51 Silk Road 11

Xuanzang

Zhu Heng stared at Master Huiwei, trying to determine the truthfulness of his words.

Master Huiwei handed the note to Zhu Heng and said with a smile, "Monks don't tell lies."

Zhu Heng glanced down, then walked up behind Helan Dao and patted him on the shoulder: "Get up, we have a mission."

Helan Dao placed one hand on his knee while sitting cross-legged, supported his cheek with the other hand, looked up at Zhu Heng, and raised his eyebrows slightly.

Male beauty can mislead people.

Zhu Heng thought of these words for no reason.

He turned his gaze towards the monk Xuanzang who was currently preaching, raised his chin and said, "Send him on his journey west to obtain the scriptures."

"when?"

Zhu Heng folded the note Master Huiwei had handed him and put it in his pocket. He said, "The governor of Liangzhou will soon send Xuanzang back, so we must leave as soon as possible, preferably tonight."

-

Liangzhou at night couldn't compare to the bright daylight of Quanzhou above. As soon as darkness fell, everything was silent, the entire city like a sleeping black beast. Following the starlight, the borders of this important frontier town could be vaguely discerned.

If someone looks down from a high place, they can see three black spots the size of fleas jumping off the body of this slowly breathing giant beast and moving into the depths of the endless night.

Zhu Heng kept his eyes open to monitor the surroundings at all times, with Xuanzang following behind him and Helan Dao beside Xuanzang, the two of them always keeping a half-step distance from each other.

The journey was eerily quiet, with only the occasional howling of the wind or the movement of strange beasts. To Zhu Heng's unusual eyes and ears, the level of terror was magnified a hundredfold.

I'm not afraid, but it's a bit torturous.

Zhu Heng rubbed his eyebrows subconsciously. At this moment, he suddenly heard Helan Dao's voice behind him.

Not talking to him.

Helan Dao, probably feeling bored, actually started chatting with Xuanzang: "High Monk, I heard that the border is not peaceful. Is the imperial court ready to go to war with Tubo and Turkic at any time?"

Listening to Helan Dao's chatty tone, Zhu Heng inexplicably wanted to laugh.

But thanks to Helan Dao, a few words of conversation from time to time brought a bit of liveliness to this place, which made him feel a lot more at ease.

Xuanzang pulled his feet out of the sand, took a breath, and smiled. "If it weren't for this, would the imperial court have issued a 'Border Ban' to prevent us from leaving the Tang Dynasty? It just so happened that Chang'an was hit by a frost, and the grain production decreased. The people were starving, so they were allowed to leave the city freely to seek refuge. I was able to blend in with them and successfully travel west to here."

"Is the monk going against the imperial court?" Helan Dao casually glanced at Zhu Heng, who was walking in front of him. Seeing that he was walking at a normal pace, he turned his gaze away and returned to Xuanzang. "Does this journey to the West have to happen?"

When this topic was brought up, Xuanzang's expression suddenly became solemn. "Buddhism has been introduced to the Central Plains for six hundred years, and numerous sects have emerged, each with its own interpretation of the so-called Buddhist doctrines. If we could go to Nalanda Monastery in India to directly explore the original texts, trace the Sanskrit scriptures to their source, and then translate them into Chinese, we would be able to unify Buddhism and benefit the monks of China. Therefore, the journey west is imperative."

Helan Dao nodded to show his understanding.

Therefore, at this level, the task of escorting Xuanzang out of Liangzhou must be accomplished.

Zhu Heng listened to the conversation behind him, and his overly sharp perception was unconsciously dulled a little, making it less uncomfortable for him to walk in the desert at night.

Thinking of this, he glanced at Xuanzang behind him.

He and Helan Dao escorted Xuanzang to Guazhou and completed their mission, but the short journey made him feel uncomfortable. As for Xuanzang himself, he almost traveled alone on the subsequent journey to the West.

Zhu Heng withdrew his gaze and continued to move westward.

I don’t know…

He had just taken a step forward, but the other foot that was supposed to follow did not move, but instead stuck firmly to the ground. The whole person remained in a meditative posture, motionless, with his eyes fixed on the front.

Directly in front of him, there was a thick black fog hanging.

This was an extremely strange picture. The thick black fog seemed to be frozen in time, but it kept expanding in Zhu Heng's eyes at an extremely fast speed. Every time he blinked, the boundary of the black fog was an inch closer to him.

It was not until the black fog was about to swallow him that Zhu Heng seemed to regain consciousness. All the strength in his body flowed back into his body. He ran backwards, but he was still no match for the speed of the black fog.

A huge sadness washed over him like a torrential flood. For some reason, Zhu Heng felt as if an invisible monster, wrapped up the most painful things in the world, was making a cage to trap him here.

Zhu Heng had no strength to resist. He fell forward, pressing his arms to the ground, barely holding himself up.

At that moment, he seemed to hear a howl like a wolf or a dog, sobbing and full of sorrow.

He began to cry unconsciously, and his tears fell on the ground. Although everything around him was black, he could still see darker marks where his tears fell.

Suddenly, a hand stretched out from the black fog and grabbed Zhu Heng.

There was a strange noise in my ears, like listening to a heavenly book. It was not some incomprehensible language, but the sound of the universe, like the sound of wind, rain and water, which grew under the laws of nature.

But Zhu Heng miraculously used his heart to hear the words in the noise.

It seemed to say, "I am here."

The hand led him forward, guiding him step by step.

Zhu Heng inexplicably placed unconditional trust in that hand, and followed it slowly out of the vortex of black fog and out of the center of the cage.

The overwhelming sadness that weighed on his shoulders shattered like an eggshell and was slowly peeled off his body as he walked forward.

Until the last step, into the light.

The black fog gathered in an instant and disappeared completely in this vast world.

Colors other than black caught Zhu Heng's eyes. Not far away, the sky showed a hint of paleness, and the sky was actually getting bright.

"What are you looking at?" Helan Dao's voice came from behind, making Zhu Heng feel a little unreal.

Zhu Heng turned around and looked at him: "Was it you just now?"

"What is me?" Helan Dao looked puzzled.

Zhu Heng's heart tightened, and he turned to observe Xuanzang's expression. He looked very normal, as if nothing had happened.

Didn’t they see the black fog?

"You..." Zhu Heng swallowed the question he wanted to ask Helan Dao and only asked, "Did I feel anything strange just now?"

"Strange? No." He Landao said, "You have been leading the way... Wait, there seems to be one."

Zhu Heng's heartbeat suddenly quickened.

"At one point, you suddenly turned and headed in another direction. I wanted to call you, but seeing you were walking so fast and without hesitation, we followed you all the way until now."

Zhu Heng suddenly looked up at him: "You guys are following me? Have you ever thought that I might be taking the wrong road?"

Helan Dao was stunned for a while, then suddenly smiled.

He patted Zhu Heng's shoulder and pointed westward: "We're not wrong, we're here."

Following the direction pointed by Helan Dao, Zhu Heng saw a city bathed in crimson glow in the west.

The city gate was facing them, so close that the words on it were clearly visible - Guazhou.

They arrived in Guazhou.

Zhu Heng spread out his wrist, on which the warmth of the strange hand in the black fog still remained.

Is it this?

He muttered to himself.

"Namo Amitabha." Xuanzang turned and thanked them. "Thank you both for seeing me off. Please go back."

Zhu Heng looked at him and said, "You..." He wanted to ask him if it was okay to travel west alone. But then he thought again, feeling that this question was inappropriate, and stopped there.

But Xuanzang seemed to read his thoughts. He bowed again and spoke to Zhu Heng slowly, "Before setting out on this journey, I prayed to the Bodhisattva, 'I do not seek wealth or fame on this journey, but only for the supreme Dharma. I pray that the Bodhisattva will have compassion for all living beings and dedicate himself to saving them from suffering.'"

After he finished speaking, a breeze suddenly blew up behind him, gently blowing up the yellow sand.

Grains of sand rustled against Xuanzang's back, but he remained unmoved.

In order to save the suffering people, he would rather die in the west than live in the east.

Xuanzang resolutely turned around and stepped into the muddy yellow sand fog.

He walked further and further away, but the outline of his back became clearer and clearer in Zhu Heng's eyes.

He walked on the long journey of history, traveling thousands of miles alone with a staff.

The wind and sand swallowed up Xuanzang's figure, but Zhu Heng was thinking, if he was alone in the desert and lost his way, would there be someone who would reach out from the black fog and pull him up?

He was briefly distracted.

"Zhu Heng!" He Landao called him softly, "We're leaving, to the next floor."

Zhu Heng turned his head to look at him. Helan Dao pointed in the direction Xuanzang left and motioned him to look that way.

There was another gust of yellow sand in the air, this time sweeping towards them.

"No token this time?"

"I'm afraid this time the 'token' is not a tangible entity." Helan Dao only said this, and Zhu Heng immediately understood.

“It’s Xuanzang’s belief.”

As soon as Zhu Heng finished speaking, the wind and sand gently lifted them up, making them float in the air like light feathers, and making it impossible for them to tell the direction.

The wind seemed to be carrying them somewhere. After experiencing alternating weightlessness and overweight, the two finally landed safely.

When the wind and sand gradually dissipated, the two people looked up at the same time and looked towards the fifth world.

In front of me is still a border fortress. Above the city gate, it is written... "Liangzhou".

Zhu Heng closed his eyes and opened them again to make sure he was not mistaken.

"We are back again? No, that's not right." Zhu Heng denied himself as soon as he finished speaking.

He stared at the gates of Liangzhou City and the uniforms of the soldiers guarding them, and heard Helan Dao continue his words: "This is not the Liangzhou City of the Tang Dynasty. It should be from the Wei and Jin Dynasties."

-

The third year of Hongshi in the Later Qin Dynasty, 401 AD.

Liangzhou is an important economic city located at the throat of the Silk Road.

To the west lie the Qilian Mountains, and to the east lie the Tengger and Badain Jaran Deserts. Liangzhou controlled a crucial link on the Silk Road, and also held the key position of a Buddhist translator named Kumarajiva.

Unlike Xuanzang who later traveled west to seek Buddhist scriptures, Kumarajiva was born in a Buddhist country in the Western Regions. According to the plan, he would go east to Chang'an to translate Buddhist scriptures for the people in the Central Plains and spread Buddhism.

But now, he has been trapped in Liangzhou for seventeen years.