Chapter 184 - 180: Kongming Borrows Arrows with a Cunning Plan
But say the brothers had waited at Flower-Fruit Mountain for many months and still saw no sign of the other three Sea Dragon Kings coming to seek vengeance, and they couldn’t help but be astonished.
The Jiao Demon King thus specially instructed the Dragon Whale to return to the North Sea to investigate, and it turned out that the North Sea had already been divided between the West Sea Dragon King and the Eastern Sea Dragon King, with a portion given to the South Sea Dragon King. It came to be that Guangze Dragon King Ao Shun’s territory was completely divided among the three brothers, and they did not even consider seeking revenge, which was truly a source of both tears and laughter.
However, this allowed the Jiao Demon King to breathe a sigh of relief. It seemed that these Dragon Kings were not planning to give him any trouble. Ao Shun’s death didn’t seem to pose a problem.
Naturally, he did not know that behind this was Great Emperor Zhenwu smoothing things over for his named disciple, and since these three Dragon Kings coveted the territories of the North Sea, they naturally increased their mana and cultivation after dividing it.
As the immortals lived their days, they paid no heed to the years, and without realizing it, Yuan Shi Immortal Monarch had been teaching the Dao for many years now.
Since Enlightenment Dao obtained the fifth Swallowing Dragon Stele, he had been contemplating it day and night, while concurrently cultivating the Divine Skills of the Indestructible Realm. The Jiao Demon King’s mana was high among the brothers, and recently he succeeded in purifying his Primordial Spirit in the Sea of Thunder, although not as profoundly as Enlightenment Dao who ventured into the deeper part of the Sea of Thunder for violent thunder purification, just at the periphery. Even so, staying at the periphery still proved to be an extremely difficult ordeal for him.
But say Liu Bei truly lived in extreme frustration, first joining Gong Sun Zan, then Tao Qian, followed by Lu Bu, and then Cao Cao. Afterward, he joined Yuan Shao, and only by clinging to Liu Biao was he able to scrape by, and then later he pulled together some troops and crossed the river to seek refuge with Eastern Wu. Meanwhile, Yuan Shao, a man of great luck, was defeated by Cao Cao, with Yuan Shao’s luck also converging on Cao Cao, making Cao’s luck peerless for a time.
Luckily, Liu Bei had invited the disciples of Ghost Valley, Mozi, and Zou Zi, who were Human Sages: Zhuge Liang came down from the hills. Zhuge Liang himself had ambitions to become a marquis and a senior official, and although he appeared indifferent to fame and fortune like a hermit, he was already famous. Xu Shu was coerced by Cao Cao and thus turned to the North, where he recommended Zhuge Liang before leaving. Liu Bei visited the cottage three times, and was finally able to invite the sleeping dragon to help the world.
Zhuge Liang had overflowing talent; he seemed indifferent to fame and wealth but was constantly building his reputation. Now, with a distinguished patron coming to his door, Zhuge Liang, in order to raise his value, waited until the third invitation to leave with Liu Bei, to aid him.
After crossing the river, he debated with numerous scholars and managed to persuade Eastern Wu to ally with Liu Bei to resist Cao Cao.
During this period, some minor events also occurred, such as Zhuang Zhou disguising himself as Zuo Ci, frolicking in the human world, making a fool out of Cao Cao, and leaving him covered in dirt. He also took a person named Ge Xuan as a disciple and passed down Laojun’s "Taiqing Alchemy Scripture" and other texts before drifting away. Since the Buddhist sect saw him not interfering in national destiny, they let it be. Moreover, Yuan Shi and Tathagata were preaching and teaching, so naturally, they caused no trouble for each other. Earlier, the destiny of Sun Ce of Eastern Wu had been sealed, with a star reincarnating as Yu Ji, causing Sun Ce’s destiny to run out, leading to an untimely death. Before this, Heart Moon Fox had incarnated as Diao Chan, severing the luck of Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu, and had already reincarnated. No need to mention further.