I want to embrace the moon for nine days

The surface of the river was turbid for a while due to the colorful blood of those monsters.

The monsters that were brought here by Lei Yungong and Zheng Zhizhou were all the elite ones they had gathered over the past hundred years. The bloody evil spirit should not be underestimated. Most of them practiced by killing for blood and absorbing resentment, which was a way that didn't require much brainpower.

It is for this reason that after their death, all their souls fell into the underworld, and the resentful and bloody evil that entangled them also went away. The remaining bloody smell was very light, much weaker than when they were alive.

But Fan Zhongyan stood on the bow of the boat, looked at the porridge in his hand, then looked at the river water, hesitated for a while, and turned around and put down the bowl.

Zhan Zhao was eating with great relish, and Zhihua was eating even more with great relish. While eating, he talked about the purpose of his coming here.

Bao Zheng was looking through the things Zhihua brought. There were not only those in Lu Kun's yard, but also things that could be related to the Xiangyang Palace.

There are also some secret account books and directories in the Jianghuai Grand Marshal's Office, which are about conspiring with the King of Jinling and the Tianxian Sect, raising bandits, plundering treasures, and trading with overseas.

Su Hanshan himself didn't care about these things. His goal at the time was only to get Su Yan's experience in cultivation.

Zhihua searched secretly, cracked many mechanisms, and asked Ouyang Chun for help before he successfully got the account books.

"The Jianghuai Grand Commander, who was also a prominent figure of the time and a pillar of the imperial court, turned out to be such a person."

Bao Zheng shook his head, picked up the bowl beside him, and said, "Thank you, wise warrior, for sending us these evidences. Otherwise, if we were to check and collect them ourselves, it would take a lot of time and we might not be able to find them all."

Serving sticky sweet porridge as wine to toast people may sound a bit childish, but Bao Zheng was always serious.

Zhihua was usually very elegant, but at this moment he also showed some generosity of a man of the world. He added two spoonfuls of porridge and drank it in one gulp.

Fan Zhongyan stopped talking and wanted to talk again, and stopped talking again.

The porridge was made with rich ingredients, but it didn't even choke my throat after I swallowed it. What a hero!

He turned his head slightly and saw, "Hah!" Bao Zheng's bowl was clean, and the bottom of the bowl was shiny enough to be used as a mirror.

Fan Zhongyan used to think that few people in the court dared to get close to this colleague who was ten years younger than him. He really couldn't imagine how he got along with so many people from the underworld who took the initiative to help him.

Today he understood a little bit.

"Although we have evidence, we still need to do some verification on Jiang Huai's matter. We also need to appease the generals we lost in the army, and there are hidden dangers in Taihu Lake. There are many things to deal with."

Gongsun Ce waved his fan and said, "But the King of Xiangyang is the most important. Should we report it to the court and ask them to send some helpers over?"

Bao Zheng pondered and said, "In a hurry, I'm afraid there is no suitable candidate."

Fan Zhongyan sat down and said with a smile: "Why don't I go to Jianghuai and you go to Xiangyang?"

More than ten years ago, when Fan Zhongyan was the prefect of Kaifeng, he submitted memorials to the court, striving to implement new policies. However, he encountered considerable resistance in the court, so he wrote dozens of articles to appeal to the emperor.

As a result, these articles somehow leaked out.

It just so happened that at that time, an old demon who was famous on the banks of the Danube River in the West was traveling to Middle-earth and called herself the Lady of the Styx. After reading the article, she became interested and wanted to kidnap Fan Zhongyan.

Fortunately, that old lady in the Styx acted arrogantly and did not consider the timing. It happened that the civil and military officials were attending court at that time. She arrested someone in the Song Dynasty Palace, which caused all the civil and military officials, the emperor and the empress dowager to resist together, thus delaying the situation for a while.

Finally, the chief leader of Emei, the old immortal Pu Du Pu Qun Sheng, received the message for help from the palace and sent out a flying sword, which scared her away.

Fan Zhongyan was seriously injured and had to recuperate for many years. He only held an idle position, and Wenqu Jingtu was also transferred to Bao Zheng. This time, he traveled with Bao Zheng only because of their friendship, and he did not hold any position such as imperial envoy.

If he were to go to Jianghuai to take charge now, I'm afraid it would be against his will.

"Hahaha, we can get things done first and wait for the official documents while we're at it."

Fan Zhongyan stroked his beard and smiled, "I think many people know my name. This trip to Jianghuai, in addition to calming the hearts of the soldiers, also wants to take a closer look at the situation in Taihu Lake."

"The biggest drawback of the hidden danger of Taihu Lake is that there is only one river flowing into the sea. The other tributaries have small flow rates and shallow riverbeds, and they all flow into the same river. So once the dam breaks, it will be a disaster."

"After I survey the terrain, I will mobilize the Jianghuai army and civilians to dig ponds, store water and divert it. Even if something happens in Taihu Lake in the future, it will not be a big problem. And I will find something for these people to do to avoid unrest."

Bao Zheng stroked his beard and said nothing. The new policy of that year was left unresolved, but he had long been dissatisfied with the situation of redundant officials in the court, the circulation of official documents from top to bottom, and the extreme delays, so he acquiesced to the matter.

It should have been a humiliation for Grandma Minghe to break into the palace.

But afterwards, the reputation and strength of Grandma Styx on the banks of the Danube spread.

It was an honor for the Song Dynasty court to be able to contend with this giant monster.

Fan Zhongyan, a man who attracted the covetousness of the giant monster because of his articles, had a delicate reputation in the whole incident.

As long as he doesn't rebel, everyone in the Song Dynasty will definitely give in to him if he does something that is not in line with the rules.

No one was the type to procrastinate, so after a brief discussion, they went their separate ways.

Bao Zheng and others turned to Xiangyang, while Fan Zhongyan and Zhihua took a boat to Jianghuai.

………………

At the same time, not far downstream in the river, hundreds of people also stopped.

There were hundreds of people, some dressed as monks, some dressed as Taoists, and some dressed as laymen. Leading the group were three old Taoists, each wearing a purple jade lotus, red jade lotus, and white jade lotus crown. Although they were slightly different in size, they all looked like immortals.

The man wearing the purple jade lotus crown is of extraordinary identity. He is Guo Changda, the head of the Lotus Sect, one of the five major sects in the world.

The two next to them are the left and right protectors of his sect, the left protector is "Longevity Star" Zhuang Ziqin, and the right protector is "Lucky Star" Ye Qiu Sheng.

When the group saw the large number of dead bodies of water monsters floating down in the river and being eaten by the fish and shrimps in the river, they were all slightly surprised.

"Just now, the demonic energy on the river was rising to the sky, and the demons formed a formation. I believe there must be a demon fairy in charge. The momentum should not be underestimated. How could it be broken so quickly?"

Ye Qiusheng held a golden ruyi in his hand and waved it in front of his eyes. His eyes were faintly shining as he looked upstream. "The aura of Wenqu Pure Land, it turned out to be Bao Zheng and his group. With Zhan Zhao and Gongsun Ce beside him, the combined strength of the three is not bad. No wonder they have such a record."

Some monks and Taoists were whispering behind them.

"What a pity, so many monsters died in vain."

"If we arrive before the death, we can make some arrangements to collect all the demon souls into the magic weapon. They can also be used as good materials for refining the magic weapon."

"Look, these are all blood-eating monsters, relying on blood evil resentment for magic power. They didn't spend much time on polishing their bodies. Their blood and qi are very mixed. Without the soul, they are not worth mentioning. If there are pure and pure monsters, they are full of treasures."

Zhuang Ziqin looked back, tapped the ground with his cane, and said, "Let's just do our own thing and not get involved."

Guo Changda saw two or three ships separated from the upstream fleet, but he didn't care and turned around to lead everyone away.

After walking for a while, his expression changed slightly and he pulled out an iron ruler from his sleeve. Gold threads were flowing on the ruler, forming characters.

"Kunlun sent a message..."

Guo Changda asked in surprise, "Why did they come to Jianghuai as well?"

Zhuang Ziqin said solemnly, "Could it be that someone in Kunlun has already known about the decline of the incense and sent someone to hold him accountable?"

Ye Qiusheng shook his head: "With our status and strength, it's unlikely that someone will come and hold us accountable just because of this incident, right?"

Guo Changda said in a deep voice: "Anyway, they are less than a hundred miles away from here. Since they have summoned the Lotus Sect, let's go over and take a look and we will know the reason."

These people all had good cultivation and soon arrived at a hillside.

There was only one person on the hillside.

It was a fat monk with thin eyebrows, big ears, a smiling face and gold earrings. He was sitting under a tree, fingering his rosary beads, and seemed to be meditating.

The message was not clear, and Guo Changda originally thought that the person coming was a guardian of Kunlun. When he saw the monk, he was surprised, and walked quickly forward to pay homage.

"Disciple Guo Changda, hello to Master!"

The monks, Taoist priests and laymen of the Lotus Gate all prostrated themselves and shouted in unison at the foot of the hill: "Greetings, Master!" The fat monk said with a smile: "Get up quickly, get up quickly, Changda, we haven't seen each other for almost ten years."

"There are still five more months to go before it's ten years."

Guo Changda stepped forward and said, "Master is in charge of Kunlun and is very busy. Why did you come to Jianghuai in person?"

This fat monk is the current head monk of Kunlun, known as the Third Generation Reclining Buddha Monk.

When he was in Kunlun, he called himself the Reclining Buddha Monk. When he left Kunlun, he could call himself the Reclining Buddha Kunlun Monk, representing the meaning of Kunlun as one person.

"I came to Jianghuai for something important."

The Kunlun monk said, "How come you, the Lotus Sect, have also sent so many people to the Jianghuai area?"

"When I sent Yaksha Gui out to inquire about some things, I saw many Lotus disciples active, so I tried to contact you. I didn't expect that you, the dignified Lotus Sect Master and your left and right Dharma Protectors, were all in Jianghuai."

Guo Changda's face twitched, and he said, "Since Master asked, I dare not lie."

"It is true that something has gone wrong with our Lotus Authentic Incense in the past ten years..."

The Pure Land Immortal's path of practice, in addition to relying on one's own ability to sense the underworld, hone one's thoughts, and tap into spiritual power, also involves many other auxiliary methods.

The most widespread and common one is the so-called incense and fire method.

The word "incense" originally referred to the use of materials from the underworld, mixed with some rare spiritual objects in the human world. After careful refining, the resulting incense had the effect of nourishing the soul and blessing the mind.

However, this kind of high-quality spice is difficult to popularize, and the refining process requires the practitioners' energy and time, which delays the practitioners' time for practice and entertainment.

Therefore, later on, this type of method was expanded and had an extended meaning. The word "incense" no longer refers to simply spiritual spices, but to believers who burn incense to gods and Buddhas.

By creating a pure land that looks like a temple of a mythical figure and leaving secret marks in the temple where such gods and Buddhas are enshrined, the thoughts of those who burn incense can be collected into one's own pure land.

The power of ordinary people's thoughts is extremely weak, but that is because they do not know how to collect and store it, so it is wasted. If everyone accumulates the power of their daily random thoughts from childhood, and releases this power when they are in their forties or fifties, it can be equivalent to a thunderbolt.

The Pure Land Temple can help those who have never stepped into the threshold of cultivation to attract people.

Over time, each person accumulates many times, and the number of people continues to expand, like sand piles forming a tower and water accumulation forming an ocean, which is of great benefit to the Master of the Pure Land.

The reason why the pure land passed down by the ancestors of the Yelu clan of the Liao Dynasty was called "Jambucha" was to conform to the name of the world inhabited by mortals in Buddhist scriptures and legends, and to use this method to collect incense.

The Xiao family's Tianmen, the Song Dynasty's Wenqu and Wuqu, all had similar reasons.

The Lotus Orthodox School originated from the Lotus Sect of Buddhism during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties and was originally just an ordinary branch of Buddhism.

However, during the reign of Wu Zetian, because the Pure Land Immortal system was formed and coincided with the ideas of the Lotus Sect, all the disciples of the Lotus Sect turned to practicing the Pure Land Immortal method.

In order to enjoy more power from incense, the Lotus Sect gradually mixed the three religions, blossomed everywhere, and became the Orthodox Lotus Sect.

During that era, Wu Zetian herself was the chief leader of the Lotus Sect. Unfortunately, due to the separatist regimes in the late Tang Dynasty, the Lotus Sect's lineage was torn apart, and its many successors each held different opinions, leading to its decline.

During the Song Dynasty, Kunlun made arrangements and integrated the Lotus Sect's disciples. The Reclining Buddha Kunlun monk directly accepted the Taoist Guo Changda as his disciple and taught him the magic.

In secret, the Lotus Sect has actually become a complete vassal of Kunlun.

The incense temples that were widely spread by the Lotus Sect were also modified according to Kunlun's wishes.

Originally, the Lotus Sect worshipped Amitabha Buddha in Buddhism and Amitābha Bodhisattva in Taoism.

After reforming according to Kunlun's meaning, in Buddhism, one worships the Buddha of Longevity and Light, also known as the Buddha of Infinite Life and Light; in Taoism, one worships the Long-browed Immortal of Longevity.

Because the extent of the changes does not appear to be large, temple sculptures and so on are easy to modify, and scriptures and books are even easier to modify.

For example, when the disciples of the Lotus Sect were preaching, they said that the Three Stars of Fortune, Longevity and Happiness were attendants of the Infinite Heavenly Lord. After they changed their ways, they claimed to be attendants of the Longevity Immortal with Long Eyebrows, which was very convenient.

Because Kunlun supports the Lotus Sect, every ten years, the top leaders of the Lotus Sect will go to Kunlun and use Kunlun's secret method to transfer a batch of incense from their own pure land as tribute.

"In the past two years, the amount of incense we received from various countries has been decreasing. I became suspicious and ordered a thorough investigation. I discovered that since ten years ago, some people have been going to places where the Lotus Orthodox faith is flourishing, using tricks to snatch believers."

Guo Changda said in a hateful voice, "Those villains also worship Buddha, telling people to worship Namo Rutong Bodhisattva, saying that it can bless children to be smart and grow up to be useful people, but they are also very good at telling stories."

"Under subtle influence, many Lotus disciples have begun to chant Namo Rutong Bodhisattva on a daily basis. Some foolish altar masters even think this is the new Bodhisattva of our Lotus Sect!"

Ye Qiusheng echoed, "They don't even use their brains. Even if they want to add a new Bodhisattva, who would choose a Bodhisattva in the image of a child as the main deity?"

There are many details to pay attention to when burning incense, and the images of the gods have their own connotations.

Generally speaking, gods with the appearance of old men represent wisdom, generosity, grace, and the gift of longevity. They also convey a sense of smoothness, peace, and freedom from illness and disaster.

Those that appear to be adult men often symbolize might, defense, slaying demons and overcoming disasters.

Those that appear to be adult women mostly symbolize love, kindness, relief from worries, protection of the home, and exorcism of evil spirits.

There are relatively few gods that look like children, because gods with child-like appearance tend to have thoughts that are pure, innocent, whimsical, and so on.

It is very difficult to restrain and utilize those who practice Pure Land Buddhism, so naturally they will not bother to spread their faith.

"The Kunlun Lotus is a descendant of the same lineage. Among all the gods, there is no main god who looks like a child, but there are such subordinate gods. As for blessing children, helping them grow up smart, and being filial to their parents, these are also mentioned in the scriptures we compiled."

The monk Kunlun looked at everyone and said, "If these are the only characteristics, then how did this Confucian Bodhisattva snatch our believers away?"

Guo Changda took a breath and said, "Because they...don't charge money."

“Not only did they not take money, but they even gave money to the children when they first started snatching believers.”

After hearing this, the monk Reclining Buddha Kunlun couldn't help but frown.

Hiss! What a cruel method!
It would be really amazing if someone who wanted to snatch followers would use this trick.

"If you don't charge money, then you don't sell idols, so you don't have a temple, right?"

The Kunlun monk frowned and said, "Then these people are not doing this for the benefit of their own cultivation, but simply want to go against the Lotus Sect."

"He spent so much energy and money, traveling around the world to destroy the incense of the Lotus Sect. The person behind this is definitely not an ordinary person. Have you found any clues?"

Guo Changda said: "The identities of those we have verified are also very complicated, but there are two who are particularly outstanding and are very good at refining pills and powders. One is an old beggar, and the other is a lame young man."

"We found out that the lame guy has been roaming around Jianghuai for the past two years, so we gathered our men and prepared to surround him with absolute certainty and capture him alive. We must find out who is behind this!"

The Kunlun monk thought for a moment and said, "Since you have clues, I will follow you and investigate together."

Guo Changda asked hurriedly, "Master must have important business to come to Jianghuai, how could he delay for us?"

"Alas, I originally came here to hunt down Ouyang Chun and Princess Huashen. Because I know that Ouyang Chun has a close relationship with Shaolin, many Dharma protectors and Xixia masters secretly guarded and blocked Shaolin, so there were not many people left."

The Kunlun monk explained, "Fortunately, I have an old friend in Jianghuai who is willing to help. He has great influence, so I came to take a look. Unexpectedly, he seemed to have found clues about Ouyang Chun, but was killed by Ouyang Chun's accomplices."

"These things have caused quite a stir, but the atmosphere on the battlefield is too chaotic. I have sent out all the people around me and the Yaksha ghosts I have raised, but I still can't find any clues for the time being."

"Let me help you with this matter first!"

The fat monk stood up, shook his rosary beads and laughed.

"This matter may not be just aimed at Lianhua. It is more likely that they want to disgust Kunlun. After all, Kunlun is the orthodox sect that has an overview of all the sects in the Kunlun Mountains. It is the highest sect in all countries. A big tree attracts the wind."

"We can be more ruthless this time. We should let some people know that if the tree that supports the sky moves, it will cause mountains to collapse and the earth to crack, and all living things will cry in fear. They can't bear it! !"

(End of this chapter)