Tome of Troubled Times-Chapter 776 (2): The Wager Between the Ye Sisters

Normally, history was recorded only after a battle was fully concluded. But instead, the blind woman had preemptively broadcast the outcome of the battle at Yanmen to the entire world.

And her only purpose? To stabilize Zhao Changhe’s army’s morale.

And she still had the audacity to claim that he isn’t her man? At this point, whose side she’s on could not be more obvious. Is this what you call not interfering in mortal struggles?

Facing Jiuyou’s peculiar gaze, the blind woman remained as tranquil as a passing breeze, acting as if she had not noticed at all. Instead, she smiled and asked lightly, “Ah, my apologies. What were you asking just now? Something about Desolate Calamity?”

Jiuyou’s expression remained blank.

The blind woman continued, her tone playful, “Actually, I do involve myself in worldly struggles. As the sovereign, I have ordered that mortal emperors may only be of the lineage of my Azure Dragons, and that remains true today.”

Jiuyou chuckled. “It’s been a while since I’ve heard you call yourself a sovereign. It sounds... oddly ironic now. You’ve become nothing more than a book, and I wipe my ass with a page of it every day. It’s practically like wiping my ass on your face.”

Jiuyou had expected the blind woman to explode in fury at that. But instead, there was nothing. There was no change in her expression, nor did she even show any irritation. Still smiling, the blind woman responded calmly, “As for Desolate Calamity and his recovery? I wouldn’t know. But what I do know is that the battle in Jinbei has ended, and everyone is aware of it. Oh, and Hidden Wind is fleeing south. He’ll be passing nearby soon. It seems... he has no intention of coming to see you?”

Jiuyou smiled faintly and said, “He wouldn’t dare. He will find his own way to atone for his failure.”

The blind woman chuckled. “Then shall we just stay here and watch how their fates unfold?”

“Why not?”

“Standing around like this is dull, though. How about we place a bet?”

“Hmm? The outcome of this war doesn’t particularly concern me. Why would I bet on something so meaningless?”

The blind woman spoke languidly, “I know the war itself isn’t what interests you. You only want to spread chaos, to disrupt the very heart of the world... Oh, or perhaps there’s something more specific you desire within the Tngri Temple. Of course, my wager has nothing to do with the war’s outcome. I’m betting that everything you seek—every single scheme you’ve set in motion—will ultimately fail. Whether it’s the chaos you’ve tried to stir across the world or the battle within the temple, you’ll gain nothing in the end. Do you believe that?”

Jiuyou’s eyes turned cold, yet amusement flickered within. “Of course not. Even if most of my plans fail, some will surely succeed.”

“Then we have a bet, don’t we?” said the blind woman with a smile. “If everything you’ve schemed falls apart, what will you wager?”

For the first time, something shifted in Jiuyou’s gaze. She chuckled. “If that happens, I’ll give you the Mirror of Illusion and Reality. I know you want it as well.”

Then, her tone turned to one of teasing. “But if even one of my plans succeeds? What will you give me? Your man?”

The blind woman ignored the comment entirely, her tone remaining indifferent. “How about the page of life?”

Jiuyou’s eyes flickered, her gaze sharpening. “And if I desire the entirety of the Heavenly Tome?”

For a moment, the blind woman’s eyelids trembled, as though she might finally open her eyes.

But she suppressed the urge, and instead just exhaled deeply, as if in disappointment. “You’ve always sought to replace me... yet you fail to understand that this is not something to be coveted.”

Jiuyou stared at her face and said nothing in reply.

The blind woman sighed. “If you insist on making this wager, so be it. But don’t come crying when you regret it.”

Jiuyou let out a dry chuckle but refrained from commenting.

The blind woman tilted her head and said, “And if someone loses the bet but refuses to honor it?”

Jiuyou pointed at the sky. “Once the threads of karma are set in motion, the debt must be paid. If you’re trying to trap me with such words, then know that you are trapping yourself as well.”

“Then so be it,” the blind woman said lightly. “The matter of Jinbei shall be the first round. We shall watch and see.”

* * *

Bang!

Hidden Wind slammed headfirst into a golden barrier, the impact leaving him dazed and disoriented, his vision spinning. He nearly coughed up his own bile.

He knew exactly where Jiuyou was. And he would not dare go near that terrifying woman. Despite how harmless she seemed when conversing with the blind woman, even coming off as somewhat playful in her exchanges with Zhao Changhe, that was only because of the blind woman. To everyone else, Jiuyou was an unfathomably dreadful demon lord.

If nothing else, it only proved that the blind woman operated on a level so high that even Jiuyou had never imagined such an interaction with her could ever occur.

But right now, none of that mattered. As Jiuyou had anticipated, Hidden Wind was trying to find another way to redeem himself. His plan? Skirt south and cause chaos elsewhere. If he could successfully disrupt a major city, it would at least serve Jiuyou’s grander objectives.

So, he made his move, swooping toward Xiangyang like a rushing gale.

Unfortunately for him, he only ended up crashing headfirst into a radiant golden barrier before he even reached the ground.

Groaning, he clutched his forehead with one hand and his still-bleeding chest wound, which was the doing of Tang Wanzhuang’s sword qi, with the other. In disbelief, he raised his head and looked up. Floating in the air before him was Yuan Cheng, accompanied by a resplendent, golden Buddha. The old monk lifted an enormous staff and, without a moment’s hesitation, swung it straight down upon Hidden Wind’s head. “Do you take the Buddhist sects for a joke?!”

The monk alone might not have been a serious threat, but the Profound Control Realm aura emanating from the Vajra Buddha beside him sent terror coursing through Hidden Wind’s already battered body.

Wasn’t this Buddha supposed to have been crippled? Why does it look so... alive?

Its eyes, once dull and empty, now gleamed with divine clarity.

There was no time to think.

In his current, wretched state, Hidden Wind had zero interest in engaging with a Profound Control Realm opponent. Summoning what little strength he had left, he bolted, using his speed to flee once more.

Behind him, the old monk and Yuan Cheng pursued with relentless vigor, a staff whistling through the air. Hidden Wind did not dare stop for even a second as he fled southwest—toward Xiangxi.

This was a place where Jiuyou had already made some arrangements. Perhaps, there were forces there that could still make a difference? Or at the very least, it was somewhere he could hide and recover. If the old monk kept chasing him, maybe someone there could buy him time.

The blind woman watched all this unfold with a lighthearted smile. She raised two delicate fingers, her jade-like skin nearly luminous in the night. “That makes two.”

Saying that “someone” was in the southwest would be an optimistic way to put it. Because in Xiangxi, there were not any people. Only... the dead.

The wilderness howled with eerie winds.

An endless tide of yin corpses surged westward, their numbers stretching as far as the eye could see.

And leading the horde was a familiar figure. His shoulder bore a deep, glowing arrow wound, its golden radiance still flickering as it slowly ate away at his decaying body. It was an injury that refused to fade, a scar left by none other than the Dragon Soul Bow... He had once been the Underworld Guide, slain by Zhao Changhe’s arrow.

Now, he was nothing but a corpse puppet, his intelligence long since erased. Only the faintest remnants of his soul had been forcefully preserved by Jiuyou, keeping just enough of his former self intact to command the dead.

And now, leading an army of yin corpses, he was marching forth once more from the hidden depths of Xiangxi, back toward Miaojiang.

The Queen of Dali, Xiang Simeng, had recently unified Miaojiang.

But Miaojiang was vast. Even in such a short time, there was no way she could have extended her full control over the eastern borderlands, and, in all fairness, she had no reason to. Besides, rumor had it she was still preoccupied with military pressure against Bashu.

Once the undead army of yin corpses suddenly descended upon Miaojiang, chaos would be inevitable. If they could capture Xiang Simeng alive and seize the ancestral land of the Spirit Tribe, there was still much to be accomplished there.

A cold, flickering flame danced in Underworld Guide’s hollow eyes.

Deep within the remnants of his shattered consciousness, one final obsession remained—revenge... He would tear apart those Spirit Tribe bastards limb by limb. Even now, he could already picture Xiang Simeng’s face—her flawless visage drained of color, her expression frozen in terror at the sight of an army of the dead marching upon her.

“Kekeke...” A twisted, unconscious chuckle rasped from his rotting throat.

Rustle!

Birds in the dense forest suddenly took flight, startled into the sky.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

A barrage of arrows tore through the air, emerging from the shadows of the trees. Their arrowheads gleamed with a strange, ghostly blue light, shimmering ominously under the moon.

Underworld Guide’s sluggish mind failed to react in time. Before he could even comprehend what was happening, the undead soldiers beside him were riddled with arrows.

Low, guttural groans filled the air as they staggered, limbs convulsing before collapsing lifelessly to the ground.

Bodies harder than steel, impervious to mortal weapons, now fell like rotting fruit, far more fragile than even a living human.

Underworld Guide spun around in horror, and then he saw them. From the dense jungle, countless figures emerged—warriors, hunters, and shamans, their outlines barely visible in the moonlight. And they had not come alone. The deep, guttural snarls of wild beasts rumbled in the darkness.

There were wolves, tigers, leopards, and an entire menagerie of ferocious predators, all moving as one. Above, birds of prey circled, their piercing cries slicing through the night. And on the ground, A massive Blood Ao stomped forward, its colossal limbs shaking the very earth beneath it.

The full might of Miaojiang had gathered here.

In his mind, Underworld Guide had imagined a pale-faced Xiang Simeng, trembling in fear at his army’s arrival. But what he saw instead was a woman standing calmly atop the Blood Ao’s massive shell. She wore a short tribal skirt, her bare feet were planted firmly onto the hard shell, and her cold gaze was locked onto him with chilling precision. Moonlight shimmered off the bone dagger in her hand, its blade glowing with the same eerie blue light as the arrows that had just felled his army like grass.

Underworld Guide’s decayed mind ground to a halt. Sisi smiled sweetly. “I wonder. When I speak right now, is it you who hears me? Or is it Jiuyou...? Well, I guess it doesn’t matter. I only need to say one thing.”

“My master has already glimpsed the secrets of life and death. Long before today, he devised a way to counter yin corpses. Right now, you are nothing more than fodder in our eyes.”

Far away, across thousands of li, Jiuyou’s expression darkened. She had not expected Miaojiang to be prepared for this.

The blind woman smiled and raised three fingers. “That makes three.”

In the blind woman’s eyes, the entire landscape of the world stretched out before her. An intricate web of countless threads, a vast chessboard woven from the fabric of fate itself.

But she was merely an observer; the hand that had placed the pieces upon the board was not hers. Each line and each outcome converged upon a single point. All of them led to the Mongolian Grasslands, where a lone light cavalry force was charging across the plains.

Riding at their lead was none other than Zhao Changhe.