The Prince of Dingxi was none other than Mangala, Kublai Khan's third son.
In the ninth year of the Zhiyuan era, Mangala was ordered by Kublai Khan to garrison Tangut territory (present-day Guyuan, Ningxia). He was stationed at Kaicheng on Liupan Mountain, where he established the Prince's Mansion to oversee military and government affairs across Shaanxi, Gansu, Sichuan, and other regions.
He spent the summers at Liupan Mountain and the winters in Jingzhao.
He could travel freely between his fief and the imperial capital, which showed just how much Kublai Khan favored him.
Zhu Yuanzhang's guess had been right.
Clearly, other princes had been secretly interfering behind the scenes with the fortune-telling at Yinglong Temple (Imperial Awakening Temple).
And when Zhu Yuanzhang saw the object in Yang Lianzhenjia's hands,
his pupils contracted.
A line of small characters had appeared on the bone bowl in Yang Lianzhenjia's hands.
[Kapala Bowl · Made from Emperor Lizong of Song]
"A Kapala Bowl made from Emperor Lizong of Song's skull!"
At the sight of this, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help feeling a little envious.
The theme of the first act of the Secret History mission was [Remains of the Song Emperor].
In other words, the subsequent missions would probably all revolve around the Kapala Bowl in Yang Lianzhenjia's hands, made from Emperor Lizong of Song's skull.
Well, this really was a true "start with a bowl."
Zhu Yuanzhang grumbled to himself.
Seeing that everything was ready, Yang Lianzhenjia raised the Kapala Bowl above his head and proclaimed loudly,
"Our Great Yuan established its dynasty and secured the realm by force, pacifying the four corners! No country we attacked could withstand us! No army we fought could escape defeat!"
Then he pulled a glass vial from his robes. It held a blood-red liquid. The moment he poured it into the Kapala Bowl, the blood began to boil like oil in a blazing-hot pan.
"That is why we named our dynasty Yuan!"
"It means 'Great is the Origin of Heaven'! All things draw their beginnings from it!"
As Yang Lianzhenjia poured the blood into the Kapala Bowl, it instantly turned into golden flames that blazed fiercely, making the bone tablets inside the bowl crackle.
At that moment, even Minghui, the monk who had subdued Mingguang with a single move, opened his eyes on the Lotus Platform. His dark, shriveled eyeballs stared unblinkingly at the divination result in the Kapala Bowl.
"Thus does it rule the heavens!"
"Clouds move and rain falls! The myriad forms unfold!"
As Yang Lian spoke, he bit the tip of his tongue. A mouthful of vital blood and a blood-red worm, so vividly crimson that it seemed to shimmer with a faint golden hue, dropped into the bowl.
The flames inside the Kapala Bowl immediately grew even fiercer.
"Keep reading... Why'd you stop?"
Zhu Yuanzhang watched as the bone tablets in the bowl turned to ash one by one in the flames. Only the last remained, shining brilliantly like a piece of gold refined a hundred times over.
He thought to himself,
"There's still 'The Great Ming shall endure to the end; the six positions shall take form in their time; then ride the six dragons to rule the heavens... and all nations shall live in peace.'"
Zhu Yuanzhang really wanted to rub it in, but considering that either of these two could kill him with a single finger,
he wisely backed down.
He vowed that one day he would take double revenge on everyone who had harmed him in the Secret History.
What could he do? He was just that petty.
Come on, hit me!
Once I come back to life, I'll add another mark against you.
"What's the result?"
Yang Lianzhenjia asked. After spitting out that mouthful of vital blood and the bloodworm, he seemed gravely wounded. His body grew feeble, and even his breathing turned ragged.
He could barely control the bloodworms on his body. The ones that fell to the ground crawled around wildly until Minghui stepped in and stabilized his form.
With a trembling hand, Yang Lianzhenjia passed the Kapala Bowl to Minghui. He couldn't even turn over the bone tablet at the bottom, and could barely hold the bowl itself steady.
The dried corpse reached out one hand. Without touching Emperor Lizong of Song's skull at all, he lightly tapped the bone tablet. It flipped over as if attached to the corpse's hand.
Yang Lianzhenjia leaned forward, full of anticipation.
But once he saw the words on the tablet, he froze as if struck by lightning. He stood rooted to the spot, muttering like a madman.
"No... Impossible. How could Crown Prince Zhenjin not be the true Son of Heaven?"
Zhu Yuanzhang stole a glance at the words on the bone tablet.
"It says he has the fate of Gold Foil Gold."
Minghui sighed inwardly.
"The fate of Gold Foil Gold?"
Zhu Yuanzhang's thoughts stirred.
"Five Phases of the Na Yin system? So this really is fortune-telling?"
"Even the fate of Hairpin Gold would have been enough to bear the Mandate of Heaven, given the Great Yuan's current prosperity... But of all things, it had to be Gold Foil Gold."
Minghui couldn't help sighing as he said this.
As the saying went, "ambition reaches for the heavens, but fate is as thin as paper."
With a fate like Gold Foil Gold, it was clear that no matter how much the position of Crown Prince bolstered Zhenjin, he had no chance of inheriting the orthodox Mandate of Heaven from the imperial Yuan dynasty.
Beside him, Yang Lianzhenjia turned as pale as a ghost.
Seeing how deeply this had shaken them both, Zhu Yuanzhang's thoughts stirred.
"Could the theory of fortune in this world actually be real?"
"If this is what they mean by determining someone's fate... then this world seems to have a touch of fatalism to it."
"Terrifying."
"But from what the two of them are saying, it doesn't quite sound like fatalism?"
"Strange."
But whatever Zhu Yuanzhang thought, once Yang Lianzhenjia heard that Crown Prince Zhenjin could not bear the Mandate of Heaven, he threw his head back and let out a long howl. Two streams of bloody tears ran from his eyes, and he looked utterly crazed.
"No! Why? Why?!"
Countless bloodworms poured from the barbarian monk's sleeves and every orifice, spreading in all directions like a sea of blood.
Zhu Yuanzhang instinctively took a step back.
"Damn it. Is this barbarian monk going to blow himself up and take me with him?"
He watched the surging red worms and thought,
But when the densely packed worms—far more numerous than Yang Lianzhenjia's body could possibly contain—swarmed toward Zhu Yuanzhang, a darkness rose up in front of him. The worms could advance no farther.
As for why Zhu Yuanzhang called it darkness,
although there seemed to be nothing in front of him, just as the candles in the Mahavira Hall burned dimly,
the light within three inches of him seemed to have been sucked away by some invisible force, leaving everything blurred and dark.
"But there's no need to worry too much. I foresaw this situation long ago... so that our Han lineage would never perish..."
Minghui's voice became ethereal in that instant, echoing around Zhu Yuanzhang.
In the three inches of darkness before him, Zhu Yuanzhang saw a bone bowl inlaid with turquoise, agate, and precious jade. He didn't know when it had appeared.
[Kapala Bowl · Made from Emperor Lizong of Song]
Zhu Yuanzhang reached out involuntarily.
"Choose any one. Choose correctly, and your fate will replenish Crown Prince Zhenjin's! Choose wrongly, and Yinglong Temple will still have a place for you!"
At that moment, as if some unseen restriction had taken hold, only Zhu Yuanzhang himself could turn over the bone tablets in front of him.
The force that had just controlled Zhu Yuanzhang vanished in an instant.
Yang Lianzhenjia had mostly recovered by now, but half his face was still missing its skin, with countless blood-red worms wriggling beneath it. He stared at "Minghe," who stood motionless before the Kapala Bowl, his face filled with joy and shock.
"Master, your power is immense! So the art of replenishing fate truly exists!"
The master Minghui gave no answer. The Lotus Platform stood empty; the dried corpse that had been on it had long since vanished.
Zhu Yuanzhang could feel an intensely piercing gaze fixed on him from behind.
The light around him suddenly grew dim. The Buddha statues, the monks, and the Mahavira Hall all disappeared.
It was as if he had been transported to another world.
In the dim light, countless tentacles surged toward Zhu Yuanzhang from every direction, forcing him to make a choice as quickly as possible.
Zhu Yuanzhang stared at the six bone tablets in the Kapala Bowl.
The black tentacles crept closer and closer beneath his feet.
He gritted his teeth, reached out, and flipped over one of the tablets at random.
The words written on it were unmistakable.
"It says Sea Gold."
The ethereal voice beside his ear instantly filled with delight.
Almost the moment he turned over the tablet, darkness swept across Zhu Yuanzhang's vision.
A few scarlet characters appeared before him.
[You are dead]
Before you continue