Fried Salted Fish
Chapter 423 The Beginning of the Southern Journey
The gates of the Imperial Ancestral Temple were closed once more. That immense evil energy was once again locked away deep within the palace.
At the same time, regarding the rebellion in Bozhou, the imperial court began to dispatch those divine soldiers and demon generals. For these divine soldiers and demon generals who had just been incorporated and had not yet demonstrated their strength, this was an excellent opportunity to show their faces.
They all believed that it was merely attacking a mortal warlord.
With the prestige of the Great Ming Dynasty backing them, even if they themselves were folk gods or demon generals, they would not be too afraid of firearms. Moreover, how many firearms could a mere rebel army possess?
It was just that the requirements issued by the imperial court were a bit strange.
"No mortals are allowed to participate in the battle?"
"Isn't this great? It gives us a chance to perform. If we don't use the regular army, then no one will compete with us for merit."
Although many folk gods and demon generals didn't know why there was such a notice, and why they were required to only bring divine soldiers, yin soldiers, and demon soldiers to suppress the rebellion, they were happy to see that they would avoid competing for merit and being suppressed by the Ming Dynasty's mortal army.
The outside army was always distrusted by the internal army. Perhaps this suppression was the imperial court's way of seeing the sincerity of their band of demons and folk gods. If they wanted to obtain a higher position, they had to seize this opportunity.
At this time, Yang Yinglong, far away in Bozhou, had no idea that he was being targeted by countless gods, ghosts, and demons, his level of attention already comparable to that of Tang Sanzang's flesh.
A dark current began to surge within Shuntian.
On the other side, Ji Xiang's prying into the South Sea seemed to have come to nothing.
Because he couldn't see anything.
Someone had intervened, which made Ji Xiang feel disgusted.
Although he already knew that the Fa School's allegiance was not simple. After all, a Buddhist ghost appeared in the South Sea, and then the Fa School came to pledge allegiance. Subsequently, Tantric Buddhism caused trouble in the north. All of this seemed to be internal strife within Buddhism, but now it even involved erasing the future, which meant that someone from the Tianxin realm (Celestial Heart realm) was interfering.
"Is it the great Buddha of Tantric Buddhism, preparing to intercept me?"
Ji Xiang realized that this matter was not good, but the time for Tianxin to rotate should not have arrived yet. Before that, even if the Buddhist Tianxin from Li Shanhe (Hidden World) wanted to seek revenge on him, they should not be able to pass the Vajra Wrathful Deity (Huiji Jingang) level.
Of course... there was a precedent of the Great Good Teacher descending to the mortal realm himself, so if some Tianxin was eager to take revenge and really descended to the human world, even for a moment, he would not be able to withstand it.
Therefore, before going to the South Sea, Ji Xiang made two preparations.
These two preparations were methods other than the "reinforcements" arranged by the Celestial Master and the Wanli Emperor.
If nothing unexpected happened, the Wanli Emperor's reinforcements might not be of much use. After all, according to the secret reports received by the Celestial Master and the Emperor, the Fa School was not only involved with the Buddhist ghosts, but even mixed with the Portuguese missionaries, bribing the provincial administration commissioner, purchasing military fire, recruiting Japanese ronin as guards, and abolishing local laws.
In the tenth year of Wanli's reign, that was when the bribery occurred, but it was only now that it was clearly investigated. At that time, the Portuguese arbitrarily elected a chief judge, implemented Portuguese law in Macau, and bribed the officials who went to investigate, and the report received at that time was "everything is normal."
And this was clearly intended to cede territory and colonize.
The "Folangji people" was a collective term for the Portuguese and Spanish, but they were all "Haiyi" (sea barbarians), that is, foreign barbarians from the Western Sea. It was no secret that they wanted to build their own castles and establish colonies here.
They used Haojing Ao (Macau) as their base and even built an extremely solemn and majestic cathedral.
St. Paul's College. This was actually something that had been established as early as the forty-fourth year of Jiajing, and it was only during the Wanli period that it became known to the world with the northward movement of missionaries.
After more than thirty years of operation, the religious beliefs of the Catholic missionaries could be said to have taken root in Haojing Ao. This college not only had Chinese Christians, but also Japanese, Southeast Asian, and Western Christians.
This was also the first Western-style college on this land of the Far East.
"The waters of the South Sea are very deep, not only with many Fa School cultivators, but also with Buddhism, Tantric Buddhism, and even the Biyou Palace and Yuan Emperor from before might appear. Now we also have to be wary of Catholic magic."
"So, only here might there be some clues."
"This is the first preparation."
Ji Xiang stopped.
The site of the Dongyue Temple, now a Catholic church, Ji Xiang deliberately came here before leaving Shuntian.
The Kobayakawa family, who had defected from Japan, had already gone to the Forbidden City, and Father Valignano, who was introduced by Matteo Ricci, was naturally traveling with them. The matters they were going to discuss with the imperial court were naturally related to important intelligence within Japan.
"Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, you must protect me on this trip to the South Sea. I even deliberately had the Emperor bestow upon you a new title."
Ji Xiang touched his brow, and the voice of Bei Yuan Jingang (Compassionate Vow Vajra) came, naturally expressing his gratitude. With the support of the Ming Dynasty's national power, his recovery speed would be much faster. Once Ji Xiang ascended to immortality, he could use the Hungry Ghost Paper to open the gate of the Six Paths of Reincarnation. At that time, with the help of the power of the Vast Deliverance of the Fallen Heavenly Lord, his true body could break free from the Six Paths.
"Friend, rest assured, this time this monk will definitely do his best. The people of Tantric Buddhism are nothing more than that. If I recover my magic power, I have the Three Virtues Hidden Treasures and the Seven Righteousness of the Earth. I have boundless wonderful methods, so why should I fear them?"
Bei Yuan Jingang's tone was slightly arrogant, but this was not him boasting. It was precisely because Ksitigarbha himself was a great power in Buddhism who controlled life and death, so he was a natural counter to Tantric Buddhism, which specialized in reincarnation and the art of life and death. Even within Tantric Buddhism, there were statues and scriptures of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's original form. It could be said that many people within Tantric Buddhism practiced Ksitigarbha's techniques.
Are you using my methods to fight me?
Bei Yuan Jingang was still very confident about the trip to the South Sea.
"Even if this monk can't deal with the foreign Catholic methods, there's still no problem dealing with Tantric Buddhism. As long as the other party doesn't have a Tianxin directly descending to the mortal world, this monk can break all kinds of curses and killing techniques with a single thought."
"However, now that you already have the power of one country as support, plus the national prestige of the Ming Dynasty, which is the power of two countries, there should be no one in the world who is your opponent. Even if a flying immortal descends, there is no need to fear. Is it really necessary to be so cautious?"
Bei Yuan Jingang said so. In his opinion, Ji Xiang could ascend at any time and enter the realm of Heavenly Immortal. At that time, he would be truly invincible in the human world. Even Xu Fu, that fake immortal, was probably not Ji Xiang's opponent. Even the Celestial Master was seven points inferior. After all, the Celestial Master's immortal body was only a lesser immortal.
This South Sea Fa School looked like a powerful force, but what if they united with Li Shanhe cultivators? If the Tianxin couldn't descend to the mortal world, it would be like wanton killing. No matter how many methods you had, they would be useless. In Bei Yuan Jingang's opinion, Ji Xiang was a being who could communicate with the Great Floating Dawn Earth above, and had also been to the Japanese Underworld below. He could truly be called "exhausting the blue sky above and the yellow springs below." He had done things in the heavens and on earth. What else was there to be afraid of?
Ji Xiang communicated with Bei Yuan Jingang in his heart, while pushing open the church door with his hand.
What greeted him was no longer those gloomy airs. The many great halls of the past had long been reduced to ashes and no longer existed. The wooden carvings and clay sculptures of the gods had also been destroyed or moved out of the scope of the imperial city.
The mountain gate of the church was clearly still in the Chinese style, but a closer look would reveal that the paintings on the gate, painted with brilliant oil colors, were not flying birds or divine generals, but the Virgin Mary looking down.
Inside, on the completely demolished site of the Dongyue Temple, was a large gray cathedral.
And not far from the church, one could actually see a vegetable garden, but what was planted in this vegetable garden was not green vegetables.
They were red tomatoes and golden sunflowers.
With the arrival of Western missionaries, these foreign things also took root in this distant land.
"According to Master Ye's ability, the formation under the church should still be able to suppress it, right?"
Ji Xiang looked at the ground. Under this church was the teleportation array that the immortals of the Yin World used to come to the human world, but now it was completely covered by the main body of the church.
As for the temple plaques and inscriptions inscribed by Emperor Yingzong, they had long been destroyed by the Wanli Emperor, who was so frightened that he went mentally insane at the time.
"The temple plaques and inscriptions were all destroyed, but the Wrathful Lord is still not liberated. This shows that the source of the restraint is not on these inscriptions of the Dongyue Temple. Thinking about it, how could such an important thing be easily broken by destroying a temple?"
"This place is at most a stage, or a medium, for Emperor Yingzong to cast his divine and ghostly arts. It is not the root of his magic."
Ji Xiang's wandering behavior at the entrance of the church was seen by the priests inside. They discovered that Ji Xiang's clothes looked like those of a Taoist, but he was wearing black clothes, which confused them.
The priests who appeared here were basically from St. Paul's College and were very proficient in Chinese, because there was also a college dedicated to teaching Chinese in that college.
Therefore, when they saw the black Taoist robes, they were also puzzled.
However, one of them seemed to be very familiar with this kind of thing and whispered:
"I have read the history books of the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty. It is said that the national teacher at that time was a monk, but he did not wear a kasaya, but also black clothes."
With this, the other priests seemed to suddenly understand.
"I see."
"Understood. Religious figures wearing black clothes here symbolize high status and power."
They were sizing up Ji Xiang, not even knowing whether to preach to Ji Xiang, but Ji Xiang had already walked towards them.
Although he was in the appearance of a young man, he gave people an immense sense of danger. When those black eyes looked at them, all the priests had a thought pop up in their hearts.
This person is dangerous.
"The Western scriptures are very profound. I have read some before, and I can say that I have benefited a lot. I also have some understanding of the art of Christ. I am always thinking, if I can penetrate the mysteries, can I also write a book of the Lord?"
"It's just that before, Matteo Ricci brought too few scriptures, and I didn't have enough comprehension.... Have you ever heard of my name? Poor Taoist, Arctic."
When the priests heard this Taoist name, they were naturally familiar with it, and their eyes lit up instantly.
And Ji Xiang, seeing that they were falling for it, immediately said familiarly:
"So, everyone, don't be nervous. I am here to borrow the scriptures in your hands for a look."
Ji Xiang smiled, looking harmless, but he deliberately emphasized:
"It's best to be the original version."