Chapter 893: The Blade is Like an Arm

Chapter 893: The Blade Like an Extension of the Arm

Hearing such a blunt remark, Ye Wuming showed no expression, and even her heart remained unmoved.

She had grown accustomed to being teased over the past two days—not just with words, but with hands as well.

After all, ever since Poxun had glimpsed the deepest desires of his heart, Zhao Changhe had never hidden anything on this matter. Since his innermost thoughts were already known, concealment was meaningless, only inviting ridicule.

Yet these words carried a different significance for Ye Wuming.

Just moments ago, she had been pondering whether he, too, was trying to manipulate things, and now, in an instant, he slapped that notion away, making it clear he had no such intent. It almost carried a flavor of "You matter more than the realm." She didn't know whether to curse him for being beneath her or to feel secretly pleased.

A thousand thoughts ultimately dissolved into a faint sigh within the Night Palace.

Ye Wuming rose to her feet and turned to step into the lotus pond.

Her bare feet touched the water, sending ripples gently spreading. Above the mortal world, someone gazing at the moon saw nebulae surge, scatter, and coalesce, like ripples in water.

Where the Celestial Emperor trod, it was naturally the night sky of the mortal realm... every step she took was a shift in the heavens' seasons. If she willed thunder and storm, then thunder and storm there would be.

When she saw Zhao Changhe carefully cradling the pregnant Xia Chichi as they lay together on the dragon bed, the thunderstorm truly descended.

A literary scholar was drinking wine under the moon when suddenly a torrential downpour crashed down. People scrambled indoors to take shelter, and after tidying themselves up in disarray, they looked out to find the sky clear again. They tried stepping outside, only to be met by a howling gale that stung their eyes shut.

"Is the old man in heaven having a fit tonight?"

"How do you know it's the old man in heaven, and not some old woman hitting menopause..."

"Boom!" The speaker was struck by lightning and convulsed on the ground.

Ling Ruoyu looked up at the sky. The moonlight, which had never felt cold before, now seemed to radiate a restless irritation, along with a faint... loneliness.

"Queque... the look she gave me when we parted, I still can't forget it. It felt like threads were tugging at me... Do you think she's lonely?"

The broadsword in her arms hummed: "Threads tugging at you? Are you sure those threads aren't her manipulating your fate?"

Ling Ruoyu: "...Does everyone have such a bias against her?"

"She brought it on herself. She talks about rebelling against the Heavenly Dao, but what she does to others—how is it any different from the Heavenly Dao? Isn't it also controlling others, treating all beings as pawns? Does she care about anyone else's thoughts?"

Ling Ruoyu was stunned: "Wow, did you really say that?"

"...That's what your father thinks in his heart. Our minds are connected." Longque said smugly: "Now do you see the gap between you and me?"

"No, I only know that he stood up for me, even ignoring your materials."

"That's because he has a backup plan and knows he can get them!" The phantom of a twin-tailed girl leaped out of the blade in anger: "Since you became human, you've been less and less human-like! You weren't like this before!"

"Useless blade, no culture, such poor expression—I can't understand what you're saying."

"Why can't it be that you have no culture and poor comprehension?"

Soon, the two girls were wrestling together.

Ling Ruoyu, without Xinghe, couldn't beat Longque and was ruthlessly suppressed. Soon, she cheated by grabbing Xinghe and pinned Longque beneath her.

The two girls panted, glaring at each other. Longque gritted her teeth: "Just you wait—I'll be reforged soon!"

"Hmph, I'm not afraid of you even after you're reforged." The girl let go of her sister, and they both lay on the Observation Platform, staring at the sky, silent for a while.

Sisters fought, but they had been best friends since childhood, squatting together in a ring.

After a long moment, Ling Ruoyu hesitantly said: "Mother isn't that bad."

Longque lay sprawled out, basking in the moonlight, and said lazily: "Why are you defending her? Logically, you should hate her the most. She really did abandon you for an entire epoch. If that Zhao bastard hadn't fished you out and forged you, you'd still be a blank embryo."

Ling Ruoyu hesitated: "But she had no choice. At the time, she wasn't strong enough to forge me completely, so she had to leave it for later. Later, when Father... well, Shigong found me, she started guiding him away from the blood-fiend path toward the Xinghe path. That was her way of wanting Shigong to help forge the sword. If not for me, he probably would have stayed on the blood-fiend path."

Longque asked curiously: "Why did you switch back to 'Shigong'? I thought you were calling him 'Father' quite smoothly."

"That was the agreement—I call him Father in front of her, but normally it's still Shigong..."

"Is that necessary? A waste of effort."

"Because this isn't really a conventional parent-child relationship; it's very awkward." Ling Ruoyu said weakly: "If you really think about it that way, does that mean you were born from him and Xia Longyuan?"

Longque shuddered, then quickly snapped: "No! Your meaning is that you're a fusion of the lineage from Ye Wuming to Zhao Changhe, a combination of both. But I'm not. The original Longque only had a faint spark of spirit, not a human-shaped blade spirit. I was born and took form because of Zhao Changhe. I'm completely different from the original Longque that belonged to Xia Longyuan. The most obvious sign is that the original Longque was an emperor's blade. Do I look like one?"

Ling Ruoyu turned to look at her and felt that indeed, she did not. Ever since Xinghe had known Longque, this one had nothing to do with the word "emperor"—a pure fool.

Longque's awakening was entirely a fusion of Zhao Changhe's will and that of the women around him, which was why she looked like a crowd of faces. It also meant that when she awakened, it was during a transitional period in Zhao Changhe's cultivation, so she hadn't formed her own "Dao"—a messy mix of everything.

Thus, Longque truly had reached the point where she needed to be reforged... Her current level was indeed insufficient. Ling Ruoyu thought about it and grew curious: "If you're reforged again, will your appearance change?"

"...The blade's intent will change, but the outer form probably won't, just like the blade's shape won't change again."

"Will even your size stay the same? Still this small?"

"Who's small?" Longque jumped up: "I'm bigger than you!"

Ling Ruoyu glanced at Longque's chest, her expression unreadable. I'm flat, but you're about the same—where's the big? Sisters in misfortune.

Longque read her expression and covered her chest in indignation: "Why are you always dragging me into this? Weren't we talking about your parents?"

Ling Ruoyu was silent for a moment, then said quietly: "It's just that I don't know how to talk about her, so I changed the subject... Anyway, would you consider Shigong your father?"

Longque thought for a long time: "No. He used to have the twisted idea of making me call him 'Father,' but I never did. Stupid fish."

"Then I said they aren't conventional parents—why did you object?"

"...Do I need a reason to object?"

Ling Ruoyu was both amused and exasperated, but she had no energy to banter with Longque. She just sighed softly: "But even knowing that, when I see the way she looks at me, my heart still feels strange, a little sad... Queque, do you ever feel that way?"

Longque thought for a moment, probably only able to imagine what Zhao Changhe's eyes would look like if someone took her away. The thought suddenly made her a little sad too, so she said: "But does Ye Wuming really have such feelings for you? When you were forged back then, she hadn't lost contact yet, and she never showed you any special treatment. She didn't cherish you when you were right beside her, and now she's playing the loving mother?"

"I don't know..." Ling Ruoyu sat up, resting her chin on her knees, hugging them as she murmured to herself: "I keep thinking, if only she wouldn't stay alone in the sky, then we could all be together... Why doesn't she?"

Why doesn't she...

Ye Wuming stared fixedly at the girls' conversation, her eyes deep and dark. The mortal world only saw the thick clouds in the night sky, unable to glimpse the heart of heaven.

Longque eagerly urged: "Want to give them a little push?"

Ling Ruoyu was startled: "How? Like in those mortal storybooks, slipping them an aphrodisiac? That won't work on them."

"..." Longque was shocked: "How exactly did you become human? Is this all you've learned from wandering the martial world?"

Ling Ruoyu fumed: "I wandered the martial world for combat training, not for this... You're so smart, then come up with a creative idea!"

Longque stroked her illusory chin with two fingers and lowered her voice: "How about you forge Old Zhao's handwriting and send her a love letter? No, no—Old Zhao has already declared himself so directly, he doesn't need a love letter... It should be the other way around: forge her handwriting and send a love letter to Old Zhao, to break through her stubborn pride."

Ling Ruoyu blinked, inexplicably feeling it made sense: "But I've never seen her handwriting."

Longque put her hands on her hips and pointed at the sky: "Idiot. You've never seen it—has Old Zhao?"

Ling Ruoyu: "..."

Longque pointed at the sky, hands on hips: "So just write whatever. Imbue it with her Night Emperor's intent—isn't that your specialty?"

Ye Wuming stood with her arms crossed, watching the two children conspiring right in front of her, tilting her head in speechlessness.

Who's the idiot... You didn't learn a bit of your master's cunning schemes hidden in his belly.

But somehow, even though she was being plotted against, she couldn't muster any anger. Instead, she found it endearing.

Ye Wuming's gaze fixed on Ling Ruoyu... Little girl, will you really do this?

Ling Ruoyu hadn't decided yet. She clutched her hair in frustration, utterly disheveled.

It was a mistake to enlist Sparrow as a strategist—her ideas were crooked and twisted, and who knew if they'd even work...

...

Over there, Zhao Changhe paid no heed to the shifting weather nor the children's secret scheming. He simply held his pregnant wife, Chichi, close and rested peacefully for the night.

It was both a time to accompany his wife and child and a moment for self-reflection and adjustment.

Xia Chichi said nothing, curling up happily in her husband's arms and sleeping soundly.

Re forging the Dragon Sparrow was a solemn affair for Zhao Changhe. For this battle blade, which had followed him from the fourth level of the Mystic Gate to the present day, his regard was far from the casual indifference it appeared. When he returned that evening, somewhat weary, he decided to rest for a night, facing the task in his best state.

Come morning, he went to the Star Observation Platform and saw Ling Ruoyu holding the Dragon Sparrow, the two little girls sleeping soundly.

How to describe that scene... it was too adorable, softening the heart with its tenderness.

Am I getting old... Zhao Changhe mused, crouching down and gently tapping the hilt of the Dragon Sparrow beside him.

The twin-tailed girl sat up drowsily, rubbing her eyes: "Who hit me?"

Then she saw Zhao Changhe and jolted fully awake: "Is it time to hammer me?"

What a thing to say... Zhao Changhe grumbled, "First, I'll give you a check-up."

Ling Ruoyu sat up, rubbing her eyes, her gaze strange.

Zhao Changhe: "..."

He expected her to call him a pervert, but instead she said, "Master, do you want me to help hold Sparrow down? I've got experience."

Zhao Changhe felt these two kids had been raised all wrong... How would he face Hongling next time...

But in truth, it was he who was twisted. Whether it was Star River or Dragon Sparrow, their perception of being a sword or blade was never the same as a human's. Ling Ruoyu, viewing the reforging of Dragon Sparrow through Star River's perspective, felt envy and joy for her friend—nothing like the human fantasies that didn't align at all.

Until she was curled up and tossed out of the Underground Sky by her master, Ling Ruoyu sat cross-legged, chin in hand, not knowing which word she'd said wrong...

From below came her master's voice: "Go invite your two aunts, Vermilion Bird and Black Tortoise, to come help."

Ling Ruoyu thought there was no need—just by his shout, the two aunts, already near the altar, must have heard him...

Sure enough, as she thought this, two beams of light plunged into the underground. Huangfu Qing and Yuan Sanniang appeared beside Zhao Changhe at the same time, examining the Dragon Sparrow lying on the forge: "Is this single piece of star iron really enough? No other preparations needed?"

Zhao Changhe said, "In theory, adding any external element would suffice, making Dragon Sparrow no longer purely of this world. The reason I need this void-breaking star iron is to remove some early forging materials from Dragon Sparrow's body and replace them with this. Dragon Sparrow doesn't need to bear meaning like Star River; it only needs the purest destructive power, as the embodiment of 'force' in my martial path. One slash breaks the void, shattering all laws."

Huangfu Qing laughed, "Your expectations for Dragon Sparrow are high... The purer it is, the harder it becomes."

Zhao Changhe replied, "Of course—this is Dragon Sparrow, my longest companion, almost like my own hand. How could my expectations not be high?"

Ling Ruoyu: "..."

"Also, like the last sword forging, the process is a step in my self-cultivation. When Dragon Sparrow's reforging is complete, I'll reach the peak of the Imperial Realm's third level."

Inside the blade, Dragon Sparrow put its hands on its hips, so thrilled it nearly soared.

This was fate intertwined, limb and body as one.

Could that fool Star River compare?

Who knew the blades and swords were vying? Huangfu Qing was asking, "How do you need us to help this time?"

"The original earth fire's temperature is definitely insufficient; I need your flames... Oh, by the way, how was yesterday's True Samadhi Fire?"

"A very interesting flame, a great supplement to me... But I feel this fire seed is incomplete; the true True Samadhi Fire would be stronger than me." Huangfu Qing sighed softly, a hint of longing in her voice: "Changhe, when there's time, I too want to roam the outer realms, to see all the different heavens."

"That day won't be far off..." Zhao Changhe carefully placed Dragon Sparrow into the forge, guiding the earth fire to surge: "My mind is focused on expelling the materials I don't need from Dragon Sparrow's body. Sanniang, help smelt this star iron."

Sanniang grinned, kneading the star iron with her hands, and asked, "Does this mean we've also become Dragon Sparrow's mothers once?"

Zhao Changhe chuckled: "You always have been."

Sanniang smiled, tossed the star iron into the flames, and closed her eyes to guide it.

Zhao Changhe also closed his eyes.

The reforging of Dragon Sparrow was not only an upgrade for the weapon but also the culmination of his Imperial Realm's third level. Whether Ye Wuming had foreseen this... If she had, she would know that the day Dragon Sparrow was reborn would be the day she could no longer suppress Zhao Changhe.

Would she stand by or even lend a hand for the greater good, or would she try to interfere, preventing him from advancing too quickly?

The thought flashed by, and Zhao Changhe had no time to dwell on such idle matters. His divine sense fully merged with Dragon Sparrow's blade, separating the materials that gradually turned to molten iron in the flames.

The weapon spirit felt no pain, but began to weaken.

A sensation of power being drawn away—the twin-tailed girl's eyelids grew heavy, her form increasingly faint.

She knew she couldn't sleep; if she slept and woke again, she might no longer be herself, but a new blade spirit. She had to persevere, maintaining her will through the time when the blade was no longer a blade—this was also her cultivation, a process of rebirth.

This process was fused with her master's will. Zhao Changhe's "pure force" would unite with her at this moment, making the blade spirit part of her master's will, the blade an extension of his arm.

With the infusion of the void-breaking star iron, the power to shatter the void and the sharpness, the pride and arrogance to break all laws, the domineering and rebellious sense that all before her eyes were mere minnows—from man to blade, from blade to man, they became one.

Where was the little female sparrow? That personality was merely an honest reflection of Zhao Changhe himself... Combined with the aunts' various traits—tsundere, aloof, majestic, spirited, lazy, loyal—they had nurtured a shared spirit.

The twin-tailed girl's fading form gradually solidified, becoming as substantial as if it had a physical body. Meanwhile, Zhao Changhe, swinging the hammer, his arms bulging with sinewy muscles, felt a surging, unrivaled power raging within.