Tome of Troubled Times-Chapter 731 (2): Little Starry

Realizing he had been staring, the little girl silently met his gaze, her black eyes calm and unblinking. She didn’t speak, simply waiting in quiet patience. Snapping out of his thoughts, Zhao Changhe offered an apologetic smile and spoke first. “Little Starry, I’m sorry. Your dad has been so distracted that I haven’t gotten to properly talk to you.”

The girl tilted her head in mild confusion, her expression betraying a moment of incomprehension. “D-Dad?”

Then she scratched her head, clarifying, “You’re my master.”

Zhao Changhe swore to himself that he had never had any strange feelings about the term “master” when it came to Dragon Bird. But with River of Stars, the title felt completely wrong—he did not want her to call him that. Squatting down, he ruffled her hair gently. “I made you with my own hands. How could there be a master-servant relationship between us?”

In truth, from River of Stars' perspective, her master’s logic made no sense. A sword spirit’s thought process differed entirely from that of a human. To her, the concept of “parent” was meaningless—what mattered was her bond with her master. Still, she did not argue. She simply sat quietly, looking at him with her serene, star-like eyes, a trace of puzzlement flickering within them.

Zhao Changhe was utterly smitten. He wanted to slap himself. How could he have ignored such an adorable child? His own creation! And yet, here she was, seemingly three or four years old, and he had not given her a second glance.

Wait... Three or four years old? I only forged her less than two months ago. How did she age this much already?

The sword spirit, attuned to her master’s thoughts through their connection, sensed his confusion. Though she did not fully understand Zhao Changhe’s thought patterns, she could clearly perceive his affection, which filled her with a newfound sense of warmth.

Noticing her master’s confusion about her apparent age, she spoke up proactively. “A sword spirit needs to be nurtured with the master’s sword intent. The more you wield me with your sword intent, the faster I grow... though you usually use me for sneak attacks, blending into the darkness of flowing sand. While that is part of my nature, overusing it could skew my development...”

Zhao Changhe immediately pounded his chest. “I’ll stop! Absolutely no more! I won’t bury you in sand anymore!”

“That’s not necessary...” River of Stars' small face grew serious. “My greatest growth came during the battles with Hidden Wind and Desolate Calamity. At those times, you used me as a medium to draw upon the power of the stars. Not only were you commanding the sword, you were commanding the galaxy itself. Moreover, that feeling of dominance under the night sky, where no ghost or monster could hide, helped me grow tremendously.”

Zhao Changhe suddenly remembered that moment—when he forced Desolate Calamity to retreat, and Hidden Wind attempted a sneak attack. He had shot an arrow into the heavens and bellowed, “The Heavenly Tome is here! If you’ve got the guts, come and take it!” In that instant, he had felt a subtle shift in River of Stars' aura, a faint yet unmistakable surge of momentum.

This was not just any sword connected to the stars; it was the Night Emperor’s Sword, an imperial sword forged from Heavenly Emperor-level materials. Its essence was not merely rooted in the stars but in authority. The sword intent of River of Stars carried with it a profound sense of power. If he continued using it solely for sneak attacks, it would truly warp its nature.

A cold sweat broke out on Zhao Changhe’s back. Thankfully, he had caught this in time. If he had truly raised this adorable sword spirit down the wrong path, he would never be able to forgive himself.

Wait. If wielding the sword meant wielding the galaxy itself...

Outside the sword, Zhao Changhe’s physical body suddenly straightened up.

He had been struggling to figure out how to channel the galaxy through his body, but the solution had been in his hands all along. He already had a medium! By mastering the connection through River of Stars, he could eventually transition away from relying on the sword entirely. That would naturally lead to his breakthrough—why had he wasted so much time overthinking?

Elated, Zhao Changhe scooped up River of Stars and lifted her high up into the air twice. “Thanks, Little Starry! You’ve solved one of my biggest headaches!”

For the first time, a faint smile appeared on River of Stars' otherwise expressionless face. It seemed she found being lifted into the air quite fun. More than that, she was happy to have helped her master. After all, it meant she might finally see more action herself, instead of being relegated to sneak attacks while Dragon Bird basked in glory. She honestly found the smug saber rather insufferable.

Still, she knew her master’s focus would always remain on the saber. From the beginning, sword arts had been a complementary skill for him, an auxiliary path. Despite being praised as a master of both the sword and saber, the world still recognized Zhao Changhe as a man of the saber first and foremost. It was unlikely he would ever fully shift to prioritizing the sword. He was too sentimental—he would never abandon Dragon Bird.

Not that River of Stars particularly minded, she was not competing for dominance. What she wanted was to grow. For a sword spirit, growth meant strength. And a sword spirit that did not aspire to become a divine-grade weapon was not a good sword spirit. Both she and Dragon Bird had the potential to become divine grade, but whether they could achieve it depended entirely on their master’s progress.

Zhao Changhe’s consciousness exited the sword, and he abruptly shouted into the air, “Blindie.”

The blind woman replied, “Stop calling me for no reason. Do I look like your personal chat buddy?”

Before she could finish her complaint, River of Stars shot forward.

The blind woman froze for a moment, only to see the sky erupt with falling stars and a cascade of the Milky Way itself spilling downward.

She yawned, then casually waved her hand. The celestial phenomena vanished without a trace, leaving the air clear and still. Meanwhile, Zhao Changhe was flung backward by an invisible wall of qi, stumbling awkwardly for several steps before he managed to steady himself.

“With your level of power...” The blind woman yawned again, turning to leave. “You’re just wasting my time—wait.” She suddenly stopped mid-step and turned back. “How did you know where I was?”

Zhao Changhe steadied himself and smiled faintly. “Qi observation.”

“With your level of qi observation, there’s no way you could perceive my qi.”

“I wasn’t observing your qi,” Zhao Changhe replied calmly. “I was observing the threads of karma, faint and indistinct in the void. Since there’s no one else around, who else could it be but you?”

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The blind woman was silent for a moment before lowering her voice and asking, “You can already see the threads of karma?”

“I can see faint lines. I can’t tell for sure if they’re truly threads of karma—it’s just a guess,” Zhao Changhe said with a grin. “Would you call that significant progress?”

“Though it’s a bit of a shortcut, combining the paths of qi veins and karma, for someone like you who’s only recently started, this is indeed impressive. You should know, the power of the target you observe also affects the results. To glimpse even a fragment of my thread—even with my guard down—is something most demon gods can’t achieve. That’s extraordinary.” Her tone grew serious. “By all accounts, your talent for this sort of thing should be mediocre at best. How have you progressed so quickly?”

Zhao Changhe replied, “Because of my incredible talent in body tempering and the speed at which I comprehend cultivation techniques, many people forget that my saber skills were just average. They only improved because I swung my saber thousands of times a day until I mastered it.”

The blind woman said, “So you’re saying that since I first mentioned the threads of karma, you’ve been simulating them in your spiritual sea non-stop?”

Zhao Changhe nodded. “The Heavenly Tome can slow things down for study. It’s quite effective for getting started. Over the past few weeks, I’ve simulated it about a thousand times or so.”

She found herself reluctantly impressed by his sheer determination. “So what was the purpose of that strike you just attempted?”

“I can simulate that strike infinitely within the Heavenly Tome. Taking control of this galaxy, it’s within reach.”

The blind woman sneered. She could tell his so-called training was not just about taking control of the galaxy. He was also trying to glean insights from her earlier movement.

Sure enough, Zhao Changhe soon frowned and muttered, “Hey, isn’t this cheating? What’s the point of erasing the details of your earlier strike? I’m being upfront with you, and this is how you play?”

Her tone was languid as she replied, “Your honesty is meaningless to me. I am the Tome of Troubled Times. Trying to study me is no different from trying to undress me—do you think I wouldn’t notice? And you knew this, which is why you pretended to be so candid, hoping I’d let it slide.”

Zhao Changhe sighed. “Could you pick a less... vivid metaphor?”

The blind woman smirked coldly. “That’s all there is to your little schemes. Go practice your control of River of Stars[1]. Don’t waste your time trying to spy on me—you’ll get nowhere.”

With that, her figure vanished into the void once more.

Just as she disappeared, Zhao Changhe suddenly called out, “Little Starry looks a lot like you.”

She stumbled slightly, nearly falling out of the void, but quickly recovered and responded evenly, “I think you’re the blind one. Where do you see any resemblance?”

“Well, not in the eyes, that’s for sure.”

“...”

“I was mostly referring to your aura,” Zhao Changhe explained. “Back when you entered my dreams, you were suspended in the night, serene and distant like the goddess of the night.”

Her tone remained neutral. “If that’s the case, then Jiuyou would be a better comparison. Also, why say ‘back then’? Am I not the same now?”

“You’re nothing like that now. Have you ever seen a goddess of darkness using a sweating emoji?” Zhao Changhe lamented dramatically. “You’ve lost all your mystique.”

The blind woman suddenly chuckled. “Isn’t that a good thing?”

It certainly was. Unlike the enigmatic Little Starry, at least she did not leave him guessing blindly.

Disappearing back into the void, she exhaled deeply. Zhao Changhe’s sharp intuition was almost absurd. She felt that she needed to limit their interactions even further—every word risked revealing more than she intended.

Little Starry... Her thoughts turned to River of Stars. Extending her spiritual sense into the sword, she gazed at the little girl lying atop the starlit expanse. A faint smile crossed her lips.

The girl looked up at her steadily, her black eyes shimmering faintly with confusion.

Moments later, the blade began to tremble, its inner starlight flickering as if responding to external forces. It was Zhao Changhe, repeatedly simulating his earlier strike, the resonance of countless stars glowing brilliantly within.

The blind woman sighed. With his talent, the Profound Control Realm is indeed within his grasp. But if he relies on the sword as a medium, it would only be a “false” breakthrough. The true hurdle still remains ahead.

Scanning the threads of karma with her heightened perception, she traced out possibility after possibility, mapping the paths of his future. To her astonishment, she found over a dozen distinct threads leading to a breakthrough.

A man with over a dozen ways to achieve the Profound Control Realm...

1. Just a reminder that River of Stars and galaxy are the same words in Chinese. ☜