Li Qi gave many instructions, not only to Bai Lu, but also to those tens of millions of "good people"—all of them people capable of restraining the demonic thoughts in their hearts.
The Tathagata had vanished, the Buddhist sect had already crumbled, and even the remaining Buddhist forces had mostly become independents, scattering across every corner and turning into all kinds of minor sects and small Dao lineages.
The Buddhist scriptures, meanwhile, had all become possessions of the Human Path.
The Human Path gladly accepted nearly all Buddhist sutras and techniques, dispatching people to compile the "Great Tripitaka" and organize this knowledge.
It was divided into twelve sections: the Agamas, Avadanas, Prajnaparamita, Ratnakuta, Nirvana Sutras, Mahasamnipata, Sutra Samuccaya, Vinaya, Sastra, Abhidharma, Various Schools, and Biographies.
No branch of Buddhism could inherit so much of the Buddhist Dao Lineage. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Human Path had swallowed Buddhism whole.
Beyond that, Buddhism's various schools had also split apart, even scattering into different Dao lineages. Chan Buddhism, Huayan Buddhism, Yogacara Buddhism, Sanlun Buddhism, Vinaya Buddhism, Tiantai Buddhism, Pure Land Buddhism, Esoteric Buddhism—everyone continued arguing without end.
Chan Buddhism had almost entirely submitted to the Human Path. Esoteric Buddhism was not accepted by the Human Path and fled beyond the domains as a minor Dao lineage. The other schools each met their own fates.
The remaining four Buddhas paid no heed to any of this. They seemed to be contemplating the question left behind by the World Honored One, the Tathagata, while the great Bodhisattvas each made different choices.
The Buddha Children, too, each reached their own endings. Shariputra followed the World Honored One into extinction, Kasyapa desperately sorted through the manuscripts left behind by the World Honored One, the Tathagata, while Ananda began recording the events