When Wei Yuan arrived in the northern frontier, everything was already beyond salvage. He surveyed the four commanderies at top speed and returned to the commandery seat. Officials from the commandery governors on down, as well as the magistrates of every county, had hurried over to submit to inspection by the formation, one after another.
In a side courtyard of the governor's yamen, Sun Yu set down his thin dissection blade and covered a corpse with a white cloth. When Wei Yuan walked in and glanced over the dozens of bodies laid out across the room, he asked, "Is there a conclusion?"
Sun Yu replied, "None of them have food in their stomachs, their bodies bear no marks of violence, and they were smiling when they died. Internal signs also indicate they passed away in high spirits. So the conclusion is that these people joyfully fasted to death, dying primarily of dehydration."
"And the karmic ties?" Wei Yuan asked.
Ji Liuli replied, "No abnormal karmic ties. All that can be seen right now is that these people yearned for the next life and decided to end the suffering of their current one."
Everyone's expression shifted. If even Ji Liuli could not trace the karmic connections, then no one else stood a chance—not even Zhang Sheng or Wei Yuan himself. After all, every craft had its master.
Wei Yuan narrowed his eyes slightly and said slowly, "One or two, or maybe three or five in a group, could perhaps be said to yearn for the afterlife and abandon this worldly life. But this is over thirty million people! All wanting to abandon this life? What could the next life possibly offer them? Could they live better or eat better than they do now?"
Bao Yun said, "The Pure Land leads the world in the Dao of Karma. As things stand, we can only suspect them, but we have no evidence."
Wei Yuan frowned. "Not even a trace?"
"Not even a trace!" Bao Yun was utterly certain.
Wei Yuan paced back and forth across the room countless times before speaking: "Tens of millions of people, and not a shred of evidence can be found?"
The cultivators remained silent. Such was the reality. It was impossibly clean, bearing no connection to the Pure Land whatsoever. It was as if these tens of millions of people had simply decided to die at the same moment, and then carried it out.
For seven full days, the four commanderies had been exceptionally peaceful and tranquil. Every official belonging to Qingming, high and low, had grown listless, staying behind closed doors under various pretexts. In recalling those days, everyone remembered feeling exceptionally serene and joyful, wanting only to sit by the window and listen to the rain.
At last, Wei Yuan halted his pacing. Everyone held their breath instinctively, awaiting his decision.
Wei Yuan's eyes shone with sharp light, his voice heavy: "Suspicion means certainty, certainty is fact, and having no evidence is precisely ironclad proof! That's right—this was done by the Great Precious Flower Pure Land!"
Exclamations of surprise rippled through the crowd, no one able to react at once. Xu Henshui could not help but offer a reminder: "There really is no evidence..."
Wei Yuan waved his broad sleeve dismissively. "That doesn't matter! Pass down my orders: issue a proclamation to the entire realm, and simultaneously submit a memorial to the Tang dynasty denouncing the heinous crimes of the Great Precious Flower Pure Land!"
Xu Henshui asked, "What if the Pure Land claims it wasn't them...?"
Wei Yuan said, "Then let them produce the evidence!"
Things having reached this stage, it naturally would not be as simple as just issuing denouncements.
Wei Yuan dealt first with all the officials of the four commanderies. From the governors down, every one of them was stripped of office and sent back to Qingming for retraining. This move invited some voices of opposition. In all fairness, this had truly been an act of god falling upon these officials; a grand art of this caliber was something none of them could have resisted. Yet since they held those positions and a catastrophe had occurred on their watch, they had to bear responsibility, even if only in part. Serving as an official of Qingming had never been easy.
Next, Wei Yuan began rounding up anyone connected to the Great Precious Flower Pure Land. In no time, several hundred small temples and ancient monasteries, like Kongshan Temple, were raided and dismantled. At times, Qingming troops even ventured a thousand li deep into Eastern Jin territory to seize suspects. Across Eastern Jin, rulers and subjects alike seethed with anger, yet none dared voice it.
Finally, all major merchant guilds were given a choice: either Qingming or the Pure Land. Any merchant house with ties to the Pure Land was strictly prohibited from trading with Qingming.
While Wei Yuan was rolling out one harsh measure after another, an attendant suddenly reported that imperial envoys from Emperor Zhaoning had arrived and were requesting an audience. In a foul mood, Wei Yuan instinctively answered, "Let them wait."
Feng Chutang, who was overseeing administrative affairs during this period, heard this and said, "They are imperial envoys of the Son of Heaven after all. We shouldn't keep them waiting too long, or it will be hard to silence the wagging tongues of the realm. How about we make them wait seven days first?"
Prompted by Feng Chutang's remark, Wei Yuan realized that he was now a figure of renown in the realm, and slighting the Son of Heaven's envoys so openly would indeed invite criticism. He replied, "Never mind. Have them wait in the guest hall. I'll head over now."
A moment later, Wei Yuan entered the guest hall. The emissary from Emperor Zhao was a fair-skinned supervising eunuch. Upon seeing Wei Yuan, he let out a cold grunt, handed over an imperial edict, and said with a hollow smile, "This is His Majesty's personal edict. Lord Wei may read it yourself."
With the Tang dynasty in decline, imperial envoys delivering edicts to the rulers of the Nine Nations customarily handed the documents directly to them, omitting the formal recitation. Otherwise, during the reading, kneeling would diminish the sovereign standing and national stature of the rulers, while refusing to kneel would invite condemnation. Thus, the envoys had devised this practice to avoid an awkward dilemma.
Now that Qingming grew stronger by the day and ranked among the forefront alongside the Nine Nations, the envoy had applied this same protocol here.
Wei Yuan took the edict and skimmed it. It was packed with scathing rebukes, holding nothing back. When Wei Yuan finished, his gaze turned profound, and he said, "Before this journey, did Eunuch hear anything? Forgive my bluntness, but concluding that tens of millions under my governance perished and issuing an imperial edict of reprimand based solely on Northern Qi's baseless rumors—is this not making a mockery of imperial governance?"
The supervising eunuch's face shifted through several expressions. Wei Yuan's words bordered on treason. He forced a smile and said, "This servant is only responsible for delivering the edict; I know nothing else."
"Did His Majesty have any verbal message to convey?"
"None."
Wei Yuan frowned slightly and said nothing more.
The eunuch asked cautiously, "Then how does Lord Wei intend to respond?"
Wei Yuan smiled faintly. "The people of the northern four commanderies live and work in peace and contentment, and everything is just as it has always been. How could tens of millions have suddenly perished?"
The eunuch was startled. "Can that be true?"
Wei Yuan replied, "Naturally! If you do not believe it, you may take a detour and go see the north in person. Furthermore, the north is rich in local produce; you can bring some specialties back with you along the way."
The eunuch grasped the meaning beneath Wei Yuan's words: go take a look in the north, speak a few favorable words on my behalf when you return, and your pockets will become rich indeed.
The eunuch quickly said, "This servant is more than willing to share the Military Commissioner's burdens!"
With that, the diplomatic delegation turned north and departed Qingming.
Half a month later, Wei Yuan was reviewing the plan for Qingming's Bodhisattva karmic attainment when Feng Chutang urgently requested an audience.
Upon seeing Wei Yuan, Feng Chutang said, "Something has happened! The imperial envoy's delegation left Qingming ten days ago and should have reached the northern four commanderies two days ago, but there has been no word of them at all. I dispatched people to search along the route immediately, but they found nothing."
Wei Yuan was taken aback. "The imperial delegation vanished?"
Feng Chutang gave Wei Yuan an exasperated look, wearing an expression that said keep playing dumb. But gradually, his expression shifted as well. "It really wasn't you?"
Wei Yuan looked baffled. "Of course not! I already arranged two counties in the north to receive the envoys. Why would I strike now? Besides, it's just an embassy—what would I kill them for?"
Feng Chutang's expression grew solemn. "The delegation visited Qingming and disappeared immediately after departing. Coupled with that edict, the world will assume you did it."
"Do I look that stupid?"
Feng Chutang frowned. "If not you, who else could it be? No one else among us would do something so foolish."
Wei Yuan said in a deep voice, "No need to say more. It must be the Pure Land!"
"We have no evidence..." Feng Chutang said with a sigh.
However, this time Wei Yuan did not stubbornly insist. Instead, he said, "Do this: rush out a batch of personal belongings and clothing matching the envoy delegation, pick a team of trusted men to shave their heads, and send them out to fence the goods. If anyone asks, have them say they come from the Pure Land."
Feng Chutang gave Wei Yuan a long, hard look. "That method of yours is a bit crude."
"As long as it works. The top priority right now is to digest the three world realms. Those three fat morsels cannot be allowed to fall back into the Pure Land's hands. Beyond that, work on the road toward Northern Qi must be accelerated. That floating highway is a noose around the Pure Land's neck, and all they can do is count the days as it steadily tightens."
Feng Chutang nodded. "As long as you haven't forgotten the matters of fundamental importance."
After Feng Chutang left, Wei Yuan resumed studying the treatise on the karmic attainment. This was the revised second version, fundamentally superior to the first. The initial draft could only be called a concept; over just a few months, it had undergone several major revisions and dozens of minor ones, advancing with each pass. Now, this second version could be said to possess the preliminary shape of a karmic attainment.
However, this karmic attainment remained purely theoretical, awaiting Wei Yuan to manifest it from void into reality. Thus, he read with exceptional care. After several days of arduous study, Wei Yuan reached the final line, closed his eyes in thought for a moment, and penned his endorsement: "Continue advancing."
Confronted with an article steeped in mathematics and employing several entirely new analytical tools, Wei Yuan could not say he had reaped a bountiful harvest—if anything, he had gained absolutely nothing. Yet not understanding it did not prevent Wei Yuan from approving it.
Fortunately, only this paper was truly difficult; the remaining four divisions and seventy-two sutras were much easier. For now, the Expositions on the Four Divisions had completed its preliminary compilation and was submitted to Wei Yuan for final review.
This work served as the general compendium for the sutras, expounding upon the parts of Wei Yuan's Three Realms Sutra that had already formed a coherent system. It focused mainly on the tenets: "Whosoever asks shall receive an answer; whosoever has need shall have it met. The elderly shall be cared for, and the young instructed. The common folk shall dwell in peace and enjoy the bliss of tranquility. Let all creatures find their rightful place, and all living beings fulfill their desires."
As for the Sea of Bitterness, because it was not yet complete and far too sensitive, it was not covered in the Expositions on the Four Divisions. The Expositions on the Four Divisions divided Wei Yuan's writings into four divisions, which in turn corresponded to four karmic attainments. Once this text was refined, it would be expounded upon in greater detail, culminating in seventy-two sutras merged into a complete canonical system.
The researchers of Qingming had transformed themselves into Buddhist scholars. Bringing the same spirit they applied to mathematical treatises, they composed the sutras with utmost rigor: every word and sentence had precise referents, without a single line of idle padding.
Half a year passed in this manner, by which time most of the seventy-two sutras were compiled. On the outskirts of Qingming, a small temple quietly rose from the ground. On the day of its completion, various tales of its miraculous efficacy began to circulate in the surrounding areas.
The temple was named Three Realms Temple, and the statue enshrined within was an unprecedented Buddhist image. It stood upright and proud, wielding a long spear, possessing incomparable grace, radiating an awe-inspiring majesty that washed over all who beheld it! Oddly enough, however, this statue had no face.
When someone asked the abbot about it, the monk, who looked like a youth, replied, "This is the Victorious Fighting Buddha. So long as we bow in devout worship, over time, once there is sufficient incense offering, the Battle Buddha will naturally take his rightful place, and only then will his face be revealed."
Chapter 1251