In the vast Western Regions, there were mountains that cut the Western Regions into two like long swords. The Protectorate of the Western Regions, established by the Great Feng Dynasty, was located at a broken mountain pass. Its territory was even larger than the current Liyang Dynasty. After the fall of the dynasty, the Protectorate gradually became a city without a master. After more than two hundred years of bloody disputes, the ancient city established its own rules. It had the most complicated network in the world. Perhaps an old man past his prime in a smoky noodle house was once a noble descendant of a certain country in the Spring and Autumn Period. Perhaps an unreasonable butcher who bared his chest every day was a general of the Central Plains who commanded tens of thousands of elite soldiers. Perhaps a white-haired old woman who could bargain with a vendor for an hour when she finally got what she wanted and turned around to play with her hair would lead people to guess that when she was young, the old woman must have been a lady of a noble family who had been raised in a lush and beautiful place. In addition to these survivors who had been forgotten along with the Spring and Autumn Period, there were more outlaws in the city. Everyone was doing all kinds of shady things. There were Horse Gang who came to the border all year round to get drunk in their leisure time. There were killers who killed people like flax flax. There were people who were nominally merchants but were actually spies of a certain force … There were people who died almost every day in the throat of the Western Region, but they all followed the rules. If someone didn't follow the rules and died, someone would naturally intervene and end the matter in an orderly way.
In a carriage that was temporarily hired to drive to the city, the coachman was a middle-aged man with a sallow face and thin body, but his eyes were sharp. He was talking about the city's "rules" with spittle flying everywhere. Sitting beside him was a young man who was not commonly seen in the Western Regions. His elegant green robe was not uncommon in the city, but the appearance of a young man was rare. In the eyes of the native man, this guest was like a character in a storyteller he had heard of in his early years. A scholar who went to the capital to take the imperial exam, stayed in an ancient temple, and then met a fox spirit who turned into a human. In the dusk, the man looked up at the vague outline of the huge city, and then he couldn't help but look at the foreign employer who was not generous with money from the corner of his eyes, feeling a little regretful. In the town they were going to, though most of the people lived and died according to the rules, rules had to be made, and it was unfortunate that they had come across this little group of people, whose observance of the rules depended on their mood. Some people would become rich overnight because of this. After being chosen by the big shots in the city, they would rise to the top in a single bound in the largest city of the Western Regions, which was home to more than a hundred thousand people. There were also some people who were never heard from again because of this. A few years ago, the coachman had taken a group of four people into the city, three men and one woman, armed with sabers and swords. They looked quite skilled, but before they could rest, they were blocked by the cavalry from the inner city. It was really a fierce battle. The four people were indeed skilled. They directly jumped out of the carriage and onto the roof. The rain of arrows that was like a splash of water didn't hurt them at all. The coachman didn't dare to look and abandoned the carriage, almost crawling away. Later, he learned that the four people had been hanged at the east gate of the city. It was said that they were heroes from the Central Plains who came to seek revenge. Unexpectedly, the family of the enemy had become an influential family in the inner city, and only forty or fifty people were killed in the city. In fact, there were several such tragedies every year. In the final analysis, that city was open to everyone, but not everyone could leave. However, the coachman didn't dare to say this, for fear of scaring the young employer beside him. Of course, he was even more afraid that his commission would fly away like a cooked duck.
Before the shabby carriage entered the city, the coachman kindly told the young man about the current situation in the city. For example, the city was divided into the inner and outer city. There were four local gangs and sects in the outer city, and they liked to go out of the city to play cavalry when they had nothing to do. At the peak of their strength, there were thousands of cavalry on both sides. It was said that the four forces together had more than three thousand warhorses and hundreds of crossbows. If you provoked them, you would be waiting to be torn apart by five horses. Anyway, those guys had done such things before. In the inner city, there were three guys with surnames that couldn't be provoked. They were extremely influential and had a strong family background. In any case, they were the local tyrants in the city. Among them, the Chai family had collected twenty to thirty dragon robes. The head of the Chai family rarely went out with great fanfare. He really wore a dragon robe as the rumors said, and the beauties around him were all wearing phoenix coronets and robes. They really looked like empresses and imperial concubines. It was an eye-opener. When they approached the city gate, the coachman who was thirsty took off the goatskin wine bag and drank a mouthful of wine. He turned to look at the young man who was listening to him carefully and grinned. "I said all this just to let you be more careful. But in case, I mean in case you really run into trouble, if there are those red-robed monks with prayer wheels nearby, you must hurry to them and ask for help. After all, in our Western Region, they are living Bodhisattvas. No matter how unreasonable they are, they will always restrain themselves."
After entering the city, the young man got off the carriage at a downtown inn in the east of the city that he recommended. He gave the coachman a few more taels of silver. Although there was some black rust on the silver, there was no twilight. It was pleasing to look at. This made the coachman feel that his words were not in vain. Good people will be rewarded. However, when he saw the young man walk slowly into the inn without any scheming, the coachman's eyes were a little complicated. In fact, his words were in vain. When outsiders entered this inn, whether they could come out alive was up to fate. Even if they were lucky enough to walk out, they would lose a few layers of skin. However, when he thought about how the inn would give him a little share of the profits after he killed the fat sheep, the coachman couldn't help but secretly laugh. However, at this moment, the young man also turned around and looked at him with a smile. The coachman's smile suddenly stiffened, but soon his smile returned to normal. He even waved his hand at the poor guy who was unaware that he was a sheep in a tiger's den.
When the coachman cheerfully swung his whip and left, he probably didn't know that if this city was a local snake entrenched in the territory of the Western Regions and was feared, then he had personally delivered a great serpent with the power to easily swallow the snake.
The person who hired the carriage to enter the city was Hsu Fengnian, who had not received a clear answer from Mount Lantuo. There were more than three hundred thousand monks in the Western Regions, both on the books and not on the books. There were forty to fifty thousand monk soldiers affiliated with Mount Lantuo. However, even if Hsu Fengnian personally came to Mount Lantuo, he could not successfully take away a single soldier. However, it was not as if there was no turning point. Hsu Fengnian came to the Protectorate of the Western Regions of the Great Feng Dynasty to do his best for this bleak turning point, and then leave the rest to fate. In the center of the inner city, there was a small mountain no more than twenty feet high, known as Little Lantuo. At the top of the mountain, there was the world's largest prayer wheel. Its copper body was gilded and weighed a hundred and twenty thousand pounds. The outside of the wheel was carved with the four Bodhisattvas of Manjushri, Samantabhadra, Guanyin, Ksitigarbha, and eight thousand lifelike fairies. The inside of the wheel was engraved with eight hundred and ten thousand six-syllable mantras and all the Tripitaka. The prayer wheel had a large ring for people to hold on to. The reason why it was said to be empty was because no one had ever successfully moved the prayer wheel after it was created. Thus, each rotation was equivalent to eight hundred and ten thousand chants of Buddha. Until now, no one had been able to enjoy the great fortune of reciting Buddha's name.
This anecdote had been circulating in the Central Plains for a long time along with Buddhism's journey to the east. It was said that the difficulty of "this method is difficult to turn" was first in climbing Little Lantuo, then in the strength of dragons and elephants equivalent to tens of thousands of pounds. The third difficulty was whether one had the fate with Buddha. There was once a monk of Mount Lantuo who said that even Lu Zu and Wang Xianzhi would find it difficult to turn the prayer wheel.
For Hsu Fengnian, even if Mount Lantuo wanted him to turn the prayer wheel, it was not impossible for him to try. However, Hsu Fengnian did not dare to say that he would succeed. There were many eminent monks in Mount Lantuo. There were two Buddhas like Liu Songtao in the mortal world, plus the Bodhisattva of Six Jewels and dozens of masters. Once they joined forces to defend against something or prevent someone from doing something, it would be as difficult as ascending to the sky. Xu Fengnian believed that with the strength of the fourteen Wu Judges, it would not be difficult to move the prayer wheel. The real difficulty should be the Buddhist fate that seemed to exist but not exist.
Mount Lantuo gave a four-word reminder to the young vassal king who personally visited the mountain, "Heavenly Water Bathing Buddha".
Hsu Fengnian checked in on the second floor of the inn. He opened the window and looked worried. Guyu, March 2nd. However, the Buddha's birthday of "Nine Dragons Spitting Water, Bathing in Golden Body" was not until April 8th. Logically speaking, it was impossible for Xu Fengnian to waste an entire month in this isolated city thousands of li away from Northern Liang. However, at the foot of the mountain, Xu Fengnian met a stooped old woman who was holding a small prayer wheel in her hand. After chatting for a while, the old woman gave the ordinary prayer wheel to Xu Fengnian. When Xu Fengnian thought about it, the old woman's unintentional words reverberated in his heart like the roar of a large bell. At that time, she said that one could not rotate the prayer wheel too quickly. It was not that the more times one rotated it, the more merit one would accumulate. Instead, one had to be calm and steady. Hsu Fengnian knew that the old woman was just an ordinary person in the Western Region who worshipped Buddha. However, it was because of this that he truly felt that there was a "God's will in the unseen world".
Hsu Fengnian's mouth showed a trace of helplessness and bitterness. Did he really have to wait until April 8th? The war in Liangzhou's Hutou City was in full swing. Liuzhou was also in the midst of a storm. People were dying in Beiliang every day. As the King of Beiliang, even if he could not personally mobilize the troops in the Protectorate of Beiliang, he felt that he needed to stand there and see the smoke and hear the war drums with his own eyes. Only then could he feel at ease. If he could turn the prayer wheel, it would be fine. After Kou Jianghuai entered Liuzhou, there would be forty to fifty thousand fearless and brave warrior monks. Then, he could turn from seeking defeat to seeking victory. In this way, Huang Man'er, who bore the brunt of the attack on the western front of Liang Mang, would have more stability. This was Hsu Fengnian's selfishness when he acted under the nose of Tuoba Bodhisattva. This was also why Tantai Pingjing was so angry at that time.
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