"Your servant Fang Jian pays homage to the great envoy." Fang Jian entered the Taixuan Hall and bowed to the Queen Mother of the West.
The Lady of the Nine Heavens waved her whisk and looked at Fang Jian and said, "Fang Jian, you just came back from Guanjiangkou, right?"
Fang Jian reported, "Yes, my Lord."
The Lady of the Nine Heavens asked, "How is the matter going?"
"I have come to ask the Grand Master for permission," Fang Jian said, bowing. "Please issue an order to have Roaring Sky Dog come to the Thunder Department of Heaven to be punished."
The Queen Mother of the West nodded slightly, then pointed her jade hand, and a golden light fell down, turning into a Taixuan Talisman and landing in front of Fang Jian.
"Take this talisman and go to Guanjiangkou again and hand it over to Erlang Shen." said the Queen Mother of the West.
Fang Jian immediately took the imperial edict and bowed respectfully, saying, "Thank you, Great Envoy, for this imperial edict."
The Lady of the Nine Heavens smiled slightly and said, "As soon as Erlang Shen mentioned me, you knew about it?"
It’s no wonder that the Queen Mother of the West knew about this. For powerful people like them, they would be able to sense it even if you just thought about it in your mind.
Fang Jian smiled and replied, "We were originally talking about the Roaring Sky Dog injuring the Golden Maiden of Yaochi, but Erlang Shen suddenly mentioned the Grand Envoy. I was a little confused at first, but then I understood that he wanted the Grand Envoy to come in person.
"Issue an imperial decree, not just a few judges who can take Roaring Sky Dog away and punish him."
The Lady of the Nine Heavens nodded and said, "Go ahead and finish this matter as soon as possible."
"I respect the order of the law." Fang Jian bowed and saluted, then took the order and left.
After Fang Jian left, the Lady of the Nine Heavens said to the child beside her, "This is Xun Qing, the head of the Xuantian Court."
The boy followed the order and soon led Dean Xunqing into the hall.
"Your Majesty, I am Xun Kuang, the head of the Heavenly Court, and I pay my respects to the Grand Envoy." Qing is a courtesy name and Kuang is a given name, so the full names are used in this kind of formal audience.
The Lady of the Nine Heavens looked at Xun Kuang and said, "Master Xun Qing, how many unused judges are there in the Heavenly Court?"
Upon hearing this, Dean Xunqing calculated carefully and then reported, "To the great envoy, there are seven people in total."
The Lady of the Nine Heavens waved her whisk and said, "Fang Jian is not included."
Upon hearing this, Dean Xunqing said, "That means six people."
The Queen Mother of the Nine Heavens said, "Send all six of these people to the Southern Continent."
The head of the Xunqing Academy accepted the order and immediately asked, "May I ask the great envoy, what is the mission of these six people going to the Southern Continent?"
The Nine Heavens Mysterious Lady said, "There will be unrest in the Tang Dynasty of the Eastern Land of Southern Continent. The current Tang King, Li Hong, intends to conquer the sixteen kingdoms of Nanzhao, Siam, Jiaozhi, and others, and has been planning this for three years. However, the Tang Dynasty still lacks hundreds of thousands of soldiers, millions of silver, money, and food, and is also greatly lacking in rewards and other resources..."
Dean Xunqing was shocked when he heard this. The Queen Mother of the West said that this certainly did not mean she wanted to interfere in the war between mortals.
But if this happens in the eastern countries of Jambudvīpa, it means that another thing may happen: the destruction of Buddhism.
As early as in the vast history of the East, there have been three incidents of Buddhism being destroyed, known as the "Three Wu" destruction of Buddhism. The most recent one was the 16th emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Wuzong, three thousand years ago.
The fundamental reason is the special nature of Buddhist temples.
Because temples did not have to pay taxes, a large amount of land among the people was registered under Buddhist temples to avoid taxation by the court.
Secondly, Buddhist disciples do not have to perform labor service or military service, and the title of "entering the Buddhist monastery" can avoid all worldly responsibilities.
This brought about two consequences. The imperial court's account books clearly recorded that there were 300 million mu of arable land in the country, but 200 million mu of them were registered under Buddhist temples in various places and did not have to pay taxes to the imperial court.
Over time, although the people had a lot of arable land and abundant grain harvests, the court was unable to collect taxes, resulting in an empty treasury.
The second is that a large number of young people have turned to Buddhism. Because Buddhist precepts prohibit marriage, this will lead to a population decrease in the long run, especially a decrease in young and middle-aged people.
If war breaks out in the country, the court will have no troops available.
At this time, the best solution was to "destroy Buddhism," destroy temples, force monks to return to secular life and marry, and tax all farmland registered under the names of Buddhist temples...
However, in the entire Jambudvīpa world, only the mortals in the eastern part of Jambudvīpa dared to destroy Buddhism, and they did it many times.
There was no sign of an anti-Buddhist movement in the Tang Dynasty yet, but who was the Lady of the Nine Heavens? One could tell at a glance.
"Is the purpose of sending the Heavenly Judge to prevent the monks from causing unrest?" asked Dean Xunqing.
The Lady of the Nine Heavens nodded and said, "Yes, no matter whether the Tang Dynasty destroys Taoism or Buddhism, cultivators are not allowed to interfere in the affairs of the mortal world without authorization."
"I understand." Dean Xunqing looked solemn and then took the order and left.
...
After Fang Jian received the imperial edict, he immediately flew to Guanjiangkou without stopping.
When Fang Jian arrived at the Erlang Temple at Guanjiangkou again, he did not go down to pay his respects to the Erlang God first. Instead, he stood above the temple and took out the Nine Heavens Mysterious Lady's talisman and said, "The great envoy's talisman is here. Erlang Xiansheng Zhenjun, listen to the command!"
This shout first called out the six brothers of Meishan, followed by the immortal officials and grass-headed gods.
These people stood in the square outside the Erlang Temple, looking at Fang Jian in the sky with confusion.
"Didn't this Master Hongqing go back a few days ago? Why is he here again?" General Kang said in a low voice.
Yao Taiwei said, "They also brought the imperial edict from the Grand Master. It seems that you can't persuade the Second Master, so go back and ask for the imperial edict from the Grand Master."
Li Taiwei frowned and said, "But does he think that he can take Roaring Sky Dog away by asking for the Grand Envoy's talisman?"
"Too naive!" Commander Zhang shook his head.
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