Published at 3rd of July 2024 7:52 am

Chapter 2186: A Way Out

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The divination master gave him a look. He got up and bowed, saying, “Honored guest, please have a seat!”

Zu An’s current identity was that of the dragon king, and he was a regent of both the human and fiend races himself. He naturally carried the prestige of someone of higher status and naturally took a high seat. Everyone present was impressed when they saw his exceptional bearing.

As the boy servant brought him some tea, the divination master named Yuan Shoucheng asked, “What has this honored guest come to ask about today?”

Zu An gave the rather egotistical rhyming couplets a look and replied, “Could I ask sir to interpret the matter of the sky’s changes in weather?”

This body’s memories told him that the Jing River Dragon King was in charge of this region’s clouds and rain to begin with. No one knew about such things better than him.

Yuan Shoucheng rolled up his sleeves and tossed out a few divination items, then carefully observed them for a bit. He replied, “Clouds confuse the hilltops; mist shrouds the forest tips. If one divines for rain, it shall stand correct for the following day.”

Zu An continued to ask, “When will the rain fall tomorrow? How many inches?”

This guy was acting as if he was incredible, but Zu An knew that there were some fortune tellers who liked to give ambiguous replies when fortune-telling, so there was no way he would give him that kind of chance.

The divination master replied calmly, "Tomorrow, clouds will gather at the hour of Chén (7-9 AM), thunder will resound at the hour of Si (9-11 AM), rain will fall at the hour of Wǔ (11 AM-1 PM), and the rain will cease at the hour of Wèi (1-3 PM). Altogether, the rainfall will amount to three feet, three inches, and forty-eight drops.”

Zu An was about to say something when there was suddenly an irresistible urge within him. He said with a chuckle, “There is no way to falsify something like that. If there is rain tomorrow and it is in accordance with the time and amount that you have deduced, then I will send you fifty taels of silver in gratitude. If there is no rain, or the time and amount is wrong, I say honestly right now that I will definitely break down your shop front and destroy your signboard, and swiftly chase you out of Eternal Peace so that you cannot deceive the people any longer!”

Zu An was stunned when those words came out of his mouth. Even though what he said was reasonable, he just felt that it was strange somehow, as if he had been possessed and forced to say that. An ordinary person would likely be unable to deduce that, but with his cultivation and knowledge, he sensed the strangeness.

Yuan Shoucheng replied gladly, “This matter will be up to you. Please come back after the rain tomorrow.”

Zu An left the Yuan manor. He continued to think to himself along the way.

If other people had come to this fragment of spacetime, perhaps they would assume that they needed to win against this fortune-teller and chase him out of Eternal Peace City to protect the water races in the Dragon Palace, and that would complete the mission; but he could sense that something wasn’t quite right from the earlier strangeness. Was that really the solution?

Meanwhile, he unknowingly returned to the riverside. The water races all came out to greet him. “What does the great king think about that divination master?”

Zu An shared their conversation with the high officials. All of them smiled and said, “The great king manages eight rivers; you are the great dragon deity in charge of rain. Only the great king holds this knowledge, so how could he dare to speak blasphemy? That fortune-teller is going to lose for sure! For sure!”

But Zu An found it hard to smile. He just felt that something was strange. The reason he had gambled with that Yuan guy was because if not even he, who was in charge of controlling the rain, couldn't say for sure that it was going to rain tomorrow, this divination master would definitely lose.

But he just felt that something wasn’t right, to the point where he felt as if his fine hairs were about to stand up. This was the culmination of his experiences with danger and The Book’s ability, resulting in his sharp intuition.

But where was the danger coming from? Could it be that the bet contained hidden dangers? But even if he lost, it was just a loss, right? It wasn't supposed to be that big of a deal.

A group of water race subjects were mocking that Yuan guy for being completely blind, actually daring to show off before the dragon king himself. They all had huge smiles on their faces.

The discomfort Zu An felt became stronger and stronger. This wasn’t the typical fictional setting where the villain would ridicule and unleash all manner of hatred upon the protagonist, but eventually, the cockier he was at first, the more bitter the payback would be... Was it?

In the end, I became the villain?

Then who's the main character? Yuan Shoucheng?

But aren’t main characters all young men? That guy is already an elder with one foot in the grave. I really can’t see the radiance of a main character around him.

Zu An was becoming a bit restless. This kind of trial really was a pain. There were no mission guidelines or objectives. Passing it would rely completely on his own guesses.

Just then, a voice suddenly came from midair. “Jing River Dragon King, accept this decree.”

Everyone present looked up and saw a warrior in golden clothes. He approached the water manor with the Jade Emperor’s decree in hand.

Zu An was stunned. It really was someone from the Celestial Court!

The golden-clad warrior shone with golden light and had a divine aura around him. He seemed to be an expert above the earth immortal rank.

If a messenger was already this strong, just how strong was the Jade Emperor? And were there beings even stronger than the Celestial Emperor?[1]

Regardless, Zu An was at least certain about one thing, which was that the Celestial Court was definitely not a place he could make his enemy right now.

Just then, the subjects next to him hurriedly gave him reminders, and only then did Zu An sort out his clothes and burn incense to receive the decree.

When the golden-clad warrior left, Zu An opened the decree and gave it a look. On it was written, “The imperial decree orders the head of eight rivers to send lightning and thunder, to bestow rain to aid and relieve Eternal Peace City.”

The times and amount of rainfall indicated were no different from what the divination master had stated at all.

Zu An was really shocked. No wonder he had felt that sense of unease earlier! So it turned out this was where the problem lay!

Just then, all of the water race subjects also looked at each other in dismay. Many of them said with a sigh, “There really was a person of such spiritual affinity in this world! He really does know all under heaven! It seems we’ll definitely lose this time.”

Just then, Advisor Shad said respectfully, “Great king, please do not worry. Why would winning against him be difficult? This subject has a small scheme that will surely shut that scoundrel's mouth.”

Zu An gave him a look and said expressionlessly, “Let us hear it, then.”

Advisor Shad said, “When it is time to rain, just send a bit less; wouldn’t that divination master be inaccurate then? Why do we need to worry about winning against him? Then, we can pulverize his signboard and chase him away. Wouldn’t that be easy enough?”

Many subjects felt that it was a brilliant idea. Advisor Shad also had a proud look on his face.

But Zu An’s face darkened and he roared, “How brazen! This is a decree sent personally from the Jade Emperor; how can we go against his decree over a bet of such small importance? Do you want me to commit the crime of going against the monarch? Men, have him beheaded at once!”

These things made him vaguely recall some ancient legend. Even though he couldn't remember it all too clearly, he could clearly sense that this guy’s suggestion was definitely a huge pitfall.

The entire hall suddenly became silent. The high officials’ expressions were full of disbelief, while Advisor Shad broke down in tears. “Great king, this subject is being wrongly accused! I was merely wholly devoted to assisting the great king in winning the bet; what fault is there in that?”

Many high officials also spoke up to help him when they heard his pleas, but Zu An remained indifferent. Soon after, shrimp and crab soldiers dragged Advisor Shad down.

Shortly after, those soldiers came to report anxiously, “Reporting to the great king, Advisor Shad’s head has been removed, but his body suddenly disappeared into a streak of light and vanished.”

All of the high officials who had been speaking up for Advisor Shad immediately shut their mouths.

What is going on with Advisor Shad?

Zu An said coldly, “He was someone who intended to harm me, as expected.”

Many subjects cried out in alarm.

“Just who is trying to harm the great king?”

“What do we do now?”

“How about we find that divination master and offer an apology so that he doesn’t take offense?”

“Nonsense! The great king is the glorious rain-controlling great dragon deity; why would he bow down to a human? Furthermore, those fishermen are getting greedier and greedier. If they continue to encourage the fisherman to scatter out those family-capturing nets, then our water races in Jing River could reach less than a tenth of our current population in under ten years. Everything would be over for us then!”

“But what else can we do if we don’t make amends? What else can we do? That divination master can even anticipate the Jade Emperor’s decree, so he definitely has a powerful patron backing him. If we fought him to the end, wouldn’t we just be seeking our own doom?”

...

Zu An was feeling quite annoyed as he listened to the high officials discuss the matter. Each side had some reason behind their words. He found himself rapidly thinking through the situation.

He already had a rough idea of what was being tested here. This story existed in Journey to the West. Originally, in a fit of rage, the Jing River Dragon King had listened to Advisor Shad’s nonsense and really had gone against the decree. Then, he had ended up violating heavenly law, being sentenced to execution.

Afterward, the Jing River Dragon King had run over to plead with Yuan Shoucheng for advice. Yuan Shoucheng had told him that the executioner sent by the Celestial Court was the Tang Dynasty’s Wei Zheng, so he needed to bring his plea to the Tang Emperor Li Shimin.

The Jing River Dragon King had gone to Tang Emperor to beg for mercy, and the Tang Emperor agreed. He deliberately invited Wei Zheng into the palace that day to play chess with him so he would be too busy to bother with other things.

Wei Zheng had then fallen asleep after playing chess. The Tang Emperor thought that the matter was settled, but how could he have known that Wei Zheng’s primordial spirit would leave his body to carry out the execution?

The Jing River Dragon King’s resentful soul thought that the Tang Emperor went back on his word, so he had reported the Tang Emperor in the underworld. The Tang Emperor’s life was nearing its end too, so the underworld had sent a ghostly official to bring in the Tang Emperor’s soul for a confrontation.

The Tang Emperor spent a day in the underworld. When he returned to the world of the living, he was full of lingering fear, so he held a great Water and Land Ceremony to help the souls of the deceased that had perished under his hands pass on. There, he had met Xuanzang, and after the Theravāda and Mahāyāna branches of Buddhism discussed the matter with each other, they decided to send Xuanzang on a journey to the Western Paradise.

The reason why Zu An hadn't thought of it before was because this plotline wasn’t too prominent in Journey to the West. Besides, his attention had mostly been on Sun Wukong, the Seventh Fairy, and the Kingdom of Women. But now that he had personally experienced all of this, those blurry memories were becoming clear again.

So, how could he deal with this situation? It seemed quite easy on the surface, but there had actually been a mysterious presence in the instigator Advisor Shad’s body. That made everything impossible to unravel.

He thought about the various crucial events so far, and then an idea gradually appeared in his head.

1. The Jade Emperor and Celestial Emperor refer to the same deity in Chinese mythology ☜

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