Yaoying slowly opened her eyes wide.
The smoke and dust rose again, almost covering the sky.
A flowing curve moved little by little through the sand dunes. With light and shadow intertwining, it was as if the hills were floating.
Yaoying looked closely and found that those curves consisted of countless soldiers in differently colored clothing.
Hundreds and thousands of soldiers with broad shoulders and strong bodies, wearing light armor and long robes, slowly approached the hills in large numbers from different directions. They were densely packed, with flags flying and their formation enormous. Although no one was galloping, the sound of horses' hooves coming together was still like rumbling thunder, making the earth tremble.
In the blink of an eye, lightly armored cavalry covered as far as the eye could see.
They did not yell, nor did they run wildly. They simply slowly galloped over.
Immediately, a group of finely armored cavalry in blue upper coats over white robes came out from the crowd surrounding a white banner. At the front of the group was a man riding a white horse.
Thousands of eyes like a tidal wave rushed to the man.
The man's face was calm. Controlling his horse, he unhurriedly made his way to the hilltop, his vivid maroon kasaya robe flicking in the wind.
The Hu merchants in the valley held their breath and stared up at the man, their eyes ardent.
As one man dismounted and knelt, the Hu merchants rolled off their horses one after another and prostrated themselves between the hooves, kowtowing toward the man.
"Buddha's son has come! Buddha's son has come!"
The man glanced lightly at the valley. His pair of deep turquoise eyes were like ceramic glass, the pupils extremely clear and extremely light. They had a not-eating-the-food-of-mortals look of a god overlooking the earth from high above in the clouds, carrying a kind indifference and detachment of regarding all things as dogs1.
The Hu merchants were so excited that they were incoherent.
The Northern Rong warriors who were forced to retreat had a look of fear and reverence on their faces, staring up at the man in awe and quietly putting away their weapons.
In the valley, Yaoying also stared at the man's face in a daze.
This was a man whose appearance was difficult to describe in words. He was noble and dignified, his features deep.
Yaoying suddenly remembered the sentence Xie Manyuan had recited: Face like the full moon in autumn, eyes like the pure lotus flower.
These were the words Bodhisattva Manjushri had used to praise Ananda's appearance.
Ananda, the younger cousin and disciple of Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. Legend had it that Ananda had a handsome and upright appearance, with light and purity akin to a bright mirror. Thus, although he was a monk, there were always women who were enchanted by his face. Repeatedly seduced, his willpower remained resolute and he never violated the Buddhist precepts in his life.
Yaoying suddenly understood why people in the Western Regions were convinced that Tumoroga was the reincarnation of Ananda.
Born so solemn and beautiful, pure and holy and noble. Wearing a vivid maroon kasaya robe gave him a unique, indifferent-to-the-dust-of-earth magnificence.
Such a man, indeed, did not look like a person of this mundane world.
Haidu Aling was a double-edged sword just out of its sheath: thirsty for human blood, his sinister aura dense, fear-inducing.
Buddha's son Tumoroga was not a sword, nor a blade. He did not look like any kind of weapon. There was not a trace of killing intent from top to bottom of his body. His stature was thin and lean, clear as the cool breeze, bright as the cold moon.
He was gentle and refined, but his face was pale and slightly sickly looking.
But the impressive thousand-man-strong army that followed behind him were all willingly tamed. So long as he gave the command, they would immediately throw themselves at any place his finger pointed, tearing his enemies to pieces.
This soft and invisible oppression was suffocating.
The Northern Rong soldiers' hearts and minds wavered and they retreated once again.
Haidu Aling looked around. Seeing that he was already heavily surrounded and his men had obviously lost their fighting spirit, he sneered, "Is Venerable going to declare war with my Northern Rong?"
Tumoroga lowered his eyes and looked at Haidu Aling, "Prince of the Northern Rong, you are hunting down and killing my subjects."
His intonation of speaking the Hu language sounded very rhythmic and sonorous, his voice clear as jade.
Haidu Aling let his longbow drop, "This is a misunderstanding; I have no intention of harming the subjects of the Royal Court."
He waved his hand, signaling his subordinates to back off.
The Northern Rong soldiers had long been scared out of their wits. Upon seeing this, they immediately dispersed and retreated.
The Hu merchants in the valley were so happy to have escaped this calamity that it came through in their body language. They worshipped and saluted Tumoroga a few more times, helped each other up, climbed onto their horses, and ascended the hill one after another.
Yaoying and her personal soldiers mixed among the Hu merchants, intending to leave together, when Haidu Aling suddenly pointed to her.
"Venerable, this woman is a Han Chinese, a slave I brought back from the Central Plains, really not a subject of the Royal Court. She absconded here, and that's why I led troops all the way to chase her. I can take her away, I presume?"
Yaoying's body was cold.
Tumoroga on the hill did not even look at Yaoying and had already turned his horse around.
Haidu Aling looked at Yaoying, his eyes colder than the snow on the summit of a mountain that hadn't melted for years.
Yaoying was sweating like a puddle and could barely breathe because of his gaze.
Haidu Aling's body was strong and healthy, living until he was seventy or eighty years old. As long as he was in the Western Regions, she could not return to the Central Plains.
She had to think of a way to free herself of him. If not, she would never escape this man's shadow for the rest of her life.
Seeing the Northern Rong's armor-clad soldiers coming at her, Yaoying's heart jumped and she shouted at Tumoroga's clear and cold back: "Roga!"
Tumoroga did not react, but the faces of the two lightly-armored soldiers nearest to him immediately changed, turning back to glower at Yaoying.
Yaoying lifted the veil covering her face.
The cavalrymen froze for a moment. How could this Han girl be so beautiful...
No. How did this Han girl know the master's taboo name!
Yaoying observed Haidu Aling's expression out of the corner of her eye and shouted again with a stiff smile, "Roga, I've met you."
She wanted to say something but hesitated. The corners of her eyes reddened, infinitely charming.
Although nothing was said, this wishing-to-speak-but-stopping look made people's thoughts go wild.
The lightly-armored soldiers' faces turned red and they shouted sternly, telling Yaoying to back off.
The horses' hooves thumped on the hillside, and Haidu Aling rode after her.
Once you started something there was no turning back. Yaoying's mind spun rapidly. She straightforwardly removed her headscarf and raised her voice, her tone clear: "I am not Haidu Aling's slave. I am the Central Plains' Wei empire's di-born Princess Wenzhao. The Wei empire's fertile land stretches a thousand miles, the nation rich and powerful. My father is the Emperor of Wei, and my elder brother is the Duke of Wei, with millions of soldiers and as many fierce generals as clouds in the sky.
"I have seen Venerable once. I fell in love with him at first sight, and could not forget him, so I came all the way to the Western Regions just to be Venerable's wife. I have brought with me more than a thousand books and records on agriculture, legal codes, and construction techniques, more than a thousand volumes of scriptures, more than a hundred boxes of Buddha statues and treasures, and ten thousand taels of gold, in hopes of serving Venerable and of being with the Royal Court forever."
Now, not only did the soldiers in light armor turn pale, but the warriors on the hills far and near looked at Yaoying, dumbfounded, their eyes about to pop out of their sockets.
How could someone ask their king to marry her in public?
Although the dowry was very generous... who did not know that their king has been a monk since childhood, a senior monk famous in the Western Regions for his religious achievements?
The lightly-armored knights angrily rebuked: "Han girl, our king is a monk!"
This Han girl had the impudence to blaspheme their Buddha's son!
Countless condemning gazes converged down on her like a knife, making Yaoying's scalp tingle.
It was because Tumoroga was a strong-willed, compassionate monk that she dared to say such things.
She could no longer hide in Tibet to the East. She had to first sever Haidu Aling's thoughts, and then seek a way to disappear forever. She was the princess of Great Wei. As long as the Great Wei existed, she could find allies.
Even if at present she only had a few personal soldiers around her.
Today's proposal would not bother Tumoroga for long, let alone hurt Tumoroga's prestige and pure reputation. She offered compensation-an alliance with the Wei empire, gold, treasures, Buddhist scriptures and texts.
If he wanted other things, she could try to meet his demands.
Hopefully, as a monarch, Tumoroga would understand the underlying meaning in her words.