It is five or six miles east of Nijo Castle in the Golden Ring Bright Temple.

In the secret room of a meditation room, in front of a dim sesame oil lamp, Muren was a little drowsy.

Suddenly, a thunderclap outside the meditation room woke him up suddenly, he didn't know whether it was day or night outside the room, and he didn't know what day it was, he only knew that after going to bed, he ate two more fasts, so it should be night?

It's been two days since I came to this temple.

Thinking back to that day, he still didn't dare to think about it, and when he thought about it, he trembled all over his body, and fear spread all over his body. On that day, he had just been sent out of the palace by Matsudaira Yoho's younger brother, Matsudaira Dingkei, and the rebellious Choshu feudal soldiers entered the imperial palace. After several bloody battles and the loss of four samurai, Matsudaira and several Aizu samurai finally fought their way out of Nijo Castle and hid in a charred house in Kyoto Castle. Fear and loneliness have tormented him ever since.

At that time, the whole city of Kyoto was out of control, and the streets were full of soldiers from the Choshu and Shikoku domains, searching everywhere for people and property, killing men when they saw them, robbing them when they saw them, and pushing young women into corners......

On the first day of the beginning, even Matsudaira and the remaining 2 Aizu samurai did not dare to go out. The next day, Matsudaira went out with an Aizu samurai, and in the middle of the night, only Matsudaira came back wounded, looking dejected. It took a long time before he told Muhito that now the whole of Kyoto was occupied by the Choshu Domain and other rebels, his brother Matsudaira Rongho was killed in battle, and his father, Emperor Komei, also died.

Muren was stunned at the time, and it took a long time to remember that his father would never come back, and he just wanted to cry but was covered by Matsudaira Dingjing, for fear of attracting the rebels who searched him.

On the night of the third day, Matsudaira saw that the search in the castle was not so strict, so he and the only remaining Aizu samurai took Muhito out of the castle in the dark, but on the way he encountered a patrol of rebels, and the last Aizu samurai died tragically on the spot in order to lure the rebels away.

By this time, Muhito and Matsudaira had heard all the news from Kyoto City:

The combined forces of the Choshu and Shikoku domains defeated the shogunate's army, and the desperate representative of the shogunate's power, the Kyoto shoji Daidai Sakai Taddayoshi, poisoned Emperor Komei. Fortunately, at this critical moment, the Choshu feudal lord Katsura Kogoro desperately broke into the dying enemy camp, killed the thief Sakai Tadayoshi, and rescued the crown prince, Prince Muhito. Before his death, Emperor Takamei left a testament to pass the throne to the crown prince, Prince Muhito, and the Choshu and Shikoku domains were overjoyed and prepared to proclaim Prince Muhito on the throne at the Imperial Palace of Nijo Castle three days later, and at the same time ordered the feudal states of the world to rise up against the brutality of the shogunate and avenge the emperor.

At this time, Muren and Matsudaira Dingjing were dumbfounded.

Although Muren was smart, he couldn't understand why this was the case at this time. He couldn't figure out who killed his father, but he thought that before that, his father had already sensed the danger, either the shogunate or the Choshu domain, to be precise, it was either Sakai Tadashi, the director of Kyoto, or Katsura Kogoro, the commander of the Choshu domain. It's just that he can't figure it out, why do these people want to kill his father, he hates and fears, because those people said that they would support themselves to ascend the throne in the palace three days later, but they are still hiding here?

And Songping Dingjing couldn't understand why the rebels would announce their support for him to ascend the throne when he was clearly hidden in this Golden Ring Guangming Temple? Was it found out, or did it lie to them?

Anyway, I can't stay in this Golden Ring Guangming Temple anymore.

On this day, Matsudaira Dingjing took Muren with him, wanted to say hello to the temple's presiding Zen master and left the temple.

When he came to the presiding hall, before he entered the door, the little novice in front of the door said that the Zen master did not see any outsiders, and the donor was leaving or staying. Matsudaira had no choice but to bow down to thank the Zen master for taking him in, and just wanted to leave with Muhito, but he heard a novice outside the temple running in in a panic to report that the entire temple was surrounded by soldiers from the Choshu domain and was coming to search the temple.

Matsudaira Dingjing and Muren were shocked, and at this moment, the door of the meditation room of the main hall opened, and the voice of the Zen master came from inside: "Take the two of you into the old man's room." ”

Muren followed Matsudaira Dingjing, and as soon as he was led by the little novice into the presiding meditation room, he felt a sharp gaze staring at him, and when he looked up, it was a white-eyed monk staring at him fiercely, like an angry King Kong, looking scary, and his heart was uneasy, as if he wanted to cry out but didn't dare.

The white-eyed Zen master looked at it blankly for a while, and muttered, "Strange! Odd! The Venerable Master, the founder of my Pure Land Sect, calculated 650 years ago that there was a great calamity for my Buddha this year, and the day before yesterday, the two of you came to take refuge, and the old man knew that it had fallen on this little benefactor. But now, how does it seem to ...... It is impossible for the founding patriarch to be wrong, could it be that there are really people in this world who can change their lives against the sky? ”

At the end, Lang Sheng asked, "But the current crown prince, Prince Muhito?" ”

Songping Dingjing listened to the inexplicable self-talk of the Baimei Zen Master, although he didn't understand it very well, but his heart was a little calm, and he pulled Muren to kneel down and bow down: "Hui Yu Zen Master, it is the crown prince!" The situation is critical, and I hope that the Zen master will be merciful for my Buddha's sake, and save the lives of the crown prince and the villain! ”

Hearing this, the white-eyed Zen master was silent, walked over slowly, forced his eyes to look at Muren, his eyes were burning, and suddenly he slashed at the young Muren with a palm. Seeing this, Songping Dingjing's face changed greatly, and he exclaimed: "Zen master can't ......", and hurriedly blocked it.

I saw a sudden breeze blowing in the closed meditation room, and Matsudaira felt that he couldn't move at all.

Muren also cried out in fright.

However, the seemingly swift palm of the white-eyed Zen Master was gently placed on the top of Muren's head.

Muhito only felt that his whole body was warm and comfortable, as if he was back to the time when he was four years old at his grandmother's house in the countryside, and slowly closed his eyes and fell asleep.

At this time, the white-eyed Zen master, his face was red and white for a while, suddenly hideous, suddenly peaceful, so changed several times, and finally, he sighed heavily and closed his eyes again.

The whole process seems to be only a pillar of incense, but only the Baimei Zen Master seems to have experienced more than ten years. At this moment, he was still trembling, and his mind was replaying over and over again the scene that appeared during the meditation when the hand probed on the top of Muren's head:

One hot noon, the monks in the Jinjie Guangming Temple were doing their daily homework, suddenly, outside the gate outside the temple, there was a boiling voice, a large group of wandering samurai and Choshu soldiers rushed open the gate, rushed into the main hall of the temple and began to smash the Buddha statues in the temple. The monks of the temple went out to stop them, but they were beaten to blood by those fierce samurai and feudal soldiers, and the leader was none other than Muhito who had grown up, and at this moment he was already wearing strange Western clothes, and asked his entourage to read the edict in public, asking all the monks to either abandon the Buddha and join the Shinto religion and join the army, or take poison and commit suicide.

The monks of the Golden Ring Bright Temple begged for mercy desperately, declaring that they had no quarrel with the world, but Muhito, who had grown up, claimed to be the emperor of Japan, a descendant of the gods, and represented the Shinto gods who ruled Japan for generations, and all Japanese people should believe in Shinto and respect the Shinto emperor.

Countless similar scenes were staged together, the monks of the whole of Japan were shouting and crying, tens of thousands of temples, hundreds of thousands of monks were forced to return to the laity, tens of thousands of monks were conscripted into the army, armed with bloody murderous weapons, slaughtering everywhere. Thousands of Buddhist places have been destroyed, countless Buddha statues have been smashed and thrown into valleys, and countless stupas and monastic halls have been demolished and burned.

Immediately afterward, the whole of Japan was in a frenzy, thousands of people joined the army, many strange-shaped weapons appeared, behemoths like mountain peaks emitting black smoke floated on the surface of the sea, iron bumps like big birds flew in the sky, and many iron boxes were spewing flames, all of which rushed out of Japan and shot at the neighboring country to the west. I saw that in that huge Buddha country, tens of millions of civilians were slaughtered and weeping, hundreds of millions of people were displaced, and a bloody breath filled the sky, making the sky over the entire Buddha country a bloody red......

At this moment, the picture suddenly changed, and the golden supernatural hand suddenly appeared in the sky above the Buddha Kingdom, scattering the entire blood-red sky. Immediately afterwards, the owner of this big hand appeared, with a holy face, not happy or sad, and spewed a breath towards the sky, and suddenly, the scenes that appeared in front of him quickly regressed, and when they retreated almost, the whole world collapsed, leaving only an island, a boy stood alone on the island, looking at the sail point in the distance, and the seagulls flew overhead, with a lonely face......

"Poof!" The white-eyed Zen master opened his eyes suddenly, a mouthful of blood spurted out violently, and the whole person was like a snowflake under the scorching sun, which withered down all of a sudden, and instantly seemed to be more than ten years old, and the originally white eyebrows turned white like withered grass.

And at this time, Matsudaira Dingjing found that he was suddenly able to move, he woke up from his confusion, how could he know what happened just now, thinking that the white-eyed Zen master was going to kill the emperor, and punched the white-eyed Zen master in the chest. Unexpectedly, the white-eyed Zen master did not avoid it, the sternum was broken inch by inch, the blood in his mouth and nose flowed, and he fell.

"Master, I, I, I didn't want to kill you, I just wanted to save the crown prince, I ..... I ...... "Songping Dingjing is also a Buddhist believer, and his heart is in turmoil for a while.

"Don't be sad. Everything has a certainty! Karma, the way of heaven is reasonable, this is the evil retribution of the old man's reckless murderous thoughts, you must not be blamed. Since the little benefactor has been changed against the sky, and he will no longer bring disaster to my Buddhism Holy Sect, the old man will no longer be embarrassed. Little donor, in the future, you must learn to endure loneliness...... Disciple, give the two scriptures copied by the old man to the little donor, and he will use them when he sits in meditation in the future. After that, he took the two donors and hid them in the cellar to escape the catastrophe! After speaking, Zen Master Baimei got up with difficulty, struggled to meditate cross-legged, glanced at Muren sympathetically, slowly closed his eyes, recited the scriptures in his mouth, and sat down.

Muhito was led by Matsudaira Dingjing and followed a novice to the back kitchen stove, where he pushed open the stove to reveal a hidden cellar, and Matsudaira Dingjing hid in Muren with him.

Soon after they entered, the soldiers of the Choshu clan outside the temple broke open the temple gate, broke into the temple and searched everywhere.

The leader who led the soldiers of the Choshu domain to search the temple, Hao Ran was Takasugi Shinsaku himself.

"Report to the captain, after a careful search, no man was found. Only in the abbot's meditation room, I found the famous Baimei Zen master, who had already sat down. However, the Zen master seems to have been injured not long ago. A samurai from the Odd Soldiers reported to Takasugi.

"Carefully search the time for a few more pillars of incense." Takasugi Jinsaku gritted his teeth: "If you can't find it again, you will kill all the monks in this temple, and you won't be able to leak any news!" ”

The samurai of the Odd Soldiers looked unbearable, but when they saw Takasugi Shinsaku's hideous face, they could only leave.

Half an hour later, dozens of corpses were found in the temple, and then, the entire temple, which was all made of wood, was ablaze with fire, and the ancient temple that lasted for nearly a thousand years was wiped out.

The light of the fire shone on Takasugi Shinsaku's cold and youthful face, and he muttered, "Our new crown prince, Omuro Innosuke, no, it should be the obedient Prince Muhito, who should have arrived in Kyoto from Hagi Castle soon!" If the teacher was still in the world, how happy he would be to see this scene. The next step is to enthrone our 'Prince Mushihito' before the shogunate army arrives in Kyoto, and become a new generation of emperors, and from then on, lead our Choshu domain and other feudal clans to overthrow the shogunate, realize the civilization and enlightenment of Great Japan, and enter a new era designed by the teacher to expel the foreign powers! What a wonder......"