Tang Dynasty: Father, if you don't rebel, I will!

Light snow was falling outside Jingxin Temple after New Year's Eve.

Li Chengqian walked into the Buddhist hall and saw figures with gloomy expressions, listless bodies, and some who were practically sitting in place.

A cold smile played on his lips.

He slowly walked up behind one of them.

"Master, is there a voice in your heart asking yourself, 'Why aren't these people dead yet? Why aren't they dead yet?'"

Monk Cijing trembled.

In his bloodshot eyes, the pupils involuntarily contracted and trembled.

Looking at these "monsters" in front of him, who had been ill for three or four days but showed no signs of dying under the care of the imperial physicians and the Imperial Guards, he was struck by their plight.

The bloodless lips trembled.

Suddenly, he felt a chill on his hand; Li Chengqian had shoved a dagger into his grasp.

"It would be better to kill them; killing them would also be a relief for them..."

Master Cijing: "..."

"Kill, kill..."

His weak body began to uncontrollably squeeze out some strength from somewhere, and he stood up shakily, gripping the dagger in his hand. He took a step towards the nearest child who had lost his eyes and arms.

"kill....."

"Snapped!"

A loud slap suddenly landed on his face.

As he slapped the monk Cijing to the ground, Cui Xiaoguo also snatched the dagger from his hand.

Li Chengqian looked at the monk Cijing, who had just come back to his senses from his daze, his face pale, and who was now slumped on the ground in horror, looking up at him with a half-smile.

He took the dagger from Cui Xiaoguo's hand.

He let out a cold laugh.

"Heh heh, holy monk, you've broken the precept against killing!"

Upon hearing this, the monk Cijing's expression changed drastically several times in an instant.

Followed by.

"Pfft!"

A mouthful of bright red blood spurted from his mouth.

Upon witnessing this scene, a young monk who had been arriving from other parts of the Tang Dynasty in recent days seemed to finally be unable to bear it any longer.

"Your Highness, inducing others to do evil is evil in itself, and what you have done is also a violation of the precept against killing!"

Li Chengqian tilted his head slightly.

Looking at the other person's rather handsome appearance, even he couldn't help but exclaim, "What a handsome monk!"

"Who are you?"

"This humble monk currently has no temple for meditation; I am a wandering monk from all directions, my Dharma name is Xuanzang!"

Li Chengqian was taken aback, and then looked the fair-skinned, handsome monk in front of him up and down with some surprise.

Tsk.

In his previous life, Tang Sanzang from Journey to the West was wondering how someone so fair-skinned could possibly travel the journey to the West.

Now, look at the person in front of you.

Li Chengqian eventually had to admit that good looks were quite an advantage, even among monks in ancient times.

"Heh, so you're Xuanzang? You certainly have guts, but do you think I'll let you go just because of a few words from you?"

Xuanzang looked at Li Chengqian in surprise.

He never expected that he, the current Crown Prince of the Tang Dynasty, would know of his existence.

"Even if Your Highness dislikes Buddhism, shouldn't you consider your own interests? The world is governed by cause and effect. Your Highness's slaughter of Buddhist members today is sowing the seeds of your own karma."

"If the outcome is inevitable in the future, Your Highness will likely not escape the will of Heaven and Earth. Why not lay down your butcher's knife?"

Li Chengqian curled his lip in disdain.

"Heh, put down your butcher's knife? You still want to scare me with this nonsense about karma and retribution?"

He shook his head slightly.

"Since I took the throne as Crown Prince, the number of people I have directly ordered to be executed or indirectly killed by me is far more than 50,000. If we include the things that the Five Clans and Seven Noble Families did in Hedong Province, the number of people I have sent to hell is no less than 100,000!"

"If we add the Turks, the number of people who died because of me would be far more than 500,000?"

Li Chengqian slowly sat down in front of a stone table.

Wang De, who was standing next to him, immediately brought him hot tea.

He looked at Xuanzang in front of him, shook his head slightly, and glanced at the temple where some high-ranking Buddhist monks were already swaying and about to give up.

"Look at you Buddhists! You're struggling here, full of compassion and pity, looking so noble. But even if you go to hell, you're only doing it for Buddhism."

"And what about me? Xuanzang, do you think I'll go to hell?"

Xuanzang's expression froze.

Beside Li Chengqian, the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Prince Li Ke of Han, swept his gaze over him.

It's as if they're searching for the right starting point to peel off the skin.

"Heh, you're too scared to say it now?"

Seeing the other party remain silent, Li Chengqian smiled faintly, picked up the teacup in front of him, and took a small sip.

Just then, a loud thud of something heavy falling to the ground suddenly came from inside the Buddhist hall.

"Oh no! Abbot Huizhen of Faguang Temple has collapsed!"

Amidst several exclamations, Xuanzang shuddered and turned around to see several monks anxiously surrounding a high-ranking Buddhist monk who was meditating and performing a ritual to deliver the deceased.

"Abbot, Abbot, wake up! Abbot!"

Amidst the piercing cries, a member of the Imperial Guard strode out and approached Li Chengqian.

"Your Highness, Commander, the monk Huizhen of Faguang Temple is dead."

Li Chengqian glared at the other person in annoyance.

"What do you mean 'dead'? Can't you speak properly? In Buddhism, this is called 'parinirvana'! Someone, bring me one of the robes I brought and bestow it upon the eminent monk Huizhen."

Wang De immediately walked toward the carriage.

"Your Highness, when will this cycle of revenge end? We only wish to practice vegetarianism and chant Buddhist scriptures; we have no other intentions!"

Li Chengqian paused, his hand holding the teacup still, and the smile on his face slowly disappeared.

"It seems you still don't understand why this great calamity has befallen us..."

Xuanzang gritted his teeth, and a dozen or so eminent monks from other temples in various prefectures also came over to him.

Under the watchful and cold gazes of the Imperial Guards.

Suppressing her grief, she performed Buddhist rituals for Li Chengqian.

"Amitabha Buddha, this humble monk is dull-witted, and humbly requests Your Highness's guidance."

Li Chengqian snorted coldly.

He waved his hand, and several Imperial Guards immediately stepped forward and distributed copies of newspapers that had recently begun to circulate from various prefectures and cities throughout the Tang Dynasty to the people present.

"This, how is this possible?!"

"hiss!!!"

"This, this, Your Highness, how can you insult our Buddhist community like this? We are all people who cultivate in seclusion!"

However, upon hearing the incredulous rebuttals of the crowd, Li Ke, standing to the side, let out a cold laugh.

"Insult? Do you really think we have no real evidence? Every temple that was mentioned in the newspapers is now surrounded and detained by the armies of our Great Tang!"

"No evidence?"

"No rush. Wait a while longer. When these people are brought to Chang'an, you can see whatever evidence you want."

"We'll have testimonies, we'll have physical evidence, and even if it's just eyewitness testimony, my Embroidered Uniform Guard and Hundred Cavalry Division have already protected them!"

Xuanzang looked at the shocking reports in the newspaper in his hand.

The so-called holy monk's passing was actually achieved by using a steel fork to pierce through the bottom of the lotus seat, all the way through the monk's neck and torso.

The so-called Guanyin who grants children was actually a dozen monks who entered the female worshippers' resting room through a tunnel at night and forcibly violated them.

There are also scams involving stone Buddhas and other shady tricks.

They even colluded with local tyrants to bully men and women...

Unbeknownst to him, Xuanzang's hand, which was gripping the newspaper, began to tremble violently at that moment.

"This this......"

Seeing everyone's expressions of utter despair, Li Chengqian took a sip of tea and put down his teacup.

"Do you still not know what crime you have committed?"

The crowd's eyes widened in disbelief.

Li Chengqian's voice reached the ears of everyone present.

"A person with Buddha in their heart is free from the influence of rulers and fathers, unaffected by temptations, and unswayed by worldly desires."

"Those who have no Buddha in their hearts are also without a ruler or father; they are nothing but thieves and prostitutes, grinding their teeth and sucking blood, utterly despicable and vile."

"Even if you are all high-ranking Buddhist monks and know these things, you think you can suppress the cries of the people who are being tortured and deceived by those evil people by simply talking about cause and effect and retribution?"

"I will return the words you just gave me, Xuanzang."

"The seeds you Buddhist monks have sown, even if the fruit is poisonous and deadly, you monks must still consume it!"

The voice just fell.

Inside the Buddhist hall, another shrill scream rang out, startling everyone present.

"Abbot Puhe! Abbot Puhe, wake up! Wake up!"

again!

Everyone was filled with sorrow. At this moment, Li Chengqian glanced indifferently in the direction of the Buddhist hall and spoke softly.

"Holy monks, there are two vacancies in hell. Who is willing to go?"

As the monks carried out of the Buddhist hall one after another, Abbot Huizhen of Faguang Temple and Abbot Puhe of Tianyin Temple, a group of eminent monks from Fumen Temple chanted Buddhist mantras.

suddenly.

One person walked out.

"This humble monk from Hexin Temple in Weizhou, Hebei Province, humbly requests permission to enter hell!"

Xuanzang's eyes flickered, and suddenly another person stepped out.

"This old monk, Shi Ling, is willing to go to hell!"

The two of them, one after the other, entered the Buddhist hall amidst the hateful gazes of thirty or forty pitiful people who had been mutilated and tortured. They uttered a Buddhist chant and suddenly sat down in the empty seats that Huizhen and Puhe had left behind.

He began chanting scriptures.

Inside the Buddhist hall.

His vision was gradually darkening. Monk Cijing struggled to keep his eyes open as he looked at the empty space in front of him, which was being filled by a monk he did not recognize.

The two looked at each other.

Suddenly, the monk Shiling sitting opposite them nodded slightly. Despite his old age, his eyes were still clear as water, filled with the most sincere kindness.

"Amitabha......"

Shi Ling slowly bowed, and the monk Ci Jing opened his mouth, but could only utter a sound that only he could hear.

"Amitabha......"

"Something terrible has happened! Abbot Cijing of Jici Temple in Linhuai County, Sizhou Prefecture, Henan Province, has passed away!"

Wang De then sent over another cassock.

Li Chengqian slowly stood up, looked at Xuanzang who was now young, probably only in his twenties, and gently patted him on the shoulder.

"I am the Crown Prince, not a monk. I only save the world, not Buddhism; that's your own business..."

Watching Li Chengqian's retreating figure, who seemed to disregard their Buddhist sect entirely, Xuanzang heard another anxious shout from behind him.

Another eminent Buddhist monk has passed away in this hellish place...

A voice kept echoing in Xuanzang's mind.

Save Buddhism.

Save Buddhism.

Saving Buddhism...

"Those Buddhist monks deserved to be killed! They've struck it rich! Your Majesty, look! The wealth seized from those illegal temples in Hebei Province alone is worth at least two million strings of cash, and that's just the wealth!"

"If we include farmland and the like..."

"Brother, the Buddhist sect is truly making a fortune in silence!"

Li Tai's face was pale because the Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards) had delivered a preliminary statistical report on the confiscation of Buddhist property.

It turned bright red.