“If I attain enlightenment, then in the age of the Dharma’s decline, all shall become Buddhas!”
“If I attain enlightenment, I shall not ferry sentient beings, nor save the end times, nor seek the future!”
A grand and solemn voice echoed between heaven and earth. From the golden body of Maitreya, the Future Buddha, surged waves of white light, rolling with two relics—symbols of the past and the present—while the future remained dim, save for sparse flickers of Buddha-light resembling white lotuses.
At this moment, the beings within the earthly Buddha-realm seemed to sense something profound. They all sat in full lotus posture, devoutly paying homage to the Buddha, chanting in unison the sacred name of Maitreya:
“Namo Maitreya, the Coming Buddha!”
The voices of countless beings shook the heavens, resounding across all realms, transforming into pure, liberating white lotuses that flew to Maitreya’s crown, converging into a dazzling river of stars, collectively illuminating the future!
The illusory river of time and fate manifested, half-real, half-illusory, permeating every corner of the True World. The past was vast and unfathomable, the future uncertain.
Within the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, the golden Buddha seated upon a twelve-petaled blue lotus suddenly lowered his left hand, forming the gesture of fearlessness, and spoke with boundless compassion and mercy: “Well done, well done.”
Before his words faded, his entire body erupted with infinite radiance, illuminating the Western Pure Land, the dark and mysterious chaos, the myriad heavens, and the earthly Buddha-realm, causing lotuses to bloom and pure springs to gush forth.
“Namo Amitabha Buddha!” Across countless eons, the sacred chant pierced through the constraints of the river of time, manifesting golden Buddhas in response to the chants of the earthly Buddha-realm’s beings—vast, endless, as if transforming the True World into an ocean of Buddhas!
Though these Buddhas appeared different in form, each carried the essence of Amitabha, his various manifestations across the ages. Now, as they converged into a boundless sea of Buddhas, they evoked the sensation of transcending time itself!
Simultaneously, the twelve-petaled blue lotus beneath the golden Buddha suddenly expanded, merging with the infinite Pure Land, transforming into a flawless, pale-golden giant Buddha, radiating boundless salvation. Behind his head, forty-eight rings of Buddha-light shone, accompanied by a majestic vow:
“If I attain enlightenment, so long as there are beings in hell, hungry ghosts, or the animal realm, I shall not attain supreme perfect enlightenment.”
…
The Forty-Eight Great Vows, first proclaimed in ancient times to open the path of enlightenment, now resurfaced in the world!
The golden Buddha, standing sixteen feet tall, his expression compassionate and eyes filled with mercy, formed a mudra with his hands, enveloped by the infinite radiance he had just emitted—like a setting sun illuminating the mysteries of the heavens, destined to return to emptiness.
Light filled the heavens and earth, connecting the ocean of Buddhas with the pale-golden giant Buddha, rendering everything hazy and dreamlike.
After attaining enlightenment through his Sambhogakaya, Amitabha further perfected his Dharmakaya and Nirmanakaya, transcending to the Other Shore. With all three bodies perfected, he became one of the most powerful Ancient Ones!
“A” in Sanskrit means “no,” “mita” means “measure.” Amitabha—Immeasurable Light, Immeasurable Life, Immeasurable Merit, Immeasurable Virtue, Immeasurable Compassion, Immeasurable Power!
At this critical moment, the most ancient Buddha exerted his full strength, descending first to envelop the True World within his control, aiding Maitreya in breaking free from the sea of suffering.
Just then, beyond the Thirty-Three Heavens, a golden bridge surged forth, spanning the sea of suffering, connecting to the Other Shore. In an instant, it extended over the ocean of Buddhas.
The chants of “Namo Amitabha Buddha” and the Forty-Eight Great Vows abruptly ceased, as if completely suppressed by the golden bridge of the Other Shore.
At the other end of the bridge, the white-haired, white-bearded Daoist Deity rode a green ox into the sea of infinite Buddha-light formed by Amitabha’s three bodies. Adjusting his Daoist crown, he released a stream of pure qi, transforming into three Daoists with faint Other Shore auras—one youthful and vigorous, brimming with the vitality of beginnings; one mature and majestic, maintaining the world’s order; and one aged and weathered, embodying the inevitable end of all things.
“One Qi Transforms Three Pure Ones!”
The two most powerful beings of the Other Shore clashed once more. Infinite Light and Infinite Life, the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss—destroyed and reborn, locked in stalemate. To those below the Other Shore, the specifics of their struggle were unfathomable.
Witnessing this, a sigh echoed from the Demon Emperor’s Palace as the “Painting of Mountains and Rivers” flew forth.
The scroll depicted the myriad heavens, the Nine Nether Hells, the sun, moon, and stars, looming over the earthly Buddha-realm as if to engulf it entirely. More terrifyingly, the scroll split into two, unleashing the power of humanity like countless lanterns and the primal aura of the demonic races. Both forces merged beneath a flood of sage-like virtue, each capable of shaking the past and future with the weight of the Other Shore!
Meanwhile, on Changmen Island in the East Sea, Gao Lan pointed his finger, summoning the Human Emperor’s Sword, radiating pale gold and sage virtue. In the Demon Emperor’s Palace, the fox Qingqiu also raised the Demon Saint Spear, wreathed in the Five Virtues, with dark flames flickering.
The two peerless divine weapons flew to either side of the “Painting of Mountains and Rivers,” as if grasped by two hands of the Other Shore!
Nuwa was both the Demon Emperor and the Ancestor of Humanity!
And unlike before, this was a struggle for the Dao Fruit. Even if the Ancient Buddha of Bodhi sent forth Zhunti to declare his stance, Nuwa would not passively accept the outcome—she would fight with all her might!
Within the Pure Land of Bodhi, the ancient and silent Buddha sighed. A colossal green Buddha’s palm descended upon the True World, shimmering with wisdom. Simultaneously, the double-bunned Zhunti Daoist wielded the Seven Treasures Tree, brushing forth multicolored light, joining the Buddha’s palm to intercept the “Painting of Mountains and Rivers” now fused with the Human Emperor’s Sword and the Demon Saint Spear!
Light surged like rain, leaving no inch of the True World untouched. The Daoist of Compassion shielded the beings of the earthly Buddha-realm, her gaze turning toward the ever-shrouded Chang’an City and Maitreya, still gathering power to form his illusory Dao Fruit.
“Amitabha and the Ancient Buddha of Bodhi have both acted. Though they’ve stalled the Daoist Deity and the Demon Emperor, there remain three other powers of the Other Shore—the Green Emperor, the Demon Buddha, and the Golden Emperor—along with the manipulated Supreme True Buddha and the Heavenly Dao Monster. Even if the Sect Master wished to aid Maitreya and forge ties with Amitabha to prepare for his wife’s ascent to the Other Shore, he lacks the strength…”
“Even with Fuxi under Amitabha’s control, the balance of power remains overwhelmingly against them. Maitreya seems doomed to perish by external forces, utterly annihilated, with no hope of attaining Buddhahood…”
As these thoughts raced through the Daoist of Compassion’s mind, her vision suddenly flooded with blinding white light, obscuring all else. She sensed an overwhelming, inescapable authority—as if facing an eternal, invincible nemesis.
The Supreme True Buddha had struck… A sigh echoed in her heart.
The residual waves of the clashes between Amitabha, the Daoist Deity, the Ancient Buddha of Bodhi, and the Demon Emperor had transformed into an ocean of pure light, utterly devoid of impurities. Within it loomed a pure white Buddha, unbearable to behold!
The moment the Supreme True Buddha appeared, countless Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Arhats “soared” into the sky, their golden bodies standing tall, filling the air with crystalline radiance. Some pointed to the heavens with one hand and touched the earth with the other; others pinched invisible flowers between thumb and middle finger, each executing a move from the Tathagata’s Divine Palm.
“Divine Palms Unite to Create the World!”
In the depths of the Jade Void Palace in the Kunlun Realm, Meng Qi, seated in silent meditation, watched as the Supreme True Buddha prepared to unleash the devastating “Creation” upon Maitreya. Yet, he also sensed malice and scrutiny from all directions, past and future.
The Demon Buddha’s gaze was unmistakable—he awaited Meng Qi’s intervention in this doomed struggle of the Other Shore, ready to seize the opportunity to trap him in a joint assault with the Heavenly Dao Monster, seeking ultimate fulfillment.
Meng Qi’s expression remained unchanged as he extended his left hand, tossing the Three Treasures Ruyi into the True World.
Golden flowers, tinged with profound mystery, auspicious purple clouds, and rippling sage-like virtue all converged around the Ruyi, striking the Supreme True Buddha’s crown with omnipresent force. The blow parted Buddha-light, pierced barriers, and seemed unstoppable!
Just then, a flawless full moon illuminated the sky. A pristine white finger abruptly tapped the Ruyi’s side, unleashing expanding darkness and a sea of chaos that assimilated merit, fortune, and sage virtue without a ripple.
From the radiant moon, four sword beams—red, azure, black, and white—shot forth, embedding themselves at the four corners of the Jade Void Palace. Their light intertwined, their sword qi entangled, merging with a late-arriving formation diagram to complete the peerless “Sword Array of Slaying Immortals.”
The First Killing Formation of Antiquity!
The Golden Emperor, still needing Meng Qi to protect Gu Xiaosang’s path to enlightenment, now trapped him within the sword array to prevent the Demon Buddha from exploiting any openings.
Sword beams crisscrossed, annihilating all life and matter, bringing endless termination, sealing the Jade Void Palace within, isolating the primal purple of supremacy.
Meanwhile, the Golden Emperor still had strength to spare. Her slender, jade-white hand gripped the Heaven-Slaying Axe, encircled by nine distinct Dao patterns, and swung it toward Maitreya, whose illusory Dao Fruit had just begun to form but had yet to trace back through time.
This was the gap between an Ancient One with a nascent Dao Fruit and other beings of the Other Shore—not even accounting for the depth of their temporal regressions. Of course, since the epoch’s end loomed, so long as one did not regress to the very beginning to prevent the world’s creation, destroying the previous epoch would not affect the current one!
A melancholic zither melody played as life and death cycled. Countless black and white dots manifested, layering into intricate illusions that ensnared the Heaven-Slaying Axe. Though seemingly illusory, they rendered the colossal bronze axe powerless.
Fuxi, controlled by Amitabha, predictably intervened, blocking the Golden Emperor outside the earthly Buddha-realm.
Yet this granted the Supreme True Buddha an opening. With only the earthly Buddha-realm and the Green Lotus Banner of Pristine Colors standing before him, mere moments sufficed to disrupt Maitreya’s enlightenment and consume him!
One Divine Palm after another merged into a torrential light of “Creation,” poised to engulf the earthly Buddha-realm, reset the True World, and assimilate Maitreya into the Supreme True Buddha!
The Green Lotus Banner unfurled, relics hovering, white waves surging, golden rays shining—yet it faltered beneath the pure, infinite light, on the verge of collapse.
And at this moment, the Green Emperor, the Demon Buddha, the Heavenly Dao Monster, and the Heavenly Emperor behind the Blade of Time had yet to act.
Those nearing the Dao Fruit were “envied by Heaven,” obstructed by all beings!
Atop the Fusang Ancient Tree, the former Eastern Paradise of Wonderful Radiance manifested. The Green Emperor stood with hands clasped, his eyes reflecting the clashes of the Other Shore.
Suddenly, a ruler wreathed in purple light flew from the Fusang’s domain—supremely righteous, repelling all evil, dispelling the world’s gloom.
The Primordial Yang Ruler!
The Green Emperor had finally acted!
The ruler flashed, its purple radiance overwhelming the heavens as it descended with majestic force. Yet its target was not Maitreya, whose illusory Dao Fruit was half-formed, but the Supreme True Buddha!
*Crack!*
Within the pure, untainted light, the Supreme True Buddha staggered, streams of brilliant flame erupting from its form.
The Green Emperor had sided with Amitabha, choosing to aid Maitreya!
“Taihao…” The Demon Buddha’s roar reverberated through the True World, staining the heavens and earth with crimson. Chaotic vortices emerged, from which a monstrous, frenzied hand reached for the Primordial Yang Ruler.
Though unexpected, the situation remained under control!
Thus, the flawless full moon remained undisturbed.
Just then, to the perception of the Other Shore beings, the Green Emperor stepped directly from the Fusang’s domain into the illusory river of time.
In the past, the azure Medicine Buddha, the Supreme Savior of Taiyi wearing a bamboo crown, the Pure Yang Sage of the Daoist lineage, the Eastern Sun God before the Sage Emperor—all surged with power in unison.
The Green Emperor pointed, summoning the imprints of Medicine Buddhas from across time, coalescing into a transcendent azure crystalline Buddha.
Pain flickered across his face as a colossal green tree bearing an illusory Dao Fruit manifested above him. It swayed violently, sending the condensed “Medicine Buddha” soaring toward the infinitely high Jade Void Palace, where it formed a mudra and struck the Sword Array of Slaying Immortals.
As if prearranged, within the crisscrossing sword beams, a purple line eclipsing all colors and light appeared, severing termination and cleaving heaven and earth. Their combined force finally shook the sword array, breaching its barriers.
Purple light erupted as the Supreme Primordial Chaos Cloud emerged—not to counter the Golden Emperor, but to envelop the “Medicine Buddha.”
The azure crystalline Buddha, radiating light, was wholly devoured by chaos, assimilated into nothingness!
Simultaneously, a crystalline ancient lamp followed, illuminating a rain of karma threads amidst swirling black and white. In an instant, it severed all ties between the Medicine Buddha and the Green Emperor, erasing that history and threatening to plunge the Green Emperor back into the sea of suffering.
Yet within that erased history, the dormant Supreme Savior of Taiyi awakened, linking past and present, stabilizing the Green Emperor’s form!
“Substituting One for Another!” The Demon Buddha’s furious roar echoed like dark thunder, even disturbing the flawless moon’s serenity.
This was the ploy: Meng Qi, using the Seal of Chaos, devoured the Medicine Buddha, accepting all karma—including its great vows—through the “Origin of All Effects,” freeing the Green Emperor from his constraints.
Though weakened temporarily, the Green Emperor’s future progress would now be unimpeded!
This was the price of the Green Emperor’s intervention!
This was the true purpose behind Meng Qi’s gift of the “Yellow Millet Pillow,” sending the Water Ancestor’s reincarnation, Tan Ping, back to the era of the Sage Emperor Qi—a goal concealed beneath the struggle for Gu Xiaosang’s corpse!
Seated in the Jade Pure Hall, Meng Qi watched as the Supreme Primordial Chaos Cloud returned, merging into his brow. A stream of pure qi then emerged, shifting through myriad forms.
Meeting the Demon Buddha’s gaze, he smiled faintly. “After all, with so many debts, one more matters little.”
With a wave of his hand, the qi split into three—two weak, one mighty.
The mighty one transformed into a youthful, ruby-lipped novice monk, manifesting a resplendent azure crystalline Buddha-body exuding the aura of the Other Shore!
After devouring the Medicine Buddha and merging it with “One Qi Transforms Three Pure Ones,” Meng Qi had manifested this “True Suchness Tathagata” of quasi-Other Shore strength!
At last, he could rival a nascent Dao Fruit holder like the Golden Emperor!
Yet the Dao of Chaos, encompassing all, made such incarnations fleeting—each lasting only briefly, far from the Sage Buddha state of the primordial Yuan Shi.
“In heaven and earth, I alone am the honored one!” The True Suchness Tathagata pointed to the sky and touched the earth, directly challenging the Demon Buddha’s corrupt heart. A purple blade-light capable of cleaving all followed, unstoppable in its supremacy.
With Meng Qi’s ascent, the Demon Buddha weakened further. After centuries under his shadow, Meng Qi now held a slight advantage and seized the initiative.
Facing the Tathagata’s spiritual challenge and the world-cleaving blade, the Demon Buddha’s eyes boiled with black fire as he manifested his inverted Buddha-demonic form, executing the Nine Inverse Palms to recreate the apocalyptic fall of all Buddhas. Summoning the Heavenly Dao Monster, he unleashed a vortex of madness to meet the blade-light, jointly opposing Su Meng.
The former pawn, the once-lamb, had now surpassed him, becoming nearly the true Yuan Shi!
This time, who was the pawn, and who the lamb?
Black palms struck, demonic qi billowed, purple lightning slashed—the infinite heights housing the Jade Void Palace became a battleground between Meng Qi and the Demon Buddha, obscuring all else.
Freed from the Heavenly Dao Monster’s harassment, the weakened Green Emperor reclaimed the purple-wreathed Primordial Yang Ruler, blocking the Supreme True Buddha. Meanwhile, sensing the turning tide, Amitabha abandoned Fuxi, commanding him to intercept the Golden Emperor at all costs.
Even for the Golden Emperor, an Ancient One wielding the Sword Array of Slaying Immortals, the Heaven-Slaying Axe, and the Plain White Cloud Flag, a desperate Other Shore being was a formidable obstacle.
Now, Maitreya finally shaped his half-formed illusory Dao Fruit and began tracing back through time to illuminate the future.
Suddenly, a roar froze him rigid, as if mortal flesh plunged into eternal ice.
The Supreme True Buddha radiated purest light, its aura soaring. Blocking the Green Emperor’s ruler, it declared in a voice of solemn grandeur:
“The Dharmakaya is singular—all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Arhats are its manifestations. It is Vairocana, and I am the Supreme True Buddha!”
The heavens trembled; pure lands dimmed. Even Amitabha and the Ancient Buddha of Bodhi felt their Dharmakayas tainted.
“He’s merged with the Sandalwood Merit Buddha!” Shock and despair filled the hearts of enlightened beings.
Under Amitabha’s control, Fuxi’s internal Buddha-seals were suppressed, leaving him momentarily inert as the Golden Emperor’s jade-white hand swung the Heaven-Slaying Axe toward Maitreya’s crown.
Eons of cultivation, vows to save the end times—all teetered on the brink of annihilation!
At this moment, Amitabha sighed.
In the past, at the Great Jin’s divine capital, Gu Xiaosang stood outside a door, watching as Maitreya’s will descended into the former Crown Prince Zhao Qian. Then, she heard Amitabha’s sigh.
Smiling, she reached out, plucking a white lotus planted by Xia Xiu in the present. It bloomed, returning to history, landing in her palm.
With a playful grin, her right finger—pure and delicate—tapped Zhao Qian’s forehead, precisely on the crystal swastika.
“No!” Zhao Qian screamed, his body dissolving into light that flowed into Gu Xiaosang’s finger, merging with her.
Her expression turned solemn as she pointed, using the lotus as a vessel to sever a transcendent deity—identical to her in appearance and aura.
The deity sat anew, surrounded by blooming white lotuses.
At the present node, Maitreya beneath the axe suddenly shifted, transforming into Gu Xiaosang’s form—yet more solemn, more sacred, and bearing the essence of the True Vacuum Homeland!
The Luo Sect devotees saved by the Daoist of Compassion sensed the earthly Buddha-realm’s subtle change—the Future Buddha now seemed a manifestation of the Eternal Mother!
Wishes converged, infusing the Buddha-realm with hints of the True Vacuum.
The Heaven-Slaying Axe froze mid-swing. Gu Xiaosang, smirking at the distant moon, toyed with her hair and said, “Many thanks for the Eternal Mother’s grace.”
At this point, how could the Golden Emperor strike? To do so would sever her own hope of transcendence this epoch!
The moon rippled briefly before calming. For the Golden Emperor, this turn was favorable—no need to intervene.
Covering a yawn, Gu Xiaosang retracted her relic and quipped, “My accumulation is insufficient. I’ll attempt the Other Shore another time. Farewell.”
Without looking back, she stepped into the white lotus throne, leaving the axe hanging in the air behind her.
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