Chapter 2187: Retaliation

As such, Zu An loudly ordered the officials to cease their argument and had them prepare all kinds of precious gifts. Then, he transformed into a human once more and went to Eternal Peace City to visit Yuan Shoucheng again.

When he saw Zu An's arrival, Yuan Shoucheng was clearly a bit surprised. “What is the reason for this honored guest’s visit today?”

Zu An had his subordinates bring over the gifts, and then gave a greeting of admiration. “Sir is extremely knowledgeable and wise. I am full of admiration toward you. I have offended you considerably in the past and I hope that sir does not take too much offense.”

Many people present still had an impression of him from yesterday. Earlier, this man had clearly been dead set on ruining the master’s business, and yet he'd suddenly switched from arrogance to deference. They all became a bit rowdy, as they were more and more convinced that Yuan Shoucheng was the real deal.

Yuan Shoucheng stroked his beard and said with a mysterious smile, “Tomorrow has yet to arrive, so how does your distinguished self know that you’ve lost? I think it’s best if we wait until tomorrow.”

Zu An looked straight at him and said, “Since sir is full of knowledge and understanding, how could you not know the reason for my visit today?”

Yuan Shoucheng was stunned. He was briefly left at a loss for how to answer the question.

Zu An bowed sincerely again and said, “if sir needs golden carp, I can send someone to deliver one to sir every day from tomorrow on. If sir has the interest, then you are welcome to the Water Manor as a guest at any time.”

The reason why the divination master had taught the fishermen where to cast their nets to catch fish was precisely because he wanted them to bring him a golden carp each day.

When Yuan Shoucheng saw how enthusiastic he was being, he couldn't keep being cold anymore either. “Your respected self speaks too gravely. We merely had a misunderstanding before ,and neither of us needs to think too much of it in the future. Jing River is at Eternal River’s shore, so we are neighbors. We just need to take care of each other more in the future.”

“But of course,” Zu An replied with a smile. The two chatted in a friendly manner for a while before bidding each other goodbye.

When Zu An left, Yuan Shoucheng put away his smile. The child next to him changed as well, his body shining with brilliant light.

The ordinary people outside who had come for fortune-telling seemed to have been frozen by time. They couldn't see the things that were happening inside at all.

The ‘child’ asked in a serious voice, “You aren’t really intending to become his friend, right?”

Yuan Shoucheng said with a smile, “He is nothing more than a chess piece. Why would you think about whether something like that is a friend or not?”

“But now that the Jing River Dragon King hasn't fallen for our tricks, our plans are now a mess. What do we do now?”

Yuan Shoucheng said calmly, “That Jing River Dragon King wishes to leave the chessboard, but how can it be that easy? The golden carps are the descendants of the dragons, candidates to become their successors. After some time, their bloodline will be completely wiped out. Furthermore, it is in all of our nature to be greedy. Now that the fishermen know about the movement patterns of the fish, they will always cast out the large nets to earn more money. If that continues, after just a few years, there will soon be under a tenth of the Water race residents left. As the Dragon King, he must protect his country, so this will still be a great crime in his name. Regardless of what happens, he cannot escape his fate.”

The ‘child’ smiled when he heard that. “Your plan is truly brilliant. This Jing River Dragon King is destined to experience a tragedy. This result cannot be blamed on us.”

...

Meanwhile, after Zu An left Yuan manor, his bright smile suddenly became serious.

He naturally knew that the ‘apology’ earlier hadn’t truly solved the problem. If there hadn't been a mysterious presence hiding in Advisor Shad and he hadn’t watched Journey to the West, and if he hadn’t gone through all those dangerous experiences, perhaps he would have really believed it. The reason he still had to go through this act was to temporarily make that Yuan guy complacent for a bit.

He didn’t return to the Dragon Palace; instead, he approached the Imperial Palace and took up residence in the closest inn. When evening came, he sent his primordial spirit out of his body and cast a dream skill.

The Imperial Palace was protected by heavenly dao, so it would be difficult for someone like him to move unnoticed. But if he used the dream skill, he could draw the Tang Emperor out. This was a skill the Jing River Dragon King had. When he recalled the related information from this body, it wasn’t too hard to achieve.

Honestly, this Jing River Dragon King wasn’t too strong, but his skills were still quite incredible. For instance, he had that transformation skill and this dream skill. Even Zu An was starting to desire them a bit. He wondered if he would still remember how to use the skills once he left this body.

His primordial spirit wandered outside the Imperial Palace’s gates, and just happened to see the Tang Emperor Li Shimin come out for a stroll. Judging from the emperor's current state, he was clearly dreaming.

As such, Zu An bowed and said, “Jing River Dragon King greets your majesty.”

The Tang Emperor was alarmed. “You... You are the Dragon King?” He was an emperor who had reached his position by traveling through mountains or corpses and seas of blood, so he had a certain degree of composure. When he saw that the other person bore no malice, he gradually calmed down.

Zu An actually appreciated this level of composure. He was clearly just an ordinary person, and yet this was a bearing that many powerful cultivators didn’t possess. “Your majesty is the true dragon son of heaven, while I can only be considered a dragon of a water region. I am far inferior to your majesty.”

The Tang Emperor roared with laughter. “The Dragon King is too humble. May I ask why the Dragon King has sought out this emperor today?”

“There is indeed some small matter that I must trouble your majesty about. Recently, there have been many fishermen wantonly fishing by the river. Normally, it is to maintain their livelihood, so it is expected for them to capture some fish and shrimp. However, for some strange reason, the fishermen have always been able to find out exactly where the fish are, and they are avaricious and insatiable, only sending out nets that collect all of the fish. If this continues, then the fish and shrimp in the river will go extinct. This is not something that will benefit the people of the Tang Dynasty’s later generations.”

The Tang Emperor was stunned. “So there was something like that going on! This emperor is now aware, and will send the related departments in the court to investigate this matter. We definitely cannot end our supply of resources because of greed and leave behind a Jing River completely devoid of life for our later generations.”

When he saw the other party’s expression, Zu An immediately knew that the emperor didn’t treat it as too big of a deal. After all, for an emperor, there were just too many governmental affairs he had to take care of. It really was hard for the livelihoods of some fishermen to get too much of his attention.

But he was prepared for that and continued, “These are actually all trivial matters, and alone, they would hardly require a personal visit from me. However, the main issue is that the fishermen catch a golden carp each day. Has your majesty heard of the phrase 'golden carp leaps through the dragon gate'?”

The Tang Emperor nodded. "If the golden carp leaps through the dragon gate, it can become a real dragon.”

“That’s right. These golden carp are the dragons of our future, and they also preserve the Dragon race of Eternal Peace City. The fishermen’s will unfortunately end up harming the dragon lineage of Eternal Peace, as well as the natural blessings of the Tang Dynasty,” Zu An said gravely.

Sure enough, the Tang Emperor’s expression changed greatly. He didn’t reply as if it was just a governmental issue anymore. He exclaimed, “What? Which bastard is secretly trying to bring the downfall of my Great Tang Dynasty?!”

No matter how high-minded the emperor's words were about the lives of the civilians, he still wouldn’t care about that too much. But if it was related to the stability of his own country, that was more important than anything else!

Zu An said seriously, “I am the Dragon King of the river and am bound by heavenly treaty. As such, I am unable to get too involved in matters on land. That is why I borrowed a dream to meet with your majesty.”

At first, the Tang Emperor had been confused as to whether this was truly the glorious Dragon King, and why he was being bullied by some fishermen; but when he heard that, he no longer had any misgivings. Instead, he expressed his gratitude sincerely. “Thank you for the information, Dragon King, or else this emperor would have been kept completely in the dark. This emperor will definitely investigate this matter thoroughly!”

Zu An smiled and said, “Your majesty speaks too seriously. Since your majesty is willing to help our Water Manor deal with such a big problem, out of gratitude, I want to recommend someone of extraordinary talent to your majesty.”

“Oh? May I ask who it is?” The Tang Emperor was immediately interested. Someone like the Jing River Dragon King would already be considered a deity, so how could someone of extraordinary talent not be special too?

“There is a divination master named Yuan Shoucheng on Eternal Peace’s west street. This master knows the secrets of heaven above and understands the geography of earth below. His divinations are never wrong, so your majesty can seek him out to find out how much of your long age is left,” Zu An replied.

The Tang Emperor was overjoyed. “Thank you for your guidance, Dragon King!”

After all, for an emperor, what couldn't they obtain in this world? The only thing an emperor worried about was their own lifespan. Everyone wanted to live forever, but generations of experience had taught people that such a thing was impossible. In that case, if they could know their lifespan ahead of time, they could arrange for many things beforehand and wouldn’t have variables appear because of a sudden death.

After taking care of everything, Zu An bid him farewell and left his dream.

...

Zu An opened his eyes in the inn outside the palace. He didn’t know what condition he needed to meet in order to end this trial. That was why he could only try to deal with all the problems he could take care of.

He couldn't go against the will of the Celestial Court and let himself turn into a vengeful spirit. He couldn't let the fishermen wipe out all of the Water race either.

Of course, just those things alone weren’t enough. He couldn't just continue to passively defend against that Yuan bastard’s schemes, and had to take the initiative to scheme against him too.

For example, he could vaguely recall that the reason why the Tang Emperor had been brought to the underworld in Journey to the West, apart from the Jing River Dragon King tattling on him, was also because his own life was already nearing its end.

Wasn’t that Yuan bastard quite good at plotting? Then, would he tell the Tang Emperor the truth?

If the Tang Emperor found out that he was going to die soon, he would likely pursue quick results in the investigation of the fishermen. If he received the report that it was this Yuan bastard who had those fishermen capture the fish, what would he think then?

Would he feel that the fortune-teller was misleading the public with rumors? On one hand, Yuan Shoucheng was secretly assisting the fishermen in ending the Great TangDynasty’s dragon lineage, while on the other hand, he was trying to trick the Tang Emperor into thinking that his death was near. If the emperor didn’t immediately kill the fortune-teller, that would really be a disgrace to his background as someone who had crossed mountains of corpses and rivers of blood!

Zu An didn’t feel that such revenge was too much. After all, it was clear that the Yuan guy’s plot had targeted him, going after his very life. He wasn’t as stupid as the Jing River Dragon King, so he wouldn't just blindly jump in.

Even by the time he finished taking care of other things, it still wasn’t too late. When he returned to the Water Manor, he quickly wrote up a memorial to the Jade Emperor.

It mentioned that recently, large amounts of the Water race were being fished up, and that he had learned that the fishermen would always be able to find out where the fish wandered no matter how they moved. No matter how he ordered the fish to change their routes, the fishermen would still know exactly where they are.

At first, he had thought that it was because there was a traitor in the Water race, but his personal investigation had discovered that the information came from a divination master in Eternal Peace City. This person was able to divulge the will of heaven and no matter what he sought, he would always be correct. Today, the divination master had been able to learn that the Celestial Court was ordering him to bring rain upon the city even before him, and that even the timing and amount was correct without exception, which was completely unimaginable.

As an insignificant Jing River Dragon King, he couldn't figure out the real reason and didn’t dare to rashly make guesses, so he could only report these things directly as they happened. 𝓯𝘳𝘦𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝓃ℴ𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝓬𝘰𝑚

From start to finish, Zu An had never overlooked the Celestial Court’s existence.

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