White lotuses fluttered through the air like raindrops filling the sky, dreamlike as the arrival of the day of salvation. The pale hand gripping the colossal bronze axe withdrew.
For the Golden Emperor, this attempt had neither succeeded nor failed. The outcome had simply exceeded the future she possessed, forcing her to reassess the mysteries of the perfected Cause of All Fruits and understand the terror of its union with the Limitless Seal.
As for anger, frustration, and the like, such emotions had never existed and would never come. The general tide of events remained under her control. The stronger Gu Xiaosang became, the closer the Golden Emperor drew to the Dao Fruit, until success was finally hers. What was happening now was no more than a minor detail—like watching a butterfly trapped in layer upon layer of spiderwebs. The harder it struggled, the tighter its bonds became.
At that moment, the Buddhist sea and the Golden Bridge of the Other Shore still filled heaven and earth. Shadows crowded around Jade Void Palace, as if the apocalypse had arrived and the era were collapsing. Yet the purple radiance of Open Heaven and Earth repeatedly cleaved through them, revealing the chaos of dark red and Glazed Buddha Light within.
The Supreme True Buddha had revealed its hidden strength, and could even corrupt every Buddhist self-nature Dharmakaya. Now it was enveloped in light so pure it seemed to ripple like water, brilliant as the resentment in its heart: all that effort had been for nothing again. Not only had Maitreya been "absorbed" from the past by Gu Xiaosang, but even the Medicine King Buddha had become the Zhending Tathagata severed by Yuanshi Heavenly Venerable Su Meng. It had not "reclaimed" a single Buddha for itself. If the Golden Emperor had not been