Chapter 198: The Age of Dharma Decline! The Three Yang Tribulation! (A Unique Perspective)

In Qingcheng, inside an unremarkable, sprawling residence.

A flurry of hurried footsteps sounded, and a big man with a dark, weather-beaten face strode in from the gate, his brows tightly knit as if weighed down by some matter.

The man who had arrived was none other than the master of this house, Guo Luan.

"Papa's back! Papa's back!"

A small child with hair tied in two tufts cried out joyfully and rushed over like a little cannonball.

The instant he saw the child, the taut lines of the big man's face melted away. He scooped the little one up from the ground, settled him firmly on his shoulders, and rubbed his stiff stubble against the child's cheeks.

"Hehehe..."

The child squirmed and struggled, his laughter as clear as silver bells.

"My boy, did you miss Papa?" The big man's voice was booming, tinged with laughter.

"I did!" the child answered in his milky voice, then pointed outside curiously. "Papa, those cavalrymen who came into the city today — are they Han people too? They looked so impressive! Much more impressive than the cavalry of those lords in the city!"

The big man burst into hearty laughter. "That's the Ming army from the south. I hear they're elite troops drawn from various regions. Of course they're impressive."

The child's eyes sparkled. "Then when I grow up, I want to be an impressive cavalryman like that too!"

The big man's smile froze on his face. For a moment, he did not know how to reply.

At his side, a gentle-faced woman stepped forward at just the right moment and said softly, "Master, they are already waiting in the rear hall."

The big man nodded, lifted the child down from his shoulders, and handed him to the woman. "You go play with Amu first. Papa has important matters to discuss. I'll come find you when I'm done."

"Then you must come quickly." The child held his hand, reluctant to let go.

"Alright, alright, alright."

The big man answered as he turned and strode toward the rear hall. The warmth of a moment ago was instantly replaced by a grim, lethal air.

Inside the rear hall, the light was dim. Only a few candles burned, their flames flickering and stretching the men's shadows long and short by turns.

As soon as Guo Luan entered, a sinister-looking old man could wait no longer and spoke, his voice hoarse. "Well? What did those Taijis suddenly summon you for?"

He shook his head, sat down in the seat of honor, and said in a deep voice, "Nothing major. They just wanted me to help probe the situation in the south, especially the political winds in the capital's court."

Another man in the room immediately pressed, "Then has there been any change in these Mongols' attitude?"

Guo Luan pondered for a moment, then shook his head again. "I don't think they've thought that far yet. They're just somewhat anxious. For now, I think we needn't worry too much."

"Needn't worry too much?" The sinister old man let out a cold laugh. "Back then, to open frontier trade with the Great Ming, the great Altan Khan used my father's head as the bargaining chip!"

"When profit ends, friendship grows distant; when power topples, men scatter. These profit-driven, faithless Mongol Tartars are not of one heart with us after all. We must never trust them lightly!"

At these words, a deathly silence fell over the room.

This old affair was the deepest thorn in the hearts of all the White Lotus followers entrenched among the Tumed.

During the Jiajing years, to escape the government's pursuit, large numbers of White Lotus followers fled north beyond the passes and came to the Qingcheng area. They farmed, smelted iron, and built cities for Altan Khan, even serving as spies to probe the strengths and weaknesses of the Ming border defenses and guide raiding parties.

In the end, when Altan Khan resolved to seal a tributary pact and open frontier trade markets with the Great Ming, to demonstrate his "sincerity," he did not hesitate to bind Zhao Quan and over ten other White Lotus leaders and deliver them to the Ming court, letting them be executed by slow slicing and their corpses exposed in the marketplace.

Half of the sect members in and around Qingcheng today were those who had drifted here in succession later. The other half were precisely the descendants and heirs of those sect leaders who had been abandoned back then.

And the old man before them — his father was none other than Zhao Quan, the White Lotus leader of those years.

Past experience, if not forgotten, is a guide for the future. These White Lotus followers feared the Ming dynasty gaining the upper hand along the Nine Border Garrisons even more than the Mongol princes did.

After a long silence, another sect leader finally broke the stillness, his tone tinged with uncertainty:

"But... but aren't the frontier trade markets still open now? And ever since the Battle of Huangzhong, the Mongol tribes along the Nine Border Garrisons have long ceased to be a real threat."

"Isn't it fine to keep things as they are? That dog emperor may not necessarily want to go a step further, right?"

He glanced at the others and continued:

"Besides, that dog emperor talks of 'the struggle for land and people.' If he wants to seize territory, it should be toward Liaodong, toward those rich lands in the south. This Mongol steppe has nothing but grass and sand. What use would seizing it serve?"

"What use?" The sinister old man sneered again, his gaze sharp as a knife. "To fully recover Hetao, to drive out the Tartar barbarians — what tremendous renown that would be, what immense prestige! What young Son of Heaven could resist such temptation?!"

"Have you still not seen it clearly? If he truly can rouse himself and govern diligently, once he frees his hands to deal with the Jurchen in Liaodong, the next he will move against will inevitably be the Mongols! How can one allow another to sleep soundly beside one's own bed?"

These words were like a bucket of ice water, dousing everyone's hearts with a chill.

Mongolia was a place of freezing cold and barren desolation.

But for them, White Lotus followers whom the Ming court regarded as a mortal threat, it was a rare safe harbor.

Thus, each man's preaching territory might be in Shaanxi, or in Shanxi, or in the Metropolitan Prefecture.

But no matter what, most sect leaders would set aside a portion of their personal wealth and settle it here, in the relative safety of Qingcheng, as a fallback.

If the Ming army truly attacked and Qingcheng changed hands, where would they go?

Those Mongol nobles had long coveted their wealth with salivating greed. Trying to explain the principle of shared fate — that when the lips are gone the teeth grow cold — to these barbarians who recognized only curved blades and profit was no different from playing the lute to a cow.

Seeing the atmosphere turn so gloomy in just a few exchanges, Guo Luan hastily changed the subject.

He turned to a capable-looking believer and asked, "Steward Wei, how goes the matter in the capital?"

Steward Wei shook his head.

"I sought out the connections of Manager Zhou Yingyuan and spent months of painstaking effort. I was just on the verge of opening the right channels."

"Who knew the Emperor would suddenly change, and then not long after, some Judge Wang arrived in Shuntian Prefecture and directly joined forces with the Eastern Depot to start some kind of purge of the petty officials. Manager Zhou's connections were all severed at once."

He sighed and continued:

"That in itself is nothing, really. It just means spending silver all over again."

"But the key is, last month that Emperor brought up 'the struggle for land and people.' Manager Zhou thought it was a good opportunity and circulated many handbills in the capital."

By this point, Steward Wei was beginning to doubt his own life, for everything had truly gone wrong, the coincidences far too many.

"Right after that, that Vice Prefect Zhang of Shuntian Prefecture began pushing some sort of baojia mutual-surveillance law. Every ward and neighborhood was given strict orders to investigate door to door."

"I am, after all, an unfamiliar face. Afraid of being reported by the neighbors, I had no choice but to withdraw first and leave Manager Zhou there to keep trying to think of something."

At this, he paused, and his voice sank lower. "Only now, the day of the autumn executions draws near... I fear things look grim for Master Miaoxian."

Master Miaoxian was a member of the Shanxi White Lotus sect who ordinarily used the identity of a Buddhist monk as cover while traveling the four corners.

In the spring and summer of this year, he had been ordered to infiltrate the capital and prepare to find an opportunity to burn the gunpowder works again, to coordinate with the military operations in the direction of Ningyuan. Unexpectedly, he slipped up and was caught red-handed by the authorities.

At the time, he could only desperately cover it up, claiming he was merely going to burn the fodder yard, but he was still sentenced to beheading after the autumn assizes.

What Guo Luan and the others had just been discussing was precisely how to rescue this man.

Hearing this news, Guo Luan let out a long sigh, pressed his palms together, and chanted in a low voice:

"Eternal Venerable Mother, may the Great Master soon return to the True Void Homeland."

The people in the hall, hearing these words, all turned solemn, pressed their palms together in unison, and chanted together: "May the Great Master soon return to the True Void Homeland."

The solemn atmosphere swept away the earlier faint despondency in an instant.

Guo Luan, seeing the mood had turned, then continued:

"No matter what, the Great Master ultimately died for our faith's cause. The Jurchen side must, in the end, give us an explanation."

He pointed at the follower who had just answered: "Incense Master Li, I must trouble you to make another trip. Go and discuss the matter of the capital and the matter of Master Miaoxian with the Jurchen side."

That Incense Master Li rose to his feet and solemnly accepted the order: "As commanded."

Having arranged this matter, Guo Luan then looked back at the crowd, his words brimming with mockery.

"Gentlemen, you have all read that 'debate on people and land' put forward by that dog of an Emperor, have you not?"

The crowd nodded one after another.

Guo Luan gave a scornful laugh: "It sounds intimidating enough — talking about too many people and too little land, and that if this goes on, the state will surely collapse. Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!"

"When there are too many people, they will naturally die. That is the Dao of Heaven! Where is this so-called 'debate on people and land'?"

"The rabbits on the steppe multiply every year, but when have you ever seen rabbits overrun the land in a plague?"

Guo Luan's voice suddenly rose, tinged with a fanatical, inflammatory edge:

"This young Son of Heaven, deluded by the Three Calamities, has lost his senses. He has glimpsed only the barest surface of the great tribulation of heaven and earth, and thinks he has fathomed the Heavenly Dao. How could he know that this is no 'debate on people and land' at all, but a sign that the Age of Dharma Decline has arrived and the Three Yang Tribulation is about to descend!"

"However…" Guo Luan shifted his tone, a calculating glint flashing in his eyes, "this dog Emperor's ignorance happens to serve our purposes perfectly. With the authority of the Son of Heaven, he has personally acknowledged that great chaos will come upon the world. Is that not the best possible endorsement for our faith's doctrine?"

"The officials themselves are running about crying doom for the end of days — what have we left to fear? This is the perfect moment to spread the Dharma, preach the Way, and gather believers far and wide!"

"Gentlemen, with the realm descending into chaos, this is precisely the moment for our White Lotus Sacred Faith to flourish!"

Guo Luan rose to his feet, spreading his arms wide, as if embracing a new world about to arrive.

"From this day forward, when each of you spreads the faith, you shall cite his perverse and tyrannical acts as clear proof that the 'Tribulation' is at hand, and proclaim it to the world!"

"Tell them: the great tribulation is nigh, and even the Emperor is helpless. Only by entering our White Lotus can calamities be dispelled and averted, and entry to the True Void Homeland be gained! Do you understand?"

The moment Guo Luan's words fell, the secret chamber was first deathly silent, and then, like a ladle of cold water thrown into boiling oil, it instantly erupted!

"Age of Dharma Decline! Three Yang Tribulation! Maitreya descends to the world! True Void Homeland!"

The shouts were somewhat chaotic at first, but quickly became uniform and frenzied.

Some were so agitated their faces flushed crimson, the veins on their necks bulging, as they fiercely pounded their own chests, producing dull thumping sounds.

Some were like men possessed, eyes wide, arms raised high, as if straining to embrace that illusory "True Void Homeland."

"Age of Dharma Decline! Three Yang Tribulation! Maitreya descends to the world! True Void Homeland!"

The fanatical howls merged into a terrifying wave of sound, battering this tiny secret chamber, so that even the candle flames on the table flickered as if about to be snuffed out.

The shadows on the walls, under the wavering, uncertain light, stretched, overlapped, and danced wildly, like countless demonic shades crawling out from the depths of hell, holding a grand carnival.

Our story now divides into two threads.

The prospects of the White Lotus Sacred Faith seemed exceedingly bright.

But six hundred li away in Mizhi County, at the Yinchuan Post Station, the prospects of the post rider Li Hongji were somewhat murky and uncertain.