Thunder circled overhead for a long time, electric snakes raged, yet in the end, none of it fell. It slowly dissipated into the horizon. The two of them exhaled a breath of stale air at the same time, their minds finally settling.
After the Calamity Cloud dispersed, dense Golden Light of Merit appeared across the sky, brilliant as a river of stars. Yet it hung suspended without falling, as though waiting for something.
Zhunti and Jieyin exchanged a glance and sighed in unison.
Then, Jieyin closed his eyes and recited his vow, his voice ringing like a great bell and reverberating throughout Heaven and Earth:
"If I attain supreme enlightenment, then the Buddha Land where I dwell shall possess boundless, inconceivable merits and adornments! There shall be no hells, no hungry ghosts, no birds, beasts, insects, or creeping things! All sentient beings—even those who fall into the Yama Realm and the three evil paths—as long as they are reborn in my land and hear my Dharma, shall all attain Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi and never again fall into reincarnation! If this vow is not fulfilled, I shall never become a Buddha!"
Zhunti followed close behind, his vows surging like a tide:
"When I become a Buddha, all sentient beings in the ten directions shall be able to be reborn in my land! Their forms shall all become bodies of purple-golden true metal, possessing the thirty-two marks and eighty auspicious signs, upright and pure, without distinction! If there is any difference between beauty and ugliness, I shall not attain perfect enlightenment!"
"When I become a Buddha, all those born in my land shall possess the supernatural power of knowing the minds of others! I shall know and see the thoughts of the sentient beings in hundreds of thousands of millions of nayuta Buddha-lands! Otherwise,