Seeing the grand scene, the other two hairy men immediately prostrated themselves on the ground, heads pressed to the floor, not daring to even look at Yun Ye. The Peacock Wisdom King looked at his own hands that had swollen much larger and became calm, slowly saying, “I have no other meaning. I just wanted to go to Tianzhu to see, follow the divine monk to gain some prestige, get a title to return and take control of Kangguo. This time coming to the Central Plains, I wanted to see the Central Plains’ scenery and customs.”

Yun Ye looked at the Peacock Wisdom King strangely, constantly counting in his mouth. But after counting to eighty, the Peacock Wisdom King still stood steadily, which greatly puzzled him.

“Marquis Yun, Tianzhu has a technique that translates to yoga. This person is an expert among them, able to control his body’s various functions. Have you forgotten how Yetuo used iron rings to hang himself?”

Xuanzang opened the window, still with that compassionate appearance, but the meaning in his words had not a shred of compassion. At Yun Ye’s command, two family generals rushed over. As they engaged, Yun Ye discovered that blood continuously flowed from the Peacock Wisdom King’s palms—this fellow was squeezing out the blood containing anesthetic.

Sturdy fishing nets were standard equipment when the Yun family captured people. The family generals were extremely skilled at using them. Two people swung their arms and a large fishing net came down. No matter how the Peacock Wisdom King twisted his body, he couldn’t escape, because the Yun family’s fishing nets had many barbs that hooked into flesh—he couldn’t break free for a while. Liu Jinbao stepped forward, swinging his scabbard and striking the Peacock Wisdom King behind the ear. He only twitched twice before becoming still.

The family generals took Yun Ye’s silk thread and bound this fellow tightly until the silk thread cut into his flesh and bound his joints before stopping. When dealing with experts, binding them securely was essential—no one the Yun family captured was easy to handle.

Seeing the family generals were about to bind those two hairy men, Xuanzang spoke out, “These two are servants given to me by the King of Kharoshtra. They’re not part of his group.” Only then did the family generals desist.

“Monk, you were in difficult circumstances just now and couldn’t speak plainly about many things. Now you can tell me why this fellow would follow you to Tianzhu.”

“What’s there to say? Back then you and I were both captured by Yetuo, in constant peril. I could only preserve all our lives by agreeing to take his younger brother to Nalanda Temple in Tianzhu. As a result, this fellow demonstrated his skills in Tianzhu and became the Peacock Wisdom King. These days this poor monk has been waiting for you. Didn’t the letter tell you everything? Why did you only come today? The translation of the scriptures has been delayed. These are all palm leaves—if they rot, they’ll be gone.”

“Daoxin told me you were having bad luck but no life-threatening danger, so I needed to observe for more days. I had to confirm this fellow’s identity. If I hadn’t seen the tattoo today, I still couldn’t be certain.”

“Fine, you go. Don’t come see me in the future. Every time you see me, my Sanskrit heart suffers great damage. Better not to meet than to meet. You’re already on the demonic path and quite pleased with yourself—do as you wish.”

The Peacock Wisdom King had already been loaded into a cloth sack, carried out by the family generals. Leaving the meditation courtyard, he discovered outside was already a sea of people. Fu Yi sat behind a brazier, his entire body emitting golden light, laughing heartily while pointing at the Buddha statue in the meditation courtyard saying, “You are Buddha, this old man is also Buddha. You can emit light at night, this old man can emit light day and night. Isn’t it just pine resin plus mirrors? You monks—why don’t you bow when you see divine Buddhas?”

Fayan’s eyes were splitting with rage. He wished he could strangle that old man in the chair alive. Hearing the whispered discussions of those faithful men and women, his heart ached like knife cuts. Jianfu Temple had prepared for so long and still fell short at the last moment. For a long time to come, Jianfu Temple would probably be cold and deserted.

Yun Ye had no time to bother with such small matters. Finding out about the Peacock Wisdom King earlier was most important. He suddenly discovered his enemies seemed to appear very regularly. If there was a connection here, that would be too frightening.

As for exposing Jianfu Temple’s tricks, having one relentless Fu Yi was enough, not to mention Yuan Tiangang standing outside the temple gate stroking his beard watching the excitement. He would never miss such a good opportunity to catch someone in the act.

Watching Fu Yi proudly sprinkle another handful of pine resin into the brazier, sparks flying everywhere, the divine light on his body that had gradually faded became brilliant again. Like a deity, he roared loudly. Fayan would find it impossible to escape unscathed today.

The Yun family’s carriage quietly drove over. The cloth sack was thrown into the carriage. Two family generals squeezed inside. Yun Ye mounted Wang Cai’s back, lightly patted once, and Wang Cai galloped straight toward the city gate along the main road.

Little Yuanbao was very busy but very happy. Her family’s simple parlor was full of green-robed officials. Originally worried there wouldn’t be enough tea leaves, after Zhuzong stuffed her with a large packet, she no longer had this concern. Though she couldn’t understand what her husband and the others were saying, just hearing them pound tables and smash stools in heated discussion, she knew they must be discussing something remarkable.

“Overturning the Daoist sect’s memorial is easy—just tell the superiors. But have you considered this is the first time the Buddhist and Daoist sects have had someone voluntarily step forward to acknowledge they are also subjects of the Great Tang, not some people outside the world? One hundred thousand monks and nuns, plus one hundred thousand Daoists—they have countless followers. Once we use force, it might trigger Great Tang social turmoil. For a bit of silver money, the gains don’t justify the losses.”

Wang Xuance stood on a chair constantly persuading everyone they needed to think of another way, to properly use this once-in-a-millennium opportunity to bring the Great Tang people’s faith under the control of state law. Power needed to be extremely centralized—only such a state could concentrate all efforts to accomplish great things, such as sweeping away surrounding border troubles and expanding the Great Tang’s territory to the ends of heaven.

“Without people, even if you brought down the moon, what use would it be? The great army can’t kill everyone. After the army passes, those places will still belong to those damned barbarians. In not many years, they’ll make a comeback. What do we do? Kill batch after batch? Wang Xuance, you killed to your heart’s content temporarily, but this grudge grows deeper and deeper. Later we won’t need to do anything else—all take up weapons to kill barbarians, regardless of age or gender, kill them all? We’re human beings, not butchers.”

“Gonghai is right. The court’s conciliatory policy isn’t wrong. I heard the court already has a good method to control the grasslands—using wool as the bond, making them become our raw material supply area, living in mutual dependence. Teaching them to speak Han language, write Han characters. The teacher said strong civilizations will gradually absorb weak civilizations. In just a hundred years, the grassland people will forget their language. Everywhere Han language will be spoken, all will have black hair and black eyes. Can you distinguish who is a subject of the Great Tang and who was once a barbarian?”

“Off topic, off topic, seriously off topic! We’re talking about the Daoist sect’s memorial. How did it get to the grasslands? Wang Xuace, warning you once—don’t switch concepts, otherwise you lose one chance to speak.”

“Actually, I also think Wang Xuance makes sense. Now Chang’an city is full of gods and Buddhas everywhere. His Majesty ignores this—saying it’s indulgence doesn’t seem right. After studying His Majesty’s methods, I discovered His Majesty always plans thoroughly before acting, then uses all his strength like a lion hunting a rabbit, achieving a kill with one strike. The Daoist sect has deep ties with the imperial family. Doing this might not be to deceive the imperial family—perhaps it’s a flaw they deliberately exposed. If the court seizes this loophole and makes the impossible into an ironclad case, leaving the Daoists no room to resist, this matter might become a major turning point. The Daoist sect’s leadership can also explain to other Daoists—ultimately, their not fearing His Majesty’s divine authority is false.”

“Finally someone sensible appears. I just casually mentioned my aspirations and you riddled me like a sieve. I didn’t say anything that would benefit the Daoist sect. Whose policy is it? Isn’t it still decided by the court? Actually, the Daoist sect wants to abandon grain to plant other things—isn’t it because grain prices are low now? Planting anything casually is better than planting grain. This is a huge misconception. Harming farmers’ interests to maintain the nation’s grain prices at a very low level—this is the greatest injustice to those farmers who face the yellow earth with their backs to heaven.”

“Now our dynasty’s commercial tax is maintained at the low level of one-thirtieth. Wealthy merchants and great households earn vast amounts of silver but make extremely low contributions to the treasury. They let farming households, who comprise ninety percent of our Great Tang’s population, take the lowest compensation while bearing the state’s heaviest taxes. Rent, corvée, and調—which of these three systems isn’t aimed at farmers? They don’t concern merchants much. Is this fair? The reason the Daoist sect does this is because they see profit here, so they brazenly state their claims—exchanging grain and money for power. What right do they have? Just because I’m surnamed Li?”

“Bastard, would you please shut up? We’re discussing national policy here. No one’s following you in rebellion. Don’t let us fail to deal with the Daoist sect only to have our heads hanging at the city gate tomorrow…”

Li Er sat behind his desk, using the afternoon sunlight to flip through the records page by page. When he saw the line “Just because I’m surnamed Li,” he couldn’t help but smile. These bastards all needed tempering. After grinding away their fiery edges, each would be top-tier talent. These words were either arrogant, indignant, or balanced. Though some places were still immature, one could see from between the lines that they had all engaged in serious thought. Saying wrong things didn’t matter, doing wrong things didn’t matter. I have plenty of time to wait for you to slowly grow up.

Though Li Chunfeng was clever, trying to play tricks before these clever devils was insufficient. However, this boy called Yuanjia might have guessed correctly—this was a loophole the Daoist sect deliberately left for me. To completely extract themselves from the tax vortex indeed required great courage, but when this great courage meets me, you can only blame your own foolishness.

I’ve spent my whole life most particular about taking the initiative. In this matter of contending for the dragon throne, once you lose the initiative, no matter how many methods you have, you’ll ultimately find it hard to escape death. I will squeeze out every last bit of your vitality, then quietly wait for another problem to walk into the trap.