Conferred God: Started from Swallowing the Heaven-Repairing Stone

Chapter 411 Jiang Ziya

Although Jiang Ziya's abilities were not particularly outstanding in the records of The Investiture of the Gods, his status in history was particularly prominent and he was praised by later generations as the ancestor of military strategists and a saint in martial arts.

The abilities of the Three Saints of the Zhou Dynasty, King Wen Jichang, Duke Yuan of Zhou, and Jiang Ziya, the Martial Saint, have been proven by history and are sufficient to promote the development of the times.

In addition, Jiang Ziya is one of the protagonists of the Conferred Gods Tribulation and is the one who is destined to face the calamity.

Since such a person has come to Chaoge, Ao Bing cannot let him go at all. Even if he cannot use him for his own purposes, he must use him to accomplish some things.

For example, attack the North Sea monster tribe!
In large-scale warfare, the ability of the commander is particularly important. The stronger his ability, the stronger the power of the soldiers will be, and vice versa.

Jiang Ziya is revered by later generations as the founder of military strategists and a martial saint. Needless to say, his command ability must be among the best of his time.

If he leads the army to attack the North Sea, he will surely be able to defeat the North Sea monster tribe and destroy their luck.

……

Jiang Ziya was not a student of the academy, but a lecturer of the academy. Although his cultivation was not high, his status was not low.

Descendants of the Jiang clan, Lü family, nobles of the State of Lü, and descendants of Boyi, who was a descendant of Emperor Yan and the successor designated by Emperor Yu.

At the end of Emperor Yu's reign, according to ancient tradition, he abdicated the throne to Boyi.

What was unexpected was that not long after Emperor Yu's death, Xia Qi suddenly launched a rebellion, led his army to kill Boyi, and proclaimed himself king.

Although Boyi's reign was short, he was the successor designated by Emperor Yu. Legally, he was the common ruler of the world, and Xia Qi was just a traitor.

Therefore, after Boyi was killed, his descendants were protected by many ancient clans and have been passed down to this day as Marquis Lu of Lu State, one of the 800 princes of the Shang Dynasty.

As a descendant of Emperor Yan and with outstanding abilities, Jiang Ziya was naturally qualified to serve as a lecturer in the academy and teach the descendants of the princes.

After all, the princes with the surname Jiang were also an extremely powerful force in the Shang Dynasty, and no one dared to offend them openly.

……

"Are you Jiang Ziya?"

In the academy, looking at the white-haired old man in front of him, Ao Bing asked in confusion.

He guessed that Jiang Ziya's cultivation was not high, but he didn't expect it to be so low. He had just stepped into the threshold of refining the spirit and was extremely far away from becoming an immortal, let alone the realm of golden immortals who could live as long as the heaven and earth.

There are four stages in cultivation, namely, refining essence into qi, refining qi into spirit, refining spirit into emptiness, and returning emptiness into the Dao. Among them, the three stages of refining essence, refining qi, and refining spirit represent the realm of cultivation before the immortal path.

Only after returning to the void can one be considered to have achieved the immortal path, which represents the three realms of celestial immortal, mysterious immortal, and golden immortal. And the unity of the Tao refers to the three realms of Taiyi, Daluo, and Hunyuan.

Quasi-Sage is an extension of Daluo. Strictly speaking, these two realms are actually one realm. Therefore, although Quasi-Sage is listed separately, there is actually no such realm.

Just like the Chaos Demon God, after Daluo, there is Hunyuan, there is no such thing as quasi-saint at all.

Ao Bing is now the Great Luo with supernatural powers and the Mythical Taiyi, and is respectively in the second and first stages of He Dao, which can barely be considered a master.

In his opinion, Jiang Ziya was at least a disciple of Yuanshi Tianzun and received the guidance of the saint. Therefore, no matter how poor his talent was, he could still touch the threshold of the immortal path and become an immortal.

But as it is now, I have just stepped into the realm of spirit refining. This is too outrageous.

To put it bluntly, even a pig, with the guidance of a saint and placed in Kunlun Mountain to practice Taoism for hundreds or thousands of years, can become an immortal.

Ao Bing really didn't know how to evaluate Jiang Ziya's current situation.

He could only say that there must be something wrong with Jiang Ziya's body, and he was born to be excluded from the path to immortality. Otherwise, after practicing in Kunlun Mountain for so long, he would not have achieved only this level of accomplishment.

Yuanshi Tianzun's evaluation of Jiang Ziya was that he had no hope of becoming an immortal in this lifetime. Ao Bing originally thought that it meant that he had no chance of cultivating into the Golden Immortal realm.

After all, in the eyes of the strong, only the Golden Immortals who live as long as the heaven and earth can be considered immortals. The Heavenly Immortals and the Mysterious Immortals are just pseudo-immortals and are not even in the mainstream.

But he never expected that the immortal in the hopeless path to immortality in this life actually refers to a celestial immortal. It was really outrageous.

"Reporting to the Prime Minister, I am indeed Jiang Shang Jiang Ziya. I wonder what the Prime Minister wants to talk to me about?"

Jiang Ziya looked at Ao Bing in confusion and asked. Ao Bing was very famous now, it was hard for him not to know.

However, he didn't understand why a big shot like Ao Bing would come to see him by name. It was really puzzling.

"You are a disciple of the Chan sect, but instead of going to Xiqi, you come to Chaoge. Isn't it normal for me to come to find you?" Ao Bing smiled and asked in a very heart-wrenching manner.

It is a well-known fact that the Chan sect is now incompatible with the Shang Dynasty. Under such circumstances, Jiang Ziya, a disciple of the Chan sect, actually dared to come to Chaoge to serve as an official. His thoughts inevitably aroused people's speculation and whether there was some conspiracy.

"To be honest, although I am a registered disciple of the Chan Sect, my teacher drove me down the mountain, saying that I had no hope of becoming an immortal in this lifetime, so I should go down the mountain to the human world and seek wealth and honor in this life."

"After I came down the mountain, I saw that the power of the Shang Dynasty was growing rapidly under the governance of the Prime Minister, and it was showing signs of rejuvenation. I immediately realized that my fortune should be in the Shang Dynasty."

"Just at this time, the Dashang Academy was established to recruit talents from all over the world, so I hurried to Chaoge to seek wealth and honor."

Jiang Ziya's expression remained unchanged, and he explained Ao Bing's confusion in an orderly manner.

His meaning was very simple. He knew that Yuanshi Tianzun wanted to revive Xiqi and replace the Shang Dynasty. But from what he saw when he came down the mountain, the power of the Shang Dynasty was growing day by day, and it was likely to create a prosperous era.

In this case, according to his analysis, Zhou had no chance of replacing Shang. But this conflicted with what his teacher Yuanshi Tianzun said: since the sage said Zhou could replace Shang, then it must be able to do so.

Jiang Ziya believed his teacher's prediction more than his own. He guessed that something would happen in the future, causing the Shang Dynasty to weaken, which would give the Zhou Dynasty the possibility of overthrowing it.

According to this inference, Jiang Ziya should live in seclusion in the mountains and study the way to govern the country, waiting for the right time. But unfortunately, although he wanted to do so, his life span did not allow it.

He was only at the stage of spiritual cultivation, and could not achieve immortality. His life span was no more than ten thousand years at most. But when he came down the mountain, he was already over a thousand years old.

In other words, he only had nine thousand years left to live. It sounded long, but compared with the millions of years of the Shang Dynasty, it was nothing. Although he predicted that the Shang Dynasty might experience an unexpected change in the future, and that it would go from prosperity to decline, he could not guess when this unexpected change would happen.

Is it a thousand years later, or ten thousand years later, or a hundred thousand years later?
If it was a thousand years later, that would be fine, he would still have enough life to fight for wealth and honor in his life, but if it was ten thousand years later, he would probably be nothing but dry bones by then, and no matter how big the changes were, it would have nothing to do with him.

Time does not wait for me. It was with this thought that Jiang Ziya chose to join the Shang Dynasty. This move was to wait for the right time and to accumulate fame so that when the right time comes, he can be taken seriously.

Third, if the right time he expected did not come before his lifespan ended, then he would have accomplished something in Da Shang and his trip to this world would not have been in vain.

This is what Jiang Ziya thought and did, so when facing Ao Bing's questioning, he seemed justified.

As the saying goes, one should judge by deeds rather than intentions. No matter what he thinks in his heart, he has been working diligently since joining Da Shang and has never done anything to harm the interests of Da Shang.

He walks and sits upright, so why should he be afraid?
"That makes sense, but I still have one thing to ask you. If the Zhou Kingdom rises in the future, will you abandon everything you have and run to join it?"

Ao Bing actually didn't care what Jiang Ziya thought. He asked this question just as a routine matter.

"A wise bird chooses the right tree to roost in. If Da Shang does not let me down, I will never let Da Shang down."

Jiang Ziya immediately assured that he had not said anything about loyalty or disloyalty, and that the monks did not care about that. What the monks cared about was cause and effect. Only cause and effect could constrain the monks.

If Da Shang uses him, it will be a good cause, and he will repay it with good results in the future. He must not do anything that harms the interests of Da Shang. Otherwise, he will suffer the backlash of cause and effect, so that he will have demons in his heart, his heart will be broken, and he will go astray and die.

On the contrary, if the Shang Dynasty despises him, it will be a bad cause, which will only result in bad consequences. Don't blame him for going further and further on the road of overthrowing the Shang Dynasty.

"Remember what you said, and follow me. You want to be rich, right? Then I will give you a wealth that you can't even imagine in your dreams."

Nodding, Ao Bing motioned Jiang Ziya to follow him.

"What kind of wealth?"

Jiang Ziya asked curiously as he followed Ao Bing out of the academy and walked out of the city. He did not doubt Ao Bing's words, because a person like him would have no reason to lie to him.

He just didn't have confidence in himself. The gap between him and Ao Bing was too big, so big that they were not on the same level at all and could not touch each other at all.

But such a big shot who is usually not accessible to him suddenly appeared in front of him at this moment, and wanted to give him great wealth that he could not even dream of.

It’s no wonder that Jiang Ziya is not confident. He is just a small cultivator who has not yet become an immortal. His abilities are limited. Can he really take on the tremendous wealth that Ao Bing talked about?

Normally speaking, matters of Ao Bing's level were not something he could get involved in, not even something he could listen to, let alone be used.

"Have you heard of the North Sea Demon Clan?" Ao Bing said without turning his head.

"I heard others mention it when I was in Kunlun Mountain. It is said that it was a force established by the ancestor Kunpeng. It is extremely powerful and is the hegemon of heaven and earth. Its strength is no less than that of the three religions."

Jiang Ziya said cautiously.

"Not worse than the three religions? That's too much praise for the three religions. Not counting the saints, the three religions combined are still far inferior to the North Sea Monster Clan."

Hearing this, Ao Bing almost laughed out loud. The strength of the three religions was all based on the reputation of the saints. Without the saints, the three religions would be just an ordinary force in the world, and any powerful person could easily destroy them.

"I want to unite the three major forces of the human race, the dragon race, and the fairy alliance to jointly attack the North Sea monster race. The coalition army is short of a commander, and I think you are quite suitable, so I let you go and give it a try."

Ignoring Jiang Ziya's expression, Ao Bing continued speaking. As soon as he said this, Jiang Ziya was immediately startled.

He was seen pointing at himself with a confused look on his face, as if asking Ao Bing, is it true that I fought against the North Sea monsters?

This is too much of a compliment to him. What a powerful force the North Sea Demon Clan is. They are the overlords of a region. Any demon soldier who comes out can kill him with just one finger.

Asking him to fight the North Sea monster tribe, isn't that simply asking him to die?
"I'm asking you to command from the central tent, not to fight bravely on the front line. What are you worried about?"

"Also, you don't need to worry about the strong men of the North Sea monster tribe. There are others to help you deal with them. What you need to consider is how to lead the coalition forces to wipe out all the monster soldiers in the North Sea."

Seeing Jiang Ziya's reaction, Ao Bing said unhappily.

The individual strength of the North Sea demon soldiers was not strong, most of them were immortals, followed by Xuanxian, and then Jinxian. If Ao Bing could take action, he could easily defeat them.

But he couldn't do anything. Before Kunpeng was killed, no strong man could bully the weak and slaughter the North Sea monster soldiers. Because such unscrupulous behavior would completely anger Kunpeng, causing him to retaliate against the enemy with the same means.

But it's not just the North Sea Monster Clan that has ordinary members, the human and dragon clans also have them. Under equal retaliation, the two clans simply cannot afford it.

Therefore, since ancient times, whenever a war broke out, the strong and the weak would separate and each would open up their own battlefield, with a clear distinction between the two.

You have to wait until the strong ones decide the winner before you can free up your hands to clean up the miscellaneous soldiers. Instead of cleaning up the miscellaneous soldiers first and then fighting the enemy's strong ones.

At this point, it seems that it doesn't matter whether there is a battlefield for the weak or not. When two tribes are fighting, isn't it enough for the strong to decide the winner? Why involve the weak?
In fact, this is not the case. Although the weak are weak, because of their large numbers, the power of luck they condense can help the strong turn the tide of the battle to a certain extent.

Take Kunpeng as an example. With or without the blessing of the North Sea demon soldiers' luck, those are two completely different concepts. The combat power is at least 20% to 30% weaker, or even more.

Twenty to thirty percent of Kunpeng’s combat power is not a small amount, almost equivalent to that of a powerful being.

This is why, when two major forces go to war, they must first let the lower classes fight each other. The purpose is to weaken the enemy's luck as much as possible. This way, when the strong ones break out in a decisive battle, it will be easier to determine the winner.

This was Ao Bing's purpose in letting Jiang Ziya lead the coalition forces to wipe out the monster soldiers in the North Sea.

"Since the Prime Minister trusts me, I will do my best. But I don't understand. This should be the first time I meet the Prime Minister. Why does the Prime Minister value me so much and give such an important task to me instead of someone else?"

Jiang Ziya was suddenly entrusted with an important task by Ao Bing, and although he seemed a little overwhelmed, he soon calmed down. Then, he asked the question he was most curious about.

Why did Ao Bing think so highly of him? It was true that he was capable, but this was his first time out of the mountain, and outsiders had no idea. Ao Bing's trust in him was completely unfounded.

(End of this chapter)