Chapter 148: Chapter 145: The Yellow Turban Rebellion Led by Zhang Jiao Chapter 148: Chapter 145: The Yellow Turban Rebellion Led by Zhang Jiao But Zhang Jiao, observing the celestial signs at night and divining with the “Essential Arts for Peace,” knew that the time had come, a perfect opportunity for an uprising.

Zhang Jiao declared himself the General of Heaven, called upon all under Heaven, saying, “The azure sky is dead, the yellow sky shall rise; in the year of Jiazi, great fortune for the world!”

At that time, the Taiping Sect had grown powerful, with five hundred disciples under Zhang Jiao practicing the Taoist arts and spreading doctrines, enjoying considerable fame. Though the sect counted a million followers, only three hundred and sixty thousand truly dared to take action. Appointing thirty-six leaders, they formed large units of over ten thousand and smaller units of a few thousand, each with their disciples named generals.

The Great Han Dynasty was already in decline, eunuchs manipulating power, the Ten Attendants causing chaos, and Emperor Ling of Han was an inept ruler. The omens of great turmoil were evident throughout the realm. In recent years, disasters abounded, and the people suffered unspeakably, struggling for survival while the nobility indulged in endless revelry. This bred tremendous discontent among the poor. When Zhang Jiao initiated his revolt, people from eight states followed him, each household serving the great name of the Benevolent Instructor Zhang Jiao, donning yellow turbans in their uprising.

This was the Yellow Turban Rebellion during the Late Eastern Han Dynasty. Zhang Jiao was born to bring an end to the fate of the Great Han Dynasty. However, his destiny was ill-fated, for he bore the sign of an early death. In a few years, he would succumb to illness, which was also part of destiny. Yet, his rebellion was monumental, shocking the whole world!

“Now as the Han’s fate is ending, a great Saint emerges. All of you should follow the righteous path and embrace an era of peace,” he proclaimed. With these words, four or five hundred thousand people wearing yellow turbans joined him, creating an immense momentum that caused the government troops to flee at the mere sight, losing several cities in the process.

The historic trajectory turned just as it had in a previous life, with Zhang Jiao’s Yellow Turban Rebellion encountering little resistance, conquering several cities, and pressing towards Youzhou.

It so happened that Liu Bei, passing under the city gates of Zhuo County this day, couldn’t help but sigh deeply. This sigh was not for Zhang Jiao’s rebellion and the chaos across the land but for the True Man of Dao and Virtue who told him that his time was near, yet to date, he saw no sign of it. The Left and Right Aids, where were they now? Liu Bei’s heart ached, wondering when these hard days would end. Since childhood, he had proclaimed himself an emperor, having his young playmates kneel before him. The desire to be an emperor was probably there all along, but hindered by poverty, he had no way to enter the court.

As Liu Bei was sighing, he heard a sudden thunderous shout from behind, “A great man should aid his country. Why do you sigh?”

Turning around, Liu Bei was overjoyed to see that the man had a leopard’s head and ringed eyes, a swallow’s jaw and tiger’s whiskers, a voice like thunder, and a presence as imposing as a charging horse. His appearance was fierce, standing eight feet tall and exceptionally robust.

“Ha ha, ha ha! The true person was indeed not wrong; could this be one of my Left or Right Aids?” Liu Bei was overjoyed and appraised Zhang Fei in secret.

He recalled the Daoist Equal to Heaven telling him that his Left and Right Aids would have exceptional appearances, one must not judge them solely by their looks. Seeing Zhang Fei, Liu Bei felt that this man was quite formidable and said with joy, “I am a descendant of the imperial clan, kin of King Jing of Zhongshan, surnamed Liu, named Bei. Hearing of the Yellow Turban Rebels’ insurrection, I lament that my family is too poor to support the nation in exterminating these rebels, hence my sigh.”

Zhang Fei regarded Liu Bei and inexplicably felt a sense of kinship upon meeting him. This man had a fair complexion, red lips, ears that stretched to his shoulders—an aura of a kind man. Moreover, hearing him claim descent from the imperial clan, a descendant of King Jing of Zhongshan, Zhang Fei was somewhat astonished and said, “I am surnamed Zhang, named Fei. I have long heard of the great name of Lord Xuande but never had the chance to meet him. Seeing you today, indeed you carry the bearing of a hero.”

Liu Bei only offered a wry smile, “Hero? Now that the imperial clan is in decline, I can barely make ends meet.”

Zhang Fei objected, “Lord Xuande understates himself. Heroes care not for their humble beginnings. You are of noble lineage, kin to the Han Dynasty. With the current decline of the Han, you should rise to support it, and surely you can restore the former glory of King Jing. Having butchered pigs and sold wine over the years, I have saved a considerable fortune. I am prepared to raise an army in support and aid the national destiny. Would Lord Xuande be willing to join me?”

Overjoyed, Liu Bei replied, “As one of the Han’s kin, I naturally will not shy away from supporting the state. Let’s go together, Brother Zhang!”

Zhuo County was only so big. Although Liu Bei lived in the countryside, he was a famous figure there as a member of the imperial clan. Zhang Fei, who had long known of him, was pleased to meet him and invited Lord Xuande to the tavern for a meal and drinks.

Above, the Daoist Equal to Heaven and the other four True Men of Dao and Virtue watched the scene clearly. Once the two entered the tavern, they exchanged glances.

“This Zhang Fei is indeed meant to be Liu Bei’s Left Aid. Even without our guidance, the two might have come together,” Yang Jian laughed.

“Hmm! Now, as Zhang Jiao’s rebellion begins and chaos looms, the Buddhist and Daoist sects contend for fortune amidst the turmoil. Yet, who will have the last laugh?” Lu Dongbin spoke coldly, “These people with exceptional destinies are overseen by Hooked Chen Great Emperor and Great Emperor Ziwei. Although I am greatly tempted to kill those significant to the Buddhist sect’s schemes, it would be inappropriate to cause trouble for the two great emperors.”

During the transition of human empires, the destiny is chaotic, and Great Emperors Ziwei and Hook Chen are tasked with safeguarding those with unique destinies and fortunes to prevent their harm by cultivators. Otherwise, they would be derelict in their duties and punished by the Heavenly Dao. Lu Dongbin was a man of great boldness, loyal to the Three Pure, and if not out of concern for troubling the Great Emperor of Heavenly Court, he would have disregarded the karmic consequences, sought to kill Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, and others, obliterating their fortunes and thwarting the Buddhist sect’s calculations.

Such action was not easy. Who knew if the Buddhist sect had anticipated this from the Daoist sect? Perhaps there was a Bodhisattva or Buddha secretly guarding them.

The Daoist Equal to Heaven said, “Let’s take it one step at a time. With the current shift in human governance, whoever gains the support of those in power will extinguish the fortunes of other paths. My fellow Daoists, we cannot afford to be careless and let the Buddhist sect exploit a loophole!”

Chen Tuan responded, “You speak the truth. Indeed, indeed!”

Yang Jian suddenly said, “Eh, look who that person is. Is he not Liu Bei’s Left Aid?”

Everyone hurriedly looked down and saw a tall, red-faced man with a long beard pushing a cart towards them. Standing nine feet tall, with a beard two feet long, his face the color of jujubes, phoenix eyes, and silk-worm eyebrows, there was no doubt that it was none other than Guan Yu. Daoist Equal to Heaven burst out laughing upon seeing him; naturally, it was Guan Yu. In his past life, he didn’t know how many temples dedicated to Lord Guan he had seen, and the deity enshrined within those temples looked exactly like the red-faced man approaching.

However, Ancestor Chen Tuan suddenly cried out, “Something’s wrong!”

Ancestor Chen, quick on his feet, descended in an instant and started raining blows on the red-faced man.

The red-faced man was startled to see a Taoist approaching and attacking him without warning and exclaimed, “Why is the Taoist hitting me!”

Chen Tuan cursed, “You imposter White Tiger Demon with a Signboard, who gave you the order to dare impersonate the True Divine Emperor’s Right Assistant?”

The red-faced man was taken aback upon realizing Chen Tuan had seen through his disguise. He threw down the cart he was pushing and turned to flee, transforming into a gust of evil wind and drifting far away.

“Hmph, a mere ant who just became a Demon Immortal thinks he can escape from the hand of this Daoist?” sneered Ancestor Chen Tuan. With a mere outstretched hand and without any visible spell, the red-faced man was suddenly flipped over and fell to the ground.

A palm seal appeared on the back of the red-faced man, who lay prostrate and cried out, “Ow, it’s killing me! Have mercy, venerable Daoist, have mercy!”

Daoist Equal to Heaven and the others above were shocked and quickly went down to pull Ancestor Chen Tuan aside, asking, “Why did you harm him, fellow Daoist?”

Chen Tuan replied, “This man is definitely not Liu Bei’s Left Assistant; he had a Magical Treasure that obscured the truth. Just now, I suddenly felt the aura of the Buddhist sect on him, and that’s how I saw through him!”

The three of them were all greatly surprised. Ancestor Chen’s palm stood erect, and the red-faced man could not move an inch as if a huge mountain was pressing down on him.

Amidst a strange wind, the red-faced man was swept up into the sky. The mortals below didn’t notice anything amiss, simply feeling a strange wind blowing through without seeing anything clearly. But in the midst of this weird gust, a fight had already broken out among the immortals.

“Have mercy, venerable Daoist, have mercy! This little demon had no idea you were here and has inadvertently affronted you; I beg you not to take offense!” The red-faced man, now taken up into the clouds, immediately knelt in supplication.

Daoist Equal to Heaven let out a strange chuckle. With the righteousness that reached the skies and heroic spirit that cleaved the clouds, how could Brother Guan ever behave in such a cowardly manner? Surely, this must be some trickery of the Buddhist sect!

After all, we have no idea who he really is. Please listen to the following chapter for the explanation.

PS: This book has reached 450,000 words, and it’s fair to say that, up to this point, I haven’t earned a single penny. Although readers have sporadically rewarded me with some Qidian Coins, it seems that I’ve only accumulated about 400 this month. Then the website shares half of that with me at the end of January, meaning from October to now, I’m just about to receive these 200 yuan.

The performance of this book isn’t good, and its release seems indefinitely delayed. As an author, I still need to eat, so I have quite a workload besides writing. The quality of this book, as everyone can see, requires meticulous attention to classical Chinese language, wording, and phrasing. A single word misplaced could ruin an entire passage. Of course, given its length, it’s inevitable that it will have flaws and errors; I thank everyone who points them out for me to amend.

One should maintain the right mindset when writing. When I was writing “The Saint who Defied Heaven,” I did it in too much of a hurry, even failing to reread “Journey to the West” in time. Hence the beginning was a hodgepodge, so bad that I don’t even want to look at it now. But fortunately, it got into the groove later on. For this book, I scrapped drafts of over a hundred thousand words before posting, but it’s also my own doing. The first book wasn’t done well, and then there were more “Journey to the West” themed books in the immortal heroes channel, slightly saturating the market. Readers began to lose interest in this genre, and besides, this book really doesn’t fit the mainstream.

Two chapters a day is about my limit. There’s still a pile of work to do, and without any backlog of drafts, I need to write at least twelve thousand words a day, with this book taking six thousand of that. Sometimes, when I’m out eating, I have to bring my laptop to rush the writing, fearing that it would delay the update time. It’s a bit tiring, but also enjoyable. I’ve maintained a good mentality, so despite being tired, I haven’t reached the point of regretting any plot or chapter.

Also, although I don’t have an outline, I have a rough idea of the story in my head. This book won’t be too long, perhaps around 1.1 million words. After all, such books don’t show off or pad word count—they can’t be very long given their scope.

Having said so much, it’s not really a complaint about earning little money. It’s just that I feel it’s necessary to explain, lest anyone misunderstand me as being lazy and unwilling to write more. It’s really just a matter of being willing but unable. Just wait a bit; maybe I’ll find the time to add an extra chapter or two someday.

My perseverance is also because a relative of mine, a big brother named “Gan Dianjiang,” liked my writing and told me that I could definitely write something great. He himself is a wielder of the tiger spear, having won a national second prize in poetry, published essays in People’s Daily, twenty years my senior, with his writings even appearing as reading pieces in Zhejiang’s college entrance exams, and he has corresponded with prominent figures like Ge Fei. He encouraged me, and many friends did as well, which is why I continue to persevere, hoping that one day my writing will be recognized by more friends.

It feels incredible that this book is almost at 500,000 words. I hope that one day, I can truly make an impact. I don’t have grand aspirations for awards; being able to feed myself with the pen name “Daoist Wukong” would be enough, just to have friends who like reading mention casually during a conversation about novels, “Hey, that Daoist Wukong guy isn’t bad, I’ve read his book, and it’s pretty good.”

That would be enough.