"His Majesty has gotten anxious."
This was the first thing Jinjue Buddha said to the Bodhisattvas and Arhats after Jinglian Bodhisattva left Great Lingyin Temple.
Looking at the Bodhisattvas and Arhats standing attentively at his sides, Jinjue Buddha wore a smile. This was an age of Xuanmen flourishing, and the Eastern Heaven Daoist Sect's fortune was at its zenith. The three Heavenly Venerables stood side by side against the Heavenly Court. Buddhism could now play both sides, reaping profits without spending a thing.
"Lingjue."
"This disciple is here."
Lingjue Bodhisattva stepped forward and gave a slight bow toward Jinjue Buddha atop the Eight-Treasure Merit Golden Lotus.
Jinjue Buddha smiled. "I will trouble you to make a trip to the Futu World and ask him to prepare to enter the Three Realms and attend the banquet at Peixiang Palace."
"Tell him that His Majesty and I have already prepared a place for him—a seat as a Buddha Elder awaits him."
Lingjue Bodhisattva pressed his palms together. "This disciple accepts the World-Honored One's decree."
With that, Lingjue Bodhisattva departed Great Lingyin Temple and headed straight for the Futu Great Thousand World.
Watching Lingjue Bodhisattva's departing figure, Jinjue Buddha's smile remained, but his thoughts had already turned to Buddhism's great calamity in the future.
"Baluo, Secret Adornment, and Precious Form—those Three Realms are stubborn to the bone. Since they are so unyielding, Fahua and Suchness remain undecided."
"When Buddhism's great calamity arrives, we will inevitably need that Heavenly Court Emperor to mediate."
Jinjue Buddha had thought it through clearly. At the Peixiang Palace banquet a hundred years hence, not only would he attend, he would openly and unequivocally stand with the Heavenly Court, on Golden Palace Heavenly Emperor's side. Only then would that Emperor be willing to exert himself and mediate during Buddhism's