Dipankara Buddha and the Death Demon had confronted each other in the past for a very, very long time.
No one knew how long it had been anymore.
Living beings were like dust. One speck of dust, one kalpa. By the Buddhist calculation, one kalpa was roughly 1.2 billion years.
Then one living being meant one span of 1.2 billion years—and they would reincarnate besides. The Death Demon had imposed hundreds of thousands of millions of billions of nayutas and asamkhyeya kalpas upon every living being.
How many living beings were there in the universe?
One living being, hundreds of thousands of millions of billions of nayutas and asamkhyeya kalpas. One could imagine how long this struggle in the past had lasted.
"What meaning is there in that?" Dipankara Buddha smiled. "In the past, I transcended the sea of life and death after merely eight kalpas. No matter how many times you repeat this now, you are only wasting your own time."
"Time? So long as I make you withdraw, I can immediately return to the point in time I wish to reach. Not even a second will be delayed," the Death Demon said.
"Not necessarily. Humanity, the shamans, the gods, and the Heaven Evolution on all four sides will not let you go to that point in time. They suffered enormous losses and worked so hard just to push the present state of affairs this far. You will not find it so easy to change it," Dipankara Buddha replied casually.
"Oh, so they really have been pushing things forward? You are holding me here to create an established fact? Then what about the Heavenly Demon? Are you not going to deal with her?" the Death Demon said.
Even as they spoke, countless indescribable "events" were taking place around them.