Chapter 73 – Meeting on a Narrow Road

“We ……. Here ……. After three days ……… outside world is …….. No, after ……. month?”

The Nine-Tailed Fox spoke while looking at Xu Qi’an, slowly cutting through space.

The two of them were not advancing at a fast speed, but compared to Arak, who was moving forward one step at a time, they already had the advantage.

“Probably …….”

Xu Qi’an paused for a moment and said:

“A thought occurred to me.”

The nine-tailed fox patiently waited for him to finish his sentence and responded:

“What’s the problem, and why don’t you look at me.”

“It takes most of the day to twist a head, it’s too much effort.” Xu Qi’an gave plain and simple reasons and then said:

“Unbelievable, how did a God-Devil with such a powerful spirit die?”

Spatial conversion required full concentration to operate, and it was greatly linked to what he could see, and whichever part of the space Xu Qi’an wanted to convert had to be seen by him with his own eyes.

If you look sideways at the Nine-Tailed Fox, the space of the transition is in her direction, which will deflect the trajectory.

Nine-tailed Fox thought for a moment and replied:

“The power possessed by every superlative is unfathomable, this God-Devil who controls the laws of the world may not be as strong as he is, if Desolate falls into this kind of realm and casts his natural aptitude to devour everything, do you think the slow laws of time in this space can still be maintained?”

Xu Qi’an didn’t say another word, agreeing with the nine-tailed fox.

The latter, out of boredom, instead came to the conversation and whispered:

“The Supervisor said that the center of the Divine Demon Island contains the key to the First Great Tribulation, do you think that the significance of the existence of this island is to store that thing?”

Xu Qi’an immediately corrected her:

“Stored is the wrong word. Who stores it?”

Seeing the silver-haired demon girl pondering without saying anything, he dispersed his thoughts and continued:

“But your idea is worth pondering, why is this island in the Returning Ruins, where did that thing inside the island come from, and why did it make the gods and devils kill each other. Also, why is the first great calamity different from the second?

“Where did the two cataclysms change?”

The nine-tailed fox shook her head:

“Maybe we have to see that thing to understand everything. The Supervisor has said that by seeing it, we will be able to understand it.”

Xu Qi’an skimmed over the topic and said as he teleported with the Nine-Tailed Fox:

“Recently, my mind has been wandering! I don’t know if it’s an illusion or not, but I’ve been hearing voices in my ears.”

“Illusory hearing?” The nine-tailed fox was startled.

“There are Sanskrit sounds in my ears, and there are always people who keep calling me the Supreme Buddha.” Xu Qi’an said in a deep voice.

……. The silver-haired demon girl thought he was cheating again.

……….

Capital, Haoqi Building.

“It’s midsummer.”

Slightly frosty sideburns, handsome Wei Yuan sat behind the case, glanced at the opposite side of the scarlet-robed old man, smiled and said:

“It’s time to close the net.”

A scarlet robe Zhao Shou posture straight, wearing an official hat, no longer in the past sideburns drooping unruly look, nodded and said:

“It takes time for news to be transmitted and people to be organized, so this is the right time to close the net and weaken the Buddha’s fortunes before the Dharma Assembly! How many followers has the Mahayana Dharma Sect gathered in the Western Region?”

Wei Yuan gave confidential information in a generous manner:

“According to the information that came back last time, there are already more than 300,000 people who secretly believe in Mahayana Buddhism among the lower class people in the Western Region.”

As for now, there will only be more.

Three hundred thousand ……… Zhao Shou drew a breath of cool air, “How can it be that much?”

Wei Yuan, however, shook his head and said:

“His Majesty would ask you to take a turn in the treasury of the Ministry of the Household if he heard that.”

Zhao Shou frowned with little understanding.

Wei Yuan immediately put the “religion to send silver”, “pull friends and relatives to believe in religion can also share the silver” and other strategies told Zhao Shou, in order to maintain secrecy, the court knew about this matter of him and Huaiqing, even the Ministry of household ministers, ministers do not know.

Because the silver does not go to the Ministry of Accounts, but to the North and South customs markets.

Except, of course, for those who work underneath.

“No wonder, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue privately complained about the lack of silver collection and wrote a report to impeach the officials in charge of the three customs markets, but the result was always suppressed by His Majesty.” Zhao Shou suddenly realized.

Wei Yuan took a sip of tea:

“The strongest power in the world is always silver,and with the efforts of the Dewan Rohan over the past two years, three hundred thousand devotees is not a lot.”

In addition to these two reasons, the characteristics of Mahayana Buddhism that make it suitable for preaching and spreading are also crucial.

It is more likely to be recognized by the people at the bottom.

Zhao Shou frowned while rejoicing:

“Are we underestimating the spread of Mahayana Buddhism? If Mahayana Buddhism is established as the state religion, in time it will blossom all over the Central Plains and will be difficult to contain.”

Wei Yuan did not panic in the slightest and smiled:

“Mahayana Buddhism is different from the Buddhist sects of the Western Regions, and there will not be strong people at the level of Bodhisattvas and Buddhas. Besides, Mahayana Buddhism believes in the Deity, as well as the Supreme Buddha Xu Ning Feast.”

Zhao Shou was relieved after a little contemplation.

The lack of top powerhouses means that development can be contained, suppressed, and limited.

If the faith is in the Hsu Ning Banquet, it keeps Mahayana Buddhism under control and does not feed the tiger.

Wei Yuan continued:

“This time, I seek University Scholar Zhao here to discuss with you how to relocate those 300,000, or even more, Westerners to the Central Plains.”

It was a vast project, the escort and subsequent arrangements alone were not something that ordinary forces could handle, and only a dynasty like the Da Feng had the appropriate national strength.

Zhao Shou held his teacup and slowly said:

“Last year’s cold plague and the Yunzhou rebels had a great impact, the Central Plains has not yet recovered, the population has plummeted, the fields are deserted, although it is deplorable, but at this point in time, it is just the opportunity.

“Dabong has enough land to settle Mahayana Buddhist followers.

“But large-scale migration is bound to make a commotion, it is best to run east in batches. As for food, midsummer has arrived and the fall harvest is not far away, so I’m not afraid of not being able to feed these people.”

In addition, the Westerners who migrated to the Central Plains could be an important labor force, just what the Dafeng needed at this time.

Wei Yuan added:

“It is necessary to migrate to the Central Plains before the Dharma Conference.”

Next, the two men discussed specifically the areas where the Mahayana Buddhists would be settled, how they would be divided into groups to run east, how many men would be needed to escort them, plan their routes, and so on.

At the end, Zhao Shou proposed:

“Tell Wang Zhenwen about this later, you Imperial Stitcher are unrivaled in the big picture. But when it comes to specifics, Wang Zhenwen is much better than you.”

Wei Yuan smiled and nodded, suddenly asking:

“Does this Mahayana Buddhism’s fortune go to Xu Qi’an?”

Zhao Shou mused:

“Since it is a state religion, Da Feng will get 10%, Du Yu will get 10%, and Xu Ning Banquet will get 80% alone.”

Dean sighed, a little enviously:

“When you trained that little gong back then, did you ever think you’d see this day?”

Upon hearing this, Wei Yuan immediately put down his teacup, folded his hands in his wide sleeves, and faintly said:

“Li Miaozhen said something:

“But do good deeds and ask no questions.

“In my case, the same is true.”

His smile was bland and his gaze was gentle, but Zhao Shou could clearly feel the smugness lurking in Wei Qingyi’s eyes and in his tone.

Look at you complacent …….. Zhao Shou, who was a teacher, hissed as he took a sip of the tea in his cup with an expressionless face:

“You’re stale tea, aren’t you.”

Wei Yuan froze, looked down at the teacup, and corrected himself:

“This is the first batch of new tea Mu Nanjia planted this year, and Xu Ningyan sent it specially before he left for the sea.”

Zhao Shou showed a “puzzled” expression:

“But I remember that after Xu Ningyan married Her Highness Lin’an, the Flower God stopped growing tea, and this was still something Erlang said to poke fun at his big brother when he was chatting with me. Oh, maybe I’m misremembering.”

Wei Yuan: “……..”

……….

In the West, the sky is mesmerizingly blue, with white clouds hanging silently in the sky.

The tall and majestic Alanta Mountain Range towers under the blue sky and white clouds, as if it has existed since ancient times.

In the wilderness at the foot of Mount Aranta, devotees from all the city-states and capitals of the western region bowed three steps at a time toward the holy mountain.

They were immensely devout, and their faith was above all else, including kinship and respect for their king.

In the Western Regions divine power reigns supreme, emperors are nothing more than puppets, and nobles are servants under divine power.

The people living in the West could dishonor the king and be disloyal to the nobles, but they could not be without faith.

And their faith is only in that supreme, one and only Buddha for all eternity.

Especially when they looked into the distance and saw the tall and lofty holy mountain, their hearts grew more and more reverent.

According to the people near Alanta, not long ago, the Sacred Mountain was attacked by a coalition of the Southern Border Demon Race and the Central Plains Dafeng masters, and the commotion was so great that it could be clearly heard from dozens of miles away.

The holy mountain Aranthra was almost razed to the ground.

But now they saw with their own eyes that the holy mountain was intact, standing silently between heaven and earth.

The only evidence of this is that the top of the sacred mountain is no longer snowed in and is no longer a whitecap.

Under a Bodhi tree on a plain extremely far away from Aranda, Duo Er, wearing a red and yellow robe, sat with his hands folded under the tree, looking out at Aranda in the distance.

A middle-aged monk stood beside him with his hands folded.

The middle-aged monk’s appearance had standard Westerner features, with a rounded face, and if Xu Qi’an were here, he would have recognized this person as the Pure Dust Monk with whom he had clashed during the original Buddhist fight.

“Master, a message has been delivered from the court of the Great Bong.”

Duo nodded slightly.

Pure Dust continued:

“The Da Feng intends to divide the two thousand miles of territory in the northern part of Leizhou and the northern part of Chuzhou into separate territories for my Mahayana Buddhism to inhabit and provide food for a year. The two Transcendents, Asura and the Earth Sect Golden Lotus, are stationed in the Mahayana Buddhist sect to guard against retaliation from the Bodhisattvas.

“In addition, on the day of the Dharma Conference, the Empress promised to issue a decree to enthrone the Mahayana Dharma religion as the state religion.”

Enshrining Mahayana Buddhism as a state religion is equivalent to giving Mahayana Buddhism a name, and the qi will thus coalesce and be stripped away from the Buddhist sects of the Western Region.

Duoyue Luohan nodded slightly, quite satisfied.

Pure Dust paused for a moment and said, “But the Great Bong has a condition, the migration must be completed before the Dharma Assembly.”

Duo Luo Han pondered for a moment and nodded his head:

“Just do what they ask.”

Monk Pure Dust responded with a few smiles:

“For Mahayana Buddhism to flourish under the eyes of the Bodhisattvas, the court of the Dafeng did do its best, and you are right, Master, that we may not believe in the Dafeng, but we may believe in Xu Yinluo.

“No, it’s the Supreme Buddha.”

Without the support of the Dafeng court, which gave money at all costs, it would have been difficult for Mahayana Buddhism to develop rapidly in a short period of time, spreading among the poor people of the lower strata, and showing a trend of starting a prairie fire.

Duo blandly said:

“Bodhisattvas gaze, never on dust.”

Dust refers to the people at the bottom.

“The Xu Ning Banquet has not yet returned?” He asked in a whirlwind.

“No news.” Monk Pure Dust shook his head.

Tuo Er Luo Han frowned slightly and sighed:

“I hope that when he returns, he will already be a half-step Martial God.”

After the business was finished, Monk Pure Dust looked at the distant Alanta and unconsciously lowered his voice:

“Master, isn’t the Holy Mountain destroyed?!”

Upon hearing this, the face of Duoyue Luohan turned complicated as he said:

“The Buddha is the holy mountain, and the holy mountain is the Buddha.”

What do you mean? Buddha turned into a mountain? Monk Pure Dust frowned.

……….

After several days of spatial transformation, Xu Qi’an and the Nine-Tailed Fox saw a huge monster appear in front of them, His body was comparable to that of a mountain, with black fur, a body similar to that of a mountain goat, and six long, curved horns on the top of his head that were like thorns.

Desolation!

They finally caught up with the desert.

Farther away than the wilderness, there was a pillar of light that rose up to the sky.

What Supervisor Zheng said, the thing that symbolizes the Great Tribulation …….. Xu Qi’an and the Nine-Tailed Fox’s spirits lifted and their heartbeats quickened.

At the same time, Arai, who was walking slowly in front of him, suddenly stopped, and then He “slowly” turned His head.

A man, a fox, a god and a demon, six eyes facing each other.

Arak’s expression changed significantly, just like a person who found a treasure and suddenly realized that there were two tigers coming from behind.

At that exact moment, Xu Qi’an slowly completed a short-distance teleportation in front of Him.

Space Spells …….. Desolate’s golden pupils contracted violently for a moment.

……….

PS: There was a bug with the time setting, it’s been changed so that the ratio between in the realm and the outside world is 10:1.