The air in the small space was not well ventilated, and with the candles and incense burning all night and the chatter, the feeling of suffocation became more and more obvious, but no one dared to open the window lattice.
"Red Lotus Holy Mother Bodhisattva, there are many dangers in getting out of the society tonight. I don't know why Protector Huang summoned us but refused to show up. I wonder if there is some fraud..."
A Xiangzhong finally couldn't help but speak.
Jiang Wen heard the sound of jingling rings immediately behind the clay sculpture where he was hiding, and it was the indistinguishable androgynous voice that answered.
"It's not scary that Protector Huang's whereabouts are unknown. The sudden disappearance of Holy Child Hongyang is the most important thing. The church members found out that he had appeared on the official road to Chong'an County. If the situation hadn't been urgent now, I would have been eager to search for him."
The person called the Red Lotus Virgin said slowly.
"Although Protector Huang is under my command, he has always listened to orders but not announcements. He only works closely with Hongyang Holy Child. If these two people disappear together at the critical moment, the situation will be very bad."
The incense crowd started talking again, whispering to each other before reluctantly telling the Red Lotus Virgin.
"Holy Mother Bodhisattva, although we have lived in Lifang for many years, we have only seen Protector Huang a few times. His whereabouts are secretive on weekdays. If it hadn't suddenly been announced that the Blood Buddha's relics had been found, we would not have dared to gather in this nunnery late at night. Among..."
There was an obvious information discrepancy between the two sides. Whether it was the local pilgrims or the visiting Red Lotus Virgin, they all came because of the news about the "Huang Protector". As a result, there was no news about the real owner, and they only saw the overlapping Buddha statues in the nunnery. .
Jiang Wen thought to himself that he had indeed broken into a White Lotus Sect stronghold.
The secrecy of such a secret society was far higher than he imagined. Under the butcher's knife of successive dynasties, they could even secretly believe in the same faith for several generations, and their identities would never be revealed until critical moments.
"Don't panic. Although the teaching center does not have the capacity to respond, I am not completely ignorant this time."
The male-female voice of Our Lady of the Red Lotus was particularly abrupt, "The Geng family, the running dogs of the Tatars, instigated the lamas to excavate the ancient ruins of three mountains and two pagodas, and created all kinds of strange spiritual shapes, just to make the city become chaotic without fighting. Let’s march into the city openly.”
Xiang Zhong said worriedly.
"Red Lotus Holy Mother Bodhisattva, although what happened between the three mountains and two towers in the city was deliberate, people were already panicking at this time. Everyone said that once the prophecy of King Min came true, the city would... after all, those evil soldiers and ghosts will now It is already known to everyone that they patrol day and night..."
Jiang Wen's ears pricked up when he heard this. Although he kept saying that he was not interested in the weird things in Fuzhou City, now that the gossip was right in front of him, he still didn't mind knowing about it.
But what disappointed him was that the people in the secret nunnery were also very secretive about this matter, and they all stopped talking, leaving Jiang Wen there scratching his head and feeling uncomfortable.
The Red Lotus Virgin was silent for a long time, and finally continued.
"It is said that among the three lanes and seven lanes, an eighth lane has recently appeared. The ghost shop in it publishes Netherworld engravings, and the black ink is filled with the figures of hungry ghosts and Rakshasas?"
Xiang Zhong said repeatedly: "That's right! It is said that anyone who has seen the engravings and characters in it will be taken into the netherworld. It is precisely because of this that everyone in the city agreed to the Geng family to send people to garrison at Jipi Lane."
Before he finished speaking, the other party sighed repeatedly, "Hufa Protector Huang activated the secrets of the sect, originally to expel the Qing soldiers and stabilize people's hearts, but who knew that he accidentally made the Geng family benefit? Is there really a destiny that cannot be violated?" …”
Jiang Wen was a little confused after hearing this, and could not connect the secrets in Jipi Lane with the expulsion of the Qing soldiers for the time being, but the other party quickly relieved him of his confusion.
Only the voice of the Red Lotus Virgin was heard saying: "Don't talk nonsense. The situation in Fuzhou City seems to be in danger, but in fact their many purposes are inconsistent and even conflict with each other."
Later, in order to resolve the doubts of his followers, the other party explained in detail.
"Geng Jimao had a disloyal heart. He was a monk in Guangzhou and had a feud. That's why he was afraid of moving to the town. He was afraid that he would be as big as Wu Sangui. In exchange for Geng Jimao entering Fujian and moving to Fuzhou, he was to help the Tatar emperor find him. Something he wanted.”
The crowd was talking a lot again, but this time they obviously had some confidence, at least they didn't have to be in the fog anymore.
"Please also ask the Holy Mother Bodhisattva to clarify!"
The Red Lotus Virgin snorted lightly, looking very disdainful.
"The Tatar emperor once favored the demon monk from the Western Regions and ordered his wife to be extremely gracious for three days in order to cure the disease. However, the poisonous Vajra Dharmakaya that the other party boasted about in Haikou was buried in Wuyi Mountain, so the other party naturally started a fight. The idea of the Vajra Dharmakaya."
"Geng Jimao deliberately sent the prince to the palace to study with him, just to find out the truth in the secret palace. This time, he got a good grasp of the Tatar Emperor's lifeline. And his own trip was just for the sake of Wang Shenzhi's stay there. It’s really laughable that so many people are bothering me for their own selfish interests!”
As soon as Jiang Wen heard that the matter was related to him, he sat down.
The demon monk Keba from the Western Regions died in his own hands, and by the way, he cut off Shunzhi's thoughts. He had severely offended the Qing court; and the Hongyang Holy Boy they were waiting for died in Wuyi Mountain, even though the White Lotus Sect didn't seem to know about his death. It is impossible for him to get rid of the tragic situation.
Coupled with the evil intentions of the Geng family, he unknowingly got into the vortex of struggle. All three parties were eyeing him and had various reasons to become his enemy...
Must run!
"Red Lotus Holy Mother Bodhisattva, what do you mean by the Vulgar Vajra you just mentioned? Why do they think they are in Fuzhou City?"
Xiang Zhong said with a slightly trembling voice, recalling the Qing army's increasingly crazier massacres in recent years. The biggest danger is the crime of holding a jade.
The indistinguishable voice of the Red Lotus Virgin sounded faintly, as if she were sitting on the lotus platform and sympathizing with the sufferings of all living beings.
"If you want to know the origin of the Vajra, do you know the origin of the White Lotus Sect? Do you know the story of the four paths uniting to defeat the Northern Law?"
Everyone in the hall was shocked and said that they had never understood this story.
"That was when the former Song Dynasty was in decline, and monsters appeared frequently. Zhenzong dreamed at night that Qi people were harassing Bianjing, causing madness and killing more than a hundred people. When Shenzong collapsed, all the civil and military officials came to court and saw something as big as a mat crawling in the palace. "
"After Yiguan crossed to the south, an evil dharma lineage was introduced into the Central Plains, which was called the northern dharma. For example, in March of the twelfth year of Chunxi, the prefect wrote a letter saying that there was a custom in the two lakes of using humans to sacrifice ghosts, and every time children and women were sacrificed. The eyes, ears, and nose are even cut off, and then boiling water is used to erode the skin, which is said to receive divine help."
The more Jiang Wen listened, the more familiar it became. It seemed that he had also heard of this history, and it was exactly "Yi Jian Zhi" written by Hong Mai of the Southern Song Dynasty.
It is recorded in the book that "there are dozens of groups of evil young men in Gyeonggi Province. They will capture people every three or five years, soak them in oil, and cook them to sacrifice to ghosts. The ghosts are called ferocious ghosts, and each sacrifice must be a beautiful man."
This evil sect in Northern France has become so serious that something like this has happened even in the capital. It seems that handsome men are specifically selected not only to kill people, but also to raise ghosts and even gods for their own driving.
When Jiang Wen read the book, he read it as a story, because it was hard to imagine that such cruel and barbaric primitive customs would be widespread in the prosperous stage of China.
"In the Taijia period, injury temples were built all over the south of the Yangtze River. It was believed that those who died of murder would turn into gods with boundless magic power after death."
"The ministers at that time wrote a letter of horror and despair after their visit. They famously said, 'The temple of injury is rising and covering the surrounding areas. The wind of murder is gradually entering Wuxing and is lingering. The harm will be indescribable!"
The voice of Our Lady of the Red Lotus was breathtaking every sentence, and it finally came to an end.
"After the Taijian Year of Emperor Ningzong of the Song Dynasty, Emperor Lizong of the Song Dynasty deposed the treacherous prime minister Shi Miyuan Yudang, and in an effort to clarify the world, he ordered the four great sects of the world to work together to drive out the prostitutes and worshipers. It was the like-minded people in the four sects who slowly changed the turmoil in the early Yuan Dynasty. The current White Lotus Sect was formed."
"The four sects in the religion, red, white, blue and purple, are derived from this. Baiyang Shimen, Qingyang Daomen, and Ziyang Confucianism. Only I, Hongyang, am extremely secretive. In fact, I am the incarnation of the Mingzun Sect of the previous dynasty..."
Ming Zunjiao?
A big question mark appeared in Jiang Wen's mind. Isn't this what Mingjiao meant? After fighting in the White Lotus Sect for so long, it was the first time I heard that there were such factions within it.
But in this way, Jiang Wen knew the origin of the nameless Buddha statue with its disembowelment and blood flowing on the ground that Our Lady of the Red Sun was looking for - it was probably Mani, the true founder of Mingjiao who was executed in Persia and died.
Of course, the Mingjiao in real history and the Mingjiao in Jin Yong's works are two different things - this has to mention Jin Yongli, I don't know if the mistake was intentional or unintentional.
Manichaeism, also known as Mingjiao, has been developing in China for thousands of years. However, Manichaeism's mortal enemy is Persian Zoroastrianism. Even Mani, the founder, died at the hands of Zoroastrian priests, so it is impossible to worship any blazing holy fire.
At the same time, the old man in the mountain, Hawthorne, is the founder of the Assassin sect. He is an extreme fundamentalist. He can even kill his own son for drinking, let alone create the "Great Shift of the Universe" and the Holy Fire Order for the Ming Sect.
After hearing this, the congregants bowed their heads and chanted sutras, feeling extremely frightened by this hidden history.
"Red Lotus Holy Mother Bodhisattva, our ancestors settled in the Yuan Dynasty and became vegetarians, worshiping the Buddha day and night, but we didn't know that there was such an origin. Now that we welcome back the true form of the Blood Buddha, we will definitely be able to revive our religion and save the world!"
The voices in the nunnery gradually became firmer, as if hundreds of years of faith had finally been rewarded at this moment, and this hidden alley finally glowed with its original vitality.
"That's not necessarily the case. That's why I came here this time."
The Holy Mother of Red Lotus poured cold water on her, "Since the end of the Yuan Dynasty, when our Ming Zun sect, Xiao Ming Wang, was killed by Zhu Yuanzhang, and at the same time massacred and imprisoned the believers, our sect's teachings, classics, and martial arts collections have been completely lost, and even the true Buddha's appearance cannot be found. Come back."
"After the tragic death of King Xiao Ming, who became a saint through martial arts, the Holy Mother who was in charge of the classics in the early Ming Dynasty was burned to death by the scorching sun, and she was declining day by day. Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of all the believers, the Hongyang lineage has not been cut off..."
"It's shameful to say that even Saint Boy Hongyang was originally a member of the Qingyang Taoist sect. He only acted in the name of Hongyang because of his extremely evil behavior."
But the other party's voice also became firmer, and everyone in the audience made gestures like lotuses blooming on their chests.
"Tonight, I have rashly summoned the remnants of the Mingzun Sect in Fuzhou, hoping to recover the lost classics from the Netherworld Engravings. I hope you will not hesitate to take the risk!"
"Please follow the instructions of the Red Lotus Mother Bodhisattva!"
Xiang Zhong answered without hesitation.
The indistinguishable voice of the Red Lotus Virgin sounded again.
"If traces of Netherworld engravings are found in the future, we must find the whereabouts of the "Bao Ming Zhen Sutra", "Liang Yi Ancient Sutra", and a martial arts classic from the pre-Song Dynasty!"
