Within the borders of the Great Xiye Kingdom. A grim, biting wind swept in, scattering the snowflakes across the desolate plateau.
The Western Regions were a land of bitter cold. As the four seasons turned, winter was often the longest; for half the year, all life seemed extinguished, leaving only withered chill.
"The Buddhist sects of the Western Regions truly are rising in great prosperity," muttered a tall monk as he walked across the plateau after its first snowfall.
This monk was Master Wuchen of the Niduso Kingdom. Half a month earlier, upon receiving the invitation, he had led his disciples to the Great Xiye Kingdom as well.
He and his disciples were accustomed to practicing the Twelve Ascetic Practices of the dhuta, and they had not used Dharma power on their journey. Traveling day and night, they had only then crossed from Mobei into the Western Regions.
Along the way, a thin layer of ice had formed over the great monk's hair, beard, and brows. The disciples behind him were no exception, their monk robes all crusted with frost.
In this frigid plateau realm, the monks all wore exceedingly thin robes. Along the way, they occasionally encountered mountain bandits and horse thieves, but those men always kept far away, knowing these people were no ordinary mortals.
Only upon reaching the heartland of the Great Xiye Kingdom from Mobei did human traces become more plentiful. In other regions, apart from several trade routes, there were often hundreds of li of uninhabited wilderness. Yet in the several key cities of the Great Xiye Kingdom's interior, camel caravans, traveling merchants, and pilgrims grew numerous. Thus, this group of monks dressed like foreign tribesmen did not stand out.
This was a marketplace outside a city, a place where merchants from every land came