138 The Innocent Need No Defense

Luan Yi had never believed in things like prophetic dreams or dream interpretation, but reality proved that there are always a few scientific anomalies one encounters in a lifetime, such as this nightmare. On the very day the nightmare's truth came to light, an urgent letter sent by Wang Yun from the capital arrived in Nanyang at noon and was handed directly to Luan Yi.

At that time, Zhang Fei joked, "What kind of letter is this! You won't even let anyone else pass it along. Could it be a love letter from the missus?" The rest of the crowd laughed upon hearing this, and Luan Yi blushed furiously.

However, after reading the contents of the letter, he could no longer smile. Stunned into speechlessness, he grabbed the armrest of his chair and sank back into his seat.

Xu Shu noticed that Luan Yi's expression was amiss, so he stepped forward and asked, "Brother Yi, what is the matter?"

"You probably had a fight with the missus! Women, you just have to coax them and they'll be fine," Zhang Fei said with a cheeky grin.

Too lazy to entertain Zhang Fei, Luan Yi remained silent and handed the letter directly to Xu Shu.

Skeptical, Xu Shu took the letter, but after reading only two lines, he let out a startled cry, "What?!"

Realizing something was actually wrong, Zhang Fei craned his neck and asked, "What's going on?"

Without answering immediately, Xu Shu continued reading the letter, carefully scrutinizing it word by word. When he finished, he let out a long sigh of shock.

"Aiya! Brother Danfu, what has happened? Tell us quickly! Ah... you're driving me crazy, Lao Zhang!" Zhang Fei scratched his head and rubbed his ears in anxiety.

Xu Shu said with a forlorn expression, "His Majesty the Emperor has ordered the arrest of Brother Yi to be brought to the capital!"

"What? Arrested?" Dianwei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Huang Zhong, Taishi Ci, and Xu Chu were startled at first, then shouted in unison.

With his eyes bulging in anger, Zhang Fei bellowed at the top of his lungs, "Has the old emperor gone mad? Why arrest the Fourth Brother?"

"Do not show disrespect to His Majesty!" Sometimes, putting on an act for too long becomes an instinct. Liu Bei in the history of the Three Kingdoms was the prime example, and now Luan Yi had also developed the habit of putting on a show and playing the role of a loyal subject—at least until Dong Zhuo entered the capital and tore away the final shred of decency covering the Han dynasty. He had to play the loyal subject, or else not only would all the people of the world become his enemies, but loyalists to the Han within his own ranks like Guan Yu and Zhao Yun would also abandon him. That would mean total ruin and utter defeat.

Luan Yi glared at Zhang Fei, who instantly scratched his head like a child caught doing something wrong.

Suppressing the dissatisfaction in his heart, Zhang Fei said, "The Fourth Brother has been utterly loyal, and now he has rendered great service in suppressing the rebellion. Why does the old emperor... uh, why does His Majesty not only fail to reward him, but instead want to arrest him?"

"Alas..." Xu Shu stared at the letter, wishing desperately that its contents were false, but reality was cruel. He told the crowd that Wang Yun's letter stated that during the Grand Court Assembly on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the Prefect of the Palace Attendants, Wei Ning (style name Zhongdao), had submitted a report to the imperial ear, falsely accusing Luan Yi of establishing the Holy Mother Church to gather the hearts of the people with ulterior motives, identical in nature to Zhang Jue's Taiping Dao, posing an endless and disastrous threat.

"He's talking bullshit! Spouting malicious lies! If the Fourth Brother harbored rebellious ambitions, he would have long since taken advantage of the chaos to slaughter his way into Luoyang. Why bother fighting east and west, putting down rebellions everywhere? And the old emperor actually believes it!" Zhang Fei sprayed spittle all over Xu Shu's face. Only after he finished speaking did he remember he had once again shown disrespect toward the emperor, so he immediately shut his mouth and hid behind Guan Yu.

Wiping the sticky substance from his face, Xu Shu gave Zhang Fei a sidelong glance and sighed, "Yet the truth is just that—His Majesty believes it! Not only does he believe it, but he has also sent men to arrest Brother Yi. The arresters are expected to arrive any day now."

"Ah?" Dianwei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Huang Zhong, Taishi Ci, and Xu Chu were all astonished.

"This..." Zhao Yun paced back and forth across the tent with his hands on his hips, muttering under his breath, "How could this happen? How could this happen!"

"With me here, nobody is taking my brother away!" Dianwei snatched the twin halberds from his back in a flash, gripping them tightly in his hands.

"Right! The emperor wants to make an arrest? It won't be that easy!" Taishi Ci and Xu Chu straightened their burly frames and declared.

Zhang Fei's eyes lit up as he suggested, "Fourth Brother, why don't we just rebel! This old emperor is utterly muddle-headed; he wants to slaughter the donkey the moment the millstone is done, even before the fighting is finished. What will happen in the future? Rather than walking to our deaths for nothing, we might as well fight our way back to Jinan. We still have over seven,000 men in our hands, and in Jinan State, tens of thousands of church members are waiting. When the time comes, Fourth Brother, you just give the word..." Just as he reached this point, Luan Yi's furious rebuke cut him off:

"Shut your mouth! The Luan family has enjoyed generations of imperial grace, and I am deeply grateful to His Majesty for his kindness. I harbor no improper thoughts whatsoever. If Third Brother speaks such words again, do not blame Luan Yi for turning his back on righteousness and no longer acknowledging you as an elder brother."

"Fourth Brother..." Zhang Fei was shocked and enraged. He was shocked that Luan Yi could be so fiercely loyal to the Han imperial house—the foolish ruler was clearly coming for his life, yet instead of holding a grudge, he was willing to sever ties with an sworn brother who was solely trying to protect him. He was enraged because Luan Yi was so steadfastly loyal, yet that dog of an emperor was willing to condemn him to death based on a single false accusation. "Alas... rebelling won't do, and not rebelling won't do either. We can't just stand by and watch the Fourth Brother get dragged away! Brother Danfu, you always have the most ideas, hurry up and think of something!"

"A plan?" Xu Shu glanced at the letter. "Grand Councilor Wang suggests that Brother Yi submit obediently and return to the capital with them to sort things out."

"Submit obediently?" Guan Yu, who rarely uttered four sentences a day, let out a cold snort. "Could it be they think my Green Dragon Crescent Blade is not sharp?"

"Well said!" Zhang Fei praised loudly. "My old Zhang's serpent spear was just sharpened yesterday, and it's sharp as can be!"

"Aiya! How did we end up talking about rebellion again?" Resisting an imperial edict and slaying imperial envoys constituted treason. Luan Yi warned them once more, "When the imperial envoys arrive, put away your weapons for me. If anyone dares to brandish them and show off, I will never forgive them!"

"But..." Zhao Yun swallowed hard. "Remaining within the army, protected by a host of brothers, the Cult Master's safety can be guaranteed. Once you go to the capital alone, the imperial city is a den of dragons and tigers. What if... what shall we do then!"

"Rest assured, Zilong!" Luan Yi patted Zhao Yun on the shoulder. "I will not be entirely without support in the capital. Both of my esteemed fathers-in-law are in the capital, and right now they are pulling strings everywhere; they will surely exert all their strength to ensure my safety. This trip to the capital is one I must make."

"But..." Zhao Yun still had more to say, but Luan Yi cut him off again. Scanning the people inside the tent, Luan Yi said with unwavering resolve, "My elder brothers. Three years ago, I once humiliated that Wei Ning, never expecting that he would harbor a grudge and exact personal revenge through public office, spreading malicious slanders to disturb the imperial ear. His Majesty was deceived by a villain and thus issued an edict for my arrest. My conscience is clear, and I pride myself on having done nothing to wrong heaven and earth, nor having failed the imperial grace. As the saying goes, righteousness prevails over evil. My stance is upright and I fear no shadow; my loyalty is bright enough to be witnessed by heaven and men, so why should I fear the slander of mere villains? It is Wei Ning who ought to fear me."

"Well spoken—a clear conscience fears no shadow." Zhao Yun praised him profusely. "The Cult Master is a man of justice, and a man of justice will surely be aided by righteous men. Using righteousness to suppress evil is the way of heaven, so it is only natural that the Cult Master will turn peril into safety."

"What Zilong says is true." Luan Yi smiled slightly and said, "Do not forget, everyone, our Holy Mother commands me to spread the divine way among mortals. Now that the church's affairs are just beginning to flourish, Her Holiness will not summon me back to the heavenly kingdom just yet. I still have a long life ahead of me, and this time we will undoubtedly weather the storm and emerge safe and sound."

"How could we forget about this? A sin, a sin." Zhang Fei, Xu Chu, and Taishi Ci crossed their chests and began muttering prayers, actually praying for Luan Yi. The prayer lasted for the duration of a stick of incense before finally concluding. "Don't worry, Fourth Brother! Over the next few days, old Zhang will perform a fast and pray for you, and I will surely beg the Holy Mother to keep you safe and sound."

Hearing this, a surge of warmth blossomed in Luan Yi's heart. The so-called fast and prayer was exactly as it sounded: for the next three days, eating during daylight hours was forbidden, and prayers had to be offered to the Holy Mother once every single hour, lasting for thirty-six consecutive hours. According to the teachings of the Holy Mother Church, this form of prayer was more likely to draw the Holy Mother's attention and thus more likely to be answered.

"We will all fast and pray for the Fourth Brother / Cult Master!" everyone in the tent shouted in unison.

Luan Yi burst into a wide smile, "With this, I can be certain of safety!"

Once the major matters were settled, Luan Yi found an excuse to send Dianwei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and the others all out of the tent, leaving only Xu Shu behind.

Watching Huang Zhong, the last to leave the grand tent, Xu Shu turned to Luan Yi with a worried expression and said, "Brother Yi, things are far from as simple as you made them sound just now! Why didn't you tell everyone that Wei Ning was instigated by Zhang Rang?"

Putting away his forced smile, Luan Yi returned to his main seat, signaled for Xu Shu to sit down and speak, and then said softly, "What use would it be to tell them? It would only give my brothers needless worry."

Xu Shu looked aggrieved. "It was just like this when we were kids; whenever you ran into hard times, you never told the rest of us, always preferring to bear the burden yourself."

"I simply didn't want you all to worry!"

"Alas, you are just too good-natured. And look where it's gotten you now! Good intentions have provoked a huge disaster!" The mere thought of it filled Xu Shu with annoyance and anger, and he inwardly cursed why doing good deeds in this world was so difficult. Since the establishment of the Holy Mother Church, how many people lacking food and clothing had been helped to live worry-free lives? How many people without a permanent home had been given happy and warm days? Brother Yi sought blessings for the common people, so how on earth did that become gathering the hearts of the people with rebellious intent?

He simply could not comprehend it! Yet even if he could not comprehend it, he had to accept it—the facts were right there!

"Let's not dwell on whether my intentions were good or bad right now." Luan Yi smacked his lips. "Here is what we'll do, Brother Fu. Before I am arrested, to ensure the Holy Mother Church suffers no losses, there are a few things I need you to arrange."

"Brother Yi, please speak!"

"Immediately dispatch a trustworthy person with a letter back to Jinan, to be delivered directly into the hands of Brother Mao. Inform Brother Mao of what is about to happen, and have him overnight remove the crosses from the rooftops of the churches, seal them up, and suspend all public access."

"What? Where are the believers supposed to study scriptures and worship? Without worship, is the Holy Mother Church still the Holy Mother Church?" Xu Shu was deeply shocked. Pausing briefly, he asked Luan Yi, "Brother Yi, surely you don't intend to dissolve the Holy Mother Church? You cannot, absolutely not! The benefits the Holy Mother Church has brought to the people of Jinan are known to all. In the short span of three years, it has completely transformed the impoverished land of Jinan State into a prosperous region of the Han. How can it be casually dissolved?"

"Do not be hasty, Brother Fu. The Holy Mother Church was founded by my own blood, sweat, and tears; how could I casually abandon it? Sealing the churches now is merely a helpless measure, done out of fear that the believers might be unnecessarily implicated by me." History had witnessed no shortage of such religious persecutions; although most occurred in the West, Luan Yi dared not guarantee that Emperor Ling would not treat the believers of the Holy Mother Church the way Emperor Qin Shi Huang treated scholars by burying them alive and burning books."However, even though the churches are sealed, worship must still continue—not in the churches, however, but transferred into the homes of wealthy activists among the various local cells, moving from the open to the underground. Do you understand, Brother Fu?"

"Very well, I will follow Brother Yi's instructions." Xu Shu nodded.

"Then I can rest easy!" Furthermore, Luan Yi unclasped the golden cross symbolizing the position of Cult Master from his own neck and forcibly hung it around Xu Shu's neck.