My brother is so cunning

Chapter 1170 Today is a good day

"What...what's going on?"

Guang Chengzi's eyes widened, and he almost dropped his immortal sword: "How could the two saints of the Western Sect be with the Creator Celestial Venerable? And... and they even seem to be acting very intimately?"

The monks of the Western Religious Alliance were completely bewildered. Some couldn't help but whisper among themselves, "Didn't the Sage say that he wanted to unite with the Chan Sect to fight against that extraterrestrial demon, the Creator Celestial Venerable? Why did they suddenly make peace?"

Amidst the murmurs, a majestic figure emerged from the depths of the camp; it was none other than Yuanshi Tianzun.

He wore an apricot-yellow Taoist robe, held a Three Treasures Jade Ruyi in his hand, and stared at the projection screen in the distance, his brows furrowed. His tone was authoritative and unquestionable: "Stop making irresponsible remarks! It must be a scene fabricated by the Creator Heavenly Venerable using evil magic, trying to sow discord between my Chan Sect and the Western Sect!"

Despite this, a doubt arose in the heart of the Primordial Celestial Venerable.

He raised his hand and formed a hand seal, golden light emanating from his fingertips, as he began to deduce the truth of the matter—the Chan Sect was skilled in divination, and as a sage, his perception of "cause and effect" far surpassed that of ordinary people.

As the deduction deepened, the composure on his face gradually faded, replaced by unbelievable shock. The three-treasure jade ruyi in his hand trembled slightly and almost fell to the ground with a thud.

"Impossible... How is this possible!?"

The Primordial Celestial Venerable suddenly opened his eyes, his voice tinged with disbelief: "The divination results are indeed true! The two saints of the Western Sect have indeed made peace with that evil sect, the Jie Sect, and even signed a peace treaty!"

Upon hearing this, the entire camp fell silent instantly. Whether it was the Golden Immortal of the Chan Sect or the cultivators of the Western Sect, they were all speechless with shock at the news.

The divination of celestial secrets is not a 100% reproduction of the truth. The laws of time are also quite difficult for sages to control. The divination of the Primordial Celestial Venerable only yielded a conclusion: the celestial secrets revealed that the scene he saw had actually happened. As for how it happened and why it happened, the celestial secrets will not tell you. After all, celestial secrets cannot be revealed and are only used to play riddles with immortals.

Yuanshi Tianzun stood still, his mind racing, countless possibilities surging through his thoughts:
Was it that the two saints of the Western Sect were defeated by Wen Rui, and then controlled or coerced by him through technological means?

Given the strength of the two saints, if there had truly been coercion, they would have left traces of cause and effect, yet none were found during the deduction just now.

It is because the Western religion wanted to monopolize the benefits of "technology to save people" and was bribed by the enormous profits promised by Wen Rui that it deliberately broke the alliance.
However, the Creator God's dissemination of technology was contrary to the Buddhist principles of the Western religion, so how could the two saints be willing to cooperate with him?

Or perhaps the Western religion has a bigger scheme, wanting to use the guise of "peace talks" to secretly spy on the technological secrets of the Jie Sect, and then repeatedly switch between the Chan and Jie Sects, waiting for the best price and hedging its bets on both sides.
Countless guesses swirled in my mind, but none of them made perfect sense. However, the last one seemed the most likely!
The Western Sect is not without its past transgressions. During the last Investiture of the Gods war, wasn't it the Western Sect that took advantage of the chaos and reaped enormous profits by exploiting the conflict between the Chan and Jie sects?

As Yuanshi Tianzun watched the peace talks playing on a loop in the sky, he felt a sense of "loss of control" for the first time. He had originally thought that the situation in the Three Realms was under his control and that uniting with the Western Sect to fight against the Jie Sect was a sure thing.

But now the Western religion has suddenly turned against him, completely disrupting his plans and even requiring him to readjust his subsequent arrangements.

The words spoken by Yuanshi Tianzun were like thunderclaps in the hearts of every god and Buddha. Their hearts, which had just been hanging in suspense, were now filled with the thought that Wen Rui was waging "cognitive warfare" or "psychological warfare"—a concept also recorded in the famous military strategy book "Wen Zi's Art of War" which has spread throughout the Three Realms.

Unexpectedly, the sage Yuanshi Tianzun deduced that everything was true.

Once the seeds of suspicion are sown, they grow wildly in the camp.

The Golden Immortals of the Chan Sect gripped their magical weapons tightly, their gazes sweeping warily over the Western Sect cultivators beside them; the tacit understanding they had shared in battle was completely gone. The Western Sect cultivators also sensed something amiss, instinctively gathering together, their bodies radiating a faint Buddhist light, forming an invisible standoff with the Chan Sect immortals.

"Hmph, you Western religions are indeed hypocrites, two-faced and deceitful!"

A disciple of the Chan Sect couldn't help but sneer, his tone full of sarcasm: "So the Western Sect had been secretly colluding with the Creation Celestial Venerable all along. The previous joint resistance against the enemy was probably just a show put on for us, wasn't it?"

"Stop making false accusations!"

Someone from the Western Sect immediately retorted: "Our two saints must have their reasons. How could they be colluding with heretics? On the contrary, your Chan Sect is extreme in nature, cruel and bloodthirsty, and prone to violently killing innocent people. I'm afraid you've been planning to use this incident to frame us, using it as an excuse to commit the kind of killing karma you love to create!"

As the two sides probed each other's words, the tension grew increasingly palpable, and an invisible battle seemed to linger in the air.

Just then, a golden Buddhist light descended from the sky, and the figure of the Buddha Tathagata slowly appeared—he had been secretly divination for a long time, not only calculating the fact that the two saints had made peace with the Creation Heavenly Venerable, but also sensing that there was another hidden story behind it.

The Western teachings enabled them to communicate through telepathy and supernatural powers. The Buddha learned of this almost immediately. The two saints did not voluntarily abandon the alliance, but rather chose the most helpless path amidst the dilemma of "not committing acts of killing" and "protecting the foundation of the Western teachings." In the end, it was simply to uphold the bottom line of the teachings in order to promote Buddhism, save all sentient beings, and safeguard the doctrine.

"Fellow Daoist Yuanshi, please calm down."

The Buddha nodded slightly to the Primordial Celestial Venerable, his tone calm yet carrying an undeniable power, "The actions of the two sages of the Western Sect are not acts of betrayal; there is another hidden reason..."

The Primordial Celestial Venerable frowned even more deeply: "There's another hidden story? The entire Three Realms have witnessed them shaking hands and making peace with the Creation Celestial Venerable. Heaven's secrets have revealed that this scene is not an illusion, but something that has truly happened. How can you expect me to believe that there's another hidden story?"

"If you do not believe me, you can deduce the deeper cause and effect yourself."

The Buddha remained neither humble nor arrogant, his Buddha-light growing ever stronger: "However, if we sow discord and kill each other, it will only allow the Jie Sect to reap the benefits. Is this what you wish to see, fellow Daoist?"

As the two confronted each other, the atmosphere in the camp grew increasingly eerie. The immortals of the Chan Sect and the cultivators of the Western Sect remained wary of each other, their vigilance undiminished.

Both sides have a history of wrongdoing. The Western Sect has a history of taking advantage of internal strife within the Taoist sects, while the Chan Sect has a history of excessive killing by Golden Immortals, which led to a heavenly tribulation. However, last time, the two sides joined forces to trap the Jie Sect.

This time, it's really hard to say which two of the three sects—Chan Sect, Jie Sect, and Western Sect—are teaming up to trick whom.

Just then, the nanoclouds in the sky suddenly made a move—countless nanounits coalesced into a giant speaker, its surface gleaming with a technological glow. Before anyone could react, a cheerful melody suddenly burst forth: "Today is a good day, all your wishes will come true~ Today is a good day, let's open our doors and welcome the spring breeze~"

The cheerful song contrasted sharply with the eerie and oppressive atmosphere in the camp, making the already tense standoff even more absurd.

The hands of the disciples of the Chan Sect holding up their immortal swords froze in mid-air, the Buddhist light gathered by the cultivators of the Western Sect also paused, and even the confrontation between Yuanshi Tianzun and Tathagata Buddha temporarily stopped. They all looked up at the speaker in the sky, their faces full of astonishment.

(End of this chapter)