Chapter 86

With a measure in her heart, Yaoying pressed down her embarrassment and slowly said, “No matter what Venerable’s identity is, I am true to Venerable Master.”

    The two soldiers were stunned. Their brains spinning rapidly, racking their brains for half a day, they came up with a very powerful rebuke:

    “You don’t want face!”

    Yaoying looked at Tumoroga’s dusty back. Her face was grave, and she thought, Yama1 is watching from the side. Face, this kind of thing, she could give up.

    “Venerable is a person practicing Buddhism, I am a person of the vulgar world.”

    Yaoying solemnly pressed her palms together.

    “I would like to follow the example of the Mordenga Maiden2 and devote myself to Buddha for Venerable. We can revisit this matter after.”

    The lightly-armored soldiers were stunned and looked at each other.

    They had heard the tale of the Mordenga Maiden.

    When Ananda was young and extraordinarily handsome, a woman named Mordenga fell in love with him and insisted on marrying him. Ananda could not get rid of her, so he turned to Siddhartha Gautama for help.

    Siddhartha Gautama took matters calmly, telling Mordenga that Ananda was a practitioner. If she wanted to marry him, she must first practice for one year.

    She gladly agreed and delightedly became a nun, practicing every day. She gradually came to realization, becoming aware of the five desires and sufferings.

    She sincerely confessed and repented to Siddhartha Gautama. Obtaining enlightenment, she saw through the world of mortals, cut off the threads of love, and attained the fruit of Aluohan3.

    This love entanglement was eventually turned into a thousand-year legend.

    The lightly armored soldiers exchanged a look.

    All the people said that Buddha’s son was the incarnation of Ananda, and it just so happened that here came a Great Wei princess who would voluntarily become a nun to marry Buddha’s son. Could this be all a test from Buddha to Buddha’s son?

    In any case, the fact that this beautiful Han girl could think of becoming a nun to prove her sincerity to the Buddha’s son showed that she truly admired him.

    The soldiers snorted coldly.

    Yaoying took in the white-robed soldiers’ eased expressions and inwardly exhaled a long, slow breath.

    Tumoroga had ruled the Royal Court for more than ten years by his fame as the Buddha’s son, and the saying that he was Ananda’s incarnation had truly entered the people’s hearts. As long as her approach glorified Tumoroga and compared him with Ananda, these soldiers would naturally accept her words.

    In this way, her public proposal of marriage today would only add to Tumoroga’s reputation.

    Tumoroga could ignore her completely, and she was willing to give up her face to act as a silly girl infatuated with a monk—as long as she could live, this sacrifice was not worth mentioning.

    The more she thought about it, the more she felt that this solution was to everyone’s delight and satisfaction. Before she had a chance to see Tumoroga’s reaction, horse hooves stomped behind her.

    Haidu Aling’s thick arms had reached her and wrapped around her waist.

    “Full of nonsense!”

    He looked sorrowful. Scooping Yaoying up, he carried her onto the horse, and lowered his voice, “It seems that I was still too polite to the princess these days. Wait until we return to the camp. I will let the princess personally see how I tame women in bed.”

    Haidu Aling liked to tame women, especially liking Li Yaoying, this kind of stunning beauty.

    If it were in the past, he would not have been able to endure a month without touching a woman then discarding her like a worn-out broom. But this time, he was patient. He found that Li Yaoying’s occasional meekness that she showed gave him a stronger sense of conquering. Just like training a falcon, like his thousand-in-one chance of taming a divine falcon like Abu, this woman deserved his patience.

    His patience was rewarded with a decisive betrayal. She dared to say in front of him that she liked a monk!

    Haidu Aling gripped Yaoying’s thin, willow-like waist. That fool Fuman was right about one thing: the clothes on her should be torn off viciously.

    Yaoying’s hands were twisted behind her and she couldn’t struggle. In full view of everyone, this man actually took her captive!

    She heard the voices of her personal soldiers and Xie Qing roaring angrily, heard the voices of the soldiers of the Royal Court whispering, and her heart was burning with anxiety.

    “Let her go.”

    Among the countless voices, a clear voice softly said.

    This voice seemed to float down from above the Ninth Heaven, very cold, very light, but in an instant, all other voices disappeared.

    Only this voice remained.

    Haidu Aling raised his head in astonishment.

    Tumoroga was high on the hill, his vivid maroon kasaya blown by the wind and flying up, showing a string of dull-colored bodhi beads on his wrist. His turquoise eyes slightly lowered, his gaze falling on Yaoying, neither sad nor happy.

    The Buddha’s son who did not eat the food of mortals was also coaxed by Li Yaoying?

    Impossible. He was not only a monarch but also a monk. How could he be coaxed by a little lady?

    Haidu Aling couldn’t help but doubt: Could it be that what Li Yaoying said was true?

    While he was distracted, Yaoying struggled free from him and fell off the horse. Not caring about the scrapes on her body, she immediately climbed up and ran towards Xie Qing and the others.

    Haidu Aling sneered and reached out to grab Yaoying.

    Several whistling sounds came from the air. A fierce hawk swooped down, its sharp talons ruthlessly grabbing Haidu Aling, immediately piercing through his skin.

    The white falcon hovering nearby immediately flew over to protect its master. The hawk fearlessly spread its wings to meet the attack. The two large birds tore at each other high in the air for a while. Not long after, the white falcon let out a clear hostile shriek, flapping with its injured wings to land on Haidu Aling’s uninjured arm.

    Haidu Aling was furious and looked at Tumoroga in anger.

    Holding the bodhi beads, his robes fluttering and flying, Tumoroga softly said: “Princess Wenzhao is a guest of the Holy City.”

    Haidu Aling said furiously, “Tumo! She is a slave girl I have captured! You have allied with my uncle, where river water does not offend well water. Do you have to make enemies with my Northern Rong over a female slave?”

    Tumoroga raised his eyes, his pupils brilliant.

    “I am the king of the Holy City.” He glanced at Haidu Aling, “If Northern Rong has any objection to matters of the covenant, have the Northern Rong Khan come to me.”

    After he spoke, he turned his horse around.

    The blue-jacketed and white-robed soldiers immediately followed and flanked him as he left.

    The other soldiers escorted the Hu merchants and the common people to climb onto the main road, Yaoying and her party among them. Tumoroga said she was a guest of the Holy City, and the soldiers immediately treated her in a much warmer and polite manner.

    Haidu Aling watched Yaoying’s figure disappear into the densely packed Royal Court’s cavalry. Unable to restrain his rage, he yanked on his reins to follow.

    His subordinates immediately stopped him: “My prince, today we were only here to test the Royal Court…”

    Wakhan deliberately sent Haidu Aling to intercept and attack the caravans after the covenant was made, to see if Tumoroga would swallow his anger or bring troops to the rescue, as a way to test the strength of the Holy City.

    From the look of the armor-clad soldiers that extended as far as the eye could see just now, several major clans were still loyal to Tumoroga.

    At this time, they could not tear up the covenant.

    Haidu Aling’s pale golden eyes were full of brewing anger and humiliation, and his hands were clenched into fists.

    That Han girl escaped from under his nose like this!

    Did she think that she could rest easy by relying on that monk?

    Seeing a prey, he must play to his heart’s content; he absolutely could not submissively let her go!

1 Yama is the god of death (I feel like I’ve definitely mentioned this before). She’s calling Haidu Aling that because he’s a scary, death-bringing person!

2  She was also known as Prakṛti, and there are several versions of her story. In some, she lured him to her house, and Buddha rescued him, while others are similar to this version. No matter that though, the end result is that she did become a practitioner of Buddhism. 

3 The raw pinyin is Aluohan, but it’s known as the monk fruit. I assume those who practice Buddhism eat this fruit to signify their wholehearted devotion?