Journey to the West: Starting by taking Sun Wukong as my disciple!-Chapter 691 - 690 Inexplicable Coincidence

"Of course, I remember," Ao Lie said. "Although you’re not very talkative, you still stand out. I saw that you weren’t very comfortable in that environment, but you didn’t leave. You just sat there drinking by yourself. At first, I intended to greet you, but then my friend dragged me away, and I forgot about it."

Given such detailed recounting, it was clear that Ao Lie indeed knew him and wasn’t just making polite conversation.

Sha Wujing’s attitude toward Ao Lie changed significantly. He had thought that becoming a demon after descending from the Heavenly Realm to the human world was of no consequence, as there was no one who remembered him anyway. It seemed he had been wrong. He had not expected that his nature would leave an impression on the Third Prince of the West Sea Dragon King.

"I didn’t expect you would remember me," Sha Wujing said with a light smile. "I thought that aside from at Chaos Residence, no one would remember me anywhere. It seems I was mistaken."

"You shouldn’t think like that, General," Ao Lie consoled Sha Wujing. "Since His Majesty promoted you to the Heavenly Realm as the Curtain Lifting General, you must certainly have some remarkable qualities."

"Besides, while you might not have had a strong presence in the Heavenly Realm, you had quite a few followers. If you had stayed in the Heavenly Realm, you might have ended up in a position not inferior to Marshal Tian Peng’s." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Tian Peng turned to look at Little White Dragon. "Hey, Third Prince, you can’t comfort someone like that. Where does that put me?"

"Sorry," Ao Lie said apologetically to Tian Peng with a smile. "But I’m not trying to belittle one and flatter another. I truly believe that your status before your descent was no match for that of an ordinary divine official."

That was indeed true, and Tian Peng nodded in satisfaction before looking at Sha Wujing. "When you were banished, I don’t think I was yet Marshal Tian Peng. I must have just taken up a post somewhere else. What led to your banishment to the human world?"

"At a Flat Peach Banquet, I accidentally shattered the Queen Mother’s Glazed Cup," Sha Wujing said.

"The Glazed Cup? Just because of a Glazed Cup?" Tian Peng was puzzled. The Glazed Cup was a common item, not something rare. Moreover, even if he had accidently shattered a Glazed Cup, that hardly seemed like reason enough for banishment to the human world.

Could it be that this Glazed Cup was exceptionally valuable?

Seeing through what Tian Peng was thinking, Sha Wujing explained: "That Glazed Cup was just a regular Glazed Cup."

The vessels used at the Flat Peach Banquet for greeting those of higher rank were all Glazed Cups. Given how ordinary the Glazed Cup was, and considering that Sha Wujing himself held a position that was not low, it seemed unjustifiable that he was banished over breaking a Glazed Cup.

"How did you come to break the Glazed Cup, General?" Ao Lie also didn’t quite understand and shared Tian Peng’s thoughts. It was just a common item. How could the Jade Emperor become so angry over a Glazed Cup that he would banish the Curtain Lifting General to the human world?

"It happened when I took the wine that a fairy handed me and accidentally shattered it," Sha Wujing answered.

That indeed sounded like a very ordinary incident. A shattered Glazed Cup could have been repaired by a specialized divine official, or at worst simply discarded.

That was the Curtain Lifting General, not a fairy attendant serving others. It was truly baffling that one could be banished to the human world over such a trivial matter.

"If it really was just because you accidentally broke the Glazed Cup, then that seems rather excessive," Tian Peng remarked. "What was the Jade Emperor thinking? Just because he’s the Jade Emperor, that doesn’t mean he can do whatever he pleases based on his whims, right?"

Sha Wujing chuckled lightly, much like Tian Peng who could speak of his own matters so indifferently.

He no longer felt that this was the kind of issue to begrudge or seethe with anger over. After all, it had been so many years, and he had long since stopped caring about it.

"You fool, I’m getting worked up on your behalf and you’re laughing," Tian Peng glared at Sha Wujing.

"That’s why I’ve always said it’s better to stick with the Shopkeeper. At least the Shopkeeper doesn’t lose his temper at people for no reason, and he certainly wouldn’t have done this. Is this the sort of thing a person does?"

"He’s the Jade Emperor, and if we’re being serious, he can’t really be considered human," Sha Wujing said earnestly.

"Am I not essentially speaking in your defense here!" Tian Peng reached out and gave Sha Wujing a thump on the head.

After hitting Sha Wujing, Tian Peng felt like he had let off quite a bit of steam.

No wonder Mr. Monkey liked to smack himself from time to time; it turned out that lecturing someone was indeed quite satisfying. Tian Peng watched Sha Wujing, waiting for him to slip up again.

"I’ve already let go of that matter, so it really doesn’t mean much to me anymore. Even if it comes up, I can talk about it calmly," Sha Wujing said.

Indeed, since he could talk about the matter so nonchalantly, it seemed Sha Wujing had truly let it go.

"However, I can’t help but feel that the two of you have a lot in common," Little White Dragon suddenly chimed in.

He had been listening to Tian Peng’s troubles and thought Tian Peng might just have had bad luck and accidentally incurred the Jade Emperor’s wrath, or maybe the Jade Emperor had intentionally set out to punish Tian Peng.

But after Sha Wujing finished telling his story, Little White Dragon felt something was increasingly off.

If one didn’t delve into the specifics, on the surface, Tian Peng’s and Sha Wujing’s misfortunes did seem remarkably similar.

Tian Peng hadn’t thought in that direction; he felt that their issues had been separated by several hundred years. "Hey, why think so much, it’s probably just a coincidence," he said.

"If you want to talk about similarities, I think your experiences are quite alike," Sha Wujing said, comparing Tian Peng’s experiences with Little White Dragon’s, rather than his own.

Because the two stories were indeed similar. Regardless of Little White Dragon’s status, and the fact that he hadn’t been banished to the mortal world, being punished for a wrongdoing was quite normal, so it hadn’t warranted much thought.

But now, the few of them gathered together had all encountered mistakes and received punishment, and their coming together was also just a chance occurrence, which was starting to seem a little too hard to explain.

None of the three had considered their own experiences in this light; they looked at the other two and thought the similarities were striking.

"Hold on, don’t say anything; let me think this through."

After a bit of discussion, Tian Peng raised a hand to silence everyone.

The room fell quiet as they all pondered the matter. To call it a mere coincidence seemed far too convenient.

Tian Peng couldn’t hold back and called out to Chen Nuo’s retreating figure: "Shopkeeper, I need to talk to you."

Chen Nuo was busy grilling meat over the stove and had, of course, heard their conversation.

He had been planning to slowly explain things to them, but unexpectedly, they had come to the realization on their own. This saved him the trouble of having to explain.

"I’m busy." The meat Chen Nuo was cooking wasn’t ready yet, and he genuinely didn’t have the time to discuss these matters with them.

"But Shopkeeper, we just made a pretty unbelievable discovery. Don’t you want to hear about it?" Tian Peng said. "This matter is just too incredible; I could never have dreamed of such a coincidence occurring."