Me and countless me.

Chapter 568 The Four Sages Test the Mind of Zen, the Second Trial
The Hindu gods were outraged by this, so almost immediately after the gods spoke, Indra angrily slammed the banana leaf filled with curry rice onto the table!

"what!!"

Rice and curry flew everywhere, splashing all over the place, and even nearly hitting the heads of several celestial beings attending the banquet. The wrath of the Heavenly Emperor caused the entire world to tremble, and the sky over India became overcast with thunderous roars.

The gods all paled at the sight, and Vayu couldn't help but lower his head, while Indra spoke angrily.

"That Shudra, Jin Chanzi! That lowly commoner! How dare he disregard my will and do such a thing! Where does he get the audacity and courage to interfere in my affairs!"

Hearing the Heavenly Emperor's angry voice, the wind god Fayu trembled. At the same time, he was speechless at his boss's pettiness. All that Bishma had done was beat him up a few times. Was it really necessary to call him a lowly commoner?
And would you dare say that in front of the Ganges goddess?
But he couldn't show it, so he suppressed his laughter and spoke softly.

“Your Majesty, according to our rules, Bhishmatha has actually been practicing asceticism all along…”

Upon hearing this, the furious King Indra instantly calmed down, his legs even trembling slightly, as he recalled the various beatings he had received from those who had attained blessings through asceticism.

The dog practiced asceticism before Brahma for many years, and then, after receiving a blessing, it beat him.

The cat meditated before Shiva for many years, then beat itself up.

The ant practiced asceticism before Vishnu for countless years, and then beat itself up...

The practice of asceticism, specifically designed to cleanse the world of its impurities, suggests that suffering in the world is finite. Therefore, under the law of cause and effect, the more suffering a person who shouldn't be suffering endures, the less suffering all beings will experience, thus reducing disharmonious karma. Then, the Threefold Deity will bestow blessings, treasures, or other wishes based on the degree of the ascetic's practice.

However, the untouchables and Shudras are not entitled to ascetic practices, because they are born to suffer, so suffering is their due.

Indra felt that this asceticism was specifically targeting him, because it was because he had received the blessing of the Trisamvara and wanted to become the emperor of the gods, or to steal what he was entitled to, or to act arrogantly and recklessly, while he and the other gods suffered, and he acted like a helpless husband before the Trisamvara came out to solve the problem.

Then every time, it's because I, as the Heavenly Emperor, haven't done my job well, haven't taught properly, am too arrogant, and have my own pride and complacency!
"It's as if there's nothing wrong with randomly bestowing blessings upon the Triads."

Indra mentally complained to the Trinity, completely forgetting that his own blessings often produced some inexplicable results. However, he also felt a sense of fear towards the power of asceticism, especially considering Li Ke's current status and achievements. He was practicing asceticism by not eating, drinking, or having fun every day, and by sleeping with dozens or even hundreds of goddesses. He had transformed into a mortal, traveled to spread the Dharma, and upheld the righteous law. Indra dared not imagine how strong the power of asceticism in Li Ke's body would be.

This fear of asceticism made his hands tremble constantly, and it calmed him down from his pride.

Especially after seeing the sages frowning at him for wasting food, Indra calmed down even more. He hurriedly gathered the rice and curry he had spilled back onto the banana leaf, and even picked some up and ate them.

The fact that the mighty Heavenly Emperor did this was certainly exemplary, and many immortals nodded in satisfaction. However, Indra did not do this out of a desire to set an example for himself as the Heavenly Emperor, but out of fear.

Because if he were to splatter rice grains onto the other gods or waste them, the cloaked immortals present would not hesitate to curse him, and things would become quite unpleasant.

Even without Li Ke causing him trouble, the curses of these immortals were enough to destroy him.

Because none of these immortals and ascetics were kind-hearted, each curse either caused him immense suffering or caused him to lose his position as the Heavenly Emperor; there was no exception.

So Indra forced a smile and then burst out laughing.

"Oh, so he was practicing asceticism. That makes sense. Asceticism is good; it's doing something meaningful for the world."

Then Indra stood up, came to Vayu, and spoke to him kindly.

"Hahaha! So what are you joking about, Vayu? Bhishma is my good friend, how could he do such a thing?"

As he spoke, Indra waved his arms.

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible! His ascetic practices could never be for the purpose of causing me trouble! It is for the well-being of this world and the righteous Dharma! You, stop spreading alarmist rumors. When he returns from the Tang Dynasty in the East, we will have a good reunion."

Although Li Ke, known as Bhishma in India, slept with his wife, treated him as a slave for hundreds of years, and even killed him three hundred times, he and Li Ke were indeed good friends and brothers. Jin Chanzi had even assisted Li Ke, this Bhishma, and invited him to dinner!
Therefore, Li Ke would never harm him! For example, the whole group of them disguised themselves to enter Buddhism and join the Heavenly Court. It was Li Ke who took the lead in the beginning, so how could Li Ke want to cut off their last escape route?

Then, the sage Naratna couldn't help but laugh.

“Narayan, Narayana, praise the great heavens, O God of God, have you forgotten? You overturned all the rules and regulations of Lord Bhishma during his ascetic practice, causing all the blessings he sought for all beings to vanish into nothingness. How can he not resent you for such actions?”

Upon hearing this, Indra and the gods of the heavens all turned hostile towards Naratha, and even some immortals cast disapproving glances at him. However, some people, upon hearing him address Li Ke as "Lord," revealed expressions of understanding or astonishment in their eyes.

But Indra didn't notice, and because of those words, he was completely unable to pretend or deceive himself anymore, so he spoke with a cold smile.

“Everything Bhishma does challenges the Vedas’ interpretation of the Dharma and their definition of people. Naturally, we must oppose what he does! If you have objections to this, Narada, are you questioning the wisdom of the Trisamvara?”

The Vedas define the logic of how this world works, as well as the rules governing human beings' position and what they should do. They are the ultimate solution to all the problems of the Indian world, so at this moment, Indra is morally invincible.

However, the problem lies in the fact that the Vedas contain everything and are the ultimate answer to all questions, because—

The Vedas do not mention a heavenly court or the Tang Dynasty in the East. Moreover, they were compiled at the beginning of time, which is at least several hundred thousand years ago.

So at this moment, Naratha could only helplessly play his harp and then state his conclusion.

"Then, O God, do you think Bhishma won't be angry because of your actions?"

Upon hearing this, Indra instantly conjured countless bolts of lightning in his hand and struck at Narata without hesitation. Narata chuckled and, with the help of the curse from many years ago and his own arduous cultivation, instantly disappeared from the Heavenly Hall.

After he left, Indra looked at the silent heavenly hall and, unlike before, did not waste his ascetic energy cursing the sabotaging Narada. Instead, he looked at the gods and coldly asked.

"Who's willing to stop the mad Jin Chanzi!"

The gods looked at each other, and finally one of them raised his hand.

"I find Bhishma, that lowly commoner, to be far too arrogant! For the sake of all beings, I, Rahu, beg the Emperor of Heaven to allow me to fight him one-on-one!"

The gods couldn't help but take notice, for Rahu was an Asura who became a god after stealing the gods' nectar of immortality. He was beheaded by Vishnu, and even after his head was cut off, this guy's head still wanted to devour the radiance of the sun and moon, always creating solar and lunar eclipses, so he could barely be considered a star god.

The reason for jumping out now is to integrate into the gods, but that's where the problem lies.

"How dare he?" The God of War looked at the other party curiously, and then suddenly remembered that every time Jin Chanzi went berserk, Luo Hou had already been severely injured by him because he wanted to eat the sun and moon, so he really hadn't been dealt with by Jin Chanzi much!
"I actually saved Rahu?"

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but laugh. Naturally, this behavior displeased Luo Hou, who stepped forward. So Luo Hou sneered and mocked the God of War, who posed the greatest threat to the Heavenly Emperor's position.

"Ha, it seems some cowards are afraid of Jin Chanzi's infamous reputation and are unwilling to fight in order to preserve their invincible image and power!"

He looked directly at the God of War as he spoke, which enraged the God of War, who immediately drew his sword!

"Rahu! Are you trying to test the sharpness of my sword?"

Rahu, not to be outdone, drew his own sword.

"My sword is not bad at all!"

The God of War stood up angrily, but because Rahu was advocating for the Heavenly Emperor, he could not directly oppose the Heavenly Emperor. So the God of War angrily sat down again, causing Rahu to utter a disdainful sound.

Then a god who had befriended him but disdained Indra suddenly stood up and kicked Rahu directly.

"Rahu! You were born an Asura, and you only became a god by stealing nectar. What gives you the right to swagger around here!"

He kicked Rahu to the ground, but the next moment, a god who supported the Heavenly Emperor stood up and punched the god.

However, a god who neither supported the God of War nor the Heavenly Emperor, but simply had a conflict with either of them, saw the two fighting and joined the battle under the guise of mediating.

So, those who genuinely wanted to mediate, those who sincerely wanted to deal with Li Ke, those who wanted to take advantage of the chaos for fun, those who wanted to show their loyalty, those who thought it was just for fun, those who were caught in the crossfire, and those who wanted to take the opportunity to steal all joined the battle. Later, even some immortals who couldn't stand it anymore uttered various curses, causing even Indra to lose control of the situation!

Because someone has cursed him again because he cannot control the gods!
Thus, before Li Ke even reached India, the Indian gods who wanted to deal with them began an epic internal struggle!

But in the end, they still sent out teams of people, especially the gods whose territories were close to the Tang Dynasty in the East. They all thought the other gods were fools and decided to face Li Ke alone and deal with the threat of Li Ke, the Golden Cicada, in their own way!
And the trailblazers are naturally the four strongest gods below Indra!

Meanwhile, Nezha and Erlang Shen are facing the biggest crisis since Li Ke's debut!

After enjoying a delicious, authentic Indian meal at noon, Li Ke, looking at the food she was already tired of, chose...

A brilliant idea struck me!
"I have an idea."

This is what he said while cooking.

But the result is...

"This taste, it's just...it's just..."

Nezha looked at the long-grain rice in front of him with a troubled expression. The quality of the rice was really hard to describe. Although it tasted okay when mixed with curry and ghee, without these spice bombs, the texture and taste of the long-grain rice were simply unacceptable, and it even had an indescribable strange taste. However, as a god, he could still eat it.

But eating it with the stir-fried dish that Li Ke came up with on a whim is like being tortured in the eighteenth level of hell.

Li Ke, on the other hand, ate his rice expressionlessly, his face calm and serene.

Back then, he ate Indian wall-eating rice, the food of the Dalits, for three months because he had no money. After that, his monastic practice went smoothly, and even the suffering of fasting and asceticism became much easier because of this experience.

So now, even his apprentice has to try it!
As for a mere flash of inspiration leading to a mishap, or a seeker of the Dao having an experiment go wrong, is that really a mishap?

Can that be the same? !
Seeing that Li Ke remained silent, Erlang Shen silently looked at his brother, Xiaotianquan.

The Celestial Hound also looked troubled. After becoming an immortal, his sense of taste had evolved, so he was able to taste flavors similar to those of humans. But how should I put it?

Looking at the long-grain rice and various strange foods in his dog bowl, Xiaotianquan's face was filled with distress.

Honestly, this was the worst meal he had ever eaten since he started dating Li Ke.

Li Ke's Indian food is delicious, and his Chinese food is also delicious, but the Chinese food made with Indian ingredients is... well, let's just say it's not very good. And most importantly, it's obvious to everyone—

Jin Chanzi's cooking attempt failed miserably!

So, seeing Erlang Shen's expectant gaze, Xiaotian Dog immediately pushed its dog bowl over. Although the rice always seemed a bit undercooked, and even it found it quite unpleasant to eat, since it was food given by its master, it would have enjoyed it even if it were a stone!
Erlang Shen was deeply moved, even thinking that Xiaotianquan liked to eat it, so he secretly poured the food that he couldn't eat into Xiaotianquan's bowl. This scene was naturally seen by Nezha, so Nezha's eyes lit up immediately.

Suddenly, Xiaotian Dog felt a chill run down his spine and immediately raised his head alertly. He then saw Nezha holding his bowl with a fawning smile on his face.

But when he looked at Erlang Shen, he saw Nezha's eyes filled with deep affection, the meaning of which was undoubtedly 'brother'.

The celestial dog immediately became alert and covered its own bowl with one paw, but the next moment, Nezha spoke.

"brother……"

The celestial hound shuddered instantly. Looking into Nezha's affectionate eyes, it shook its head and released its paws. After all, Nezha had called it brother, so what was there to say? Come on, even though it felt like throwing up after eating the food inside, they were brothers, and how could it betray its brother's trust!
Then, the Celestial Dog saw the grinning monkey and silently placed its paw on its dog bowl.

Because I'm really not familiar with this! And he even hit himself with a stick!

So the monkey had to eat it itself.

However, just as Li Ke was watching the monkey cultivate his patience with a smile, four beams of light suddenly streaked across the sky and quickly converged in front of them. Li Ke immediately recognized them as the four gods of earth, water, fire, and wind: Poriti, Varuna, Agni, and Vayu.

Li Ke immediately realized that this must be the Heavenly Emperor Indra trying to stop him, but the other party probably wouldn't dare to attack him directly. So what he would have to face next was probably the same challenge that the original pilgrimage team faced here!
Four Sages Test the Mind of Zen!
One was a leadership assessment, while the other was an attempt to make him lose his "Westward Traveler" persona, making him unable to act legitimately, thus forcing him to take extreme measures and triggering the full-scale attack of the Triad Gods!

So, Li Ke ignored the monkey, which had already entered a weakened state, and revealed a confident smile.

The original Tang Sanzang didn't suffer much from this ordeal, but was Li Ke afraid that something might happen to his disciples?!

(End of this chapter)