Chapter 336 Potala Palace (IV)

When Cuodan led his men to rush to the top floor of the Potala Palace in full swing, they saw bloodstains on the ground and knife marks on the walls, but they did not find any human figures, not even a corpse.

This situation made Cuodan suspicious and full of thoughts. He stood in the corridor looking around, and Liu Xunyi hurriedly pushed through the crowd, squeezed in front of Cuodan, and gestured at him randomly.

At this moment, Cuodan was upset because of a series of unexpected events. When he saw a "mute" swaying in front of him, he felt furious. He raised his hand angrily and slapped Liu Xunyi loudly, knocking him to the ground. He covered his red and swollen cheek for a long time and couldn't recover.

After staying outside the secret room for a while, Cuodan suddenly called out, and everyone headed downstairs in a mighty manner.

At this time, the other seven kings, led by Pingzha, had all been captured by Codan's guards. Although they were not tied up, they were already under house arrest. Although they were indignant, they could only let the capricious Codan order them around for the sake of their own lives.

The leaders of the Tibetan tribes were different from the emperors of the Central Plains.

In the Central Plains, if the emperor was captured, his ministers would often try their best to redeem him, even if it meant ceding land and paying silver.

Tubo is completely different. Although the seven Tubo kings are powerful, once they are imprisoned, their tribal allies will not tolerate or compromise. Instead, they will immediately elect a new leader to take charge of the situation.

Today, although Cuodan has captured the seven Tibetan kings, killing them will do him no good. After killing them, he will not only fail to obtain the land and cities of the seven kings, but will also forge a blood feud with their descendants, which is not worth the loss.

Because of this, on the first day of the first lunar month every year, the seven kings dared to ignore Tsokden’s threats and openly come to the Potala Palace for pilgrimage.

Cuodan led the crowd downstairs and found that the guards along the way had fainted one after another, which made him extremely angry. At the same time, he also understood that there seemed to be another hidden story behind today's events, and the seven kings headed by Pingza were not the culprits.

Just as Cuodan was gradually calming down and preparing to think carefully, a guard rushed into the hall holding two keys to the secret room and impatiently presented the keys to Cuodan.

Upon seeing this, the eight Tubo kings were all shocked. People present were talking and whispering, each elaborating on their own speculations.

Liu Xunyi stood behind the crowd, looking anxiously at the people who were whispering to each other. He was extremely anxious and prayed secretly that Tang Cong and Boren could run as far away as possible.

Finally, after many twists and turns, Cuodan ordered the guards to search every corner of the palace. At the same time, he personally apologized to Pingzha and others, and his attitude was so sincere that the seven kings could not bear to blame him too harshly.

As the key was stolen, the eight Tibetan kings were unable to open the secret room and take out the Buddha lotus seeds, so the annual pilgrimage ceremony had to be temporarily put on hold.

Codan ordered his men to go to the camp to mobilize heavy troops to garrison the Potala Palace, while he himself sat in the Sunlight Hall to preside over the overall situation.

Judging from his attitude, he will definitely get to the bottom of this matter today.

After searching for about an hour, at the beginning of the 9th hour, the guards found all seven keys that Liu Xunyi had discarded.

At first, Liu Xunyi abandoned the keys in the Potala Palace in order to give Bansang and others who were imprisoned in the secret room a glimmer of hope. However, he unexpectedly shot himself in the foot, as all eight keys were found by Cuodan so quickly.

Looking at Cuodan's furious look with his hair standing on end and eyes bloodshot, Liu Xunyi felt his heart sink. An ominous feeling quickly rose from the bottom of his heart. In a blink of an eye, a feeling of uneasiness surged throughout his body, causing his body to tense up uncontrollably.

This time, Cuodan did not go upstairs himself, but handed the key to his confidant.

Codan, Pingza and others were still guarding the main hall under the heavy protection of soldiers to prevent anyone from taking advantage of the chaos again.

At this moment, the Sunlight Hall was completely silent, as still as death.

Thousands of people held their breath, silent, just looking at each other with gloomy eyes, wary.

This situation made Liu Xunyi feel extremely depressed. He could almost clearly hear his own increasingly violent heartbeat. It was like a death knell, echoing in his mind and not going away for a long time.

After an incense stick of time, the guards carried the seriously injured Bansang and others back to the Sunlight Palace in a hurry.

Seeing this, Cuodan suddenly stood up, rushed to Bansang in two steps, and scolded him.

Pingza and others crowded forward, vying to find out what was going on.

Bansang, whose acupoints were pressed, could not utter a word and could only stammer and roar from his throat.

Seeing this, Cuodan frowned and waved his hand to signal everyone to be quiet. He put his hand on Bansang's shoulder and asked a few questions in a low voice. His tone was much calmer than before, and his attitude was also much gentler.

Just as Liu Xunyi was worried and thinking hard about countermeasures, he suddenly found that Bansang's vicious eyes were already directed at him. Along with it came the murderous intentions of Cuodan and the thousands of people present.

"call!"

Just when everyone locked their sights on Liu Xunyi, he had already made a move in the blink of an eye, knocking the guards behind him away with one palm, and then he flashed out like a dragon, and flew straight towards the palace gate at a terrifying speed that was invisible to the naked eye.

What followed was a frantic hunt by thousands of guards, and even a territory-wide manhunt involving tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people.

...Three days later.

After galloping day and night, Tang Cong and Boren, holding the young monk hostage, finally escaped from Cuodan's sphere of influence, rushed to the southern foot of Tanggula Mountain, and successfully found the lonely temple in the wind and snow, Tianrong Temple.

Tianrong Temple has been abandoned for many years, and there is no one in the temple. There is a "Tara" sculpture enshrined in the main hall. However, the color of the sculpture has long faded, and even the facial features have become a little mottled and blurred.

In the entire Tianrong Temple, except for the Tara Hall which can barely provide shelter from the wind and rain, the other side halls and monks' quarters are all in ruins and in a dilapidated state.

Under the erosion of wind and snow day after day and year after year, Tianrong Temple is full of vicissitudes and devastation. Not only are the doors and windows broken, but some side halls even have more than half of their walls collapsed. The scene is very desolate.

Even so, there are still some rotten fruits and vegetables on the altar. This place is remote and rarely visited, but in recent years, the devout men and women who occasionally pass by here will still come in to kowtow and worship, and offer the little gifts they can to Tara.

When Tang Cong and Boren arrived at Tianrong Temple, it was already dark. Because Liu Xunyi attracted the attention of Cuodan for them, they did not encounter too many obstacles along the way, and it was a smooth journey.

Boren put the young monk in a bamboo basket and carried it on his back for three days and three nights without putting it down for a moment. This made Tang Cong very puzzled.

Tang Cong and Boren were shivering with cold. They were busy in the hall, lighting a bonfire and trying to keep warm.

The young monk sat cross-legged on the side, facing the Tara sculpture face to face, silently chanting the six-syllable mantra over and over again.

Strangely enough, after the monk woke up from his coma, he followed them obediently all the way. He was not panicked nor did he resist at all. Even after not eating or drinking for three days and three nights, he still had a rosy face and looked happy.

After the fire was burning, Boren walked to the young monk with half a steamed bun, squatted down, looked at the young monk in the same direction, and took the initiative to hand the steamed bun to the young monk, saying jokingly: "Little master, eat something? Don't get hungry."

"I often live in a secret room and have long practiced the art of fasting, so I won't get hungry. Benefactor, I have something to say to you." The monk ignored the steamed bun and said with a smile, "I hope you can listen to my words and get rid of the suffering of reincarnation as soon as possible."

"Oh?" Boren sat on the ground and asked with interest, "What words do you want to give me, little master?"

"Let the knife cut down and become a Buddha."

"puff!"

Before he finished speaking, Tang Cong, who was sitting by the fire drinking water, couldn't help but choke and sneered, "Little monk, you are wrong! This sentence should not be given to him, but to me. Why? Because he runs a medicine shop and specializes in saving people. I am the one who lives on the edge of a knife and kills countless people."

The monk did not refute, but smiled slightly and said: "In fact, I also have something to say to you, the donor."

"Hurry up and tell me!" Tang Cong seemed to become interested all of a sudden, and his eyes lit up.

"The sea of ​​suffering is endless, turn back and you will find the shore." The young monk said slowly, "Although the donor looks vicious, he is actually kind-hearted. He is a rare sincere person in the world. You kill people only with your mouth. Saving people is in your heart."

Tang Cong raised his eyebrows, his face full of confusion, and asked suspiciously: "What do you mean? I don't understand."

"You haven't attained enlightenment yet, so you naturally can't understand what I'm saying." The monk said with a smile, "I just hope you can practice cultivation early in your next life and finally reach the paradise."

"Next life? Pah, pah, pah! How unlucky!" Tang Cong was slightly stunned, then showed contempt, and laughed and scolded, "You little monk haven't even grown all your hair yet, but you are trying to imitate adults and pretend to be mysterious. It's really ridiculous. What do you mean by practicing in the next life? Are you cursing me to die early? Don't you vegetarians and Buddhists claim to be kind? Why are you so vicious?"

"Life and death, the six realms of reincarnation. Death in this life means birth in the next life, so what is auspicious or unlucky?" The monk put his hands together and smiled, "If I can die in the temple in this life, isn't it a kind of opportunity? In the next life, I will be able to cultivate good karma and plant wisdom early."

"The more I listen, the more uncomfortable it becomes!" Tang Cong curled his lips and snorted, "Every word you say seems to be about you. If you don't want to die young, tell me the whereabouts of the Buddha Lotus Seed as soon as possible to avoid physical pain."

After that, Tang Cong pretended to be fierce and threatened: "I'm telling you, I don't distinguish between adults and children when I kill people. Anyone who offends me will be killed without mercy."

"No matter how cruel a person is, he can't be crueler than a wolf." The little monk replied inexplicably, then turned his peaceful gaze to the strange and silent Boren, and said with a smile, "Donor Tang, no matter how many people you kill, can you kill more than him?"

As soon as these words were spoken, Tang Cong and Boren's faces changed at the same time.

The difference is that Tang Cong just laughed off the monk's "joke", with disdain and ridicule on his face.

On the other hand, Boren's face was gloomy and his eyes flickered, which was indescribably terrifying.

Because Boren had his back to Tang Cong, Tang Cong could not see his weird expression and joked, "Why don't you learn something else at such a young age? Why do you have to learn to play tricks? Why? Do you want to be a fortune teller when you grow up, talking nonsense and cheating people out of their money? I might as well tell you that this guy has been making a living by selling medicine. He is weak and has no martial arts skills. How can he kill people? Haha..."

Faced with Tang Cong's self-righteousness, the monk kept his eyes fixed on Boren, as if he was answering Tang Cong's questions, but also as if he was talking to himself.

"If he was so weak, how could he have carried me on his back for three days and three nights without changing his expression or breathing heavily, and even... not feeling tired at all?"

……

(End of this chapter)