Kyushu · Endless Nagato

Chapter 4
His son was completely immobile.There still seemed to be an indelible majesty in the skull's black eyes, which made the emperor lose the courage to take any action.He watched the hall collapse, and he was surrounded by flames soaring into the sky. He watched his father's corpse walk towards him, opened his arms, and embraced himself with scorching heat.

The emperor yelled and finally woke up, his inner clothes and bedding were soaked in cold sweat.He recalled the weird nightmare just now, and the more he thought about it, the more unpleasant it became.

"Come on!" he yelled, "Send the Dream Interpreter!"

Since he came to the throne at the age of 15, the emperor's sleep problem has always troubled him.No matter how the imperial doctors try to recuperate, it is difficult for him to get a stable dream, but frequently suffers from nightmares.He always came to all kinds of bizarre places and encountered all kinds of horrible things in his dreams. These dreams made him extremely disturbed and he became thinner day by day.When he was in despair, he even thought about committing suicide. Fortunately, his national teacher said something to him, and he calmed down slowly.

"You are the emperor of Kyushu, and the things you think about in your mind are far more important than others, so you will be nervous and worry, and you will fall into nightmares," the national teacher said to him, "This is very normal, and it just shows that You have a sense of responsibility for the people of the world."

"Subjects of the world? In fact, the source of my nervousness... is more because I am afraid of disappointing my mother," the young emperor smiled wryly, "You know, when I was young, she was needed for all affairs of the country. Come and help me make a decision. Although she has let go of her now, I am still afraid of doing the wrong thing."

"You were only 15 years old when you came to the throne. Naturally, you need someone to help you, but sooner or later you will be on your own. What's more, it doesn't matter if you have nightmares. Dreams are often a harbinger of the future."

"Foreshadowing of the future?" The emperor was very surprised.

"Yes, you are the emperor and the son of heaven," said the national teacher. "Your dreams may be revelations from heaven, but you can't understand them yourself. You need a dream interpreter to help you interpret your dreams." What you see, will guide you in the direction of the way forward, my lord."

The emperor adopted the advice of the national teacher and summoned a dream interpreter to stay in the palace.In the following days, the dream interpreter analyzed a lot of things from his dreams, and a large part of them actually matched up with what happened in the future.Of course, the emperor knew very well that these did not necessarily mean that his dreams had the function of predicting the future, and many of them were just psychological effects and self-comfort.The dream interpreter is very good at observing words and expressions, and can always say what the emperor is willing to listen to, and his judgment of the current situation is relatively accurate. This is probably the real reason why his "prophecy" is accurate.But even if it was just a psychological effect, the words of the dream interpreter did calm him down a lot, and his nightmares were not as frequent as before.

However, the dream tonight seemed a little different, and the emperor felt that it was necessary for him to ask a dream interpreter to analyze it.This dream made him faintly feel that he had lost the power to control him, which was absolutely intolerable for an emperor.

three months later.

After the Empress Dowager's birthday at the beginning of the year and the emperor's birthday in the middle of the year, Tianqi City ushered in another grand event.An immortal dharma body of an eminent monk from Nagato 600 years ago was transported to Tianqi, and the emperor will personally greet him.

Nagato has always been a sect far away from all political and royal powers, and has never attracted the attention of any emperors and princes. This situation did not change until the era of Emperor Hongjing.I don't know why, Nagato's doctrine of "pursuing ultimate wisdom" fascinated the emperor, and Nagato's creed of generosity, gentleness, fraternity, and never hurting others also made him feel that it was worth promoting to the people of the world, so he moved The idea is to turn Nagato into a state religion.

But this wish didn't come true, because Nagato's reaction was indifferent, or there was no reaction at all.Nagato does not have a strict organizational structure like Tiankai or Chenyue. The so-called "religion" is just a general term for a loose belief group. Although it is divided into several factions due to differences in beliefs, there is no complete one. Organization, there is no core leadership.The emperor threw out the golden branch, but no branch inside Nagato reached out to pick it up, which is a bit embarrassing to say.

Fortunately, the emperor was not angry. Although he gave up the idea of ​​promoting Nagato to the state religion, he was still willing to gain wisdom and insights from Nagato's classics.

Just in this year, a farmer from Yuezhou was digging a well in the backyard of his home, and unintentionally dug up a strange corpse.The corpse looked like it had been dead for many, many years, and the flesh hadn't rotted, it had just become shriveled.In Yuezhou, which is humid all the year round and water drips from the air, it is really strange to have such a mummy.This matter soon alarmed the county government, and the documents in the government searched all over the information, and finally found that 600 years ago, a respected Nagato monk (usually called "Master") was buried there.In other words, this corpse is exactly that Nagato monk. It is a miracle that he has been dead for more than 600 years, but his body is still not rotten.

The local county magistrate knew that this was the best time to flatter the emperor, so he quickly reported the matter to Tianqi.The emperor was very happy and ordered to arrange to send the body of this eminent monk to Tianqi City.Today, it finally arrived.

The central square of Apocalypse City has already set up a high platform, attracting countless people to watch.The body that has been dead for 600 years is still not decomposed, which is a big excitement in itself, and with the emperor's hand-picked appointment, this excitement will naturally double.In the summer of July, the sun was shining brightly, and the square was crowded with people. It was like putting people on a steamer and roasting them. It was so hot that people would go crazy, and many people suffered from heat stroke.

At noon, the emperor finally appeared.The sun-battered people cheered up and looked eagerly at the road left on the south side of the square.

Not long after, the body of the eminent monk Nagato arrived. It was covered in a thick layer of red velvet and carried into the square by sixteen laborers.Some insiders in the crowd began to show off at this time, and they told the people around that under the layer of red velvet cloth, this remarkable corpse that alarmed the Holy Majesty was placed in a special crystal cover, sitting cross-legged attitude.When it was excavated from the ground, it maintained this posture.

"Such a large crystal cover should be worth a lot of money, right?" A spectator commented.

"This is not an ordinary crystal," the insider continued to show off. "My brother-in-law works in the yamen. I heard from him that this crystal cover is specially made to prevent the invasion of secret arts."

"It's worth it. It's rare for a dead person to not rot for hundreds of years."

Amidst the people's discussions, the Lifu sent the crystal cover to the high platform, and the ceremonial officer quickly announced that the auspicious time had come, and the emperor stood up from his seat.According to the arranged procedure, he will personally uncover the layer of cloth, so that people can see the true face of the eminent monk Dharmakaya, and then he will use this opportunity to deliver an inspiring speech to the people of the world, explaining the spirit of Nagato changes that can be brought about by people.These words are usually not very powerful, but now, this miraculous body is enough to leave a deep imprint on the hearts of the people.

While the emperor was thinking, he stepped up the steps to the high platform, and the crowd knelt down in unison, submitting to the majesty of the emperor.He waved his hand, ordered to flatten his body, then stretched out his hand and tore off the layer of flannelette, and the immortal dharma body appeared in people's eyes like this.Its withered body and cheeks looked a bit hideous, sitting cross-legged under the scorching sun of Apocalypse City, separated from all living beings in front of it by only a layer of crystal, but separated by a full 600 years.

The emperor listened with satisfaction to the admiration of the people.The reaction of the people was within his expectations, and then he could interpret many meanings from this dharma, making them realize the greatness of Nagato, and then...

As soon as he thought of this, he heard exclamations from the crowd.He turned his head suddenly, and there was a flame in front of his eyes——the Dharma body of the eminent monk was on fire!In this crystal cover that cannot be attacked by any secret technique, only the emperor stood within ten steps of it on the high platform. Cracks appeared under baking and slowly began to crumble.

The commander of the guards shouted: "Your Majesty! Please leave!" With this shout, the guards immediately surrounded the emperor and protected him.But the emperor angrily pushed away the imperial guards who stood in front of him, his eyes fixed on the dancing flames in front of him.

At that moment, he remembered the dream a few months ago, and remembered what the dream master said to him: "Your Majesty's country was passed down by the late emperor. Dreaming that the late emperor sat on the dragon chair again, it means that this dream is related to the country. Sheji is related to the luck of the entire Kyushu. However, the dragon body of the late emperor was swallowed by flames, and the Taiqing Palace was turned into a sea of ​​​​flames, but it is by no means a good omen. It may indicate that a huge disaster is approaching. Within this year, Your Majesty needs to pay attention to fire-related events Incident, it is likely to be a warning."

Now, the incident related to the fire happened, and it was similar to his nightmare, so he couldn't believe the dream interpreter's words.He watched the mummy turn into ashes, but he had the illusion that it wasn't the long door monk who was burning, but his dead father. A strong anger surged from the bottom of his heart.He resolutely pushed away the guards who were trying to block him again, regardless of the high temperature of the flame, strode to the crystal cover.The imperial guards were all terrified, fearing that the emperor's golden body would be hurt, but they didn't dare to move against the dragon scales, so they could only follow him with a bitter face.

Suddenly, the emperor's face changed slightly, and the guards all saw what he saw: from the body of the head monk who was about to burn out, something fell out, which looked like some kind of High temperature resistant metal.This thing has been hidden in its body until the body was burned, and finally showed up.

"Take that piece out," the emperor ordered.He faintly realized that this bizarre self-immolated dharma body, this piece of metal that fell from the dharma body, was probably the important thing that the dream interpreter said could change the fate of Kyushu.

"Change the luck of Kyushu? A huge disaster?" The emperor clenched his fists, "Then let's fight together!"

(End of this chapter)