The Buddhist Sect-Sure Enough, I'm Fated to It!

Chen Luo wrote furiously, carefully recounting Chen Xuanzang's family background.

The original purpose of this chapter was to show that Chen Xuanzang was the reincarnation of the Golden Cicada, destined to suffer calamity. It was meant to serve as an introduction to the "pilgrim," and there was nothing especially profound about the story itself.

However, after meeting Dizang Tathagata last time, Chen Luo naturally had ideas of his own. Thus, the moment he put pen to paper, there were bound to be some changes.

In the story, the Buddhist Sect had long since spread throughout Great Tang. It had not been driven into the Western Regions by the Confucians and Daoists as it had been in Great Xuan. Instead, under the banner of monasticism, Great Tang's Buddhist Sect had tricked the imperial court into granting it the privileges of paying no taxes and performing no labor service. It had even used reincarnation as bait to ensnare pious men and women while annexing vast tracts of land.

Chen Guangrui, Xuanzang's father, had come first in the metropolitan examination. His palace-examination essay had been "Strengthen the Nation and Suppress the Buddhist Sect," earning the Tang Emperor's approval and winning him the top place. Yet it had also made him deeply feared by the Buddhist Sect.

Thus, the Buddhist Sect had intervened, arranging the tragedy in which the water bandit Liu Hong murdered Chen Guangrui and forcibly took Yin Wenjiao.

It was precisely with the Buddhist Sect's help that Liu Hong's crime had been concealed for eighteen years. Poor Yin Wenjiao, unwilling to let her child acknowledge a murderer as his father, had sent the newborn away down the river. To keep Liu Hong from searching for and murdering her son, she had endured humiliation and acted out a charade alongside him.

But