Resonant Buddhist chants drifted over the Ezo sea, and devout cries rose into the clouds above the waves. Master Juehui listened to the Warrior Monks cheering, the corners of his mouth lifting in a faint smile. He knew very well that these fanatical, valiant armed monastic bands were the very foundation on which the sect stood.
Whether it was the wealth the sect gained each year through trade via Yoneya, which it controlled from the shadows, or the annual rents collected from the fertile lands in Kinki occupied by those Temple-Shrines, a large portion of it all had to be poured into maintaining, arming, and training the Warrior Monks. This was where the great monastic temples of Wagoku were utterly different from the great temples of Han lands. They first had to have blades in hand before they could sit down before the greedy Samurai houses and discuss "Buddhist Law." Of course, much of the time, the greed of Wagoku's great monastic temples was not the least bit inferior to that of the Samurai houses...
"Hum, becoming Vajrasattva, the master, a pure and perfect body of enjoyment..."
"The Three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. Buddha is before the eyes, Dharma is within the heart, and only the Sangha remains in this dusty world of greed, anger, and delusion. And among the Sangha, the Warrior Monks are the sect's Naginata in this world, the vajras guarding the Dharma before Buddha—the more, the better!"
"Om Vajrasattva Hum! In such an Age of Dharma Decline, without the blades and bows of Warrior Monks, what Buddhist Law could we even speak of? I fear even my Tendai Sect would be unable to continue..."
Master Juehui swept his gaze over the bows and blades aboard the ships, then chanted "Vajrasattva" a few more times before lowering