Taoist Myth: I am the last true immortal in the world

Chapter 596 Nezha
In the early morning of spring, dewdrops are scattered, like glass beads dotted among the colorful flowers.

Chen Yun walked slowly to the outer courtyard and saw Liao Taizong Yelu Deguang sitting there waiting with a pale face.

Around Emperor Taizong of Liao were some civil and military officials and guards, including officials such as Yang Yuanguang and Zhu Yanshou.

In addition, Erlang Shen, the Seven Saints of Meishan, Niu Dali and Jiao Daoren all hid their bodies and watched from the sidelines.

Chen Yun could see them, but those mortals could not.

As soon as Yelu Deguang saw Chen Yun coming out, his haggard face immediately brightened up.

He stood up, walked over quickly, and said eagerly, "Mr. Chen, you kept me waiting for a long time."

Yang Yuanguang, Zhu Yanshou and others followed and greeted with fawning smiles.

In the past, Chen Yun would have been very polite and said something like "forgive me", but today he acted very cold.

He asked in return: "Your Majesty is not in the palace and is busy with all kinds of affairs. What important matter do you have to come here for?"

As a great leader, Yelu Deguang naturally could not fail to hear the change in attitude in Chen Yun's tone.

You seemed very polite a while ago, but why are your tones so cold today?
Yelu Deguang's heart skipped a beat, and he felt that the information provided by Yang Yuanguang, Zhu Yanshou and others was very likely to be true.

Chen Yun indeed believed that he did not have the ambition to bring his disciples and all the sacred things of the Guanjiang Erlang Temple to surrender to the Southern Dynasty!
Not only Emperor Taizong of Liao thought so, but Yang Yuanguang, Zhu Yanshou and others standing behind him also looked at each other and became more anxious.

Yelu Deguang became very nervous, but pretended to be calm and said, "I came to see you, sir, because I have some important matters to discuss."

Chen Yun frowned and said, "Your Majesty, you are here at a really bad time. I have something to do and need to go on a long journey."

Yelu Deguang didn't dare to let Chen Yun leave, so he immediately said eagerly: "Sir, I have been waiting here for three days. Can you spare some time to chat with me?"

"Yes, Mr. Chen."

"Your Majesty has not slept for three days and three nights, just to see you."

Yang Yuanguang, Zhu Yanshou and others all offered to help.

Chen Yun seemed determined to leave. "It's not that I'm being rude, I just have something to do."

Zhu Yanshou quickly stepped forward and said, "Mr. Chen, His Majesty will not waste too much of your time. Please stay for a moment, okay?"

Chen Yun pretended to be very hesitant and turned his head to look at the inner courtyard. "This...how about you wait for me to discuss it with Brother Erlang?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Erlang Shen appeared, understanding the meaning.

He walked out of the inner courtyard in military uniform, "Brother, what do you want to discuss with me?"

"Meet King Akagi."

"Meet King Akagi."

Everyone saluted.

Chen Yun pointed at Yelu Deguang and said, "Your Majesty has something to discuss with me. I am in a hurry to send you brothers back to the south, so I want to ask if you can delay for a moment?"

Erlang Shen frowned, then relaxed his brows and said, "Nothing to do for a moment, don't delay too long."

Chen Yun nodded and said, "Good."

As he said this, he looked at Yelu Deguang and said, "Your Majesty, I only have time for a cup of tea."

Seeing that time was running out, Yelu Deguang waved his hand to Yang Yuanguang, Zhu Yanshou and others, "You guys step aside first, and let me discuss important matters with Mr. Chen and the Prince of Chicheng."

Yang Yuanguang, Zhu Yanshou and others responded and turned to walk out the door.

When there were only three people left in the courtyard, Yelu Deguang lost all his imperial dignity and said with tears in his eyes: "Mr. Chen, I know you want to leave me, so today I came here to ask you and King Chicheng to stay."

Chen Yun was silent.

Erlang Shen pretended that he heard nothing and looked up at the sky.

Seeing this, Yelu Deguang hurriedly continued, "As long as the two of you stay, I am willing to listen to your advice."

Chen Yun sighed and said, "Your Majesty, you are the emperor of a country, why do you have to do this? As the saying goes, people with different ideals cannot work together. Since you and I have different opinions, it is not a good idea to continue to get along with each other. Instead of doing this, let's part ways in peace."

Yelu Deguang said, "There is no disagreement, Mr. Chen. I have carefully thought about your proposal for a long time these days. I think you are right. If we do not march south, other countries will think that we, the Khitan, are afraid of the Southern Dynasty. Therefore, as long as you are willing, I will immediately gather troops and march south before the end of the year."

Chen Yun still shook his head and said, "You don't need to gamble with the fate of the Khitan. The Jin Dynasty is now strong and powerful. If we rashly send troops, we may be devoured by them. Your Majesty's previous decision was also responsible for the millions of Khitan people. I can understand it, but I have discussed it with Brother Erlang. Staying here will not achieve any achievements. It is better to return to the mountain and concentrate on cultivation."

Erlang Shen interrupted at the right time and said, "I just happened to have some enlightenment and want to break through the way of heaven and man. Your Majesty, I am afraid I cannot stay for long. Please forgive me."

Yelu Deguang was not a fool. Although Chen Yun and Erlang Shen said they were leaving to return to the mountain to practice, he had long heard from Yang Yuanguang, Zhu Yanshou and others that Huashan Sanlang had leaked the news while drunk. He was sure that Chen Yun and Erlang Shen were going to go south to join the Jin Dynasty, so he naturally refused to let them leave.

However, Chen Yun and Erlang Shen now seemed determined to part ways, and it seemed that nothing he said would be of any use.

This made Yelu Deguang extremely anxious. His knees suddenly weakened and he knelt down, crying bitterly: "Mr. Chen, you are my Guan Zhong and Yue Yi. If you leave me, I will regret it for the rest of my life. Please stay and help me succeed. I beg you!"

Chen Yun seemed very stunned. He stretched out his hand to help Yelu Deguang up, and said with a wry smile: "Your Majesty is the ruler of a country, how can you kneel down?"

Yelu Deguang said sincerely: "As long as you are willing to stay and help me, Khitan, let alone let me kneel down, even if I die, what's the harm?"

Chen Yun couldn't help but sigh, "Your Majesty, you..."

Seeing that Chen Yun seemed to be wavering, Yelu Deguang quickly struck while the iron was hot and said, "Mr. Chen, since I beg you so earnestly, please stay."

Chen Yun pretended to be in a dilemma and turned to look at Erlang Shen. "Second brother, what do you think we should do?"

Erlang Shen deliberately did not answer immediately. After a moment's silence, he also sighed and said, "Your Majesty is the ruler of a country and is willing to kneel down to ask me to stay. My dear brother, why don't you stay?"

Chen Yun said: "But..."

Yelu Deguang said hurriedly, "I have already ordered people to recruit soldiers and allocate food and grass. Once everything is ready, we can march south. Mr. Chen, that Shi Chonggui kid is really arrogant. I hope you can join the army to fight him and vent my anger. Afterwards, I will definitely reward you generously."

Chen Yun was still very hesitant, "I have already made an agreement with Brother Erlang..."

Erlang Shen smiled and said, "It's nothing. I think your majesty has really made up his mind this time. It won't hurt for us to lend him a helping hand and see how the situation develops."

Yelu Deguang assured: "I will not hesitate. I will do whatever Mr. Chen and the King of Chicheng say."

Chen Yun's face became better, and he suggested: "It's okay for me to stay, but I have to make three rules. If you can do it, I will stay and help you."

Yelu Deguang said politely, "Sir, you can talk as you please."

Chen Yun said: "First, I am willing to do my best to help Khitan. At that time, I may ask many noble and sacred people to help. Therefore, Your Majesty cannot stop the war halfway."

Yelu Deguang said: "Good."

Chen Yun nodded slightly and said, "Secondly, if you lead your army south to attack the city, Your Majesty must restrain your subordinates and not harm civilians."

Yelu Deguang said without hesitation: "I know."

Chen Yun said with great satisfaction: "Finally, if Brother Erlang and I can really help His Majesty to establish his rule in the Central Plains, this shrine..."

Yelu Deguang said cleverly: "I will issue an imperial decree to inform the world that you two sacred figures will be worshipped and enshrined in the name of the imperial court."

Chen Yun said, "Your Majesty agreed so readily. It would be disloyal for me to refuse again. Well, Brother Erlang and I will stay here."

Yelu Deguang was overjoyed and flattered him, saying, "With the help of Mr. Chen and King Chicheng, why should we, the Khitan, worry about destroying the Jin Dynasty in the south?" Chen Yun and Erlang Shen laughed and their attitudes immediately became enthusiastic. They pulled Yelu Deguang aside to chat for a while.

In the end, Chen Yun asked Yelu Deguang to return to the palace and have a good rest on the grounds that he had not slept for three days.

Yelu Deguang did not act pretentiously. He agreed and said goodbye.

……

As soon as Yelu Deguang and his men left, the Seven Saints of Meishan, Niu Dali, Jiao Taoist and others appeared one after another.

Huashan Sanlang asked with a hint of doubt: "Brother Chen, you just said that we would destroy the Jin Dynasty and let the Khitan Emperor offer sacrifices and worship us in the name of the court. Could it be that... you are really going to help the Khitan succeed?"

Guo Yazhi, Da Wang and others looked over with great curiosity.

Erlang Shen had the same look.

Chen Yun smiled and said, "In my opinion, it is difficult for the Khitan to accomplish anything. The reason why I made such a request is to gain the trust of the Khitan emperor. If we don't ask for anything, how can he believe that we will wholeheartedly help him destroy the Jin Dynasty?"

"I see."

"I thought Brother Chen was ready to take root in Khitan."

Guo Yazhi, Huashan Sanlang and others suddenly realized.

Erlang Shen said, "My dear brother, the Khitan Emperor has now agreed to let us lead our army south. Should we make some plans?"

Chen Yun said: "Well, let's go to the guest hall to discuss it."

Erlang Shen said, "Okay."

After saying that, a group of people walked towards the living room in a mighty manner.

……

In the room.

The holy ones sat down in two rows.

On the left are Niu Dali, Jiao Daoren and others.

On the right are the Seven Saints of Meishan and several main gods of Erlang Temple.

Chen Yun and Erlang Shen sat in the front, one on the left and one on the right.

Erlang Shen said: "We need to discuss the route of the Khitan army's march and the route of resistance against the Jin Dynasty army. Then I will have a rough idea of ​​what kind of sacred things are there."

Chen Yun said: "This is easy."

"Brother Chen, can you guess it?"

"If you can really guess it, then we can save a lot of trouble."

Guo Yazhi, Huashan Sanlang and others said.

Niu Dali, Jiao Daoren and others all looked towards Chen Yun.

Chen Yun did not say anything, but snapped his fingers, and a wisp of Dan Qi burst out from the middle.

This wisp of Dan Qi swirled in the air and gradually condensed into a map of Khitan and Later Jin.

Every city and boundary line is clearly marked above.

Erlang Shen, Huashan Sanlang, Niu Dali and others all looked over.

Chen Yun stood up and walked to the virtual map transformed by Dan Qi. He pointed to several cities on it and said, "When the Khitans dispatch troops, they will definitely mobilize them from the cities where troops are stationed, such as Shanhou Gui, Miyun, Pingzhou and Yunzhou. Because of the location relationship between the Khitans and the Jin Dynasty, I think there will be two offensive routes. The first one will start from the southern capital, that is, Yanjing, and move steadily towards Mozhou, Shenzhou and Jizhou. The other part will start from Yunzhou and head towards Xinzhou, Liaozhou and Luzhou. If the second route is opened, it can form a pincer attack with the army starting from Yanjing, and swallow up most of the territory of the Jin Dynasty in one fell swoop. By then, the Jin Dynasty will only have the area south of Bianjing. Shi Chonggui will have to either flee south or open the city and surrender. There is no other way."

Erlang Shen stared at it carefully for a while and praised: "My dear brother, what you said is very true. From my observation, the Khitan army should only have these two marching routes. Otherwise, they can only send troops from Bohai Sea. However, the Khitan army is not good at naval warfare, so this possibility is almost impossible."

Niu Dali, Guo Yazhi, Da Wang and others were listening attentively.

Only Huashan Sanlang frowned and said, "I remember that the one guarding Taiyuan now is Taiyuan King Liu Zhiyuan. He is very good at marching and fighting. I think no one in the Khitan army can defeat him."

Chen Yun agreed with Huashan Sanlang's opinion. "That's right. Liu Zhiyuan is a master of war. No one in the Khitan army can be his opponent. But don't forget one thing. He once followed Shi Jingtang in a rebellion and seized the foundation of the Later Tang Dynasty. If the Khitan army launched a large-scale attack on the Jin Dynasty and showed a tendency to destroy the country, if you were Liu Zhiyuan, what would you do?"

Huashan Sanlang suddenly realized: "Gather troops and preserve strength, wait for the opportunity to act?"

Chen Yun smiled and said, "I think so too. If Liu Zhiyuan is not content to be just the King of Taiyuan, he will not risk his life when facing the attack of the Khitan army. He will at most put up a symbolic resistance. Therefore, I personally think that if Yunzhou sends troops, they will be able to attack Luzhou. On the contrary, the marching route to Yanjing may encounter many twists and turns."

At this point, he changed the subject and said, "In fact, these are not our considerations, because almost all of us here are immortals. Even if there is a war between mortal armies, we will not kill mortal soldiers. Therefore, fighting is a matter for mortals. What we need to do is to deal with the talented people in the Jin Dynasty army, especially the sacred ones under the seat of Emperor Ziwei. Do you know what sacred ones the Khitan army might encounter on these two marching routes?"

Erlang Shen frowned and said, "All the gods under the seat of Emperor Ziwei came from heaven. It is almost impossible for us to guess their whereabouts. If we want to guess, we can only guess some local gods. However, the cultivation realm of these local gods is relatively weak, so it is meaningless for us to guess correctly."

Chen Yun agreed when he thought about it. Generally, the gods who did not work in the Heavenly Court would not have a very high level of cultivation. The strongest one might be like Feng Junda, the master of Niu Dali's ancestor, who could only reach the top of the Earthly Immortal Realm at most. His own strength was more than enough to deal with them.

What we really need to pay attention to are the sacred ones under the seat of Ziwei Emperor.

It’s just like Erlang Shen said, the whereabouts of the sacred Ziwei Emperor are unpredictable, so there’s no point in guessing here.

Chen Yun pondered for a moment, "Although we cannot guess what divine obstacles there are, as long as our guess about the marching route is correct, we can make some preparations in advance, such as setting up battle formations. Once the army really attacks, and encounters divine obstacles under the throne of Emperor Ziwei on the way, then we can catch them by surprise."

Erlang Shen's eyes lit up and he said, "My dear brother, what you said makes sense. The Jin Dynasty doesn't know that the Khitan is preparing to march south, so it is definitely not prepared. We can take advantage of the time when the Khitan army is recruiting to go south to set up some things, including but not limited to formations. At that time, it may play a huge role."

As he spoke, he stood up and said, "My dear brother, you need to stay in Khitan and communicate with the emperor. As for arranging this matter in advance, leave it to me. I can also take this opportunity to go out and invite some fellow Taoists to come and help."

Chen Yun's eyes lit up and he asked, "Brother, who are you going to invite to help?"

The Seven Saints of Meishan seemed to know, but did not seem to care.

Niu Dali, Jiao Daoren and others were confused and looked at it out of curiosity.

Erlang Shen said mysteriously, "Some of the Taoist friends I invited are quite powerful, so I cannot reveal them to you for the time being. However, one of them is not from my sect, so I can reveal a few things to you."

Chen Yun asked: "Which sacred one?"

Erlang Shen asked back, "Have you ever heard of a Buddha called Vaisravana?"

After hearing this, Chen Yun looked over in surprise and asked, "Brother, this person you want to invite to help, could it be Nezha, the third prince of Vaisravana?"

"Huh?" Erlang Shen asked in surprise, "You actually know my brother Nezha?"

He paused for a moment and laughed, "My brother Nezha has great magical powers, boundless magic power, and a wonderful appearance. He has a smiling face, holding the sun, the moon, and various instruments and staffs, adorned with various treasures. He has a body as big as Mount Sumeru, with a face full of anger and laughter, and a thousand arms. He once subdued ninety-six caves of demons. If we can get his help, our strength will surely increase greatly."

This is different from the three heads and six arms that Chen Yun is familiar with.

He estimated that this was the great supernatural power that Sakyamuni gave to Nezha when he reshaped his body, so he was unaware of it.

None of this matters.

The surprising thing is that Chen Yun really didn't expect that Erlang Shen and Nezha had known each other for a long time.

Although he did not ask how the two knew each other, he knew it was definitely not as written in "The Investiture of the Gods".

For a moment, Chen Yun was somewhat expectant, wanting to see whether Nezha was as brave and valiant as described in myths and legends.

(End of this chapter)