Ch 93: The Malevolent Monster Just Wants To Farm

“That’s me.”

“I’ve heard you were exiled to the Abyss of Desolation. How then are you able to enter my dream?” Emperor Yi asked.

Jiang Lin replied, “Just a small trick. Since Your Majesty rules the mortal realm, you must be aware of some secrets?”

“Oh? What secrets?” Emperor Yi inquired.

“For instance, in the distant ancient times, long before humanity existed, my Dragon Clan was the ruler of heaven and earth.”

Emperor Yi’s expression remained unchanged. “But this is no longer the ancient era, and the masters of heaven and earth have long since changed.”

“True,” Jiang Lin nodded, admitting it frankly, “I’m not here to reminisce about the glory of the past.”

“I mentioned this only to remind Your Majesty of one fact.”

Emperor Yi looked at the dignified prince of the Dragon Clan, already guessing what he was about to say.

Sure enough, Jiang Lin continued, “Nothing lasts forever.”

“Even the mighty Dragon Clan has fallen to such a state. But our long lifespan gives us time to wait for a chance to rise again. The Shang dynasty, however, cannot afford to wait.”

Emperor Yi stood with his hands behind his back, “The Shang dynasty is currently strong, with flourishing national fortune. I don’t believe your words.”

As a human emperor, he could also sense the fortune of the human race.

“The rise of humanity is inevitable. No matter how much the Heavenly Court schemes, it cannot rule the mortal realm.”

Jiang Lin smiled.

Emperor Yi frowned, “What are you smiling at?”

Jiang Lin said, “The Heavenly Court may not be able to rule the mortal realm, but changing a royal family or a monarch is not such a strange thing.”

Knowing he had said enough for today, Jiang Lin concluded, “It’s getting late; Your Majesty should return. If you have further need, just call for Ao Bing in your heart before you sleep.”

As he finished speaking, Emperor Yi watched as the green-robed celestial being, along with everything around him, rippled like water and dissolved into tiny fragments of gold, disappearing from sight.

He awoke from his dream.

A palace servant stood quietly outside the curtains, softly calling, “Your Majesty, it’s time to rise.”

In a small courtyard in Chentang Pass, a young man dressed in green appeared out of nowhere.

Huaiyin and the others were delighted to see him. “Master!”

Qingluo, with tears in her eyes, asked, “Daddy, was that abyss place hard to bear?”

Jiang Lin thought for a moment and shook his head, “It wasn’t too bad, actually. Quite peaceful, not uncomfortable.”

This was merely one of his external incarnations, which he had prepared long before heading to the Heavenly Court. It was infused with a small part of Jiang Lin’s divine soul, allowing him to control this body. Though it was weaker in power, he hadn’t intended to use it for combat anyway, so its strength wasn’t particularly important.

The local official in Chentang Pass had already been replaced.

Li Jing, the former official, had not reported the three-year drought in Chentang Pass, which, along with the incident involving the Third Prince of the Dragon Clan, angered Emperor Yi, who dismissed him from his position and exiled his family to a remote border post.

He gained nothing from the Heavenly Court for this matter, and with a hundred-year pact binding Nezha to Jiang Lin, the outcome of the future Investiture of the Gods remained uncertain.

Jiang Lin thought that at the very least, Li Jing’s title as “Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King” would likely never be realized.

While his incarnation acted in the mortal realm, Jiang Lin’s true form wasn’t idle in the Abyss of Desolation.

The Abyss of Desolation truly deserved its reputation as the “Graveyard of Gods.”

As soon as Jiang Lin entered, he noticed that some law in the place had restricted all his divine power. He couldn’t use any of his abilities and could only walk forward on foot.

The place was dim, with no end in sight, the ground strewn with jagged rocks and sparse, scattered vegetation.

After an hour of walking, Jiang Lin encountered his first person.

Or rather, the first god.

He was a man with disheveled hair, hanging upside down from a tree, swaying with his eyes closed. As he sensed footsteps approaching, he slowly opened his eyes and glanced at Jiang Lin, revealing a mysterious smile. “Another one here to wait for death,” he said before closing his eyes again. When Jiang Lin tried to speak with him, the man remained silent.

Jiang Lin could only continue walking. Not long after, he encountered an elderly god with white hair and a white robe. The old god, with a kind and benevolent appearance, was sitting in meditation on a large rock. Seeing Jiang Lin, he was somewhat surprised. “You’re so young. What grave mistake did you commit to be exiled here?”

Jiang Lin answered him.

The old god sighed, “The Heavenly Court has become increasingly harsh these days.”

He was quite a talkative god and told Jiang Lin many things about the Abyss of Desolation.

“There’s no point in walking further. When I first arrived, I walked for thousands of years with no end in sight. It’s useless. There’s no direction here, no end. No matter how long you walk, the scenery remains the same, and don’t even think about escaping.”

“We don’t feel hunger here, we don’t need sleep, but we also can’t feel any happiness. We’re doomed to watch the same scene forever. When I first arrived, I had a companion. He couldn’t take it and would self-harm daily, using pain to remind himself he was still alive. Eventually, he went mad. I never saw him again.”

Jiang Lin bid the old god farewell and continued walking. He found a sparse grove, and to his surprise, the grove had a few fruit trees, with some fungi growing on the dead tree trunks.

Jiang Lin decided to settle there for the time being.

xxx

Emperor Yi couldn’t forget the dream he had that night. After court, as he looked at his virtuous wife and his newborn prince, his mind was filled with Jiang Lin’s words: “the last king of the Shang dynasty.”

Would his son, Zishou, become the king who would bring down the dynasty? Was it Heaven’s will for the Shang dynasty to fall?

At that time, a subordinate brought him secret news.

The Marquis of the West, Ji Chang, had passed by Mount Qi and heard the cry of a phoenix, surrounded by a flock of birds circling him before they flew away. This was considered an auspicious omen. Ji Chang was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat and ordered his followers to suppress the news. But some of his closest attendants were Emperor Yi’s informants, and they quickly brought the information to him.

Emperor Yi was a kind and benevolent ruler. In ordinary times, he would have simply laughed at the Marquis’s excessive caution. But now, recalling Jiang Lin’s words from his dream, he couldn’t help but connect the two.

Sometimes, a small seed of doubt and hesitation can be the beginning of everything.

The Marquis of the West was known for his benevolence and love for the people, and he was well respected in his territory. He had connections with many other vassals, and his subordinates were quite capable.

…

As Jiang Lin was manually chiseling out his first stone pot, he finally heard Emperor Yi’s summons.

When Emperor Yi saw the Third Prince of the Dragon Clan again, he asked, “What do you want?”

Jiang Lin did not hide his intentions. “The Dragon Clan seeks to save itself. To achieve this, we are willing to do everything in our power to protect your Shang dynasty.”

“What do I need to offer?” Emperor Yi asked.

Jiang Lin replied without hesitation, “An alliance with the Dragon Clan. I am willing to become the dragon vein that safeguards the fortune of your capital, Zhaoge. From now on, the Shang dynasty will use the Dragon Clan as its totem, sharing a portion of its fortune with us. The Dragon Clan will then break free from the control of the Heavenly Court and coexist with humanity.”

The rise of humanity was something that the sages observed closely, but ultimately, these lofty beings had never truly regarded the short-lived humans with any importance. Rather than lowering themselves to cooperate with mortals, they preferred to remain as the masters of the chessboard, controlling the fates of the pieces.

Having once been “mortal” himself, Jiang Lin did not share this condescending attitude and did not view cooperating with humanity as a humiliation.

Emperor Yi noticed that Jiang Lin spoke of coexisting with humanity, not just with the Shang dynasty, but he did not comment on it. He simply said, “We must both swear an oath to Heaven and Earth.”

This Heaven and Earth were bound by the laws of the world, unrelated to the Heavenly Court.

Jiang Lin nodded, “Naturally.”

Emperor Yi was concerned about trickery, and Jiang Lin was equally cautious about a mere verbal agreement. The two made a solemn vow to Heaven and Earth.

Only then did Emperor Yi ask, “In this so-called heavenly plan you mentioned, is Ji Chang the next ruler of humanity?”

He brought up the tale of the phoenix crying on Mount Qi.

Jiang Lin chuckled, a hint of mockery in his smile. “A phoenix?”

“Long ago, after the calamity of the dragons and phoenixes, the phoenixes were wiped out. The Heavenly Court created a flock of fake phoenixes and luan birds under the guise of a divine decree to bolster their own prestige.”

“By the looks of it, they’ve already begun crafting a new king’s narrative?”