The Outcome Is Decided

Compared to the three great powers, Hui Xian looked downright shabby.

His worn monk's robe was covered in patches and washed pale. He did not even have a string of prayer beads on him. Age spots covered his rough, withered skin. Beside the immaculate and lofty Wisdom King, untouched by the slightest speck of dust, he looked like an old beggar. Yet the old monk's face was compassionate, carrying a little of that calm, unhurried contentment he had once spoken of.

No protective spiritual aura, no intimidating phantom of gods or Buddhas—he stood light and empty-handed.

That aged, downcast body was like a towering mountain. Snake Demon Boy felt that his old companion seemed somehow different.

Wisdom King could not believe it.

"You... Senior Brother?"

"Junior Brother, let it go. Bear neither hatred nor resentment. You are too obsessed; you have already forgotten your original heart."

Old Hui Xian spoke sincerely, just as he had back then—the good-natured old man who had painstakingly swung a hoe in the vegetable patch, babbling away all afternoon just to get a snake to leave the garden.

For a moment, it was as though he had returned to those days, when the golden afterglow of sunset bathed the magnificent Buddhist monastery.

Beneath the golden ginkgo tree, young novice monks swung brooms taller than themselves as they swept the courtyard. Not far away, their master taught the junior disciples the scriptures and cultivation methods. Soft chanting, tolling bells, incense burners—the years drifted by in peaceful serenity.

Then, one autumn after he had grown up, rain startled fallen leaves from the branches. His master's rebukes and his fellow disciples' mockery stabbed into his heart. His persistence won no recognition, and he was left isolated and neglected.

Weathered by middle age, he suddenly understood that true enlightenment