Journey to the West: Signing in for 500 Years-Chapter 351 - 345 Don’t Do unto Others What You Don’t Want Others to Do unto You【Please Subscribe】_1
Sha Chen made his choice without hesitation, opting for the Mystic Artifact of The Nine Orifices.
Such divine items are stumbled upon by chance and cannot be sought after.
It was perfectly suited for his current Dao comprehension. After all, he had reached Pinnacle Daluo and sought to elevate his cultivation level further. He needed to delve deeper into the Quasi-Saint Chapter of the Three Pure Ones Taoism.
Currently, he had mastered only the basics, at most scraping the entry level, nowhere near sufficient.
With such a divine item, he could achieve a better understanding.
As for refusing Jiang Ziya, Sha Chen would not hesitate for a second.
Let alone Jiang Ziya coming to persuade him, even if Lord Yuan Shi himself were to appear, he would not accord him any face.
Ask someone to die and still give you face?
Sha Chen refrained from killing Jiang Ziya. That was already quite the concession to Lord Yuan Shi.
If it were someone else, they would have been dead the moment they stepped into the cavern.
However, even if Sha Chen did not plan to kill Jiang Ziya, he would not let him leave easily.
Jiang Ziya saw Sha Chen hesitate and even cracked a smile, thinking Sha Chen had agreed.
He said excitedly, "Master of the River, have you agreed? Are you willing to comply with Heaven’s will and undertake the Journey to the West?"
Sha Chen looked at him and said, "Taigong, why did you not go to Lu Tai back then to persuade King Zhou to abandon his evil ways and relinquish his throne to King Wen?"
Jiang Ziya’s face changed, and he said, "King Zhou was tyrannical and unjust. How could he listen to persuasion?"
Sha Chen chuckled. "Then why would you think that I would listen to your bewitching words?"
Jiang Ziya said, "The River Master is a sensible person. Anyone who can cultivate to such a realm is surely of sound mind and understands what is to be done."
Sha Chen chuckled again. "In other words, you’re saying I’m too honest for my own good."
Jiang Ziya nodded. "Exactly."
Suddenly, Sha Chen’s expression changed. With a swift slap, he sent Jiang Ziya flying, crashing against the wall before sliding down.
He was both shocked and angry.
He gritted his teeth. "River Master, why did you hit me?"
Sha Chen sneered. "You don’t dare to persuade King Zhou, yet you dare to persuade me. You think because I am an honest man, I’m easy to bully, is that it?"
Jiang Ziya was momentarily at a loss for words.
Sha Chen stepped forward, grabbed him by the collar, and dragged him to the table. He then poured a cup of wine and said, "Pick it up. Drink it."
Jiang Ziya reached out to pick up the wine cup.
As long as he could calm Sha Chen down, have him agree to his plan, and then embark obediently on the Journey to the West for peace in the Three Realms, what would a little humiliation count for?
But before he could touch it, Sha Chen grabbed the wine cup first and poured it over Jiang Ziya’s forehead, drenching his hair, clothes, and beard.
Sha Chen then shoved him away, smashing all the dishes on the table onto him, making him look like a beggar.
Jiang Ziya raged, "Master Sha Chen, I was giving you good advice out of kindness! Why do you humiliate me?"
Sha Chen said, "I offered you fine wine and dishes, yet you urge me onto a path of no return?"
"I treated you with the respect due to a gentleman, yet you try to harm me with the heart of a villain. Jiang Ziya, does your conscience not ache doing this?"
Jiang Ziya said angrily, "I’m doing this for your own good!"
Sha Chen said, "’What you do not wish for yourself, do not do unto others.’ Do you not understand this principle?"
Jiang Ziya was dumbfounded.
Sha Chen’s words struck him like a sudden blow to the head, leaving him completely bewildered.
Sha Chen stepped forward and poked his forehead. "What if I told you it was wrong for King Wu to wage war on King Zhou? Would you believe it? Would you do it?"
Jiang Ziya said, "That’s impossible! It was the right thing to do, and it was something I had to do."
Sha Chen said, "That is your Dao, but for King Zhou and his supporters, it was an obstruction to their Dao. If you all had died, King Zhou would have continued to rule, and more people would have lived. Wouldn’t that have been fine?"
"Because of one war, countless lives were lost. After the Divine Enthronement War, countless deities perished. Does this also count as accumulating virtue and doing good?"
He patted Jiang Ziya’s face. "In the Array of Ten Thousand Immortals, over one hundred thousand deities of the Sect of Interpretation fell. It was a twilight of the gods, with immortals perishing. Why did it come to that? Jiang Ziya, do you think that was right—that those deities deserved to die?"
Jiang Ziya’s face turned unsightly. He said, "It was the Sect of Interpretation’s obstinacy. If they had not aided King Zhou in his tyranny, it would not have come to that."
Sha Chen said scornfully, "It is you who are obstinate. The three major religions decided to fill vacancies in the Heavenly Court and needed enough deities. Why was it that the Sect of Interpretation was chosen, while your Chan Sect, the Human Religion, and the Western Sect had so few, or even none at all?"
Jiang Ziya said, "This is the Mandate of Heaven, and it cannot be defied."
Sha Chen laughed. "Don’t be ridiculous. Isn’t it just that you all thought the Sect of Interpretation was too powerful and plotted to weaken them? What you consider the Mandate of Heaven, something preordained, is in reality nothing more than strife among the Saints."
"What if I told you that at the end of the Divine Enthronement, the Sect of Interpretation was victorious, the Chan Sect failed, and the Western Sect dissolved? Would you still believe then that it was the Mandate of Heaven?"
Jiang Ziya said, "That’s impossible."
Sha Chen said, "You think it’s impossible because it has already happened. So, let me ask you again: when do you think Yang Jian will release his mother?"
Jiang Ziya blurted out, "In over two hundred years..."
After saying this, he became bewildered.
Because, not long ago, Yang Jian had already freed Princess Yunhua. She was now living at Guanjiangkou, regularly outwitting the Heavenly Court’s soldiers and generals!
Sha Chen looked at him. "See? The fate you calculated has already changed. You believed Yang Jian would release Yunhua more than two hundred years later, but in fact, he has already released her."
"What does this prove? It proves that the destiny you perceived was already determined by the powerful. They allowed you to see it, so you saw it. However, in reality, things have changed."
Jiang Ziya wanted to speak but hesitated.
Sha Chen said bluntly, "Are you going to say that Yang Jian is an anomaly? He is, after all, a third-generation Disciple of your Chan Sect and was once your favored general. His background, his origins, everything about him is perfectly clear."
"Yet, this event concerning him has exceeded your expectations. With your abilities, your vision of his future was flawed."
Having said this, Sha Chen took another drink of wine.
He stretched out his hand, formed a hand seal, and began to operate the Zhou Tian Xingchen Technique. His palm then manifested the transformations of past and future.
Jiang Ziya, profoundly shocked, stammered, "You—you—you can perform the Zhou Tian Xingchen Technique? Hasn’t it been lost for ages? How do you know it?"
Even he could only perform Zhou Tian’s Arithmetic, which was merely the preliminary part of the great Zhou Tian Xingchen Technique.
The most crucial part of that technique had long been missing. Not even he possessed it in its entirety.
In the past, Jiang Ziya had seen a part of Zhou Tian’s Arithmetic in the Wordless Heavenly Scripture. However, with his spiritual power, he could not perceive the sections that lay beyond it.
Yet, unexpectedly, Sha Chen had managed to execute it.
Jiang Ziya, overwhelmed with excitement, stepped forward and grabbed Sha Chen’s hand, pleading, "Teach me! Teach me!"
Sha Chen said, "Taigong, did your calculations predict that you would be begging me to teach you a technique?"
Jiang Ziya was speechless. He let go of Sha Chen’s hand, then began to doubt, and his Dao Heart also became somewhat unstable.
He shook his head in disbelief. "Could it be... that you see farther than I do? Is that why you do not want to undertake the Journey to the West?"
Sha Chen replied, "You are correct. I have foreseen that if I follow this trajectory, I will join Buddhism and become a Golden Arhat Bodhisattva—a mere holder of an Arhat Position posing as a Bodhisattva, with a bleak future."
Jiang Ziya’s eyes widened in shock.
This was an outcome he could not calculate; his master had told him.
Because Lord Yuan Shi had also paid attention to the calamity of the Journey to the West. Upon calculating the future, he found that Sha Chen would end up merely as a Golden Arhat Bodhisattva, not worth fearing, and thus disregarded him.
Even the others, aside from Sun Wukong, were all just average, so he did not pay them much heed.
If their journey could be disrupted, he would do so if convenient; if not, it did not matter.
It was not until recently, when Sha Chen emerged abruptly and changed many things from their original trajectories, that the Saints began to stir.
Jiang Ziya, still in shock, asked, "How did you know that your future self would be a Golden Arhat Bodhisattva?"
Sha Chen replied, "If you, Fei Xiong, can see it, why can’t I?"
Jiang Ziya was skeptical. "Did you really see it?"
Naturally, Sha Chen had not calculated it. While he did possess the Zhou Tian Xingchen Technique, he was only a beginner. In truth, when comparing his deduction abilities with Jiang Ziya—who had almost mastered Zhou Tian’s Arithmetic—he still fell short by a wide margin.
But that did not prevent him from feigning foresight to fool Jiang Ziya.
This old codger was stubborn as a mule.
Once he set his mind on something, even if you were right, he would argue you were wrong. Moreover, he wouldn’t reason with you; he was a complete old diehard.
It was as if what he had seen was the truth, and what you had seen was false.
If you contested him, you were in the wrong.
Since that was the case, Sha Chen could only claim to see farther and know more than him.
Use his own spear to attack his own shield.
Sha Chen asked, "Jiang Ziya, do you still think you should stop me now?"
Jiang Ziya was dumbfounded.
He had no idea what to do.
Because the future as a Golden Arhat Bodhisattva was not something he had calculated; it was his master who had told him.
Yet Sha Chen knew of it. So, perhaps Sha Chen was indeed more astute than him.
Jiang Ziya said, "Since you have calculated that you will become a Golden Arhat Bodhisattva, then you should comply with destiny and become that Bodhisattva."
Sha Chen replied, "It is precisely because I do not wish to become one that I am cultivating here."
Jiang Ziya asserted, "You are defying Heaven with your actions! You will surely incur heavenly wrath!"
Sha Chen laughed heartily. "If I feel my future fate is not good, can I not strive for something better?"
"If you know there is a pit ahead, and jumping in would mean a mountain of daggers and a sea of flames, would you still jump?"
Jiang Ziya stroked his beard, his expression one of righteous indignation. "For the sake of all living beings in the world, even if a mountain of daggers, a sea of flames, or an abyss ten thousand zhang deep lay ahead, I would still leap into it!"
Sha Chen patted his shoulder. "Taigong, you think too highly of yourself. The era of Divine Enthronement is over. You can no longer bear the burden for all living beings in the world."
Jiang Ziya looked as if he had been struck by lightning.
Sha Chen’s words dealt him a severe blow.
"You miscalculated Yang Jian’s future, and your vision is not as far-reaching as mine. What right do you have to enlighten me, tell me what to do, or dictate which path I should take?"
