Tome of Troubled Times-Chapter 769 (2): Omnipresent

This was essentially the same as how the Sea Emperor controlled his water figures. When stripped down to its core principles, it was not all that different from Snow Owl’s sword slaves or Shi Wuding’s corpse puppets; everyone had their own approach, but the underlying technique was fundamentally similar. This meant that if he continued refining this method, he could at least reach the Sea Emperor’s level without even needing to truly split his soul or body. After all, a multi-core processor does not need to split into separate CPUs. It just needs to process multiple tasks simultaneously.

So the issue isn’t quantity but quality. If I push this far enough... will it no longer be called a yin spirit but rather a yang spirit?

The path is right.

Meanwhile, Lady Three was staring at her palm, looking bewildered. “Was that an illusion? I feel like I just punched the brat... That damn scowling face, such a familiar sensation. Is he trying to experiment with splitting his soul? Is he using soul-controlled creatures as a starting point? Hmm... I might actually be better suited to that than him. Did he send that tiny figure over to deliberately remind me of this?”

She flicked her wrist, and the lake behind her rippled violently. A chubby, humanoid figure formed entirely of water emerged from the whirlpool and knelt before her. “At your orders, Master.”

Lady Three pointed lazily toward Batu and commanded, “Beat him up.”

The water figure cracked its knuckles, wobbled over, grabbed Batu, and flipped him onto the ground, then proceeded to pummel him.

“Who told you to call me godmother?! Not just anyone can claim to be the child of a goddess!”

Batu, wailing under the assault, clutched his head and cried, “Batu acknowledges only one godmother!”

Lady Three blinked, then snapped her fingers.

The chubby water figure cheerfully floated back to her side.

Lady Three plucked a reed from the lakeside, stuck it into the water figure’s torso, and took a long sip. “Interesting... Seems like I should experiment further.”

She grinned, realizing the key difference between herself and Zhao Changhe. As the inheritor of the Sea Emperor’s title and authority, the water figures she summoned had some level of independent consciousness. More importantly, their destruction did not affect her in the slightest.

That, in a way, was creation.

All around her, all the tribespeople prostrated themselves in reverence, “Our goddess...!”

Lady Three stood with hands behind her back, gazing at the sky. She looked every bit the proud, untouchable goddess. Yet, the corners of her lips had curved into a sly, crescent-moon smile. “Hurry up and bring the fight over here already. I can’t even sleep properly in this place. How annoying.”

Elsewhere, Zhao Changhe smiled back. “Just wait a little longer. It won’t be long now.”

His gaze turned toward the west, toward the towering Yuxu Peak of Kunlun and the town at its base.

Li Shentong was supporting Yuxu into the town. They did not necessarily need to return to Kunlun; any remote countryside would have been a better place for quiet recovery. But Yuxu had insisted. This region had become a gathering ground for too many lawless forces. Now that the Tome of Troubled Times had reported that he had lost his cultivation, what would happen next?

There was no need to guess.

Some criminals had already scattered, fleeing to the corners of the empire, places beyond anyone’s control. Some had been recruited by Jiuyou or Papiyas, becoming their pawns. And some had definitely taken over Yuxu Peak, scavenging for any potential treasures where the Dao Lord may have once anchored his soul.

That such treasures existed was an undeniable fact. Every ancient god or demon that had survived and revived had done so with the aid of a powerful artifact. The question was whether this artifact was with Yuxu or left behind in Yuxu Palace.

Thus, when Yuxu reappeared in town, the reception he received was not one of respect and reverence toward their former ruler but an eerie mix of veiled malice and predatory hunger.

Despite their lowered heads and seemingly polite bows, the intent behind their gazes was unmistakable.

“Daoist Yuxu, you’ve returned!” A soft chuckle rang out. It came from Yan Que, the infamous Blood Demon Hand. He was the man who had once chased Wang Daozhong across the land, giving him no path to escape heaven or earth. Now, he was smiling as he welcomed the two figures into Chen One’s inn. “I never thought I’d have the honor of witnessing the fearsome Dao Lord in person. What a privilege this is.”

Li Shentong simply smiled without responding.

Yan Que poured wine for them both, lifting his own bowl in a toast. “I wonder... Respected Daoist, is your condition severe enough that you cannot have a drink with me? If not, then please drink. If yes, I shall instead toast to Sect Master Li.”

A casual remark, yet one dripping with intent. It was a test. If Yuxu, known for his love of fine wine, refused to drink, then Li Shentong had better be prepared to stand guard over him forever.

The two old companions exchanged a glance, fully aware of the deeper layers of the situation. But they showed no concern. Without hesitation, they both raised their cups and emptied them in one gulp. “Perfect timing. After all the madness in Chang’an, we’ve been dying for a proper drink.”

Yan Que watched as they drank, the glimmer in his eyes turning increasingly sinister.

Then, Li Shentong wiped his mouth, his usual jovial smile still in place. “Yan Que, your Underworld Water Poison is quite interesting. I have to say, though... I’m a bit disappointed. It looks like it’s not just you who underestimated me, but Jiuyou as well.”

The smile on Yan Que’s face vanished instantly.

“If my years of body tempering hadn’t reached my very organs and refined my soul, then how could I claim to have achieved profound control? Yan Que, I suggest you go and inform your mistress of this fact.”

Boom!

The quiet inn erupted into a thunderous explosion of force. A massive, iron-like palm slammed against Yan Que’s chest.

Yan Que’s Blood Demon Hand erupted in a crimson glow as he desperately countered with his own strike.

Crack!

His arm shattered into pulp, crushed under the sheer weight of the attack. The underworld qi that clung to his body managed to blunt the force just enough to keep him from being obliterated entirely. But his body was still flung backward like a kite with its string suddenly cut.

As he flew, Jiuyou’s shadow flickered into existence before Li Shentong as if preparing to intervene. However, Li Shentong’s expression remained merciless. His arm bulged with inhuman strength, every muscle gleaming like forged steel.

And in the path of Yan Que’s soaring body, a tiny blood-red figure suddenly appeared. It was grinning.

Yan Que’s gut clenched in instinctive terror. He could feel a deadly threat emanating from that insignificant-looking creature. Enduring his injuries, he thrust out his left palm, roaring, “Out of my way!”

The tiny figure suddenly shifted. Its form twisted and morphed into something disturbingly familiar—Yan Que recognized the face instantly.

Wang Daozhong?!

The tiny figure extended a single palm and said coldly, “Heavenly Sea-Suppressing Palm!”

BOOM!

It was but a tiny palm that struck forward, yet the sheer force behind it sent shockwaves rippling through the air, a bloody mist surging across the sky.

This time, Li Shentong was the one who casually stepped in front of Jiuyou’s projected form, blocking her path with a lazy smile. “If you’re here to throw yourself into King Zhao’s arms, you might as well go to the capital. This is Yuxu Peak of Kunlun.”

That brief moment of obstruction was all it took. Yan Que was utterly obliterated, smashed into pulp by the tiny blood figure that looked just like Wang Daozhong. A cycle of karma had thus been closed.

Jiuyou’s gaze darkened as she coldly studied the tiny blood figure. It smirked and, as if out of sheer reflex, shifted back into Zhao Changhe’s own face. He casually waved at her. “Oh? Miss Li, you are here as well? Want to grab a drink?”

A faint greenish tinge surfaced on Jiuyou’s face. Without knowing for certain whether Ye Wuming was present, she was not willing to act rashly. Instead, she left behind a single sentence before vanishing: “You may serve Ye Wuming like a dog now, but you’ll regret it in time.”

Zhao Changhe did not bother responding. Instead, he turned his attention toward Yuxu and Li Shentong, giving them a cheeky wave. “Sect Master Li, let’s communicate like this from now on.”

Li Shentong’s eyelid twitched. “...Fine.”

Yuxu, however, said, “King Zhao, are you interested in the Taiji Diagram?”

The tiny blood figure shook its head. “You need it for your restoration. What would I want it for? Maybe one day I’ll borrow it for a look, but for now, forget it. Also, this innkeeper is a friend of mine, and there are a few followers of the Four Idols Cult in hiding here. If you’re planning a purge, I will kindly ask you to sort out the guilty from the innocent. Show some consideration.”

With that, the tiny blood figure disappeared.

Yuxu and Li Shentong exchanged glances. Their expressions remained calm, but deep down, both felt a tinge of unease.

The way Jiuyou and Zhao Changhe were now able to manifest across vast distances made them uneasy. Was time and space itself losing meaning? Were they now at the mercy of unseen hands, their lives potentially ending even in their sleep?

The world was changing rapidly, and the old legends of the Ranking of Heaven were struggling to keep pace.

And the most baffling part of it all was that Zhao Changhe was still only at the first layer of the Profound Control Realm.

How the hell is he pulling all this stuff off?

Li Shentong did not say much. He merely glanced at the surroundings, his gaze turning murderous.

On the second day of the new year, Yuxu and Li Shentong arrived in Kunlun. Blood Demon Hand Yan Que attempted to cripple them with Underworld Water Poison. They drank it like ordinary water, utterly unharmed. Having exposed his scheme, Li Shentong then crushed Yan Que with a single strike, but was momentarily obstructed by Jiuyou’s divine manifestation. Zhao Changhe’s spirit spanned tens of thousands of li, descending upon Kunlun to finish off Yan Que himself.

A figure on the Ranking of Earth has fallen. The rankings shall shift accordingly...

As the river of the underworld and the long river of this world both surged on, Li Shentong initiated a massacre of the Valley of the Wicked in Kunlun. Aside from a few key figures, the rest were slaughtered. Nearly ten thousand corpses stain the snowy peaks of Kunlun.[1]

The entire world read the update with blank expressions.

Since when did battle reports become this incomprehensible? Divine manifestations spanning tens of thousands of li? Is this even martial arts anymore? Can you people get your own ranking? The Rankings of Troubled Times we’ve been following all these years don’t work like this!

Beneath the Imperial Ancestral Temple, Zhao Changhe let out a sigh, rubbing his forehead.

“Damn... is Kunlun getting too urbanized? Old Li is really acting like some sort of Emperor of Daxi now.”

Yue Hongling remained in meditation, offering no response.

Instead, the blind woman’s voice came, indifferent as always.

“The ones in the Valley of the Wicked were all criminals to begin with. Li Shentong had no moral reservations about the slaughter. Besides, many of them had already scattered. That single town alone had far more than ten thousand people in it, didn’t it?”

Zhao Changhe nodded and said, “Back then, even a single district had multiple warring factions... Honestly, it makes me feel like Yuxu has done the world a favor. But now, all these displaced scum are spreading across the empire. What a mess.”

The blind woman replied, “Let them scatter. Do you think you’re the only one upholding justice in the world? There are countless heroes rising in the jianghu even as we speak. The real problem is the faction Jiuyou has absorbed... her influence is growing.”

Zhao Changhe chuckled but said nothing. Instead, he turned and casually called out, “Blindie.”

“Mm-hm?”

“To be everywhere at once, to watch over the world, I think I finally understand a fraction of your power now. It’s truly incredible.”

“Go ahead. What do you want?”

“Once upon a time, someone raised a crown prince... and ended up marrying him because he became exactly what she wanted. Now, someone else is raising a proxy, and the more she raises him, the more he starts to resemble her. Doesn’t that feel a little strange?”

The blind woman parted her lips slightly. Then, as expected, a single word came: “Scram.”

Neither of them noticed that this pattern had become a habit to them. The playful banter, the way he openly pursued her, the way she knew it and still entertained his nonsense....

It had become natural.

1. Just a reminder that Jiuyou’s name refers to the underworld, while Changhe’s name also means long river. ☜