This Moment

"Akshobhya Buddha!!!"

A roar of utter fury burst from Amitabha once more. He spun around, formed a seal with both hands, and fired a profound beam of Buddha Light, infused with a Saint's aura and boundless rage, at a spot in the empty bottom of the pool!

The Buddha Light sank into the pool bed, sending ripples through space. Moments later, a dull boom rang out. The ground at one spot beneath the pool cracked open, and an enormous head covered in dark-golden scales, along with half a fish's body, slowly emerged from underground. It was the Golden-Whiskered Giant Turtle that guarded this place—Akshobhya Buddha!

Akshobhya Buddha seemed to have been forcibly roused from some form of slumber or meditation. A trace of confusion and drowsiness still lingered in his enormous dragon eyes.

He shook his head and looked outside. When he saw Amitabha and the Thirty Thousand Buddhas behind him, all wearing despairing, grief-stricken expressions, he froze for a moment. Then, an expression of relieved... delight appeared on his dragon-like face?

His deep, resonant voice rang out, carrying the relief of one who had survived a calamity.

"Amitabha! Buddha Ancestor! You have finally returned! Has the battle outside... has it ended? Has the Dragon Clan retreated? Wonderful! Western Heaven truly possesses boundless Buddhist teachings. We will surely survive this tribulation! Congratulations, Buddha Ancestor! Congratulations! Spirit Mountain's foundation has been preserved!"

He spoke with complete sincerity, as though he were genuinely overjoyed by Western Heaven's "victory."

Thirty Thousand Buddhas.

"..."

They looked at Akshobhya Buddha's "sincere" congratulations, then at the empty ruins of the Merit Pool before them, as though some primordial beast had gnawed it clean. Their expressions became indescribably vivid, a mix of absurdity, grief, fury, and the complicated urge to cry without being able to.

Amitabha's vision