"In the future?"
Within the boundless Glazed Realm, the Buddhist kingdom was nearly complete. Meng Qi looked at Moonlight Bodhisattva, seated beneath the withered-and-flourishing twin trees, and spoke as if to himself, yet also as if asking a question.
Moonlight Bodhisattva replied with solemn grandeur, "The Azure Emperor forged his own path. The road to the Other Shore is different from everyone else's. The one you encountered was sometimes the Azure Emperor, sometimes Taiyi Jiuku Tianzun. Both were manifestations who had yet to escape the River of Time, but had survived until the present through various secret arts and walked the world. After you helped awaken Medicine Master Tathagata, he took that crucial step and began unifying the past. Now, through identities such as Chunyangzi, Eastern Sun Divine Lord, Medicine Master Tathagata, Taiyi Jiuku Tianzun, and the Azure Emperor, he has traced back from the present to the beginning of antiquity, the dawn of the era. Next, naturally, he must claim a portion of the future. Only then can he truly ascend to the Other Shore."
"So he is in the future."
It was no cryptic hint. It was a fact!
Listening to Moonlight Bodhisattva's detailed explanation, Meng Qi gained a new understanding of the Azure Emperor's path. If he had not cut off Taiyi Jiuku Tianzun and Medicine King Buddha, taken on forms such as Chunyangzi and Eastern Sun Divine Lord, and forgotten his past, losing himself in the question of "Who am I, and who is me?" then, given his own realm, he could easily have survived until the present by sleeping and the like. But in that case, all his experiences and memories from antiquity to the present would only prove that he had lived a long time; they would have nothing to do with tracing back