Inheriting a Taoist temple, the story begins with Wu Zetian offering incense.

Chapter 400 Master, are you a devil? [Seeking monthly votes]

Ever since he made contact with Xuanzang, Wang Xuance has locked himself in the courtyard of the post station, thinking all day about how to occupy the place and use India's resources for the Tang Dynasty.

He thought of building ships to transport all the spices, gold and other goods from India back to the Tang Dynasty, but he didn't trust the dirty Indians, thinking that the ships they built would sink to the bottom of the sea before they even reached Tang territory.

When Xuanzang came looking for him, he was overjoyed and his mood improved.

Xuanzang sat down cross-legged, a warm smile on his face:
“These past few days, I have been studying the doctrines of Brahmanism. They divide humanity into four classes, passed down from generation to generation, which cannot be surpassed… Buddhism was founded to deal with this doctrine, which is why the concept of equality for all beings came about. However, Brahmanism is too powerful, and our Buddhist sect has suffered repeated defeats and is simply powerless to resist.”

As a high-ranking monk who had spent more than ten years traveling in India, Xuanzang had already foreseen the inevitable demise of Buddhism in India.

This is not only because Brahmanism has been constantly suppressing Buddhism, but more importantly, because signs of Brahmanism have appeared in Indian Buddhism, and the Buddhist community has begun to divide into social classes.

A sect that advocates equality for all beings, yet goes against its principles by creating class divisions, is bound to fail in the long run.

Wang Xuance was completely clueless about these scriptures and doctrines; he only wanted to know what method Xuanzang had come up with.
"Master, how can we make the Indians serve our Great Tang Dynasty?"

Xuanzang smiled, as if the Buddha himself had come to earth.

"Declare that the so-called Brahmanical class of Brahmanism is a fake, and that the real Brahmanical class are subjects of the Tang Dynasty. Call on Brahmanists to kill the fake Brahmins and join the Tang Dynasty. As long as they experience a lifetime of trials within the territory of the Tang Dynasty, they can be reborn in the Tang Dynasty in the next life."

Wang Xuance was dumbfounded:

"No, their Brahmanism is thriving, why would they listen to you?"

Xuanzang appeared very confident:

“When I came to India from the Great Tang Dynasty in the East, the monks here originally ignored me. It was only after I took turns debating with them that I achieved the status of being worshipped by thousands of monks today. Buddhists can debate scriptures, and so can Brahmanism.”

Over the years, Xuanzang traveled all over the five great Indian regions, visited almost all the temples and Buddhist monasteries, and debated scriptures with countless people without ever being defeated.

Of course, his moment of deification was the Unobstructed Assembly convened by King Harsha for him.

Thousands of eminent monks sat in the audience below the stage, each taking turns to debate and defeat Xuanzang, this outsider.

Xuanzang not only had to fight 6000 enemies, but he also had to use Sanskrit throughout the entire battle, with no grammatical errors allowed. A single wrong word could cost him his head.

Hundreds of eminent monks were rendered speechless and even lost their heads by Xuanzang's arguments. The Mahayana and Theravada Buddhist sects, which were originally mortal enemies, jointly revered Xuanzang as a virtuous and eminent monk and were completely convinced of his superiority.

Even the high-ranking members of the Brahmanical community who were observing gave Xuanzang a very high evaluation... It can be said that Xuanzang was a top-tier internet celebrity during his time in India. Even King Harsha was a die-hard fan of his. The two rode an elephant together when they went on an inspection tour, which sparked a Tang Dynasty craze in India.

Besides Buddhism, Xuanzang also promoted the strength of the Tang Dynasty in India, to the point that King Harsha, who was known as the last emperor of India, actually took the initiative to submit to Li Shimin and adopted a very humble attitude.

Following Xuanzang's train of thought, Wang Xuance made further connections, but also worried that a large influx of Indians into the Tang Dynasty would have a significant impact on Tang society:

"Master, what should we do if they bring some of their bad habits into the Tang Dynasty?"

Recently, Wang Xuance has seen Indians urinating and defecating indiscriminately on more than one occasion, and even wiping their buttocks with their hands. This disgusted him so much that he only ate the food prepared by the mission's cooks and kept his distance from the food made by the Indians.

Xuanzang had a plan in mind:

"I will do my best to spread the word that if they do not change their bad habits, they will still be reborn as lowly Indians in their next life. Only by strictly abiding by the laws of the Tang Dynasty will they be reborn as Brahmins... In addition, I will tell them that if they go to the Tang Dynasty after castrating themselves, it is equivalent to leaving their good fortune in this life for the next life. After death, they will be reborn into a wealthy and noble family."

Wang Xuance: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Master, are you a devil?
It wasn't enough to trick them into becoming servants in the Tang Dynasty; they even tricked them into castrating themselves. Are you practicing Buddhism or demonism?

However, regardless of its success or failure, this matter would only benefit the Tang Dynasty and would not cause any harm. Wang Xuanze felt it was worth a try.
"Isn't the two of us a bit too weak? Should I speak to Envoy Li of the delegation?"

Xuanzang shook his head:

“He represents the Tang Dynasty and cannot participate in this matter, otherwise it will give others a pretext to criticize him… I also have some followers in India. I will first gather some loyal and reliable people and, with the help of Buddhism, quietly take action against Brahmanism.”

Buddhism and Brahmanism are mortal enemies. Xuanzang's strategy of replacing the Brahmans of India with the people of Tang Dynasty would definitely garner the support of Indian monks.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. As long as the Brahmins can be defeated, the Indian monks will naturally not stand idly by.

Wang Xuance stood up, paced back and forth, and looked at Xuanzang, asking:

"You lead the Buddhist community to secretly dismantle Brahmanism, so what about me? What should I do?"

Xuanzang put his hands together in prayer and began to assign tasks:
"I will take care of matters of faith, and leave worldly affairs to Vice Envoy Wang. If you have no clue, you can visit Arunasva first; perhaps you will find something useful."

Wang Xuance agreed and immediately arranged for someone from the post station to deliver a visiting card to Arunasva, intending to visit the minister's home.

Soon, a servant of Arunasva sent a reply inlaid with gold, indicating that he would slaughter two crocodiles at his home to entertain the distinguished guests from the Tang Dynasty. Wang Xuance changed his clothes, with a Tang sword hanging at his waist, and led a group of followers and several local translators, swaggering out of the post station, his mind on Xuanzang's plan.

As he was walking, he heard screams coming from ahead. Thinking that someone was attacking him, he quickly drew his Tang sword and ran over. He found that several Indians had captured a leopard, tied its mouth with a rope, and were taking turns doing lewd things to the leopard while it was naked.

Wang Xuance felt utterly disgusted and waved for the translator to drive the Indians away. The translator replied:

"They are performing a ritual; we cannot disturb them."

"What ritual?"

"According to Brahmanical doctrine, believers gain abilities based on the animal they sleep with... If they sleep with a leopard, they will soon have the speed of a leopard."

Wang Xuance: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
What kind of trash cult is this?
Master Xuanzang was right. They really had to castrate themselves before going to the Tang Dynasty. Otherwise, this kind of behavior would cause panic among the people of the Tang Dynasty sooner or later.

He shook his head and continued walking toward Arunasva's house.

Historically, Wang Xuance captured Arunasva alive and escorted him all the way to Chang'an to present him as a prisoner. Li Shimin then appointed him as a Sanchao Dafu, a fifth-rank official. In terms of rank, it was not high, but the Tang Dynasty's official system was quite unique. Officials of the third rank and above were generally not granted to living people, so the fifth rank was already a rare high-ranking official.

As for Arunasva, Li Shimin did not kill him, but also granted him the official title of Sanchao Dafu, and occasionally let him dance at banquets... This was the standard treatment for prisoners of war in the Tang Dynasty. People like Jieli Khan were well-versed in the art of singing and dancing, and often made Li Shimin laugh heartily.

Inside the Hunyuan Palace, Zhou Yi, having nothing to do after lunch, searched for blueprints online and found a batch of blueprints for sailing warships, all in electronic document format. After placing an order, the blueprints would be shipped directly via email, and users could download them themselves.

He flipped through it and found quite a few types of sailing warships, including blueprints for all the mainstream Western warships, and even matching models, which he could use to study the blueprints.

He immediately placed an order, buying all the blueprints and a lot of models, intending to have them made in various worlds.

As for the Ming Dynasty treasure ships, there are only reconstruction drawings, not construction drawings. The mystery of the Ming Dynasty treasure ships can only be unveiled when the Ming people come.

After placing the order, the shop will send you a cloud drive link and extraction code so that you can download the blueprints. The ship model will be shipped as soon as possible, and it is guaranteed to be a purely handmade assembly, not a crudely made imitation.

Zhou Yi opened the link and found the file to be surprisingly large. He immediately activated his cloud storage membership and selected high-speed download.

Upon seeing the downloaded file, Wu Zetian asked Zhou Yi:

"Does the Immortal Master intend to bring all worlds into the Age of Sail ahead of schedule?"

Zhou Yi nodded:

"Since we're just idling around anyway, let the two Tang Dynasty worlds dominate the oceans ahead of time. Once the ships are built, all the powerful families must arrange for their sons to join the navy and seize profits for the Tang Dynasty, so they don't just focus on the meager gains of the common people."

Wu Meiniang took out her notebook and wrote it down. She thought Zhou Yi's idea was good. The descendants of noble families were adrift at sea, which was a disguised form of hostages to the court.

Given enough time, they might even declare that only scions of naval families could become the head of the family, further dividing the clan.

The weaker the powerful families were, the more the Tang Dynasty court and its people benefited.

After downloading the blueprints, Zhou Yi compared them with the sailing warship blueprints online and found that they were exactly the same. He was relieved and decided to buy an engineering printer to print out the blueprints exactly as they were. He would print ten sets of each type first, so that the four worlds of the Tang Dynasty and the Later Zhou and Song Dynasties could build them first.

As for the three Han Dynasty worlds, they don't have the resources to build large ships for the time being, so they have to wait.

The weather was nice today. After finishing his work, Zhou Yi sat on the threshold of the Sanqing Hall to bask in the sun. The Zhao sisters, Zhao Yan and Zhao Rui, stood behind him, massaging his shoulders and back, very attentive.

Enjoying the services of the two sisters, Zhou Yi asked:
"Just tell me what you want, and I'll buy it for you both."

Zhao Rui cheerfully stated her request:

"How about we have hot pot tonight? I haven't had stuffed fish balls in ages, I'm really craving them."

Zhou Yi agreed:
"Okay, let's drive to the supermarket in town to buy ingredients later. We'll have hot pot for dinner... What does Yan'er want? Is it hot pot too?"

Zhao Yan asked obediently:
"Immortal Master, the wooden floor in the Little Penglai Palace feels so comfortable underfoot. May I go and dance?"

"Sure, that's where you practice dancing. Go if you want, no need to ask me."

While the hotpot was being prepared, in the world of Emperor Zhang of the Eastern Han Dynasty, in the outer region of the Western Regions' Kingdom of Kucha, the king of a small country called Weixu, carrying an iron spear, blocked the path of the Western Regions' allied forces and challenged Ban Chao to a duel.

"If you can defeat me within three rounds, I will surrender to the Han; otherwise, today is your death day!"

(End of this chapter)