Tome of Troubled Times
Chapter 813 (2): Time and Karma

Chapter 813 (2): Time and Karma

The scene shifted again.

The seated Ye Jiuyou slowly rose to her feet, her steps light as she walked toward the heart of the darkness as if she were treading on lotus flowers. There, amid the shadows, lay what looked like a still, silent pool of water. With each step, her delicate hand waved gently, and every dark creature was barred from drawing near. Her presence, even without violence, bent the abyss to her will.

She kept walking. And then, the sheer black veil she wore slid from her shoulders, falling away without a sound. Her snowy-white body stood stark against the pitch-dark backdrop, a glaring contrast.

Zhao Changhe: “?”

What the hell are you doing?!

Why, when I’m clearly trying to follow an important karmic thread, do I end up seeing you taking a fucking bath? This doesn’t make any sense! She’s lived through an entire world era. Who knows how many millennia she’s been through? Am I really going to be tracing through all of that? How much am I going to end up having to watch? Come on, girl, you’re one of the top demon gods. Do you even need to bathe?!

“Dark Oblivion,” Ye Jiuyou suddenly murmured.

A thousand li away, Dark Oblivion dropped to his knees. “What are your orders, Mistress?”

“Any news on the Mirror of Illusion and Reality?”

“There’s a lead. It’s believed to be in the hands of Papiyas.”

“And where is Papiyas?”

“We do not know yet. We think he’s posing as a Buddha on Mount Ling.”

“Don’t give me speculation. I want concrete intel. Keep searching. The Mirror of Illusion and Reality is extremely important to me. If you can’t find it within ten days, take your own life.”

“Yes, Mistress.”

No wonder this bath scene showed up, some karma must’ve been born at that moment. This is a retrospective view, and it’s clear Jiuyou hadn’t yet gone to trouble Papiyas by this point. Before she could, Ye Wuming had already come knocking. And even in this era, Jiuyou was already after both Papiyas and the Mirror of Illusion and Reality. I suppose she finally managed to snatch the mirror when Papiyas was injured...

And that injury? It had been delivered by Zhao Changhe himself. That meant this karma was directly tied to him, which was why he saw this scene.

Wait... Jiuyou supposedly became more human after the events in Chang’an. Could that shift have come from obtaining the Mirror of Illusion and Reality?

Zhao Changhe paused in thought for a moment, then pressed forward in his search.

Any other karmic ties probably had nothing to do with him, and he likely would not be able to access them. Instead, he tried to peer even further back, toward the karma that started at the dawn of heaven and earth. After all, Ye Jiuyou was supposed to be one of the primordial demon gods, beings born with the world itself. He might see a woman birthed from the depths of the void or even witness the cataclysmic moment of creation itself.

But what greeted him was a jarring surprise: nothing.

There was no karmic thread leading to Ye Jiuyou that far back. That stretch of time held no trace of her origin. He carefully traced the key points in the chain, but it was severed.

Does this mean... Ye Jiuyou isn’t one of those primordial demon gods born with the world? This broken karmic thread means that someone... Someone incredibly powerful has hidden the truth. Or perhaps she was tied to such a being, and I simply lack the ability to trace that person’s karma?

Does Jiuyou herself know this? She acts like she’s a primordial demon god.

But if Jiuyou isn’t one of the primordial demon gods, then what about Ye Wuming? Isn’t Ye Wuming the elder sister? Jiuyou said that herself. And if neither of them are primordial demon gods, then does that mean the Ye sisters actually have parents?

Or could it be...

Zhao Changhe’s heart skipped a beat as another possibility crossed his mind.

Could Ye Jiuyou be the negative essence split off from Ye Wuming? And if so, then that would mean that the one I can’t trace back to... is Ye Wuming herself?

That explains why Ye Jiuyou said if she wanted to become a truly independent person, she’d need to consult Ye Wuming...

But no, that doesn’t quite fit. I was able to trace their fight, which means that Ye Wuming isn’t actually beyond my reach. I should be able to see her, unless she deliberately concealed this specific part. But why would she do that, and when?

Forget it. Tracing karma like this is exhausting. It’s time for a break.

Zhao Changhe opened his eyes, only to realize he was drenched in sweat despite sitting atop a frigid snow-covered peak. His soul energy felt almost completely drained, his head was splitting with pain, and his entire body was weighed down with fatigue.

Ye Jiuyou was seated right across from him, less than a few zhang away. She was so close he could clearly catch a faint, subtle fragrance wafting from her.

Seeing Zhao Changhe’s wearied state, Ye Jiuyou blinked her eyes adorably. “So, did you gain any insight?”

Zhao Changhe glanced at her blinking, almost playful expression and could not help but feel incredibly awkward remembering what he had just seen. Instinctively, he lowered his gaze and muttered evasively, “Time is indeed profound... At the very least, it allowed me to trace my karma to a deeper level.”

“You really gained something even when it was in my hands?”

“...Yeah. Probably because of that, the karma I saw was all strongly connected to you.”

Ye Jiuyou’s interest piqued. “So what did you see about me?”

There was no way Zhao Changhe could admit he saw her bathing or her getting beaten up by her sister. When you see a landmine clearly in front of you, the best course of action is to steer clear of it.

After a moment of careful thought, he said, “I saw you searching for the Mirror of Illusion and Reality. Did you ever find it?”

“I did,” Ye Jiuyou replied. “But it didn’t perform as I imagined. I suspect that Papiyas gave me a fake.”

“Uh... You... suspect?” Zhao Changhe was astonished. “You couldn’t tell if a treasure was genuine or not?”

“It was effective, just not as effective as it should’ve been,” Ye Jiuyou said, clearly rather puzzled herself. “As far as I know, this thing can’t be forged. I haven’t figured it out yet. If it weren’t for what’s happening with Piaomiao and waiting for you, I’d have already gone to settle accounts with Papiyas.”

“What kind of effect were you expecting that you didn’t get?”

“To gaze into the illusions of the heart... and behold the truth of the self.”

“Even you can’t see the truth of your own self?”

“Hah...” Ye Jiuyou laughed softly. “It’s not just me. Hasn’t Ye Wuming failed at that too? For example... does she even know if she likes you?”

Zhao Changhe muttered, “...Please. There’s no way she’d entertain such frivolous thoughts.”

Ye Jiuyou smiled sweetly and said, “See? Even you can’t face your own subconscious expectations.”

“That’s just desire, nothing more. I feel the same toward you, for that matter. But I’ve never once thought about winning her affection. That’s completely unrealistic. I’m a pragmatist.”

“Oh really?” Ye Jiuyou found his stiff-necked defensiveness all the more amusing and deliberately teased, “You’ve only seen me a handful of times, yet you already feel desire! Zhao Changhe, could it be that you really are nothing but a shameless lecher?”

Zhao Changhe gave up all pretense and threw in the towel. “You’re just... very touchable.”

To his surprise, Ye Jiuyou did not get angry. Instead, she chuckled. “If I were truly the polar opposite of Ye Wuming, with her upholding order and me rejecting it entirely, then I’d be a wanton woman. But I don’t think I am. Not that I’ve never wanted to try, but I simply can’t bring myself to do it. You’ve accidentally kissed my hand, accidentally touched me, and we even have a betrothal. By all logic, you’re the ideal candidate for such an experiment. But even with you, I can’t act wantonly. So, am I truly Ye Wuming’s complete opposite? Do I really reject order? And for that matter, what does ‘order’ mean to me, really?”

Zhao Changhe was momentarily stunned. Her words genuinely provoked a deeper line of thought. The ambiguity between them now felt almost trivial by comparison.

Ye Jiuyou spoke leisurely, “That’s why I must see the truth. I need to know who I really am... Perhaps that’s the key to surpassing Ye Wuming and taking her place.”

Zhao Changhe nodded. “I see. So the reason you’re acting completely different from the way you were in the ancient past stems from the results of seeking your truth? In other words... you’re beginning to show a more genuine nature?”

“Maybe. I don’t know yet,” Ye Jiuyou said, extending her delicate hand. “So even if you won’t give me all of the Heavenly Tome, at least let me look at the page of illusion and reality.”

Zhao Changhe handed it over without a word.

His decisiveness surprised her. “Eh? Didn’t you say I’m a dangerous woman? That you didn’t want to help me grow stronger?”

“This is a top-tier cultivator’s journey to discover her true self. Anyone on the path of cultivation would be glad to witness such a process. It serves as a reference for ourselves and maybe even a glimpse into ancient truths. Besides, you showed me the page of time and space, so this is a fair exchange. Consider the debt settled.”

Ye Jiuyou studied him for a long moment. Then she suddenly asked, “And if the truth I uncover is that I’m actually a cruel and wanton person after all, what then?”

Zhao Changhe recalled the moment during her karmic journey when she seemed to kill some unknown demon god and turn it into a corpse puppet. The context had been unclear and hard to judge. In this era, Ye Jiuyou had not done anything especially benevolent, but to say she was evil? That felt like a stretch. He replied, “Whether you’re cruel or not remains to be seen. But wanton? I find that unlikely.”

Ye Jiuyou tilted her head in puzzlement, “And how are you so sure?”

“You go out of your way to block even non-human dark creatures from seeing you when you bathe... Oh.”

Silence.

For a few heartbeats, the mountain wind stood still. Then, Ye Jiuyou’s voice exploded like a raging thunderstorm out of the clear sky.

“WHEN HAVE YOU SEEN ME BATHING?!”

The cry echoed across the mountains, shaking the snow off distant cliffs, startling birds from their nests, and sending them soaring into the clouds.