Tome of Troubled Times

Chapter 595: The So-Called Faith

At this moment, Zhao Changhe had no time to worry about the impact of the Tome of Troubled Times or the blind woman.

He was focused on stabilizing Lady Three’s precarious condition, though it did not appear very optimistic. The Sea Emperor’s confidence was justified. The trident that he had been using was likely some kind of divine weapon, and its damage was extreme. Physical protection alone was not enough.

It was not just her body that had been devastated by the power of the water element. The trident also carried a soul-extinguishing aspect. Lady Three’s soul sea was now incredibly fragile, like a candle flickering in the wind—gone was the carefree spirit of the big sister cradling a little one, replaced instead by a shadow of weakness, barely clinging to life.

The only reason her soul had not been utterly obliterated was that the trident was not actually specialized for soul annihilation. It merely carried a similar property, though obviously inferior to that of Dragon Soul Wood, and the fact that it struck her abdomen rather than chest or head also played a part. It showed that such items were not exactly unique, which was something to keep in mind for the future.

But a divine weapon was still a divine weapon, and it was not something Lady Three could endure at her level. Zhao Changhe could only keep her alive temporarily. He lacked the means to properly heal her, and he required something to aid in her treatment.

He pondered briefly, then raised his head to look at the nearby vortex.

The Sea Emperor had emerged from that vortex, and its powerful suction still lingered. Strangely enough, neither the surrounding seawater nor the stones were being pulled in. It seemed that the vortex only targeted living beings.

This was a secret realm, or perhaps it should be called the Abyss of the Sea God, because it likely was not a naturally formed secret realm but rather a fragmented space that the Sea Emperor had created with his divine power to escape the collapse of the previous era.

It was different from a typical secret realm, a key characteristic being that energy could pass through, meaning that it was not exactly an isolated space. The Sea Emperor had deliberately left this channel open to absorb the faith of the outside world, and once the channel had been opened, it had never been closed.

From this, one could glimpse how terrifying the Sea Emperor had been at his peak—a being capable of creating entire spaces by sheer force of his will... and yet, he had fallen to a group of “ants” gnawing at him.

Since the Sea Emperor had been able to recover rapidly within this space, perhaps they could use it now.

Zhao Changhe exchanged a glance with Xia Chichi, both confirming the other’s thoughts. Zhao Changhe lifted Lady Three and leaped into the vortex, while Xia Chichi collected the trident and the Soul of Water before following suit.

They descended deep into the ocean, perhaps all the way to the ocean floor.

Zhao Changhe’s usual boasts about diving to the seafloor and throwing punches were just that—boasts. He had not really been to the ocean’s true depths. If he had, he would not have been able to resurface quickly enough to chase after a ship. Diving ten zhang or so was more like it. But here, they truly had gone deep, with the vortex accelerating their descent.

At the bottom, they found themselves in a space made entirely of water.

The floor was water and the walls were water, yet it all provided solid footing. Stepping around felt like walking on jelly, firm but fluid, preventing them from sinking. The space was roughly the size of the temple above—about ten zhang across. This could even be considered as the true temple of the Sea Emperor.

There was no air. The entire space was filled with an inexplicable essence. This essence was intangible, possibly the power of faith.

Not diving in blindly to fight had been the right choice. While the space did not contain traps, it was clearly the Sea Emperor’s personal sanctuary for recovery. In such a place, the Sea Emperor could have grown stronger the longer the fight dragged on—maybe even recovered to the Profound Control Realm mid-battle. Meanwhile, they would have been severely handicapped—their usual combat instincts would have been restricted, and even their connection to the energy of heaven and earth would have been disrupted. There was also the risk of the space collapsing, potentially crushing them outright.

However, none of that mattered anymore. What mattered was that, at the center of the space, a page of the Heavenly Tome floated in the air.

This was the first time Zhao Changhe had obtained multiple pages of the Heavenly Tome consecutively...

The convenience of stealing someone else’s collection could not be understated. Otherwise, finding this page across the entirety of the vast ocean all on his own would have been close to impossible. The original location of this page of the Heavenly Tome would not have been here. The Sea Emperor had sensed it through his deep connection with the sea, as all the seas could be considered his domain. He had even found another page but had been unable to crack the Azure Dragon’s seal and enter—he had waited for ages, unable to proceed. In other words, if everything had gone as planned, the Sea Emperor would have ended up with two pages.

Everything had gone as planned, except it wasn’t the Sea Emperor’s plan.

Sometimes, Zhao Changhe wondered if taking pages from others was exactly what the blind woman had in mind. He was merely a tool to gather the Heavenly Tome’s pages. On the day he completed the collection, would that be when the blind woman turned on him?

Maybe that was why Xia Longyuan, after obtaining a page, had never bothered with the rest—he only used what he had, and that was enough. The blind woman must have been fuming at the time. The audacity and arrogance of Old Xia were beyond what anyone could predict.

Unlike Old Xia, Zhao Changhe did not have that kind of confidence. Perhaps it was also because, after losing control of Xia Longyuan, the blind woman’s subsequent plans were more meticulous. Maybe that was why she suppressed the Heavenly Tome’s power, preventing him from accessing its full potential? Ultimately, circumstances always seemed to push him forward—it was not even an option for him to not search for the other pages.

Without realizing it, he was already on his fifth page. He had already collected more than half.

This page, unsurprisingly, was tied to faith, fate, and karma—forces that seemed intangible yet were undeniably powerful.

Equally unsurprising, in the Sea Emperor’s hands, it must have been fully effective, and that was what had aided his recovery to such an extent. In Zhao Changhe’s hands, though, it felt far more elusive. Learning and understanding it would not happen overnight, and as for drawing power through it... there was nothing he could tap into yet.

Holding the page, Zhao Changhe silently vowed, “If you keep playing games with me, suppressing the Heavenly Tome’s full power, and Lady Three dies because of it... then congratulations—I won’t search for any other page. Even if I don’t die right away, I’m done looking.”

The blind woman sighed with a hint of exasperation. “The Sea Emperor was able to use it effectively because he truly understood and mastered the power of faith. That’s why the Heavenly Tome could fully manifest its power. You don’t understand any of it, so what can this page possibly give you?”

“I don’t care. You just need to tell me how to save Lady Three. I know you have a way.”

The blind woman wanted to say that Lady Three’s desperate act was to avenge her parents and had nothing to do with her. But she knew that Zhao Changhe saw the battle with the Sea Emperor and the search for the Heavenly Tome to be one intertwined ordeal, inseparable. Once Lady Three was safe, Zhao Changhe would calm down and realize it really had nothing to do with her. Given his straightforward nature of love and hate, he might even feel a tinge of guilt for his misplaced anger.

With that in mind, the blind woman made her decision. “Strictly speaking, this type of power is not meant for recovery—it’s not even necessarily better than your Rejuvenation Art. It’s the collective force of countless lives, bonded through faith, gathered into oneself. Essentially, it’s a method of enhancing one’s cultivation and power. The Sea Emperor’s soul was weakened, and this aggregation of faith helped him recover. The strongest effect is achieved through absorption or sacrifice—it’s especially effective on followers and members of his kind.”

Zhao Changhe nodded. “I understand the theory... But can it be used to help Lady Three?”

“The Sea God worshipped by the people at sea is not necessarily the Sea Emperor. They revere a god that embodies the power to control the seas. That could be the Sea Emperor, or it could be someone else—such as Lady Three,” said the blind woman. “Do you know why the Sea Emperor’s dying words were ‘the Soul of the Sea is yours’? Because he acknowledged Lady Three as worthy. He had nothing left to say to you, his killer, but he acknowledged her. It was, in a way, the Sea Emperor’s pride—that the Sea God could only be replaced by another Sea God.”

Zhao Changhe had no interest in the Sea Emperor’s pride. “If Lady Three absorbs the Soul of Water, could she take over this faith in the Sea God?”

The blind woman replied, “There would be some effect, but not much. After all, the followers have no specific image of her in their minds—there’s no connection between their faith and her. That’s why the Sea Emperor needed Hai Pinglan to establish temples and spread his image. But she has an advantage—she has another source of faith.”

Zhao Changhe shivered. “The faith in the four idols!”

“Exactly, especially the faith in the Black Tortoise. That faith resonates strongly with her. In the eyes of the people, she is the Black Tortoise, even more so since she recently ascended to the seventh rank on the Ranking of Heaven.”

“But the people have no concrete image of her either.”

“As long as they recognize her masked identity, that’s enough—she can be seen as an incarnation of the god,” explained the blind woman. “If you could perceive her aura, you’d see that the faith within her is quite solid, though limited in quantity. In a certain sense, she IS the Black Tortoise, formed by the people’s belief.”

Because people believed she was the Black Tortoise, she became the Black Tortoise... Pure idealism, yet strangely fitting here.

“So, you need to act on two fronts. First, help her absorb the Soul of Water and take on the faith in the Sea God, whatever amount she can, to compensate for the lack of followers. Second, learn some related techniques to help guide that power within her, and when she awakens, let her learn the rest. This energy will mainly help her soul remain intact, though when it comes to actual healing, I’d still say the Rejuvenation Art is more effective.”

Zhao Changhe was silent for a moment, then bowed respectfully. “Thank you.”

The blind woman paused, caught off guard, and remained silent.

Xia Chichi stared at Zhao Changhe bowing and expressing his gratitude toward an empty space, her face filled with shock. It’s over. Aunt-Master’s life or death is in the hands of fate, and now Changhe has lost his mind. What do we do?