Chapter 42: The Sea of Ghosts

At the invitation of the Xurui Dynasty, the four eminent monks of the Radan Po Dynasty went to the empire to preach Buddhism.

These four eminent monks went to the Xurui Dynasty in two ways, one of which was led by Zhang He, the special envoy of the emperor of the Xurui Dynasty, and there were three eminent monks on the same road: Mo Shi stayed in the snowy plain, Shi Shidi finally stayed in the southeast region, and Gaya went to the capital;

The road that Zhang He led the three of them was from the northeast of the Rodan Po Dynasty directly into the snowy plains of the Xurui Dynasty, while the road taken by Amugan was to pass through several neighboring countries to the west of the Xurui Dynasty, and then to the western end of the Xurui Dynasty, and then across the alpine steppe desert in the northwest, to the Mahucha steppe under the jurisdiction of the steppe king Chijin Bo Khan, the destination of his trip.

Knowing that he gave up all the aid that Zhang He had provided to him on behalf of the Xurui Dynasty and chose such a dangerous and dangerous path was incomprehensible to insiders, but because of his high prestige, he still made the trip.

The path chosen by Amogan was not a dead end, but was followed by adventurous multinational businessmen and fearless monks who traveled east to spread Buddhism.

There were few merchants on this road, but Amugan, who was walking alone on horseback and carrying a cowhide water bladder, soon encountered a caravan of merchants.

Once the merchants on this road meet the monks, most of them are happy to walk with the monks and take the initiative to provide the monks with food and other financial support free of charge, and the monks will chant sutras and pray for the merchants in the morning and evening to give the merchants spiritual comfort. Poor monks, terrified merchants who were often threatened with death, naturally formed intimate companions along this treacherous and long road.

With this caravan of dozens of people, Amogan traveled through two small countries and a large country, and came to Zireis.

Zires is one of the most prosperous and important places on this road, from here to the south is the road to the Rodanpo Dynasty, to the west is the road to the Mansio Empire, the largest empire in the west of the continent, and to the northeast is the road to the Xurui Dynasty, so Ziles has become a transit point for economic exchanges between the East and the West in the entire continent.

The final destination of the caravan that Amugan joined was Zires, where they would sell the goods they had brought from the Radan Po dynasty, and then buy some silk, pottery, jade, and mythical animal patterns in Zires and return to the Radan Po dynasty to sell.

After bidding farewell to the caravan, Amugan began to look for a caravan to return to the Xurui Dynasty from Zires.

Amugan was originally proficient in the language of the Xurui Dynasty, and he also knew the written language, and Zhang He, the head of the palace, specially brought a person who was proficient in the language of the steppe under the rule of Chijin Bo Khan, and taught the language of the Amugan steppe people.

With his fluency in the Xurui Dynasty, Amogan soon inquired about a caravan returning to the Xurui Dynasty in a silk shop owned by a merchant of the Xurui Dynasty.

Following the clues provided by the people in the silk shop, Amogan soon found a group of merchants from the Xurui Dynasty in the western cargo area.

When Amugan came forward to inquire, they were indeed the merchants who the silk shop had said were going back to the Xurui Dynasty.

Amogan explained his purpose of going to the Xurui Dynasty to spread Buddhism, and untied a leather bag from his body for the group of merchants to see. The leather bag was filled with verses written by the abbots of various monasteries during his travels, most of them from the Radan dynasty, but some from neighboring countries.

One of the merchants, a Buddhist, was extremely respectful to Amugan, a short, dark, thin monk from a Buddhist shrine, and Amugan successfully joined the caravan of the Xurui Dynasty.

Amgan and a caravan loaded with skins, medicinal herbs, spices, and jewels left Zires and gradually walked from the steppes to the mountain roads of the Onami Plateau.

Straddling several countries, the Onami Plateau was the only way to the western end of the Xurui Dynasty.

The Onami Plateau is a collection of mountain ranges, with an average altitude of 5,000 to 7,000 meters, some of which seem to be closely connected to the sky, covered in snow and ice all year round, with thin air and cold winds, and nowhere to hide.

Amogan and the caravan of the Xurui Dynasty were struggling to walk on this high snow-capped mountain road.

A businessman who was exhausted was shivering from the cold and fell to the ice, and someone helped him up. He had not gone far when a strong wind blew, and he fell into a deep valley.

Fearing an avalanche that could happen at any moment, no one dared to stop for a moment, or even shout loudly, which could cause a storm and snow.

A few days of snow-capped mountain road left the lives of several merchants, and no one can tell how many lives were taken by this snow-capped mountain road, but many people still walked out of this snow-capped mountain road.

After walking for five days along the southern road of the mountain, Amugan and his caravan were attacked by a group of steppe robbers.

After a snowstorm or drought, robbers from the northern steppes often came to rob the caravans on this trade route.

The steppe bandits are like a gust of wind on a snowy mountain, and in an instant they will sweep through the caravan in a furious manner.

Most of the caravans will be on guard, but in the face of fierce steppe bandits, a pack of ferocious wolves, and hungry leopards, the merchants have no power to fight back, and in the blink of an eye, corpses will be strewn all over the field.

The caravan of the Xurui Dynasty that encountered the robbers today, when the bandits left, the merchants were unscathed.

It was Amgan's presence that changed all that.

This short, emaciated, dark-skinned monk of the Radhampo dynasty, who no one else cared about, jumped up and ran forward with a long howl, which made the robbers stop to check the situation when the robbers were still thirty meters away from the caravan and several merchants exclaimed, "The robbers are coming!"

After drinking a group of robbers, Amugan jumped in front of the bandit caravan, and then galloped from one end of the caravan to the other like a gust of wind.

The people on both sides were puzzled by Amugan's behavior, and they all stared at Amogan closely, and his incomparably light body together attracted everyone's attention.

Later, I don't know who called out "——? horses", and then everyone on both sides noticed that the horses of the robbers in front of them had fallen to the ground, and the robbers on the horses had fallen to the ground.

It was Amogan who ran and knocked down the horses. In fact, most of the horses did not die, but fainted after being hit in the vital parts, but this situation had scared the bandits away.

After escaping the robbers, the caravan sped up its march and approached the hinterland of the Xurui Dynasty day by day.

On this day, the caravan entered the Great Desert of Moraritair, known as the "Sea of Ghosts".

Eight hundred miles of desert, there are no birds in the sky, no grass on the ground, and the caravan walks on the sand dunes that the scorching sun has baked red, and their hearts are like hanging on a boiling soup pot.

Exhausted caravans, one night shortly after reaching the heart of the desert, the "ghost" appeared without warning.

First, in the distance, there were faint bursts of low crying, and then, the bursts of crying got closer and closer, sometimes slow and sometimes urgent, sometimes high and sometimes low.

The desert is often full of wind and sand, and the sound of wind and sand is used to being heard by the caravan people, but what they heard that night is clearly a cry, a large group of people crying together in a low voice, because there is no one in the desert, so the cry is naturally the sound of ghosts crying.

I don't know when the sound of Amogan chanting the Buddhist scriptures sounded, and as soon as the scriptures recited in the language of the Xurui Dynasty reached the ears of the merchants, their panicked hearts immediately calmed down.

In the next few days, the sound of devil crying sounded, and the sound of Amogan chanting Buddhist scriptures would be heard, and then the caravan would all sleep peacefully.

None of the caravan expected a real catastrophe to come in the midst of the sound of devil crying and chanting.

It was late in the evening when a great sandstorm came, and the yellow sand and the caravan horses, goods, and merchants flew in the desert together, and they kept flying until they all flew into the endless darkness of the night.

After the sandstorm, Amogan found a rendezvous with two dozen merchants in the desert, and they found ten more horses and some goods, but they did not find a single intact water skin.

The crippled caravan was back on its way, and little by little the fire of hunger and thirst burned in everyone's hearts.

In order to reduce consumption, the caravan chose to walk at night.

The sky was full of stars, the bright moon hung high in the sky like a silver sun, and the night of the desert was as bright as day for the past two days.

It may be that the sandstorm took away all the wind, and soon after the sun rose, the desert became a big steamer.

The two dozen merchants, whose lips were cracked and cracked, shook their dry and feverish bodies and fell to the scorching sand.

The sun was so bright that they couldn't open their eyes, and they felt like they were about to melt, and they couldn't stand up again.

"What is that? Open your eyes and see!" I don't know who opened his eyes in a trance, saw a clear lake, and called out to his companions in a faint voice.

"It's a lake!"

"Yes, we have water to drink, we are saved!"

Someone responded in surprise.

A few people got up and walked slowly towards the lake.

"Come back! Come back! That's the embodiment of ghosts, that's illusory magic water. You'll never get there, you'll be exhausted to death!" called a merchant who often walked the desert.

Seeing that the people did not listen to the dissuasion, but still stubbornly walked towards the south where the lake appeared, Amugan got up and caught up with a few people and said, "Om, a few donors! The poor monks have also heard that there is an illusory scene in the desert, and the direction of the Buddha's guidance is in the east, and a few donors will turn back with me, and the Buddha will definitely be able to guide us out of the desert." ”

As soon as a few people saw that it was Amugan who spoke, they followed him back, and Amugan was already the true Buddha in their hearts.

In the evening, the lake was gone, and the men were glad to have obeyed Amugan's words, otherwise they might have been exhausted and had no strength to come back.

That night, the stars and moon hid their light, and it seemed that some dark shadows had been following the caravan, and when the merchants turned back, they saw some dancing flames, like torches held by ghosts.

Several merchants in a trance were so frightened that they were spread on the ground and could not walk.

Amugan sat at the back of the line closest to the ghost fire and recited aloud: "Hum Ah Ah Ah This is the root mantra of the Vajra Boss; Hum Ah Ah Hum represents the Buddha's body and mouth and mouth Tantra; Hum Ah This three-character mantra can subdue all the demons and evil ghosts in hell on earth; Hum Ah This three-character mantra can bless all living beings who have their hearts towards my Buddha! Hum Ah Blah This is the root mantra of the Vajra Boss! Recite it with me – Hum Ah Hum !

The merchants who spread out on the ground chanted aloud: "Hum - ah - hum ——! hum - ah - ——!...... "

The fear disappeared in the minds of the merchants, and they all stood up, chanting "hum a" as they went.