Chapter 386: The Emperor is angry and Buddhism is banned in the world
Chapter 386 The Emperor is angry and Buddhism is banned in the world (two in one)
"Okay, I'll go..."
Accompanied by a panic, some palace maids immediately ran towards the imperial study, while others went to look for the imperial physician.
The remaining female officials crouched on the ground and helped up Zhao Du'an, who was covered in blood and almost fainted. They waited for the palace guards to arrive and together they sent Zhao Du'an to the nearest house.
A few moments.
When Empress Dayu received the notification and hurriedly followed the instructions, she arrived outside the door. The palace maids gathered there saluted in unison: "Your Majesty!"
There was no smile on Xu Zhenguan's pale face. Although he tried his best to remain calm, he could not hide his obvious nervousness.
"Is Lord Zhao in the room?"
"Yes, I have invited the imperial physician to come inside..."
Without waiting for the servant to finish speaking, Xu Zhenguan, wrapped in the cold winter wind, pushed open the door.
"Woooo..."
The cold wind blew in from behind her and instantly filled the quaint bedroom.
Inside the room, an elderly imperial physician was standing beside the bed, surrounded by several eunuchs and palace maids. Some were holding blood-stained and tattered clothes, while others were holding copper basins filled with blood.
"Your Majesty!" Everyone was shocked to see the empress barging in.
Xu Zhenguan ignored everyone, lifted her skirt, and rushed straight to the bed. After bypassing the figures blocking her view, she finally saw Zhao Duan lying flat on the bed.
His clothes had been stripped off and the blood had been wiped off the exposed skin. The rest of his body was fine except for his chest, which was a bloody mess.
Silver needles were inserted into various meridian points on the body.
"Your Majesty." The old doctor turned around and saluted.
Xu Zhenguan looked frosty as he stared at the unconscious Zhao Duan: "What's the situation?"
The old doctor said with a look of relief:
"Your Majesty, please be at ease. Lord Zhao is not in danger of death, and his body is not seriously injured. It is just an external injury. But it is only a little bit. If Lord Zhao had not been wearing a precious armor that took on most of the injury, otherwise..."
Next to him, a eunuch was holding the "Six Talismans Armor" that Donghai Qingshan regarded as a treasure. At this moment, the entire armor was sunken inward, and a palm print could be vaguely seen.
Xu Zhenguan let out a sigh of relief silently. When he suddenly heard the bad news, his confused mind finally calmed down.
She walked forward silently, without caring about the taboo between men and women, and raised her fair wrist and placed her slender hand on Zhao Duan's brow.
Then he carefully scanned his entire body with his spiritual sense, and after confirming that the injuries were within the healable range, his tense heartstrings were finally relieved.
"Come here, go to the palace pharmacy and get some medicine for the wounds, both for internal and external use."
"All of you please go out. I want to personally regulate Zhao Qing's meridians and qi."
"Pass the order down, block the news, and anyone who knows about this will be confined to their homes."
Xu Zhenguan issued several orders, and everyone agreed and left the room.
After the door was closed, Xu Zhenguan pulled a round stool, sat by the window, held Zhao Duan's hand, closed his eyes and inhaled the Qi.
Use your own cultivation to help him repair the disordered qi that had been shaken.
As the energy flowed in, the silver needles on Zhao Duan's body also glowed. About quarter of an hour later, the servants brought in the medicine and then left.
I didn’t dare to disturb His Majesty from treating Lord Zhao.
About a quarter of an hour later, Zhao Duan finally slowly opened his eyelids and saw himself lying on the bed.
The drapery hanging down above his head made him feel pain all over his body. He grimaced and inhaled subconsciously in pain, but he felt a soft touch on his palm.
From the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of the mortal fairy sitting by the window with her eyes closed as if meditating. He tried to hold back his breath.
Zhenbao?
It’s not a dream, it’s the real, warm Zhenbao… Zhao Duan blinked his big eyes silently.
He was not really unconscious. Although he was in a daze before, he vaguely knew that he seemed to be carried into the house by a group of eunuchs and palace maids. He also seemed to hear the empress's voice, but he was so confused that he could not tell the truth from the false.
Now seeing that cold and beautiful face that no other woman in the world could match, he was finally sure:
"Did I successfully teleport back to the capital? Hiss... Fortunately, fortunately, I was able to hide the teleportation gem inside the Six Talisman Armor, which saved my life at the critical moment... Well, fortunately, the assassin who attacked me didn't shoot me in the head..."
"Wait... Assassin..."
His confused thoughts gradually became clear, and the scene of Zhao Duan being assassinated on the dock became clearer in his mind.
Information from the shadow guards... a black-sailed boat... a bald head emerging from the crowd...
"Master Dajing... Why would the Master Dajing of Shenlong Temple ambush and assassinate me? Isn't one Nagarjuna enough?"
Zhao Duan couldn't understand the other party's logic, which was weird from the inside out.
but……
None of it matters anymore. What matters is that he has escaped from danger and returned to the safest Dayu Palace, with the empress by his side.
He now had someone by his side to protect him from the wind and rain.
As his thoughts were floating in his mind, he didn't dare to move, for fear of waking up the empress. He just tilted his head slightly and stared quietly at the empress's very beautiful face.
Just like when I was tired in my previous life, I would lie on the bed and look at the cat I raised, and I would feel happy.
"Have you seen enough?" Xu Zhenguan suddenly said with his eyes closed.
"No... no... Your Majesty, are you awake?"
Zhao Duan was startled and met Xu Zhenguan's eyes that were wide open and looked like they were half angry and half happy.
He was a little embarrassed, and also a little proud for no reason, and he actually laughed in a rare and awkward way.
Xu Zhenguan glared at him unhappily, but he was not really angry at all. He was just helpless that this guy was covered in wounds and still had the mind to talk to him.
Are all men like this?
After all, the joy in his heart was greater than anything else. Only now did Xu Zhenguan think about the changes in his emotions in just less than an hour.
The emperor, who should have been majestic and indifferent, was somehow moved by a mere minister. When he heard from the palace maid that "Lord Zhao is going to die," his mind went blank.
Rushing to the room, I saw his trembling fingertips as he was unconscious and covered in blood, and the inexplicable anger and regret welled up in my heart... I regretted why I had sent him out, whether it was a wrong decision to let him go out for training...
Also, this guy just woke up and was not behaving himself, and I felt relieved... all these complicated emotions had clearly exceeded the boundaries between a monarch and his subjects.
Just like she has been saying these days that she is concerned about the opening of the market, but how much she is concerned about the opening of the market and how much she is concerned about Zhao Duan, who has not sent any news for a long time, is something even she herself cannot tell.
However, the determined female emperor only paused for a moment in this indescribable emotion before forcibly cutting off those thoughts and restoring her cold and majestic image as an emperor.
She sneered and said, "Yeah, are you unhappy that I'm awake?"
Zhao Duan cried out:
"What are you talking about? I am just... just... injured and cannot stand up to salute..."
Xu Zhenguan smiled dangerously:
"Oh? Really? Why don't you let go?"
"..." Zhao Duan then awkwardly withdrew his big hand that was holding the empress's small hand: "This is..."
"Alright, the Six Talisman Armor saved your life. Although you weren't hurt at all, you won't have enough energy to keep talking. Stop talking nonsense. Who hurt you? Even Hai Gongsheng didn't stop you?"
Xu Zhenguan rudely interrupted his nonsense and got straight to the point, staring at him seriously.
Zhao Duan was silent for a moment, and stopped joking. He wanted to get up, but after trying, he found that he had no strength, so he had to lie on the bed and said seriously:
"I was just about to report to Your Majesty on the progress of Lake Pavilion. We have fulfilled our mission and the opening of the market has been a complete success."
A complete success!
Upon hearing this news, which should have made him extremely happy and delighted the emperor, Xu Zhenguan found that he was not as happy as he had expected.
She said calmly: "What I want to ask is who hurt you."
Zhao Duan said helplessly:
"This matter is a bit complicated. I think I need to tell you the whole story first so that you can make the right judgment."
"Then let him go quickly." Xu Zhenguan was annoyed by his behavior. He clearly wanted to support him immediately, but this guy didn't seem to be in a hurry.
Why is it that the emperor is anxious while his subjects are not?
Zhao Duan organized his words and then slowly said:
"There were no accidents on the way south, except when we were about to land, we encountered Xu Jinglong and his Duan Shuiliu from Daqing Mountain, who intercepted us..."
He first recounted what happened on the river, and then his series of experiences after he landed, including meeting Prince Jing and Prince Huai'an.
The empress listened quietly without interrupting. After hearing the King of Huai'an's part, she was slightly surprised:
"So, the King of Huai'an wants to sit on the mountain and watch the fight between the two tigers? He will support you after seeing who wins the fight?"
"Yes," Zhao Duan nodded and said seriously, "After I understood this, I kept waiting for Prince Jing to make a move until I went to Yansuo Lake..."
This is the highlight. Zhao Duan described it in more detail, including how he took the initiative to go fishing and how he took the princess with him.
When Xu Zhenguan heard that Duan Shuiliu, Qi Yuchun, and the killers suspected to be arranged by Prince Jing's Mansion surrounded and killed people on the lake, his eyes were as sharp as a knife.
After hearing that Zhao Duan had killed the archer but was kidnapped by the princess, Xu Zhenguan's face changed again:
"Princess Lu is a worldly realm sorcerer? So, you were injured by her and teleported back? No... No, the time is wrong..."
She couldn't figure out how Zhao Duan broke the impasse.
It was not until Zhao Duan said that Lu Yan'er was a descendant of Pei Niannu that the empress showed surprise and realization on her face.
She knew that Zhao Duan had visualized Pei Niannu in the Six Chapter Sutra.
However, the empress was still stunned by the fact that Zhao Duan actually used his mid-level divine cultivation to carry out a "divine descent" and used the inheritance system to suppress, defeat and instigate a rebellion against the princess.
All of this was beyond imagination, but when you think about it carefully, it all makes sense.
"So, not only did you not suffer any injuries, but you also arranged the princess to be a spy for the court?" Xu Zhenguan's face looked extremely strange.
Zhao Duan was also very proud of his operation:
"Yes. As for what happened afterwards, it went much more smoothly. After I returned, I took those assassins with me to severely humiliate Prince Jing. Prince Huai'an acted as promised, and the market was opened as planned."
The empress digested the thought quietly for a while. She had imagined that Zhao Duan could complete this task, but she had not expected that he would do so well.
However, compared to the results of the opening, she was more confused:
"If so, how did you get injured?"
Logically speaking, the market has already closed, and there is a spy around Prince Jing. Is it really for revenge that he organized a second assassination? It's a bit unreasonable...
Zhao Duan took a deep breath and finally told the story of how he was ambushed by Master Dajing on his way home.
After hearing this result, even though the empress had made many guesses, she was still stunned.
Bodhisattva Nagarjuna was suspected of joining the battle, but was stopped by the little heavenly master.
Master Dajing ambushed and attacked, and Eunuch Hai had no time to rescue him.
"Shenlong Temple... What a Shenlong Temple, it's actually Shenlong Temple!?"
Xu Zhenguan's jade-like face was frosted, his beautiful eyes were filled with anger, and he stood up suddenly, "These bald asses actually dared to assassinate an official of the imperial court. It seems that my warning last time was not enough."
As she spoke, she suddenly glanced at Zhao Duan and said:
"You stay in the palace to recover. I will be out for a while."
With that said, he turned around and walked out.
"Your Majesty, wait!"
Zhao Duan was anxious. He raised his broken body and grabbed the empress's hand. He said in a serious tone:
"Your Majesty, please do not act impulsively. I always feel that this matter is quite strange."
As the person who was attacked, Zhao Duan was of course very angry at the Shenlong Temple. But he also knew that anger could not solve the problem. The reason why he talked so much and told the whole story was to let the empress realize that there was something strange about this matter.
However, Xu Zhenguan just looked at him calmly and said:
"I know what you mean. Maybe this matter is as you think, and there is indeed something fishy about it. Some people may even be deliberately using you as a scapegoat, but this is not important."
Zhao Duan was stunned.
Xu Zhen looked at him, broke free from his hand, and said:
"Just rest and recuperate. I'll go and help you vent your anger."
"His Majesty……"
……
……
The moment Xu Zhenguan stepped out of the room, the cold winter wind blew on her face.
She also regained her dignity and grace, with a hint of undisguised anger.
"His Majesty!"
The group of people waiting outside the door saluted at the same time. Mo Chou had also rushed over and was among them.
It was around noon, and the sky above the capital was covered with gray clouds. The sky was pale, and everything was withered and silent, with only a bleak atmosphere.
Xu Zhenguan spoke coldly:
"Pass on my order, the five guards of the Imperial City are dispatched to block the Shenlong Temple and Jizhao Temple."
"Pass on my order. The Ministry of Rites will draft a decree to ban all Buddhist worship in the city from today. Notice to all prefectures to follow the same rules as the capital. Within two months, Buddhism will be banned throughout the country."
"Pass on my order, the Ministry of Justice will issue a warrant for the arrest of the criminal monk Da Jing from the Shenlong Temple."
"Convey my will..."
In the cold wind, oral decrees were issued one after another. The female officials outside the door were shocked and horrified. Mo Chou stared blankly at the empress who was suppressing her anger. She wanted to say something, but was too scared to open her mouth.
"I obey your order..."
Finally, Mo Chou took a deep breath, suppressed the shock in her heart, and quickly went to do her work. She almost ran, knowing in her heart:
Something big has happened.
After issuing a series of imperial edicts, Xu Zhenguan left the crowd and walked towards the Meridian Gate Square alone.
In the silent palace, the empress was dressed in white, like the only snowflake in the winter.
She suddenly raised her hand.
In the direction of the Imperial Ancestral Temple, in the great hall where the ancestral tablets were displayed, on the altar where incense and candles were always burning all year round, a sword box suddenly opened.
The sword that Emperor Taizu once wore, the Tai'a Sword that Zhao Duan summoned during the Buddhist and Taoist competition.
There was a sudden buzzing and vibration.
Then, the Taia sword suddenly jumped out of the sword case, flew out of the hall, turned into a ray of golden light and flew out of the Taimiao, handing itself into Xu Zhenguan's slender jade hands.
Xu Zhenguan held a sword in her hand, her invisible aura rising, and waves of almost invisible dragon energy swirled around her.
The empress took a sudden step forward.
In an instant.
She left the palace and appeared above the Shenlong Temple in the capital.
Xu Zhenguan looked down at the Buddhist temple complex below and could vaguely hear the sound of chanting in the temples and the curling of incense and candle smoke.
There was indifference in her eyes. She held a sword in her hand and pointed it at the main hall of the temple. Then, the majestic voice of the empress rang out over the entire capital:
"Xuan Yin! Come out and see me!"
The sound was like thunder, shaking the clouds in the sky. In an instant, it spread to every corner of this majestic city with a population of one million.
……
Zhao family.
Eugene Hua was warming herself by the fire with her daughter in the room and was startled by the sound.
The mother and daughter walked out of the room and gathered in the courtyard with a group of servants. They looked at the dragon energy hovering faintly above the Shenlong Temple with confused expressions.
……
Silent Lighting Temple.
By the pond where the withered lotus leaves were already withering, Prajna Bodhisattva, who was sitting on a swing, suddenly looked up.
A pair of wise eyes looked in astonishment towards the sky above the temple opposite, where the empress in white stood majestically. Feeling the majestic power of the emperor in the realm of heaven and man, tears flowed from her eyes.
There was chaos in the nunnery. Princess Yunyang walked out of the meditation room and saw the scene in the sky. She was stunned.
……
Tianshi Mansion.
"Jingle, clang, clang."
In the workshop of the fat boy Gongshu Tianyuan, the knocking sounds stopped, and a believer in the God of Craftsmen wearing wrinkled priest robes walked out and looked at the distant sky in surprise.
"Your Majesty?" A petite figure flew over, Jin Jian slowly landed on the ground, pushed down the crystal-lens glasses on the bridge of his nose, and was shocked. "What's wrong with your majesty?"
The other priests also came out and gathered in the square, looking into the distance in confusion.
In the backyard, Zhang Yanyi, who was napping under a big banyan tree, was also awakened.
There was a moment of astonishment on his ruddy face, as if the scene before him was not within his deduction of the way of heaven, and he couldn't help but frown.
……
"Xuan Yin! Come out and see me!"
Amid the majestic rebuke, the entire Shenlong Temple was hit hard, and countless monks in the temple felt the arrival of the majestic power of heaven with horror.
Those with higher cultivation levels were still better off, but the young monks with lower cultivation levels trembled all over, feeling an instinctive fear and desire to submit.
Monks came out from various Buddhist temples and meditation rooms and gathered in the largest courtyard in the center.
The famous Master Bianji, also dressed in white and with a handsome appearance, walked out and immediately became the backbone of the monks:
"Mage!"
"The mage is here!"
"What's going on? Why is your majesty doing this? Ordering the abbot?"
The monks were confused and terrified.
Seeing the chaos, Master Bianji put his hands together and said in a loud voice:
"Amitabha!"
As his chanting of the Buddha's name spread, the frightened hearts of the monks were soothed and they calmed down.
Bian Ji stood in the crowd, looked up at the empress in the sky, and said loudly:
"Your Majesty, why are you here? The abbot has been in seclusion for many years and has never appeared in the world. If there is any misunderstanding, please let me know and I will convey it to you..."
Facing the empress who was obviously furious, Bian Ji was as humble as a little monk.
Xu Zhenguan was too lazy to talk nonsense with Bian Ji. She stood in the air, the tip of the sword in her hand pointed at the main hall of Shenlong Temple, where the abbot Xuanyin of the Tianren Realm was in seclusion, and her voice became increasingly cold:
"Xuan Yin! If you don't come out, I will destroy your temple today."
Bian Ji was shocked. He knew that although his master Xuan Yin's body was in seclusion in Shenlong Temple, his soul was wandering outside all year round.
At this moment, he might not have recovered yet. Nagarjuna and Dajing were not in the temple, and Prajna was a person who watched the fire from the other side of the river. He gritted his teeth, leaped into the air, and said:
"Your Majesty, calm down. If there is any misunderstanding, please come into the temple and sit down to discuss in detail..."
Xu Zhenguan had a blank expression on his face, and he casually swung the Taia sword in his hand and slashed a magnificent sword light towards a side hall.
"what!"
Everyone in the temple was shocked.
Master Bian Ji's heart sank. Without time to think, he immediately stretched his hands above his head and silently chanted the Buddha's name, accompanied by a "dong" sound.
With him as the center, an extremely huge illusory golden bell suddenly emerged, blocking the path of the sword light.
"Crack!!"
When the two collided, the huge golden bell cracked instantly. Bian Ji, who was in mid-air, felt as if he had been hit hard. He spurted out a mouthful of blood and fell into the courtyard like a kite with a broken string.
The remaining sword energy hit the side hall. In an instant, the glazed roof shattered, and the entire Buddhist temple seemed to be hit by a divine weapon and collapsed into ruins.
There was a lot of smoke and dust.
"Mage——"
The monks caught the falling Bian Ji in horror. Although there were many masters in the temple, they had no confidence to resist at this moment.
Xu Zhenguan held a sword in his hand and said in a stern tone: "Xuan Yin, get out!"
This was the third sentence she had said since she arrived. Seeing that the main hall was still quiet, Xu Zhenguan raised his eyebrows and actually stopped waiting.
The empress in white stood in the air, her three thousand black hair fluttering in the cold wind.
She looked like a banished celestial being, her eyes as awe-inspiring as a god, and she suddenly threw the Taia sword in her hand toward the most majestic palace in the Shenlong Temple!
The sword energy is like a rainbow.
The divine soldiers are coming.
At this moment, under the gaze of countless people in the capital, a thin ray of fire suddenly lit up in the gray sky, like a world-destroying meteorite.
In the eyes of the practitioners in the city, the tip of the sword suddenly pierced through the sound barrier and formed an arc-shaped air shield with a diameter of one hundred meters. It was an air wave condensed by wind resistance.
The divine sword carried a breath of destruction, its entire body was red hot like charcoal, burning the space and causing it to distort and deform.
The red flame suddenly grew unimaginably large, like a red waterfall splashing across the world.
"what--"
Amid the horrified and fearful wails of countless monks, the centuries-old golden statue of Buddha at the Shenlong Temple was about to be shattered.
In the main hall, a huge Buddhist light suddenly rose up.
The Buddha's light was like the morning glow tearing through the dawn, and the sun leaped out of the earth from the eastern sky, shining on the world.
In the Buddha's light, an extremely huge image of the deity "World Honored One" with majestic and compassionate features slowly rose up, accompanied by rolling Sanskrit sounds.
An old monk in brown robes quietly appeared on the roof of the temple. His thin and short body stood in the cold winter wind, swaying precariously.
Abbot Xuanyin clasped his hands together.
The majestic image of "Buddha" also put his hands together and did not counterattack the empress. Instead, he held up a huge golden bell that was big enough to cover the entire Shenlong Temple.
Then, the sword light, like a fiery waterfall and a meteorite from outer space, crashed into the huge golden bell.
……
ps: Thanks to the book friend Xiaoluobo9975 for the points reward support! The boss is generous
(End of this chapter)