The moon hung at the extreme west, while Venus shone high above. The hazy outline of dawn slowly emerged along the mountainside.
This was Meng Qi's second face-to-face encounter with Ananda. However, during the battle at Spirit Mountain, he had seen Demon Buddha Ananda clad in a dark-gold kasaya with one shoulder exposed. Now, he was looking at the original Venerable Ananda, one of the two most outstanding among Buddha's ten great disciples—the Ancient Thunder God of old.
Unfortunately, it did not count as a true face-to-face encounter, because this was merely an imprint. Yet without Buddha's suppression, what he would have seen would likewise have been the "historical phantom" left behind by Demon Buddha Ananda, which could transform into the Demon Buddha at any moment. He would never again be able to see the pure Venerable Ananda. Even if he could trace back the past and occupy the future, it would still be the same.
To the Other Shore Great Figures, their state of existence had already surpassed the Real Realm and half-transcended the River of Time. Trying to kill them while they were still weak, strangling danger in its cradle, was nothing but wishful thinking. If one could not defeat them now, one could not defeat them after returning to the past, either.
Of course, that was not to say that returning to the past could never affect an Other Shore Great Figure. Different Other Shore Great Figures possessed different levels of retrospection into the past. Those who had just entered the realm could usually trace back only to the first life unified with themselves, while Yuanshi Tianzun, the most ancient Other Shore Being, could trace back to the beginning of everything. If, just after the multiverse was born, Yuanshi Tianzun had chosen to destroy the world, all