Volume One: The Millennium Stream Chapter 52: The Reset of Time

Two female disciples of the Dongchen Sect cautiously approached the latrine, whispering, “Senior Sister Wen, has something happened?”

“No… nothing. I just saw a mouse earlier.”

“Oh, alright.” The disciples left.

Sun Zikai awkwardly covered his left cheek, while Wen Yiru pulled up her trousers, her face flushed crimson, and her hand even redder. She had slapped Sun Zikai, nearly splitting her own palm from the force.

Without saying a word, Wen Yiru lowered her head and walked away. Sun Zikai, feeling guilty, apologized, “I’m sorry, it’s my fault.”

Wen Yiru paused beside him, then turned and asked, “Does your face hurt?”

“No.”

“Then why are you covering it?”

“I… don’t know either.” Sun Zikai lowered his hand, and Wen Yiru walked on.

“Wait, can I borrow your bracelet for a moment? I need to find a way back.”

Wen Yiru replied softly, “Let’s talk somewhere else.”

Sun Zikai trailed behind her out of the latrine and into a room. The black cat happily ran to him and jumped onto his shoulder.

This was, in effect, Sun Zikai’s first proper entry into a girl’s boudoir—Yang Youshi and Jiang Yujin were considered his housemates.

Wen Yiru and Jiang Yujin had been childhood confidantes, but their temperaments differed greatly. Jiang Yujin, a princess, was raised with the strict customs of the royal family, bound mostly by traditions toward her clan and ancestors. No one dared criticize her, so she carried herself with ease, often breaking free from rigid rules. Because she lived at a high level, she was unversed in ordinary human relations and expressed whatever she wished openly among close friends.

Jiang Yujin also bore the spirit of a commoner’s ruler; she was willing to mingle with ordinary people, walking barefoot in the mud under the sun, yet remained untainted within.

By contrast, Wen Yiru was the daughter of a powerful vassal lord. From the moment she could remember, she was taught endless rules—how to behave toward superiors and inferiors alike. Sent to accompany Jiang Yujin, she could not act at will. Bound by strict codes and rituals, she was deeply entrenched in them. Whether in speech or action, she was more measured, always considering consequences before speaking or moving, adept at navigating social relations.

Just look at her boudoir—it was far from simple. Tables, chairs, cabinets, bronze mirrors, silk brocade, ink stones, summer fans, fur racks, wash basins, ceiling beams, drums, and ornamental stones—all unfamiliar to Sun Zikai, yet each perfectly placed.

She remained the daughter of a powerful lord; two maids stood silently in the room, staring wide-eyed at Sun Zikai, unsure what to do. Wen Yiru whispered, “You two wait behind the side curtains.”

The maids replied and hurriedly retreated behind the white curtains.

Sun Zikai shrank his limbs, instinctively feeling the weight of social hierarchy, suddenly uneasy as if facing a noble lady. He felt awkward sitting or standing, unsure of what to do.

Wen Yiru remained calm, but her tranquility was different from the easygoing manner of Sun Zikai and Jiang Yujin. Standing before him, she seemed like a distant peak of a towering snowy mountain—unreachable.

She sat at the table and said, “Please sit.”

Sun Zikai sat down and quickly said, “I just want to borrow your item for a moment because…” He glanced nervously at the maids, hoping they would leave.

Wen Yiru whispered, “The maids here don’t understand proper etiquette and have no real allegiance. If they leave, it would ruin my reputation.”

Sun Zikai had no concept of such matters but quickly grasped her meaning. He lowered his voice again, “May I borrow your bracelet to take a look?”

He subtly pointed at the jade bracelet on Wen Yiru’s wrist. Wen Yiru glanced at the white curtains; the two maids were indeed eavesdropping—truly lacking in manners.

Turning, she took a sword from the ceiling beam, wiped it with a handkerchief, slipped the bracelet onto the hilt, and handed it to Sun Zikai. “This sword belonged to my father. Look quickly and handle it gently.”

“Alright, thank you.” Sun Zikai pretended to examine the sword while secretly activating his technique to reverse-engineer the spatial magic sealed within the bracelet. Indeed, it contained four domains; the first three were identical, and the fourth was a precise symmetrical counterpart to the energy structure of Jiang Yujin’s bracelet. He memorized the patterns.

“What a fine sword! Thank you!” Sun Zikai returned the sword and rose to leave, feeling the pressure unbearable—he just wanted to escape quickly.

Wen Yiru saw him off silently, saying nothing. Sun Zikai sensed her anger; he knew that seeing her in such a state was a profound insult to her.

He slipped out quietly and quickly returned to the latrine, unwilling to roam openly in the Dongchen Sect—that would be courting death.

He began constructing spatial magic with energy threads but soon realized that building space magic on tiny jade bracelets and wooden plaques was nearly impossible. After many failed attempts, it felt like trying to build a house of sand on sand—he needed “water,” and the sand at least needed a “foundation.” Each complex energy structure was easy to weave alone, but combining two or more in an orderly fashion seemed impossible. He had to create a “baseplate” and then attach the elements one by one.

He noticed a nearby paper basket containing two types of paper—soft and hard. The soft one was probably used by Wen Yiru.

He picked up a sheet of hard yellow paper, feeling its rough texture. No wonder Wen Yiru and Jiang Yujin avoided this paper—they had been pampered and never endured such hardship.

Yet this long yellow strip inspired Sun Zikai. He decided to inscribe the invisible spatial magic onto this small yellow paper.

Divided into four regions, he roughly poured the special energy structures into the corresponding areas according to memory. The “spoon” was just a “spoon.” Finally, he used energy flows to connect the third region with all others.

The process took him three hours. He feared Wen Yiru would come again to reprimand him. When he finished roughly arranging hundreds of thousands of energy structures, the world’s first spatial talisman paper was born. Perhaps due to carelessness, a line of black marks appeared on it.

He didn’t have time to worry. The stench in the latrine was unbearable. Using energy, he constructed his bloodline’s meridians, touched the talisman paper, and moments later, instantly returned to his room.

Sun Zikai sighed in relief—he had succeeded. But when he looked up, he saw Jiang Yujin sitting opposite.

Jiang Yujin immediately guessed the cause of Sun Zikai’s sudden appearance but didn’t react with surprise. Instead, she covered her nose and asked, “You didn’t actually teleport to the latrine, did you?”

Sun Zikai laughed and embraced Jiang Yujin excitedly. “It really worked!”

“Let go! You stink!”

They sat at the table. Sun Zikai returned the jade bracelet and re-bonded it to Jiang Yujin.

Jiang Yujin now believed Sun Zikai capable of anything in the world, so she showed little astonishment.

“When I teleported, it was very fast. To you, it seemed instantaneous, but I truly experienced the process. So I think reality and the teleportation process have a time lag. I also believe time is a form of space. When I travel through space, I’m also traveling through time,” Sun Zikai said earnestly. Jiang Yujin listened attentively.

Sun Zikai then asked, puzzled, “Don’t you find what I said incredible?”

Jiang Yujin shook her head calmly. “You’ve done everything you said before; I’m used to it.” Stretching, she added, “I had free time this morning and came early, but you weren’t here. I waited until now, thinking you must be up to something.”

“Well… that’s true, but even I find it strange,” Sun Zikai waved his hand. “Forget it, time is just a fool’s dream—impossible.”

He continued, “When I teleported, I moved through spatial magic, so the jade bracelet and talisman paper didn’t follow me. As long as the talisman paper remains in Dongchen Sect, I can travel anytime. Though it’s possible I could end up near Wen Yiru, which would be terrible.”

Sun Zikai stopped abruptly. Jiang Yujin had vanished suddenly, and he immediately noticed changes in temperature, sunlight, and humidity. A bad thought struck him—could Cui Qingrui and the others have tampered with things during the past three hours?

He panicked slightly and sensed the energy and vitality around him. At that moment, someone pushed open the door. It was Jiang Yujin, and outside, the sky was a grayish blue.

Jiang Yujin entered and asked, “How did it go? Any results?”

Sun Zikai was momentarily stunned but composed himself. At that moment, the sound of the evening bell sounded outside. He counted the number of strikes.

Jiang Yujin sat at the table and asked, “Why are you silent?”

Sun Zikai confirmed no other energy or life signs were present and fell into deep thought. He could see through living beings’ vitality; no one could impersonate Jiang Yujin. It wasn’t an illusion either, as no residual spiritual energy remained in the room. Illusions were merely legends in this land.

Eliminating all impossibilities left only one, however absurd.

Sun Zikai smiled wryly. “I failed. I can’t teleport. I don’t understand spatial magic at all.”

Jiang Yujin wasn’t surprised. If he could do such things, he’d have ascended to godhood by now. She comforted him, “You’ve already gained a tremendous opportunity. Don’t be greedy. Focus on cultivation.”

Sun Zikai agreed and returned the jade bracelet, now shared by Jiang Yujin and himself.

After cultivating the Water Spirit Method with Jiang Yujin for an hour, they parted ways.

Once Jiang Yujin left, Sun Zikai fell into deep thought again. He realized he had just traveled through time.

Or rather, time had passed through him. Both outcomes he experienced had actually occurred, but clearly, the first ending had been erased by time. He had traveled back to around the moment he first appeared in Dongchen Sect, altering history—he never went to Wen Yiru’s latrine or inscribed the talisman paper; none of it had happened. Outside, the rooster’s crow sounded—three hours earlier at dawn. Fear gripped him.

Was this a warning? A warning from the Time Deity?

Everything he had experienced was erased, but only he remembered it.

Yet his fear quickly dissipated as he began analyzing the cause. First, he needed to conduct an experiment. He took a sheet of hard yellow paper and started inscribing the spatial magic from Jiang Yujin’s bracelet.

Perhaps due to experience or mental focus, he completed it in an hour and teleported again.

In the Dongchen Sect’s Scripture Pavilion, Wen Yiru was selecting magic techniques, her mood pleasant. Suddenly, the black cat cried out excitedly.

Wen Yiru looked up and saw a familiar silhouette turning a corner. She was startled, then thought it impossible. But the cat dashed forward.

Wen Yiru put down her book and hurried after, though she could never catch him. She thought she must be mistaken. Yet when she turned, Sun Zikai was there, holding the black cat and smiling at her.

A strange look passed over Wen Yiru’s brows and eyes. She approached quickly and whispered, “What are you doing here? How did you get in?”

Sun Zikai lowered his voice, “I look ordinary; no one recognized me in the crowd.”

“What are you here for?”

“To see you.”

“Stop talking nonsense.” Wen Yiru was not easily fooled.

But Sun Zikai was telling the truth. She was his experimental subject. After some small talk, he bade a quick farewell and slipped to a secluded corner of the Scripture Pavilion. There, he began inscribing the spatial magic from Wen Yiru’s bracelet onto yellow paper. This time, it took two hours. Upon completion, he instantly teleported back to Ansheng Residence.

After waiting a long time at the table, he stood and used the first talisman paper to teleport back to the Scripture Pavilion. Wen Yiru was still on the fourth floor studying magic. Though surprised by Sun Zikai’s earlier appearance, it hadn’t disturbed her thoughts. But now, she seemed to glimpse his silhouette again, though this time she did not meet him.

The experiment was complete. Sun Zikai did not experience a second erasure of time, meaning his actions had not disturbed or angered any forces. The only possibility was that he should never reveal the results of his spatial magic insights to anyone—this might touch upon a higher or very high level of the Dao.

He could not understand why, but henceforth, he would no longer tell Jiang Yujin everything. Using the talisman paper, he returned once more to Ansheng Residence.