Chapter 45: Papias's Prophecy of World Destruction

Ye Xi looked silently at Yun Zheng. In the glow of the flickering fire, he resembled a sculpture forged jointly by the night and the raging flames.

Yun Zheng quickly formulated a series of subsequent arrangements:

"Adjutant An, I have heard that Yang Rong, a trusted eunuch of the Wanli Emperor, has recently been levying gold and silver mining taxes in Guizhou Province. I order you to go and contact him immediately."

"Three Chieftains, for the time being, you shall accompany my operations. After a few days, you are to head to the lands of Umeng, Usa, and Yongshun to lobby the chieftains of those three regions to dispatch troops."

"Jin Tumu, Shui Tumu, the two of you go and briefly whip these warrior monks into shape. Follow me and turn this Guizhou upside down."

The company acknowledged their orders and departed.

Only Yun Zheng and Ye Xi remained in the clearing.

"The last time there was such a grand spectacle, it seems to have been when you assassinated An Wei, the Pacification Commissioner of Shuixi." It was Miss Ye who broke the silence.

Recalling the scene back then, a wave of heart-pounding emotion rushed over Yun Zheng.

"Compared to that cunning brat, today's events hardly seem worth mentioning," Yun Zheng smiled.

His clashes with An Wei had occurred more than once.

Although he and Ye Xi had faced nine deaths to achieve one life, assassinating An Wei amidst the tens of thousands of Shuixi troops, looking back, the perilous and torturous process still made one's heart shudder with lingering fear.

Yun Zheng recalled his first meeting with An Wei.

Had An Wei not harbored the desire to recruit him at that time, he would never have survived that encounter.

Yet, even on that very day, the thought—"this child must not be allowed to live"—had taken root in his mind.

When the autumn frost dyed the maple forests of Guizhou into a deep, intoxicated crimson, Yun Zheng, disguised as a merchant, encountered a medium-sized Shuixi military unit in a small pavilion nestled within the woods.

They stopped Yun Zheng for questioning, but Yun Zheng knew his identity had already been exposed. It was simply that his official rank was not high at the time, and An Wei still wished to recruit a talent like him.

*"Subhuti, what do you think? If someone filled three thousand great thousand worlds with the seven treasures and gave them as alms, would that person gain much merit from this cause and condition?"*
*"Indeed, World-Honored One. This person would gain immense merit from this cause and condition. Subhuti, if merit were real, the Tathagata would not speak of gaining much merit. Because merit is empty, the Tathagata speaks of gaining much merit. Why? Subhuti, there is no dharma named Bodhisattva. Therefore the Buddha says: all dharmas are devoid of self, devoid of person, devoid of sentient beings, and devoid of a life span. Subhuti, if a Bodhisattva should say, 'I shall adorn the Buddha-land,' he is not called a Bodhisattva."*

The Shuixi soldiers chanted in unison, the clear and resonant recitation of the *Diamond Sutra* rising and falling in the air. Yet, this-Buddhist chanting scene failed to evoke a shred of solemnity; instead, it exuded a bone-chilling and eerie strangeness.

"Do you... believe in Buddhism?" The pale-faced, sickly youth possessed a maturity far beyond his years, his gaze as though having traversed a hundred vicissitudes of life, capable of easily seeing into the depths of a person's heart.

"I do not," Yun Zheng replied resolutely. "The path of Buddhism is overly ethereal and impractical."

"I do," the youth said faintly, tossing something into his mouth.

Yun Zheng saw it clearly: it was a roasted, large hairy wolf spider with eight long legs.

Yet the youth tossed it into his mouth like a date, chewing and swallowing it slowly and deliberately.

The youth's lips were extremely red, redder than a woman's. As the wolf spider fell into his mouth, crushed and mangled amidst the grinding of teeth and the rolling of the tongue, it rose and fell in a manner that appeared profoundly bizarre.

"The sacred tree of Buddhism, the Bodhi tree, is also known as the tree of wisdom, beneath which Shakyamuni sat to attain supreme enlightenment."

"Yet few people know that Bodhi has another universally known name: the banyan tree."

"In its youth, it epiphytically attaches to other trees, relying on its host for windbreak and shade while silently absorbing nutrients."

"When it grows up, it is by no means weak and powerless like a vine; rather, it resolutely crushes its host into dust and stands alone to prop up the heavens."

"The Bodhi spreads like an umbrella, every branch and leaf capable of producing aerial roots that plunge into the earth, forming a single tree into a forest. Hence the saying—one flower is a world, one leaf is a Bodhi."

It is said that when the Buddha was born, he pointed one finger to the earth and one to the sky. But now, the youth pointed one hand to the northeast and the other to the southwest.

"The smoke and dust of the world arise in the northeast and settle in the southwest."

"It seems you are hardly a docile puppet," Yun Zheng sneered.

Of course, he already knew the youth's identity.

"Nor has the Great Ming ever seen a docile Dragon and Tiger General."

The youth smiled, forming the gesture of Mahakasyapa holding a flower, his gloomy expression instantly turning ethereal and untainted by the mortal world. It had to be said that this youth had red lips and white teeth, with an incomparable beauty that surpassed even a stunning woman.

"The path of Bodhi, the path of Shakyamuni, the path of Buddhism, the path of the world."

"That is why I, An Wei, devoutly believe in Buddhism."

A bone-deep chill arose in Yun Zheng's heart.

Although he did not believe in Buddha, he knew the saying, "A single thought forms a Buddha, a single thought forms a demon."

The *Mahaparinirvana Sutra* states—The Buddha said: Seven hundred years after my Parinirvana, Mara Papiyas will gradually corrupt and disrupt my true Dharma. Just as a hunter wears the robes of the Dharma, so too does the demon king Mara Papiyas; he takes the form of a bhikkhu, a bhikkhuni, an upasaka, or an upasika, and even manifests the body of a srotapanna, all the way up to the body of an arhat or the physical form of a Buddha. The demon king uses this impure form to counterfeit the pure body and destroy my true Dharma.

Yun Zheng smelled the scent of what Buddhism called Mara emanating from this youth.

Yet he had to admit that the youth's words sounded astonishingly reasonable and persuasive, precisely fitting the Buddhist description of "eloquence without impediment."

If this sickly youth could live past the age of twenty, would Mara truly descend upon this world?

Ye Xi's voice pulled Yun Zheng back to reality: "Chongbi, do you hate him?"

"Chongbi" was Yun Zheng's courtesy name, though it was rarely used. Ye Xi only addressed him by this name when they were alone.

"I do hate him," Yun Zheng gently rubbed his thumb and forefinger together. "This precocious brat always looked at you with malicious intentions, and even said that only a woman like you would be worthy of a peerless genius like him. Hearing those words is truly infuriating. Did he take me for invisible?"

Seeing Yun Zheng reply in this manner, a trace of imperceptible joy flashed in Ye Xi's eyes, though verbally she retorted: "You reacted so strongly—are you sticking up for me?" A faint flush crept unbidden across her cheeks.

Having fallen into memories once more, Yun Zheng casually replied, "Yes, I won't allow anyone to disrespect you. After all, you are my most important partner."

Ye Xi: ......

Yun Zheng recalled An Wei's dying words.

Back then, with at least several bones broken throughout their bodies, Yun Zheng and Ye Xi had mustered their final strength, thrusting their blades into his chest one after the other on the bloody battlefield.

Yet even so, he wore a smile—even if it was a smile filled with regret.

"So this bustling mortal world was not a stage left for me after all."

"You who killed me, inherit my fortune and live well. The mortal world is a realm where victors are kings and losers are bandits; once dead, nothing remains. Yet my blurred vision has already seen the Buddha, and the Buddha tells me that hell is not yet empty—perhaps that is left for a peerless genius like me to conquer. It seems I can still manage to be a Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva?"

"Lady, it is a regret that I could not conquer you. The two of you... are truly a match made in heaven."

Even to the very last moment, he maintained that eerie composure, along with the pride of smiling in the face of death at the hands of a mortal enemy.

Ye Xi suddenly grasped Yun Zheng's hand; her palms were slender and warm: "We will continue to live on, until we see the arrival of a new era."

Yun Zheng's heart steadied.

With tacit mutual understanding, the two of them avoided mentioning the very last words An Wei had spoken, even though Yun Zheng knew Ye Xi had clearly taken note of them.

Yet he knew that when one bore too much blood and hatred, it was not easy to dwell on such things.