Journey to the West: Sun Wukong's Advice System
Chapter 200 The Grand Finale of the Journey to the West

Chapter 200: Chapter 200 The Grand Finale of the Journey to the West

"Your Majesty," Sun Wukong said with a smile, "I believe Ao Lie’s words are true; there is something suspicious about this matter. Your Majesty possesses the wisdom to judge people; after all, it was you who personally decreed the appointment of the Jinghe Dragon King as the Great Dragon God of Rain and the overseer of the eight rivers in the Southern Nanfanbuzhou.

He has been graced by the heavens multiple times and would not dare to disappoint Your Majesty’s expectations.

As I have been idle lately, why not let me go to the mortal realm first to investigate, before Your Majesty makes a final decision?"

Upon hearing these words, Taibai Venus secretly praised them; the Great Sage truly is a fellow of high ability, taking on the mistake made by Ao Lie upon himself to prevent his disciple from facing Your Majesty’s reprimand.

And he further mentioned Your Majesty’s wisdom in recognizing talent before proposing that he, one of the Four Imperial Great Emperors, personally descend to the mortal realm to investigate the matter. For the sake of maintaining Your Majesty’s reputation for having such wisdom, you would surely agree.

If indeed any problem should be found, then it could be said that the Jinghe Dragon King was ungrateful and deserved the severest punishment.

As expected, the Jade Emperor just raised his hand and tapped the desk, saying in a deep voice, "In that case, let you, Ziwei Great Emperor, and the Martial Virtue Star Lord go down to the mortal realm together for a visit."

Sun Wukong bowed with a smile.

The Martial Virtue Star Lord performed a respectful salute.

Subsequently, they left the Tongming Hall and departed for the mortal realm.

Ao Lie took leave and followed them as well.

After they left, the Jade Emperor sighed, "Do I really have the wisdom to judge people?"

Taibai Venus said cheerfully, "Your Majesty is a supremely enlightened ruler, capable of discerning good from evil, loyalty from treachery at a glance."

The Jade Emperor shook his head: "But I can’t even discern the people around me."

Taibai Venus’s expression changed dramatically, and he quickly spoke with trepidation, "Your humble servant is absolutely loyal to Your Majesty, the Heavenly Dao can testify to it!"

The Jade Emperor glanced at him, "What are you panicking about? I wasn’t talking about you."

Taibai Venus wiped away his exaggerated sweat, knowing of course that the Jade Emperor was not referring to him, but to Lord Tianyou before, and to the Martial Virtue Star Lord just now.

Of course, it’s not to say that these two were utterly treacherous.

Lord Tianyou had always been secretly following the commands of the Ziwei Great Emperor, but he certainly wasn’t from the demonic cults; otherwise, he would not have been entrusted with guarding the North Ming territory.

As for the Martial Virtue Star Lord’s eagerness in reporting the Jinghe Dragon King’s unauthorized changes to the rain schedule, guessing who was behind that was not difficult.

The reason why His Majesty the Jade Emperor allowed this matter to proceed was nothing but the four words "Heavenly Dao cultivates Buddhism," and it was a necessity.

"It’s fortunate that we have the Ziwei Great Emperor, the North Pole Celestial Honorable Great Sage Equalling Heaven, Sun Wukong," concluded Taibai Venus with a sigh.

...

For this journey to the mortal realm, naturally, Sun Wukong was in charge, with the Martial Virtue Star Lord respectfully following by his side, not daring to speak too much.

With Sun Wukong’s status and position evident, he naturally wouldn’t initiate conversation with him, and now was not the time to reprimand his disciple, either.

Having realized his mistake, Ao Lie was engaged in self-blame.

Hence, the trio proceeded in silence.

In his mind, Sun Wukong reasoned; he felt that the Jade Emperor’s attitude towards this matter was somewhat off. Anyone with clear eyes could see that there was more to this affair than met the eye, yet the Jade Emperor was quick to sentence the Jinghe Dragon King to death.

"Hmm, since the disappearance of the Jinghe Dragon King is related to the pilgrimage to the West, could it be that the Buddha Sect had a hand in it?"

"If it indeed was the work of the Buddha Sect, could it be that the Jade Emperor, hindered by the ’Heavenly Dao cultivates Buddhism,’ did it on purpose?"

With these thoughts in mind, he deemed it wiser to first consult his friends on Zhihu; with that, he immediately made a post on Zhihu.

"I am Sun Wukong, and I just learned that the Jinghe Dragon King has gone missing," he said. "Preliminary findings show he altered the timing for rain, bringing disaster to the human world. His Majesty the Jade Emperor intends to sentence him to death, but I believe there’s more to this case. What do you all elders think?"

At the same time, he attached the details of Ao Lie seeking his help and the fact that he was going to descend to the lower realm to investigate with the Martial Virtue Star Lord as part of the question.

Soon, many netizens replied.

Pressing the Starry River’s Clear Dream: "The Jinghe Dragon King really is the most unlucky dragon in the Journey to the West haha, the poster isn’t even following the original timeline, yet his fate remains unchanged."

Anonymous User Number Four: "The timing is off. The death of the Jinghe Dragon King heralded the beginning of the Journey to the West. But looking at the poster’s simulated timeline, it’s still early for the Journey to the West."

Jin Qiming Now: "Tampering with the timing the same way, it’s hard to say it wasn’t the work of the Buddha Sect,"

considering that brother Monkey refused to be the scripture-seeker in person, and the Jade Emperor doesn’t need to rope in the Buddha Sect to restrain the Chan Teaching, the Buddha Sect might change their transmission of the law under these circumstances.

And by the ordained fate, it is indeed possible for the Buddha Sect to target the Jinghe Dragon King first."

"Is the Jinghe Dragon King that closely related to the Journey to the West?" Sun Wukong was surprised and quickly followed up with a request for the netizens to elaborate on the Jinghe Dragon King.

I’m Just a TT: "How to put it, the Jinghe Dragon King is quite powerful. He is a versatile existence, deeply connected with both the Dao Sect and the Buddha Sect of the Three Realms, as well as other forces.

Firstly, his wife is the sister of the Sea Dragon King of the West, meaning he has connections to the most top-tier dragon king through marriage.

Besides, he has four sons in charge of the four streams—Jiang, He, Huai, and Ji—which are second only to the Four Seas,

and his other four sons are also involved in key departments of the Dao Sect, Buddha Sect, and Heavenly Court. For instance, the fifth son serves as the Buddha’s timekeeper, and the seventh son holds up the Splendid Pillar for His Majesty the Jade Emperor. Only the youngest, the ninth son, a turtle dragon, remains unemployed at home."

The Taciturn Sanzang: "From the brother’s description above, it seems the Jinghe Dragon King’s family is somewhat similar to Li Jing’s family in the Heavenly Court.

It’s just that Li Jing’s network involves top figures across various forces, while the Jinghe Dragon King’s network involves mid to high-level figures."

Still Thinking of Her: "Don’t just talk about relationships. The Jinghe Dragon King himself is no simple character either. He is known as the overseer of the eight rivers,

and aside from the Dragon Kings of the Four Seas, his control over watery regions is the largest, and he has great power over the rain and clouds for the Southern Jambūdvīpa continent.

And where are the eight rivers under his control? They are around Chang’an, which is the capital of many human dynasties and one of the places where the human race’s destiny converges most!"

After reading these responses, Sun Wukong scratched his face: "Interesting."

He started to understand why the Buddha Sect might have targeted the Jinghe Dragon King first.

The Buddha Sect needs the fortune of the human path, to spread the Buddhist Law to the Southern Jambūdvīpa continent, to gain the faith of the human race.

And the Jinghe Dragon King probably has some kind of inseparable connection with the human dynasties; certain things must be accomplished by this old dragon.

Sure enough, a netizen later mentioned this point.

Open Sesame: "It feels like in the original timeline, the Buddha Sect set up the Jinghe Dragon King to make a mistake with the timing, and then had the official Wei Zheng kill him. This was likely to scare Emperor Taizong of Tang.

Since he oversaw the clouds and rain for the human race and was responsible for the rivers around the imperial capital of Chang’an, he was surely recognized by the human path, capable of approaching the human race’s emperor protected by human destiny. Other ghosts and spirits wouldn’t be able to do that.

The sovereign’s destiny might not be as strong as that of a human king, but it was definitely beyond the reach of ghosts and spirits."

Subspace: "That makes sense. It’s like when Nu Wa sent the three demons from Xuanyuan Tomb to Chaoge, those demons lived on top of the tomb of the human emperor Xuanyuan, equally unopposed by the human path, capable of approaching King Di Xin."

"So that’s how it is." Sun Wukong realized, and everything made sense now.

However, now that the timeline has changed, what is the Buddha Sect’s plan regarding the Jinghe Dragon King? What purpose do they intend to achieve through this old dragon?