of Stars is the embodiment of space in a sense. It embodies the depth, vastness, and layered nature of the night sky itself. The heavens aren’t a mere flat expanse. When I forged River of Stars, I had to take that into account,” Zhao Changhe said with a smile. “So breaking simple spatial barriers like this is effortless. It can both cut through and mend them. Of course, when it comes to gated realms with established ownership, like Tngr’s Secret Realm, then it’s a different story. I would still need something like the Axe of Tngri to force my way in.”

Lady Three’s expression grew thoughtful. “So River of Stars has spatial properties... We never really considered that before. Among the Four Idols, none have an obvious connection to time or space, so we assumed the Night Emperor had no ties to it either. But looking at it now, I start to think otherwise. Maybe this was always a part of the Night Emperor’s power, and we, as the Night Emperor’s successors, simply failed to fully comprehend. Or maybe even the Night Emperor was lacking in this aspect, and only after you forged River of Stars was the missing piece finally put in place?”

Zhao Changhe’s mind flashed to Jiuyou’s shadow... If the chaotic spatial anomalies that once connected Kunlun and Xiangyang were a result of Jiuyou’s interference, then was that truly chaos or was it in fact a deliberate manipulation of space? And the blind woman’s ability to bring people from across worlds over is clearly a refined use of space. There’s simply no way that she brute-forced it.

So this isn’t a matter of something being incomplete before and now being complete. This should be Blindie’s innate ability, something that she’s had from the very beginning.

The deeper I dive into these mysteries, the more unfathomable Blindie becomes. Every step forward only reinforces just how terrifying she is. I can’t help but wonder if Old Xia felt some measure of despair when he decided to resist to the bitter end. In the end, all he could do was vent his grievances in his writings, and waste his dying breath on spiteful curses aimed at Blindie. Spite was all he had. He couldn’t shake her.

Zhao Changhe pondered for a moment before finally saying. “If we only consider the Four Idols individually, then sure, none of them directly correspond to space. But the concept of the Four Idols as a whole? That is space.”

Lady Three blinked. “Huh...?”

“In fact, it’s not just space but time as well. The four cardinal directions and the four seasons are fundamental to the Four Idols’ very structure. But, of course, if you analyze them separately, the connection vanishes. It only works when they are unified.”

“...Why do I feel like you’re just making an excuse for wanting all four?”

“I’m not! Stop twisting my words!”

“Heh...” Lady Three smirked, not exposing him further. In truth, she had been the one to push Yue Hongling toward taking on the mantle of the White Tiger in the first place. She had long been planning for this outcome. After all, having a male White Tiger would be ridiculous, would it not?

She turned her attention forward, and together, they surveyed the space before them.

For all its vastness, Hanhai’s secret realm was merely a contained space. To date, the largest secret realm Zhao Changhe had seen remained to be the Spirit Tribe’s secret realm, which was the size of a small province, complete with a sacred mountain, ancestral tombs, the Ao Pool, and sprawling tribal lands. It was an entire microcosm. The only other realm that had given off a similar feeling was the Xiangyang Temple’s secret realm, which, once connected to Kunlun, became an expanse of immeasurable vastness. But if that connection was severed, it would shrink back down to a mere mountaintop.

Most of the secret realms he had been to were spatial fragments. They were pieces of a whole, far removed from the completeness of the original heavenly realm.

Right now, Ying Five was in the business of collecting such fragments. Zhao Changhe could not help but wonder how much he had managed to piece together so far. He wondered if it was enough to rival the Spirit Tribe’s secret realm.

As for this secret realm before him, the most immediate impression it gave him was the sheer vigorous qi suffusing the space, an overwhelming suppression of raw physical power. Though, for the two of them, such environmental pressure barely registered anymore.

At the center of the realm lay a massive skeleton, its bones shimmering faintly with a golden hue. The skeleton’s spinal column was missing, while the rest of its bones lay scattered, a silent testament to a once-titanic force. Judging by the residual aura, the suppression here had once been even greater before the backbone was taken.

It was not a human skeleton. Instead, it resembled a massive wolf.

“This should be the Golden Wolf Tribe’s totem...” Lady Three murmured, tapping her chin. “It must have been some kind of ancient exotic beast. And from the looks of it, the spine wasn’t removed after it died, it should have been ripped out while it was still alive. It died here after that.”

“The inheritance Timur obtained should have come from the lingering vigorous qi and whatever was left of the imprint in the wolf’s skull.” Zhao Changhe knelt, examining the remains. After a moment, he shook his head and continued, “But whatever was left has mostly dissipated. It’s hard to sense anything meaningful now. Besides, Timur wasn’t exactly reverent. If I’m not mistaken, he probably harvested parts of the remains for his own body-tempering medicine...”

“Were there any records left on Timur’s body?”

“I checked. There was a record of his vigorous qi cultivation, but is that what we came here for?”

Lady Three smirked. “A good whetstone can still sharpen even the finest blade... This kind of combat technique can still be a useful addition to your arsenal. You should take a look at it when you have the time.”

“Mm-hm.” Though he acknowledged her point, neither of them had come here for a mere vigorous qi cultivation technique. Their primary goal was to find insights for breaking through to the second layer. So far, they had found nothing of the sort. The bones, though potentially useful for body tempering, were not significant enough to cause any real transformation. They were hardly worth the effort.

In the end, this was a long-discovered and thoroughly plundered secret realm. After decades of exploration, anything truly valuable had long since been taken. Whatever remained was no longer of much use to cultivators at their level... Had this place been found a few decades earlier, it might have produced a new contender on the Ranking of Heaven.

That reminded him of something from the latest Ranking of Demon Gods:

“There remain numerous figures in the Profound Control Realm, of which there are various vajras, demons, exotic beasts, and lingering spirits. They are not yet on the ranking...”

Just how many such beings from the ancient era still lingered, their names completely absent from history?

Modern scholars can only reconstruct fragments of the past through painstaking research, yet the vast majority of ancient knowledge remains unknown... and unknowable.

Take, for instance, the eighth-ranked demon god, the Frost Chi. No one even knew what it was. Judging by the name, it was likely some form of ancient demonic beast, but there were no surviving records of its existence. And then there was this skeleton before them. Who had extracted the backbone of this golden wolf?

Based on what he had learned from Tngri, it seemed unrelated to them. The entity most at odds with the Golden Wolf’s nature would logically be the White Tiger.

“Whoever did this was excessively brutal. This doesn’t match the recorded nature of the White Tiger. If it really was White Tiger, then in its final days, it may have been corrupted...” Lady Three’s brow slightly furrowed. She hesitated before continuing, her voice heavy with concern, “A corrupted or demonic White Tiger... That would mean it had ties to Jiuyou. But if it was truly aligned with Jiuyou, why didn’t it appear in the last battle?”

Zhao Changhe thought to himself.

If that’s the case, then its absence makes perfect sense. That battle was a direct confrontation between Jiuyou and Blindie. Would White Tiger have dared to show itself before Blindie? No chance.

Of course, this is just speculation. There’s also the very real possibility that the ancient White Tiger always acted under Blindie’s command. But then again... why speculate at all? Isn’t this the perfect opportunity to refine my karmic abilities?

Zhao Changhe’s eyes darkened, turning into deep pools of shadow swirling with rippling patterns. He focused his gaze upon the remains, allowing his vision to sink through time, peeling away the layers of history.

A vision emerged from the past, an echo of long-forgotten light and shadow.

“It’s fake! Everything is fake! I’m fake! You’re fake!” A towering man roared into the icy winds, his voice raw with madness. “There is no Night Emperor or Jiuyou! It’s just a self-deceiving lie! There are no Four Idols, just compounds from a fucking pill furnace!”

“You’ve gone insane? Perfect.” Golden Wolf’s eyes gleamed crimson. “I’ll take your monster core, then I’ll be one of the Four Idols. If you don’t want the position, I’ll claim it myself.”

“I told you, you’re fake too! You don’t believe me? I’ll rip your spine out and lay it before you, and you’ll see! You’ll still be alive! So what do the heavens and earth crumbling have to do with us?”

“...Dead? It’s dead? Impossible. It’s a manifestation of battle intent! How could it die? It wasn’t me. I didn’t kill it. They’re all lying to me!”

The crazed man howled into the sky. Then, laughing maniacally, he did the unthinkable. He tore out his own spine and hurled it skyward. “Hahaha! Look! I can rip mine out too, and I won’t die...!”

True to his words, he did not die. However, he could no longer stand. His eyes flickered as he glanced at Golden Wolf’s spine in his hand. Then, without hesitation, he pressed it into his own body. “See? Good as new.”

“You discarded your core sword bone. It will become the most devoted of swordsmen... And you? You will become a demon,” an eerily calm voice drifted from the void. Then, a jade-white hand descended from the sky like a thunderclap. “So you can die first.”

“You’re full of shit... Unlike you, I’ve barely started!” White Tiger let out a frenzied roar and launched himself skyward to meet the strike head-on. “You resist in the most absolute way. Do you think I can’t do the same?!”

Bang!

A deafening explosion of energy erupted. Then, the vision shattered.

Zhao Changhe exhaled sharply, sweat beading on his forehead.

That jade-white hand was all too familiar.

That must have been Blindie’s hand. There’s no doubt about it.

Lady Three had seen the vision as well. The two of them locked eyes, both at a loss for words.

So the Ancient White Tiger had indeed descended into madness and demonic corruption. The Night Emperor had attempted to purge him but had ultimately failed, perhaps due to Jiuyou’s interference or some other unforeseen event. Regardless, White Tiger had survived in the end.

“Unlike you, I’ve barely started...” White Tiger had clearly accused the Night Emperor of having fallen to darkness and getting corrupted before him.

That then raises an even more unsettling possibility—had all of the Four Idols perished at the Night Emperor’s hands?

Back then, Azure Dragon had developed ambitions of independence and, on top of that, had deceived and abandoned Shuanghua, the Night Emperor’s personal guard. Would that not have then given the Night Emperor ample reason to clean house?

But was it truly just a purge? Or was it something far worse? Did it ultimately become a wholesale slaughter under the influence of madness? And in the midst of it all... Back when Piaomiao died... What was Blindie doing back then? Was she... the one to orchestrate the collapse of an entire era?

“You resist in the most absolute way.”

Resist? Resist who or what exactly?

For a long while, the couple simply stared at each other, both unsettled by the implications yet unable to make full sense of them.

Finally, Zhao Changhe scratched his head. “Well... It’s a lead. If we ever run into White Tiger, maybe we can ask him directly... But for now, let’s just bury this poor Golden Wolf. It honestly feels like it just got caught up in something way above its pay grade.”

“What’s there to pity?” Lady Three took the ancient White Tiger’s side. “It tried to replace the old White Tiger and got killed for it. It simply took on the consequences of its own actions... Hmm? Wait a second. That guy was, at most, at the second layer of the Profound Control Realm, but he could freely remove and replace his own bones like that? Something like that... Eh, wait...”

Lady Three murmured softly, “You can send your soul into all things and exist everywhere. But when you create avatars by giving your soul fragments physical bodies, don’t you also need to use your own blood?”

Zhao Changhe nodded. “Yes. Without blood, it would just be a hollow soul that basically can’t do anything.”

Lady Three let a single drop of blood drip from her fingertip, watching as it transformed into a snake body. “Then isn’t this exactly what I was missing for my breakthrough?”

A new Hissy gradually took shape, her skin shifting into the same hue as Shelly’s own, flawless and smooth. It became an exact replica of her, down to the last seductive detail. Naked, radiant, and utterly unashamed, it bit its lip playfully. “Where are my clothes?”

“You don’t get any, you shameless little vixen.”

Hissy spun once, fabric materializing around her, though barely. The thin layers of silk concealed little, leaving just enough to tease. Then, with a sultry smile, she wrapped her arms around Zhao Changhe’s neck. “Changhe, kiss me.”

Zhao Changhe watched in stunned silence as both versions of Lady Three grew stronger, their auras swelling, a silent force shattering some unseen barrier. A surge of power burst forth—vast, boundless, overwhelming.

Between one breath and the next, Lady Three had broken through to the second layer of the Profound Control Realm.

He was genuinely impressed. Every single woman around him—Lady Three, Qing’er, Hongling, Wanzhuang, even Chichi—was nothing short of a prodigy, the pinnacle of their generation. Their talent was not just gathering energy and hitting people; it was in their ability to grasp knowledge from any situation, drawing profound insights from the smallest of clues.

The truth was, some things were never all that difficult. The key was whether one had thought to pursue them. Once they did, with their accumulated understanding, the breakthrough was only natural.

Despite stepping into an entirely new level of power, Lady Three had no grand realization of her newfound supremacy. Instead, both of her selves simply leaned into Zhao Changhe, grinning ear to ear. “Changhe, you really are my lucky star.”

Zhao Changhe exhaled and grinned. “Holy cow, Lady Three, you are absolutely fucking awesome.”

“Hey, I may be holy, but don’t call me a cow[1].”

“...?”

With a playful twirl, the two versions of Lady Three merged back into one. “Alright, it’s just a breakthrough. There’s no need to make such a fuss. Our biggest discovery today was the Night Emperor’s secret. Rebellion... Hehe”

She giggled, as if the very word delighted her. But in reality, it signified something far more dangerous.

If even the Night Emperor had to resist, and in the most absolute way, then what about everyone else? Were they all doomed to madness like White Tiger? And the Night Emperor attempted to execute him... but why? It was all becoming murky. And at the heart of it was the problem of the complete radio silence on behalf of the blind woman for the past few days.

Still, looking at Lady Three’s radiant smile, Zhao Changhe had to admit that he felt noticeably lighter.

Deep down, he had always thought that as long as she was not The Boss, then it would be fine. It had been two-and-a-half years, and it was not as if she had never helped him. She had taught him, stood by him. No matter what the past had been, even ice would have melted over time... If they could avoid becoming enemies, then of course, it was better not to be enemies.

But she had promised that after he defeated Tngri, she would tell him everything. And yet, she had not done so.

In the end, emphasizing Tngri’s battle had only been a ploy to obtain the page of illusion and reality. And the moment she got it, she had bolted. She was like some fairy-tale maiden who took her wedding gifts and vanished.

He had the distinct feeling that no matter what he did and how things developed, there would inevitably be a battle between them. And whether it was to uncover the truths of the universe or simply to pry open that guarded mouth of hers, he would have to beat the answers out of her.

Zhao Changhe muttered under his breath, “Taking the bride price and running? Do you think I’m Shelly or something?”

Lady Three blinked, fluttering her eyelashes, and pointed at her own nose. “Were you calling me?”

Zhao Changhe laughed. In that instant, all the weight on his heart dissipated. Without hesitation, he scooped Lady Three into his arms.

“Forget the Night Emperor. Nothing in this world is as adorable as my Shelly... Let’s go home and dual cultivate.”

1. The “awesome” Zhao Changhe used in the previous line was 牛逼, wherein 牛 means cow. Hence, we’ve added the “holy cow” part for it to make sense in English. ☜

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