Tome of Troubled Times-Chapter 767: If There Is No Light in This World

The two strolled leisurely along the path, gradually making their way to the small river in the distance, gazing upon the vast expanse of farmland.

By nightfall, the fields were long deserted. The village in the distance was aglow with lights, and faint laughter carried over, though the words of any conversation were too indistinct to make out.

Light snow still drifted from the sky, melting into a cool drizzle the moment it touched their faces. The fields, once blanketed in snow, had already been cleared, leaving the soil moist and rich with the promise of fertility.

A timely snow foretells a bountiful harvest.

Yet, in truth, this year, no household had any surplus grain. The city might fare slightly better—at least that little girl’s mother was still calling her for dumplings[1]—but out here in the countryside, poverty still reigned. Even so, the sounds of laughter held no trace of despair over the hardships of the previous year, only hope for the year ahead.

“The land distribution you spoke of... We’re actually already working on it. This farmland, for example, used to belong entirely to the Lu Clan, but now it’s been divided among the people.” Tang Wanzhuang gazed at the distant village lights for a long moment before continuing in a soft voice, “These things are never easy to implement. And doing so across the entire world will be even harder... But hearing such laughter makes it all worthwhile.”

Zhao Changhe did not say anything.

Tang Wanzhuang glanced at him in puzzlement. “Why aren’t you saying anything?”

Zhao Changhe replied, “I just wanted to spend a day with you, without talking about state affairs, without letting you dwell on them either. Whatever it is, we’ll discuss it tomorrow.”

Her gaze lingered on his face for a moment. Finally, her eyes softened slightly; she lowered her head and murmured, “Alright.”

They continued their slow walk along the riverbank, the sounds of the village fading into the distance, leaving only the gentle rush of flowing water. Through the dim light, they could make out small boats tied up among the reeds, swaying lightly with the current.

Zhao Changhe glanced left and right like a thief, then whispered conspiratorially, “How about we take a boat out for a ride?”

Tang Wanzhuang shot him a glare. “That’s stealing. Be careful, or I’ll have to arrest you myself!”

“We’ll just row for a bit and return it right away. Uh, wait a minute...” Zhao Changhe suddenly stopped in his tracks, lowering his voice. “Someone’s here.”

Tang Wanzhuang tensed, and the two of them carefully approached the reeds nearby. But before long, the sounds emerging from the reeds became all too clear—heated, breathless sounds that made one’s face flush. The small boat the two were on slowly began rocking more and more violently.

For the first time, Tang Wanzhuang’s icy-cold fingers warmed up, and her cheeks turned a fiery red. She spat in exasperation.

Zhao Changhe barely held back his laughter, turning away without a word.

In this freezing weather, someone’s actually sneaking around for some fun. On a boat, no less. Damn, that takes balls.

Tang Wanzhuang was a woman who had spent her entire life as a noble lady and a high-ranking court official. For someone as proper as her, this was far too much to handle. Stomping her foot, she grabbed Zhao Changhe’s hand and pulled him away. “Let’s go somewhere else!”

Zhao Changhe blinked. “Go somewhere else for what?”

Tang Wanzhuang, nearly choking on frustration, snapped, “You... I, I’m not doing anything like that with you!”

Zhao Changhe burst into laughter, then suddenly scooped her up by the waist and soared into the sky, leaving the lovers in the reeds to their own affairs.

Tang Wanzhuang instinctively clutched at his collar, a slight nervousness in her grip as she glanced downward. The river beneath them grew smaller, shrinking into a meandering stream as the distance widened. Snowflakes drifted around them like delicate silken threads, some shimmering faintly as if carrying tiny sparks of light. It was truly beautiful.

She tilted her head slightly, meeting his gaze. Zhao Changhe was already looking down at her, amusement shining in his eyes.

A strange sense of shame crept up on her. In the past, she had always been the elder, the superior, the mentor. But now, in every possible way, he had surpassed her. Being carried through the sky like this, as though the wind were utterly at his command, felt like a moment stolen from a young girl’s dream.

It was a dream she had long missed.

For a beautiful woman like her, this kind of romance should have come much earlier. But she had rushed through life in the storm and mire of the empire, never pausing to even have a taste of such experiences. And now, on the first night of her thirties, it had come to her so suddenly.

Her heartbeat, which had been chaotic with flustered indignation just moments ago, slowly calmed. She rested her delicate head lightly against his chest, soft and compliant like a small bird.

He’s gotten really good at this now...

The rocking boat had long since disappeared from sight. Even the flowing river had become no more than a thin silver line. Below them, the vast farmlands stretched endlessly, forming a patchwork too immense to seem real. Tang Wanzhuang withdrew her gaze and realized that Zhao Changhe had now settled onto a thick bed of clouds, holding her in his arms.

Curious, she reached out a hand and brushed against the cloud beneath them only to find that it was water.

“So clouds really are just water...” A flicker of thought stirred in her mind. “If that’s the case, controlling these auspicious clouds... perhaps it isn’t so difficult after all...”

Zhao Changhe chuckled. “Bringing you up here, that was my intention all along... You may not be one who controls water, but you’re attuned to it. You should be able to grasp the connection.”

“Mm...” Tang Wanzhuang murmured absently, lost in thought.

There was no external light here, only her own insight guiding her. Yet even as something profound brushed against her consciousness, it remained elusive, just out of reach.

The Spring Water Sword Art was not about manipulating water; rather, it bent light by using water as a medium. Zhao Changhe had understood this principle long ago, often employing it to deceive an opponent’s vision. In essence, the technique was not truly about water but about the manipulation of light itself. Water was merely a tool, interchangeable with anything capable of altering the refraction of light.

Back on Skyrim Island, both Zhao Changhe and Lady Xia Chichi had delved into the path of light manipulation, a revelation drawn from the page of the Heavenly Tome that had fallen there. Their very departure from Skyrim Island had relied on grasping control of light. Xia Chichi’s techniques—a flying dragon in the heavens, traversing a thousand li in an instant—were the results of combining the Azure Dragon’s path with the mastery of light.

Back then, Zhao Changhe had thought to himself: Once I master this, I’ll return and teach you the Spring Water Sword Art.[2]

Unfortunately, Zhao Changhe’s own cultivation had been lacking. It was not until he forged River of Stars in the Imperial Ancestral Temple that he barely broke through to the second layer of the Profound Mysteries. Meanwhile, Tang Wanzhuang had been at the third layer for quite some time, and he had never really had the leisure to study the path of light. What could he possibly have taught her?

But now, having shattered all constraints and returned with newfound mastery, perhaps this time, he truly could do so.

Seeing her lost in thought, struggling to grasp the fleeting illumination in her mind, Zhao Changhe suddenly snapped his fingers. “Watch...”

With that single crisp sound, the darkness of the snowy night was split by a sudden glow.

Tang Wanzhuang lifted her head. The thick clouds gently parted, revealing the soft radiance of the moon hidden behind them. Moonlight poured down like flowing silver, bathing her in its glow, illuminating the clouds beneath them and the drifting snow around them. The heavens shimmered, and the air was filled with faint glimmers. It was an ethereal beauty that made it seem as if they had stepped into an immortal’s realm.

If there is no light in this world, I will summon the starry sky for you.

Bang!

Far below, in the heart of the capital, fireworks burst into the sky.

Stars emerged, fireworks bloomed, a thousand blossoms lit up the night. On eastern winds the night takes flight, a thousand flames bloom oh-so bright; like falling stars that streak the sky, they rain down to earth from up high.[3]

Tang Wanzhuang could not help but rise to her feet.

She did not even realize that she had stepped away from Zhao Changhe, yet she did not fall. She stood lightly atop the clouds, her body drifting as if carried by the gentle waves of moonlight, floating in the vast night sky.

In the distance, where the atmosphere thickened, refracted light crisscrossed in strange patterns, distorting space into a dreamlike mirage. She seemed to see the vast Eastern Sea, its clouds shifting between dawn and dusk. She saw the mountains and rivers of Wu and Yue[4], the moon mirrored in the serene waters of Mirror Lake.

She even saw the snow-capped peaks of the distant Tianshan, their silhouettes faintly appearing near the capital. There, the sun had yet to set.

Time. Space. Light. All of them interwoven and entangled, like a dream.

It was not just Tang Wanzhuang who was shaken. Zhao Changhe, having just begun to comprehend the nature of space earlier that afternoon, felt a deep tremor within himself.

Every page of the Heavenly Tome was interlinked with every other page. That much was now undeniable. Even though he had not yet obtained the page of time and space, the page of light and shadow that he had was undoubtedly connected to it, and its whereabouts had already become clear. It had to be in Kunlun... or rather, in the hands of Jiuyou!

Setting aside the missing page for now, the very sensation of time and space overlapping before his eyes struck Zhao Changhe with sudden clarity. Merging his earlier understanding of the changes in space with the shadow-dodging skill he had stolen from Snow Owl, he suddenly felt as though he might not even need the subterranean sky to achieve instantaneous movement or teleportation anymore...

He decided to test it later on. For now, he had no interest in pondering such things.

Before him, Tang Wanzhuang stood upon the clouds, her eyes lightly closed, her robes flowing in the moonlight. The glow bathed her figure in a soft, dreamlike aura, complementing the elegant grace she already possessed. She truly looked like an immortal goddess, as though she were Chang’e[5] herself treading the clouds beneath the moon, ethereal and untouchable.

To a weaker cultivator, her presence might have seemed illusory, blurred and shifting, as though she were not truly in this place, not truly in this moment.

She was like a distant beauty, standing on the other shore....

She suddenly asked, “Does this have anything to do with the Heavenly Tome?”

“Yes.”

He reached for the page of the Heavenly Tome, intending to take it out. But before he could, Tang Wanzhuang’s eyes opened, a faint smile playing on her lips. She gently pushed his hand down.

Zhao Changhe hesitated.

Tang Wanzhuang leaned into him, wrapping her arms around him in a light embrace. Lifting her head, she whispered, “Didn’t you say... you can transmit knowledge directly into my mind and spirit... I don’t want to read it myself. I want you to feed it to me.”

Zhao Changhe immediately abandoned any thoughts of retrieving the page. He pulled her closer, his arms encircling her slender frame. Then, lowering his head, he kissed her.

Above the clouds, beneath the moon, a man and a woman shared a kiss. The wind whispered around them, the snow danced, and the stars and moon shone as if in harmony. If an onlooker had witnessed the scene, they might have thought them to be a pair of immortal lovers.

Light seemed to gather toward them from every direction. If one looked closely, they would find that it was not merely surrounding them. The light was flowing into Tang Wanzhuang’s spiritual sea, expanding it, making it boundless and infinite.

On this starlit snowy night in Spring, Tang Wanzhuang broke through to the Profound Control Realm.

The fireworks over the city bloomed like a celebration held in her honor.

1. This is from Chapter 759. ☜

2. This is from Chapter 585. ☜

3. This is a line from Lantern Festival (青玉案·元夕) by Southern Song dynasty poet Xin Qiji (辛弃疾). Note that I took a bit of liberty here for the sake of rhyming and consistency in syllables. ☜

4. These were states in ancient China. ☜

5. Chang’e is the moon goddess in Chinese mythology and (depending on the myth) the wife of the legendary archer Hou Yi. She is a major deity in all Chinese religions. ☜