Chapter 891: You're My Final Boss

Ye Wuming abruptly burst out with qi, attempting to shake off Zhao Changhe’s iron grip on her wrist.

Unfortunately, given the power difference between them, simply unleashing a burst of internal energy was no longer enough to break free.

Her other hand lashed out, and Zhao Changhe met her blow-for-blow. They carried out exchange after rapid exchange. Yet that offending hand remained firmly locked in place, unwavering in its hold.

Ling Ruoyu could not bear to watch. She could not help but feel like the two were so much like her and Birdy when they were bickering. They looked immature, ridiculous, and even a bit childish; it was especially so since neither dared to exert their full strength. The fight looked less like a duel and more like a pair of cats batting at each other.

She wondered what it must feel like for a kid to watch their dad flirting with their mom. Ling Ruoyu was so mortified that her toes were practically trying to carve out a hole for her to hide in. If only a bottle of soy sauce would roll by so she could go off and buy it....

Meanwhile, Ye Wuming had to admit that when forced to fight purely on skill without resorting to overwhelming power, Zhao Changhe was now her equal. She actually could not best him.

He began inching closer to the hand he still held, lips curled into a smirk as he leaned in. She was about to unleash a power well beyond the rules of their mock battle. But then, right before his face reached her hand, Zhao Changhe suddenly let go, grinning as he gave her hand a playful squeeze on the way out. “Blindie...”

Ye Wuming retracted her power at once, seething. “Do you have any sense of the bigger picture?”

“

You

are accusing me of that?” Zhao Changhe replied with a breezy laugh. “You’re the one who was about to break the rules. I’m the one who stopped before things got out of hand. Who’s lacking the sense of the bigger picture here?”

He brought the hand he used to hold hers to his nose, inhaling lightly. “Still as fragrant... smooth and soft. Just like the old days.”

Ling Ruoyu had her head down and was wishing the Heavenly Sword Venerable had gauged her eyes out earlier.

Ye Wuming snorted coldly. “As if you’ve touched me before.”

“But I have. A long, long time ago,” Zhao Changhe said with a teasing smile. “Back then, I was weak as could be, and you were the great Night Emperor. How could someone like me possibly get close to you? The only explanation I can think of is that you were trying to seduce me.”

Ye Wuming froze for a moment, and realization flickered in her eyes. He really had touched her, and yes, it had been ages ago. At the time, Zhao Changhe had just begun practicing martial arts.

Even Ye Wuming herself had no idea how she had ended up being touched by someone that weak... She had likely been distracted by something important and, never imagining that he would dare to reach out, let her guard down for an instant. But the disparity in strength between them had been so vast that even grazing the hem of her robes should have been impossible.

If that was not a deliberate flirtation, what was?

Her voice turned mocking. “Seduce you? Back when you were like that? You were as worthy of me as the dirt on the ground.”

Zhao Changhe replied, “So what you’re saying is that now I’m worthy?”

Ye Wuming slammed the table. “Zhao Changhe, stop testing me!”

Zhao Changhe took a sip of wine, feigning languid indifference. “I’m just trying to piss you off. What, you didn’t consider this day might come when you deliberately guided me into opposition with you?”

“You...”

She was about to speak, but movement in the distance cut her off. Someone was approaching.

Zhao Changhe grinned. “Alright, alright. Compose yourself. Be aloof, detached, serene like the night—don’t break character.”

Ye Wuming fell silent. The sheer absurdity of the situation left her with no words to retort.

He really is insane.

Of course, she had intentionally set him on a path of opposition. She did not want him developing any misguided affections, and more importantly, she had been preparing for that final, fatal showdown. If she was prepared to die in that battle, then she believed it to be better that there were no fond ties between them. Zhao Changhe, Jiuyou, and Piaomiao would all then welcome her demise without hesitation.

The “day she envisioned” had always referred to life and death, not... this.

“Everyone’s here, I see?” The shopkeeper from earlier entered the rear courtyard with a cheerful smile, holding a lump of dense, dark metal in his hands. “This is the Void-Shattering Star Iron. Would either of you Fellow Daoists like to examine it?”

Zhao Changhe smiled. “My wife is more versed in this than I am. Let her take a look.”

Ye Wuming nearly choked. “Who are you calling your—”

Zhao Changhe cut her off, “It’s for reforging Dragon Bird to battle the Heavenly Dao. Are you taking a look or not?”

Ye Wuming reluctantly took the metal, a trace of frustration tightening her grip. To Zhao Changhe, even the Heavenly Dao—feared by all and once her most dangerous adversary—was merely a plot device in his game. A pretense used only to mess with her. If not for Ye Wuming, Zhao Changhe probably would not even bother with the Heavenly Dao at all.

And he was not wrong. He was not of the Heavenly Tome’s world. Unlike Jiuyou or herself, he was not shackled by the world’s order. His conflict with the Heavenly Dao existed only because of his entanglement with her.

In truth, the Heavenly Dao had not committed any world-ending evil in the previous era. It had caused no real harm to ordinary beings. In fact, the one who had torn through the heavens and broken the order, inviting chaos, had been Ye Wuming herself. If there was darkness to blame for this era’s vengeance from the Heavenly Dao, its roots lay in her.

Would any of this have happened had Ye Wuming not rebelled?

The thought struck her, and she suddenly asked, “You’re not all that interested in fighting the Heavenly Dao, are you?”

Zhao Changhe smiled faintly. “Wrong. I am.”

“Why?”

“Because it hurt the woman I love.”

Ye Wuming looked up at him.

Zhao Changhe continued, “Her name is Ye Jiuyou.”

Ye Wuming’s lips pressed into a tight line. Her emotions twisted in a way she could not name.

Zhao Changhe seemed to anticipate her thoughts. “You’re wondering... if I see the Heavenly Dao as an enemy, do I still regard it as the final boss? You guessed right. It’s on my kill list, sure, but the ultimate boss in my heart has always been Ye Wuming. On any battlefield.”

Ye Wuming recalled the time on Earth, at that little fortune-telling shop, when she had asked him what outcome he sought.

His answer: To kill that witch.

It had never been about anyone else. She, Ye Wuming, had always been the final obstacle, the final challenge, and that had never changed.

Zhao Changhe’s voice turned resolute. “The Heavenly Dao was never the end of my path in this world. You are.”

Ye Wuming said nothing in response. She simply passed the metal to him. “This is one of the highest-grade materials under the heavens. It can sever space and pierce any defense. If you intend to reforge Dragon Bird, this will more than suffice.”

Zhao Changhe tucked away the Void-Shattering Star Iron and rose to his feet. “Ruoyu, want to play here a bit longer?”

Ling Ruoyu had been resting her chin in her palm, watching her parents chat. Earlier, she had thought the whole exchange was a bit silly, but by the end... there was something unspoken that tugged at her heart. A strange wistfulness she could not name. It was supposed to be boring, yet somehow, she had wanted to keep listening.

It looks like Mom holds a special place in Dad’s heart... She was even in his dreams back when he was still weak?

Ahem.

She shook off the teenage melancholy threatening to spiral out of control and got up. “Aren’t you going to pick out some more treasures, Dad?”

“For your aunts, sure. Pick out a few as gifts.” Zhao Changhe cast Ye Wuming another glance. “As for the real weapons we’ll use in battle... they’re not here.”

Ling Ruoyu looked like she half-understood. “Then let’s go back. If you’re gone much longer, my aunts are going to kill you.”

The shopkeeper, who had been listening to this bizarre conversation, could only gape in stunned silence as the three before him—this inexplicably matched little family—vanished without a trace. There had not been any flash of light, nor sound, nor even a ripple in the air.

No matter how he probed or calculated, he could not sense the slightest trace that they had even ever been there. It was as if they had never existed in this world at all.

Only three half-finished cups of wine on the stone table remained, bearing silent witness to a fleeting, dreamlike moment of idle conversation.

* * *

“Fellow Daoist, please stay.”

Within a spatial passage, Ye Wuming suddenly halted.

Her method of crossing worlds involved folding space and time. It was a divine art so advanced that it bypassed the very rules of existence. Though it looked like an instant jump from one world to another, there was still technically a passageway between.

And until now, no one had ever managed to stop her mid-transit. This, thus, could only mean one thing. The figure who was making contact with them was someone of her level, someone who had also grasped the origin of a world.

She turned to find an old man in ceremonial robes standing behind her.

“Fellow Daoist, you’ve trespassed into my world time and again. I turned a blind eye before, but this time you’ve slain a top expert from my world. Have you considered the karmic ripples? The way it disturbs the qi veins and disrupts the order?”

Her earlier concerns had come true. Ye Wuming thought,

So it’s finally happened. This world’s Heavenly Dao had taken notice.

Her voice was cool and indifferent, “I have no interest in meddling with your world. He struck first. Are we supposed to just sit and take it?”

“That only happened because you brought outsiders here,” the old man replied icily. “If you hadn’t come, none of this would’ve happened. Do you think you can just come and go as you please?”

Ye Wuming sneered. “Worlds like this aren’t private estates. Accidental travelers pop up everywhere, and there’s no treaty that protects anything. So why now? If you’re confronting me all of a sudden, I suspect there’s another reason entirely.”

The old man said coldly, “Twisting words to your advantage, are you now?”

“You’re not the real Heavenly Dao of this world,” Ye Wuming said bluntly. “If the true Heavenly Dao wanted to trap me, He would’ve kept me inside its world, where He holds all the power, not here in the void between worlds. You’re pretending to be Him, trying to make me feel guilty. Too bad, I’ve never been the sort to feel guilty. You have no power here.”

Zhao Changhe whispered to Ling Ruoyu, “Pay attention. Learn from your mom.”

Ling Ruoyu was speechless.

The old man was momentarily speechless as well, thrown off by how swiftly and incisively she had seen through him.

That instant of hesitation was all Ye Wuming needed. Her slender hand struck.

The fabric of space collapsed. The spatial passage shattered, disintegrating into oblivion.

The old man reeled back in horror as the chaotic flow of time and space nearly tore his soul apart.

“What a ruthless woman. Just who is that family, exactly?” The elder staggered backward, landing on solid ground to stabilize himself. He furrowed his brow in deep confusion. “I’ve never heard of them anywhere in this stretch of the starry sea. I can’t even divine their origins. It’s as if they both exist and don’t exist in this universe, hovering between reality and illusion...”

The old man stood within a stretch of the starry sea belonging to the main world’s universe. This was a boundless expanse filled with innumerable planets, each home to powerful cultivators. The cultivation continent that strange family had just visited? It was nothing more than a realm evolved from a fallen expert’s immortal cave, one of many such “pocket heavens” scattered throughout the sea.

That expert had long since perished, and the old man had arrived to claim the pocket heaven for himself.

Ye Wuming’s sudden appearance had triggered his senses, though his assumption was slightly off. There was no such thing as a “Heavenly Dao” in this place, so it was indeed not some divine order punishing her. Rather, it was the act of her piercing through worlds to construct a spatial passage that caught his attention. It was an unusual fluctuation in the fabric of space-time. Mistaking it for a rival cultivator attempting to seize the immortal cave, the old man came to investigate.

In this starry sea, powerful artifacts or magical treasures abound, with some even surpassing their wielders. Among them was a certain Heavenly Tome, inscribed with the laws of martial arts cultivation, silently gestating in the void until it birthed a world of its own. Though akin to a pocket heaven, the Heavenly Tome’s tier was half a level higher.

Thus, the elder’s confusion was not unfounded. The Heavenly Tome did, in fact, reside within this starry sea. Ye Wuming, as its spirit, was technically here—and yet, not, for she and the others were ultimately born of the Heavenly Tome’s world.

Unable to comprehend the truth, the elder was left in utter bafflement.

Back when the Heavenly Tome first awakened, its energy fluctuations drew the attention of a powerful demonic cultivator who sought to subjugate it. Failing to do so, he forcibly split its spirit and laid his own influence within, hoping to seize control. He succeeded for a time. Under his rule, the tome served him well, allowing him to dominate an entire planet.

But eventually, the most powerful entities of the tome’s world began to awaken to true consciousness. The demonic cultivator failed to notice this shift in time and was ultimately betrayed by none other than the Night Emperor within the Heavenly Tome, leading to a total collapse of his control. During another confrontation three decades past, his grip was further eroded. Since then, he had been licking his wounds in seclusion.

To claim a sentient artifact of similar power to oneself was no easy feat. Cultivators consumed by their own greed and ultimately destroyed by backlash were far from rare, and he would not have been the last.

After the tome broke free, Ye Wuming took it and vanished into the void, her whereabouts unknown. From then on, she began gallivanting across the worlds...

Technically, the Heavenly Tome remained unbound. But the demonic cultivator was growing increasingly anxious. He knew the original tome spirit had already bonded with someone, and he feared the current spirit was not far behind. After all, the two spirits were once twins, forcibly split apart. Love and hatred alike would run deep between them and likely in similar veins.

If he did not act soon, he would lose everything—the artifact, the world, and the power that came with it.

Deep within his immortal cave, the demonic cultivator’s eyes suddenly snapped open. “Was... Was that Ye Wuming’s energy? Was it a trick of the senses? Has she really dared to show herself in the main world?”

* * *

At the Night Palace.

Ye Wuming stumbled onto the ground, clutching both Zhao Changhe and Ling Ruoyu as she fell.

Destroying a dimensional passage while simultaneously constructing another was a feat that Zhao Changhe could only deeply admire for the time being. Even for Ye Wuming, this maneuver came at a price. The backlash left her momentarily unsteady on her feet.

Zhao Changhe quickly supported her, his tone tinged with reproach, “Was that really necessary? It was dangerous. That old man’s cultivation didn’t seem higher than yours. He had to act as though he were the Heavenly Dao just to guilt you into retreating. If we all had piled on him, we could’ve smashed his face in. Why go to such lengths?”

Ye Wuming shook her head faintly. “I’ve always had the sense that our so-called Heavenly Dao exists within that world, perhaps even just nearby. We cannot afford unnecessary entanglements.”

Zhao Changhe narrowed his eyes. “So you moving around worlds... Is it partly a search for the true location of the Heavenly Dao?”

“No. I’m doing this for myself,” Ye Wuming murmured, gazing distantly at the sky. “Across the myriad realms, countless powerful beings exist. That old man from earlier wasn’t any weaker than me. Sooner or later, others will come eyeing this place. I must reach the Other Shore as soon as possible if I ever want to truly roam the myriad realms.”

“Then, if your goal is to one day explore the endless starry sea, why are you always talking about dying?”

“Because you’ve never truly experienced the despair of facing Him. In your heart, you’ve never regarded Him as the true final boss. Only Jiuyou and I understand that being able to perish together with Him would be a tremendous outcome. Achieving even that would require a plan spanning two eras and accounting for every possible variable.”

Zhao Changhe looked at her for a long while, then said quietly, “Blindie, I never imagined I’d hear the word ‘despair’ from you.”

Ye Wuming offered a faint smile. “Didn’t Jiuyou ever tell you that she felt as though it all just comes down to the cold moon and burning sun, scorching human life to dust? Do you think she’s not in despair too?”

Zhao Changhe remained silent.

Ye Wuming continued, “It’s because you weren’t the one standing at the front line that you’ve never felt that helplessness firsthand. Even that arrow back then... Who do you think was holding the line so you could land the killing blow? I was the one taking on the brunt of the enemy head-on. And now you tell me you never saw Him as a boss? The nerve of you....”

Zhao Changhe shook his head. In truth, he had never underestimated their enemy. His irreverence was merely strategic posturing. How could he possibly dismiss a foe who had driven Ye Wuming to madness and left Ye Jiuyou gnashing her teeth?

Even now, his actions spoke volumes. He was seeking rare materials to reforge Dragon Bird and scrutinizing every battle involving powerful artifacts. For what purpose, if not to prepare for fighting Him?

If anything, it was Ye Wuming who had been underestimating him.

Because on this journey across worlds, one that seemed like nothing more than a chance to train the child, he had gained far more than she could possibly imagine.

Ye Wuming flipped her wrist, and a complete Heavenly Tome appeared in her hand. “The world itself was formed from the Heavenly Tome, and yet... we still hold a physical copy in our hands. You’ve even interacted with it at length. Doesn’t that strike you as odd?”

“It’s just a manifested projection, isn’t it?” Zhao Changhe said lazily. “Technically, when I was wiping down my little saber with it, I wasn’t using your face... just your mold.”

“Get lost!” Ye Wuming was so furious that she nearly hit him. “Show some respect! I won’t hold back here!”

Zhao Changhe did not flinch. “So, what, you’re trying to teach me how to properly use the Heavenly Tome now?”

“I’m using it as a primer,” Ye Wuming replied coolly. “To teach you how to wield magical treasures. After all, this is the one you’re most familiar with. Once you’ve learned how to use it, what you choose to wield and how is up to you.”

She casually extended a finger. “I’ll tap your spiritual platform and guide you. So? Are you learning or not?”

“There’s no need,” Zhao Changhe said with a grin. “I already know how to use magical treasures.”