After Li Xiuyuan slashed out the bamboo sword in his hand, it instantly blocked his chest.
Everything here was just drawing out and sheathing the sword silently, like flowing clouds and flowing water, and did not give this demon-like woman any opportunity to take advantage of.
"Dang Dang Dang!"
The bamboo sword blessed by two runes made a sonorous sound when it was struck by the woman's sword energy.
If he was hit by a big rock, Li Xiuyuan had to step back two feet.
Suddenly, a black sword energy pierced out from the black mist, making a sword sound. Following the woman's sword energy, it continued to stab Li Xiuyuan.
Just like the Ruoshui sword he slashed, this sword did not make any sound, but stabbed at Li Xiuyuan who was retreating in an extremely strange way.
Lightning pierced Li Xiuyuan's chest, and he groaned. At the same time, the Zen staff not far away vibrated.
A ray of Buddha light flew out and went into the dark night.
"Ah..." This was the woman's scream, and the countless terrifying arms that were about to catch Li Xiuyuan quietly retracted them.
Those terrifying eyes in the dark night flew over, stretched out two extremely sharp claws and stabbed Li Xiuyuan again!
"Conquer the devil!"
In an instant, Li Xiuyuan blasted out the seal with his left hand, and suddenly, the vast black mist blasted out a golden vortex dozens of feet long.
He blasted the woman with countless arms into the night sky, and the Buddha's light turned into a sword and blasted the demon-like woman into pieces that filled the sky.
Li Xiuyuan didn't dare to be careless even though his chest was injured.
At the moment when the Demon-Conquering Hand Seal was taken, the bamboo sword in his right hand once again made a move of Hidden Dragon in the Abyss.
I saw a golden dragon flying out of the bamboo sword in an instant, flying towards the eyes in the vast dark night.
In the blink of an eye, he swallowed these terrifying eyes into his stomach.
Despite his chest injury, Li Xiuyuan killed a man and a woman. Until now, he didn't know what kind of monsters they were.
Looking at the black fog that still hadn't disappeared in front of him, Li Xiuyuan bent down to pick up a handful of stones and waved them out.
The stones cut like swords into the vast black fog, and there was a shrill roar.
Seeing that the danger had not been eliminated, Li Xiuyuan became angry. He took out a few talismans and held them in his hands, then slashed them into the dark night in front of him like a sword.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
A burst of flames burned in the dark night, and they became one in the blink of an eye. There were more roars and screams in the flames.
Looking at the flames burning in the vast night mist, Li Xiuyuan said coldly: "Since you don't want to be reincarnated, then I will let you disappear into ashes."
He reached out and grabbed a handful of sand, condensed the fire of Nirvana into it, turned it into thousands of sword energy, and flew towards the vast place in the dark night.
Regardless of the thousands of troops in front of him, Li Xiuyuan just turned the sand in the desert into a sword and slashed it away in all directions.
The flames burned and spread in all directions, and the roars became less and less until the only sound left in the ears was the whining of the wind.
No more weeping roars could be heard.
Li Xiuyuan stood motionless in the night and shouted coldly: "When the sky rains mando flowers, the sky drums naturally sound."
For a moment, the Buddha's light filled the air and spread into the dark night. Even the whistling wind stopped.
The Buddha's light on the Zen staff stuck in the sand behind him gradually dimmed and finally disappeared.
He breathed a sigh of relief, looked at the wound on his chest, and couldn't help but ask: "Bodhisattva, are you torturing me, or do you want to torture Monk Tripitaka?"
The golden light shone before his eyes, but the figure of the Bodhisattva appeared.
Li Xiuyuan sighed and couldn't help complaining: "Bodhisattva is not under the Nine Netherworld. How can there be so many monsters and ghosts here?"
The Bodhisattva shook his head and replied quietly: "These are the innocent souls who have died here for thousands of years. They are unwilling to leave and enter reincarnation."
Li Xiuyuan pointed at the sleeping Sanzang and said, "Look at Sanzang's appearance. How can he subjugate monsters in this vast desert? Aren't you making things difficult for him?"
"An Emperor of the Tang Dynasty has enough trouble for him. If he encounters a situation like tonight again on the road, if this junior is not by his side at that time..."
The Bodhisattva smiled faintly: "Don't you have the elixir in your body? Wait until this little monk enters the realm of golden elixir, and wait until Tripitaka becomes stronger..."
"So what?" Li Xiuyuan asked seriously.
"As long as Tripitaka becomes one point stronger, the power of this Zen staff will be three points stronger. Are you satisfied with this result?"
The Bodhisattva said seriously: "It is extremely difficult to obtain scriptures. This is the suffering that Tripitaka must experience. Haven't you heard this sentence?"
Li Xiuyuan blurted out, "What are you talking about? This junior is stupid, please let Bodhisattva explain clearly."
The Bodhisattva held the flower in one hand and sprinkled a few drops of dew on Sanzang and others in the dream. He looked at Li Xiuyuan and said, "You are also a person who has studied Buddhism. Haven't you heard that Buddha is also suffering? If you don't suffer, you can't become a Buddha?"
After laughing, Li Xiuyuan was speechless.
He did not expect that the Bodhisattva would give him the words he liked to say, intact, on this night.
After thinking about it for a while, he could only smile bitterly and said: "The place I want to go to, this junior, is only Suiye City, not the Buddhist Kingdom of Tianzhu where Sanzang is going. What should I do?"
The Bodhisattva smiled slightly and replied: "Then you should be a qualified master and sharpen these two guys along the way. Don't stand up for them in everything, even if you encounter criticism from the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty."
"Are there still difficulties ahead?"
Li Xiuyuan exclaimed and said, "I thought that after passing Guazhou and detouring around Wufeng, the storms of the Tang Dynasty would never fall on Sanzang again, right?"
"I don't know either, so you can protect them as far as you can."
Even the Bodhisattva couldn't help but sigh: "This is just Tripitaka's practice, not yours."
Li Xiuyuan thought for a while, pointed to the sleeping caravan not far away and said: "Bodhisattva, these sentient beings may be buried in this vast desert tomorrow just to live."
The Bodhisattva was silent for a moment after hearing the words.
After a long time, he sighed softly and said: "In this case, you should become Ksitigarbha to save more resentful souls who cannot be reincarnated."
"I have been incarnated as Ksitigarbha for decades, and I have personally experienced his suffering."
Li Xiuyuan said quietly: "That is Ksitigarbha's road, not mine."
When the Bodhisattva heard the words, he felt something in his heart and murmured in admiration: "I see the power of Ksitigarbha and it is difficult to end the Ganges Sand Calamity. I wish you a safe journey to the west."
A ray of starlight fell, shining quietly on Li Xiuyuan's body, and also on the Bodhisattva who was about to leave.
…
Those who go west slowly move forward in the desert, day and night.
Taizong and a group of ministers and generals in the imperial city were preparing to use troops against the Turks.
Unlike Liu Bang back then, Taizong was prepared to surrender the enemy in one battle and resolve the Turkic issue once and for all.
Since the Turkic Khanate split in the third year of Emperor Kaihuang's reign in the Sui Dynasty, the Eastern Turkic Khanate went south and submitted to the Sui Dynasty.
Join Lin Sui in fighting against the dominating Western Turkic Khanate.
At the end of the Sui Dynasty, Shibi Khan, the son of Qimin Khan, ascended the throne and became the khan of the Eastern Turks.
At that time, the Sui Dynasty in the Central Plains was engaged in endless internal fighting and had no time to take care of the Turkic tribes in the north.
Shibi Khan took the opportunity to break away from the Sui Dynasty and began to rise rapidly.
He sent troops southward several times, and even besieged Emperor Sui Yang in Daizhou. Later, Li Shimin and Wang Shizhen led their troops to rescue the siege, so that Emperor Sui Yang survived.
In order to stabilize the rear, rebels from various parts of the north formed alliances with the Eastern Turks and declared themselves vassals and paid tribute.
The East Turks are also willing to support separatist forces such as Liu Wuzhou, Liang Shidu, Dou Jiande, Liu Heita, and Gao Kaidao in order to increase their influence in the Central Plains in the future.
After the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the great ancestor Li Yuan was unable to compete with the Turkic cavalry, so he sent Liu Wenjing as an envoy to the Eastern Turks to express his vassalage to the Turks.
The agreement between Li Yuan and Shibi Khan was that in the areas captured by the Tang army, the land and people would belong to Li Yuan, and the gold and silver wealth would belong to Shibi Khan.
Shibi Khan readily agreed and provided Li Yuan with Turkic war horses.
Later, Jieli Khan came to the throne and began to break the treaty between the Tang Dynasty and the Turks. He repeatedly coordinated with Tiele, Xue Yantuo and other tribes to go south to attack the northern border city.
In 626, after the Xuanwu Gate Incident, the Eastern Turk Jieli Khan took advantage of Li Shimin to eradicate Xue Wanche, Luo Yi and other Li Jiancheng's remaining troops.
The cavalrymen of the Beyegu tribe and the Tongluo tribe were ordered to besiege Wucheng and contain the main force of the Tang army, including Cheng Zhijie, Xu Shiji and Qu Tutong.
Together with his brother Tuli Khan and Tiele leader Qibi Heli, he led an army of 200,000 to the south, aiming directly at Chang'an City.
Li Shimin detained the Turkic general Zhi Husi Li who came to the city to threaten him.
Then he took the risk of leading six riders, including Chang Sun Wuji, Gao Shilian, Fang Xuanling, Hou Junji, Duan Zhixuan, and Dugu Yanyun, to the south bank of the Wei River Bridge outside Chang'an City, and across the river they cursed the East Turks for their treachery.
Tang Dynasty general Yuchi Jingde defeated the Turkic left-wing army in the Battle of Jingyang and defeated the famous Turkic general Ashina Umochu.
Jieli Khan and others knew that they were in the wrong, and because their flanks were attacked and their generals were detained, they made an alliance with Li Shimin by killing a white horse on the Weishui River Bridge, and then withdrew.
Li Shimin also released his mind.
Li Shimin regarded this incident as a warning, so from the moment he ascended the throne, the emperor and his ministers prepared to destroy the Eastern Turks.
After the Weishui Alliance, in the first year of Zhenguan, Emperor Taizong sought the surrender of Yuan Junzhang, who ruled Heng'an Town.
In the second year of Zhenguan, Chai Shao led his army to defeat Liang Shidu, who was separatist in Shuofang, and occupied a strategic military location that was convenient for counterattacking the Eastern Turks.
Within the Turks, due to successive battles and natural disasters such as frost and drought, the people were exhausted and the animals were thin, and many sheep and horses froze to death and starved to death.
The tribes of Xue Yantuo, Huihe, Bayagu, and Tongluo also took the opportunity to rebel, and jointly promoted Yi Nan, the leader of Xue Yantuo, as Zhenzhu Khan and accepted the canonization of the Tang Dynasty.
The Eastern Turkic sub-khan Turli Khan had been suppressed and marginalized by Jieli Khan for a long time, so he also secretly contacted the Tang Dynasty and expressed his willingness to surrender.
As a result, Emperor Taizong was ready to counterattack the Turks at any time.
…
At this time, Li Xiuyuan, who transformed into ebony, had separated from the westward caravan and followed Sanzang and the young monk to the first beacon of the Five Beacons.
Even Li Xiuyuan brought a lot of water and drank it all for people and horses on the road.
They must replenish the water supply at the first beacon, otherwise they will either be escorted back to Liangzhou by the guards here, or die on the way to the second beacon.
Even though Li Xiuyuan had the elixir in his possession, he did not dare to give it to Sanzang and the young monk at this time.
He would wait until after the first beacon fire and replenished enough water before talking.
At this time, the little monk suddenly fell ill.
Just like Li Xiuyuan's sudden high fever in Tianshan, there was no warning before the three of them were about to reach the battlement of the first beacon.
The little monk began to have a fever and began to talk nonsense.
Sanzang looked at the little monk lying on the horse and felt heartbroken.
He said to Li Xiuyuan: "Donor Amu, you think this is good. General Li Chang said that the beacon guards will never allow us to fetch water."
Li Xiuyuan sighed, looked at him and replied quietly: "Sanzang, this is your calamity. You lead the horse to get water, no matter what Lord Shou Feng does to you..."
Upon hearing this, Sanzang immediately clasped his hands together and said, "If this happens, what will Junior Brother Wuliang do?"
Li Xiuyuan glanced at the unconscious young monk on the horse, shook his head and said, "This is also his calamity. I will wait for you in the desert, don't be afraid."
Upon hearing this, Sanzang couldn't help but clasping his hands together and said quietly: "Amitabha, monk lives to die, why should he be afraid of going to the beacon to get water?"
After saying that, he took the horse and walked forward slowly...
