Love Travels through Time (My father who traveled through time and space to cultivate immortality came back to pick me up) - Chapter 89
Chapter 89: The Choice
It was over.
The moment Xiang Haikui regained her composure and stole a glance at the slight curve of Yin Changli’s lips, she knew the Blood Asura was completely done for.
She had felt sorry for him just a moment ago, but now she realized he truly had a knack for finding creative ways to court death.
“Little Kui, you saw it too. I wasn’t wrong, was I?” Yin Changli adjusted the scale near his temple and said faintly, “If he had shown even an ounce of self-awareness over these past years, he wouldn’t be trapped by his inner demons.”
“You two go ahead and talk. Pretend I’m not here—no need to be polite with me.”
The Blood Asura raised an eyebrow smugly and continued playing his suona.
Unless the two of them retreated to a room and set up a soundproofing barrier, they had no hope of shaking him off.
Yet, in the middle of the night, Xiang Haikui wouldn’t enter the same room with him and lock the door shut.
Earlier in the carriage, whenever Yin Changli leaned toward her, she had reflexively dodged away, maintaining a certain distance from him, and constantly lifted the window curtain to breathe fresh air.
It was as if she had some sort of psychological barrier, unwilling to share a closed, confined space with Yin Changli.
The Blood Asura pondered: their experience with dual cultivation must not have been pleasant for Xiang Haikui at all—it might have even left her traumatized.
The tune the Blood Asura was playing sounded eerie and ghastly.
It felt like an eerie wind rising out of nowhere, making the hairs on Xiang Haikui’s skin stand on end.
Under these circumstances, Yin Changli wouldn’t continue his story.
His mind now was undoubtedly set entirely on dealing with the Blood Asura.
She prepared to head back to her room to sleep.
“I’ll go first…”
Yin Changli sent a voice transmission: “Where were we just now? Oh, right—we were talking about the Four Clans of Deities, the strongest in the neighboring Three Thousand Worlds…”*
Xiang Haikui had just shifted her hips, preparing to rise from the stone bench, but upon hearing this, she sat back down.
Yin Changli continued unhurriedly, “The Four Clans of Deities each have their own duties: the Heavenly Maidens are the leaders, the Heavenly Artisans are the artisans, the Heavenly Spirits are the brains, and the Heavenly Martials are the soldiers.”
“Back then, that big shot from the neighboring Three Thousand Worlds gifted many treasures besides a few divine swords. Among them was a Heavenly Martial Divine Stone, nurtured and cultivated with the essence and blood of the Heavenly Martial…”
These warriors, hailed as the Children of God and born to be brave and skilled in battle, had no tradition of burial in the earth.
When their lifespans neared an end, they would enter a designated cave in advance.
There, they would dissolve themselves, completely turning into nutrients to nourish the ley lines.
Over time, an ore possessing the divine power of the Heavenly Martials would form within the ley lines, named the Heavenly Martial Divine Stone.
Every few thousand years, the Heavenly Martials would mine the mature ores and hand them over to the Heavenly Artisan to forge divine weapons, which were used to protect the Four Clans of Deities and maintain the stability of the Three Thousand Worlds.
Yin Changli added, “They are an admirable race, a completely different concept from the Celestial Clan of our world.”
Xiang Haikui listened attentively, nearly forgetting the sound of the suona.
Yin Changli continued, “The Heavenly Martial Divine Stone brought by that big shot was known as the Stone King—the absolute finest in quality among all divine stones. It was extraordinarily rare for even a single piece to be produced. Divine weapons forged from a Stone King were fit to be wielded only by the absolute strongest of each generation among the Heavenly Martial Divine Stones.”
Xiang Haikui said hurriedly, “You see? And you still claim they weren’t here to offer aid?”
Even if that big shot felt guilty for dumping those troublesome swords here and wanted to compensate, they wouldn’t have handed over a treasure of this magnitude out of mere guilt, would they?
Yin Changli smiled faintly and said, “Yet to our world, this Heavenly Martial Divine Stone Divine Stone was nothing more than a piece of scrap metal.”
Xiang Haikui frowned.
“How so?”
Yin Changli replied, “Even the greatest weapon artisan of our era was unable to melt and forge the divine stone.”
Xiang Haikui was speechless.
“Later on, Shuluoye and I finally found a way to smelt it.”
Mentioning this, Yin Changli’s eyes dimmed slightly.
“However, had it not been for smelting it, Shuluoye wouldn’t have lost most of his vital energy and spirit, ultimately dying at the hands of the Emperor.”
So this stone had ended up in the hands of Little Bai’s biological father after all. Xiang Haikui pondered briefly and suddenly understood.
That divine artifact that made the Emperor so deeply apprehensive must have been crafted from the Heavenly Martial Divine Stone.
“Senior, does this matter have anything to do with my father being able to see visions of the other world? If it’s unrelated, please… you don’t need to say more…”
Xiang Haikui’s expression grew increasingly grave.
The matter regarding the divine artifact was a secret Yin Changli had kept guarded all along.
It was a secret that the Emperor and Han Qi had exhausted every scheme to obtain.
“It is related.”
Yin Changli sat up straight, gazing at her quietly.
His gaze was obscure and unreadable, and a string inside Xiang Haikui’s mind seemed to tighten more and more.
He remained silent for a long time.
Her tension was suffocating.
Yet Yin Changli rubbed his temples wearisomely and turned his eyes toward the Blood Asura.
“Are you planning to keep playing for as long as the two of us talk?”
The Blood Asura thought to himself, So you finally can’t stand it anymore, nodding as he continued to blow the horn.
Yin Changli put on a thoroughly exasperated look.
“Little Kui, let’s talk tomorrow instead. Mentioning my late friend Shuluoye has put me in a bad mood, and I can’t quiet my mind. The sound of the suona is only making me more irritable.”
Wait, don’t! At such a critical juncture, why hit me with a ‘to be continued’?
Earlier, Xiang Haikui could have endured waiting until tomorrow, but now it was completely impossible.
“Senior, have you no end to this?!”
She glared angrily at the Blood Asura, finding him more displeasing the more she looked at him, thinking to herself: Serves you right for getting bullied by Yin Changli!
She stood up while grabbing Yin Changli’s sleeve.
“Let’s go! We’re talking in my room. Once the soundproofing barrier is activated, let him blow all he wants—if he doesn’t blow until the two of us come out, he’s a coward!”
Yin Changli was pulled and dragged out of the pavilion by her.
As he entered Xiang Haikui’s room, he turned his head and curled his lips toward the Blood Asura on the wall, mouthing: “Thank you. One small step for you, one giant leap for me.”
The Blood Asura was rendered speechless.
What was going on? Instead of being a stumbling block, had he ended up becoming a stepping stone?
…
Inside the room.
Xiang Haikui picked up the oil lamp on the cabinet under the window and placed it on the table.
She and Yin Changli sat face to face across the table.
In Jinling, land was as precious as gold, and the rooms in the post station courtyard were limited in size. Once all the door barriers were locked tight, the room fell dead silent, making her breathing grow somewhat hurried.
The Blood Asura hadn’t been mistaken—she genuinely had a bit of an aversion to sharing a small, enclosed space with Yin Changli.
In the dream of the future foretold by the Destiny Brush, she had been pressed into bathwater and suffocated to death.
She feared suffocation above all else.
Because of this, she naturally harbored a resistance toward small, confined spaces.
Furthermore, on the night of their dual cultivation inside the tree hollow, Yin Changli had nearly choked her to death.
Even though he had long explained that it wasn’t intentional, the feeling of suffocation had been entirely real.
Yin Changli understood this clearly in his heart.
Looking at her across the dim candlelight, he saw her hands resting on the tabletop, constantly cracking her knuckles.
He wanted to reach out, take her hand, and take another step forward.
After hesitating for a long time, that restless hand ultimately turned to prop up his chin instead.
His other hand pulled out a hairpin to trim the wick, making the room a bit brighter.
Yin Changli spoke first.
“Little Kui, didn’t you say earlier that you wanted to learn the skill of identifying ores from me?”
“Mm-hmm.”
At his mention, Xiang Haikui remembered that because the Blood Asura had barged in halfway, he hadn’t agreed yet.
Yin Changli let out a troubled sigh.
“Ah… I am naturally willing to, but I suddenly remembered that when the time comes, you’ll have to follow me burrowing underground in barren mountains—pitch-black and airtight. You…”
“I can do it! I have no problem with that!”
Xiang Haikui interrupted hastily.
Thinking back on her path of mad intent, how many times had she smashed mountains with her dragon head?
If this iron head she had forged wasn’t used for burrowing into the earth to mine ores, it would be utterly meaningless.
Thinking this way, her breathing instantly smoothed out, and her whole body surged with energy!
Yin Changli couldn’t help but laugh, nodding.
“Alright, I’ll teach you when we have time.”
Xiang Haikui quickly accepted, almost blurting out, “Thank you, big boss!”
Having cheered up, she urged him, “Now that no one is interrupting us, please continue—why does that Heavenly Martial Divine Stone have anything to do with my dad being able to see the other world?”
Yin Changli fell into a brief silence. Gazing at the fire before him, his eyes gradually lost focus.
“This must begin from when I sneaked into the Underworld to kill Que Chi, only to be stopped by Shuluoye…”
When the Shanhai Clan was defeated and Shuluoye was stripped of his position as Crown Prince of the Celestial Clan, Yin Changli was still just a youth.
Separated by a vast gap in age and experience, the reason they were able to become close friends was that Shuluoye had chosen Yin Changli first.
Back then, no matter if it was ability or vision, Yin Changli was still far too inexperienced, yet he possessed one advantage that Shuluoye desperately needed.
He was proficient in “ores.”
A destitute “Shanhai untouchable,” he had accumulated a massive fortune in a short time purely by mining.
Shuluoye wanted to forge a weapon, and was currently researching that Heavenly Martial Divine Stone from the other realm.
After assessing Yin Changli’s character, he decided to reach out to him.
He roped him into serving in the Underworld, making him one of the Twelve Palace Masters.
After centuries of testing and observing, once he confirmed that Yin Changli was a kindred spirit, Shuluoye finally brought out the Heavenly Martial Divine Stone…
…
“Changli, this is the Heavenly Martial Divine Stone.”
Shuluoye opened the lid of the treasure box in his hands.
It was only a palm-sized box, containing a fist-sized black stone inside—utterly ordinary and completely unimposing.
“I want to use it to forge a divine artifact.”
Shuluoye looked up at the dark crimson sky of the Underworld.
Yin Changli sized up the divine stone.
“To use against the Emperor?”
In his earlier years, Shuluoye had constantly been experimenting with how to strip away his own Inspiration, and his Inspiration strength was no longer equal to his younger brother’s.
Shuluoye shook his head.
“That would be far too wasteful.”
Yin Changli asked, “Then what for?”
The gaze Shuluoye directed at the sky gradually grew distant.
“The Three Realms are in complete turmoil, and that is a grave sin of our Celestial Clan. Yet the fact that our Celestial Clan has become like this isn’t entirely the fault of Inspiration. Although Inspiration grant us freedom from desires, a lack of desires should mean asking for nothing, rather than being cold-blooded, bloodthirsty, self-important, and arrogant.”
At first, the Celestial Clan was not like this.
Living in the Upper Realm, they focused on their cultivation while maintaining order in the mortal realm and the Underworld.
Yet starting from who-knows-when, the Celestial Clan grew increasingly arrogant, viewing themselves as noble beings and believing they were the incarnations of gods.
By his great-grandfather’s generation of Emperors, they began dividing all species into rigid social ranks, declaring the Celestial Clan as first-rate.
His grandfather’s generation plundered resources everywhere, suppressing all other clans.
During his father’s time, they began stirring up wars.
His younger brother, the new Emperor, was even more absurd—wiping out and massacring entire clans simply because they displeased him.
“Over time, this mindset has seeped deep into the bones of every single member of the Celestial Clan…” Shuluoye lowered his head and sighed softly.
“That senior who came to this world from the neighboring realm mentioned a phrase in his notes called ‘Yelang’s parochial conceit.’ I feel our Celestial Clan is just like Yelang—our downfall is only a matter of time.”
(T/N: “Yelang’s parochial conceit” refers to extreme, ignorant arrogance born from isolation—believing one’s small, limited world is vast and superior simply because one knows nothing beyond its narrow borders.)
Yin Changli took the Heavenly Martial Divine Stone out of the box and held it in his palm.
“Alright, where did all these sentimental thoughts come from? Speak of the main point—what kind of divine artifact do you want to forge?”
Shuluoye said, “I want to craft a divine arrow capable of piercing through the spatial world barriers and carving out a spatial tunnel between us and the other realm. The Heavenly Martial Divine Stone comes from the neighboring Three Thousand Worlds. Once it enters the void, it should be drawn back toward its ‘place of origin,’ making it most likely to connect us with the neighboring Three Thousand Worlds.”
The flow of time was different on both sides, but once connected, through a long period of convergence, the time gap would shrink smaller and smaller until it became identical.
Yin Changli was slightly astonished.
“You want to merge our world into the Three Thousand Worlds and make it one of the Three Thousand Great Worlds?”
Hearing this part, Xiang Haikui was so shocked that she sat straight up.
So the divine artifact was actually an arrow that could open a spatial tunnel between two worlds.
Xiang Haikui didn’t think too deeply into it, but based on what Yin Changli implied, their world was behind compared to the Three Thousand Worlds. Merging into the Three Thousand Worlds was equivalent to joining an international organization and ending their isolation—the benefits far outweighed the drawbacks.
At the very least, it would prevent the Celestial Clan from remaining frogs at the bottom of a well, acting mindlessly arrogant.
She recalled something and asked, “You’re placing your hopes for peace on Little Bai now, constantly saying the divine artifact isn’t ready yet… Did something go wrong with the divine artifact?”
“It isn’t that something went wrong with the divine artifact, but that Shuluoye hesitated.”
Yin Changli touched his earlobe.
“This matter was of immense gravity, with obvious pros and cons and massive risks involved. In the end, Shuluoye decided to leave the choice to Heavenly Dao—whether to remain tucked away in a corner, or to integrate with the Great Worlds.”
Xiang Haikui didn’t understand.
“Leave the choice to Heavenly Dao?”
Could it be drawing straws?
Or rolling dice?
Yin Changli said, “He instructed me that once the arrow was fully forged, I was to throw it into the Mirror of Reincarnation and let it enter the cycle of rebirth. Something that doesn’t belong to our world should have returned to the neighboring realm; if it never returned, it meant Heavenly Dao forbade it. But if Heavenly Dao permitted it, then after all its twists and turns, it would surely return…”
