A few breaths earlier, the heavens had yet to collapse. The Nine Heavens were riddled with flames, thunderbolts, rifts, and Chaos Holes. The uppermost layer in particular had nearly vanished into nothingness, with only a few scattered places remaining.
Meng Qi appeared there, the Taishang Limitless Yuan Shi Auspicious Cloud suspended above his head. It seemed at once like a speck and a mist, still and moving, and it shed streams of watery, shadowy light. Golden lamps, jeweled tassels, and other things drifted within it. With a single step, he arrived beside the towering, majestic Jianmu.
Although Yuanshi Tianzun had once left behind the words, "The Dao Fruit relies on nothing external," in later ages, when Meng Qi entered this place himself, he had found no trace of Jianmu's fruit. He had come this time to see which Other Shore Being had taken it, for that might bring changes in the future.
Jianmu propped up the heavens and pierced through chaos, reaching places none could hope to approach. Its branches had once been impossible to see, but now a hazy Clear Light spilled from them. A fruit fell, as if it contained every color, every rule, every principle, every possibility, and every Dao Pattern. All opposing concepts and descriptions had achieved perfect fusion here, on a higher level.
A hand glimmering with pale golden light held the fruit. Following its trail, Meng Qi saw a monk six feet tall, gaunt and sallow, his face filled with compassion.
Buddha!
Buddha, without any qualifier—the former Cult Master of the Sahā World, one of only two beings to transcend!
He had actually been the one to obtain Jianmu's fruit in the end!
At that moment, the wills of Bodhi Ancient Buddha, Amitabha Buddha, Lingbao Tianzun, Moral Heavenly Venerable, and Yuanshi Tianzun—wills so powerful