The human world was a Sea of Bitterness. Someone always had to bear regrets—if not Empty Bonds, then Ksitigarbha.
Abbess Empty Bonds expounded her Dao to the compassionate Buddha, and also displayed to this world her road to Transcendence, hoping the Buddha would grant understanding and forbearance—just as Ksitigarbha always said that He understood all things and forgave all.
She praised, "Buddha!"
Within those two words, her voice suddenly turned aged, as though she had gathered up the time she had cast aside and piled it into the wrinkles of the years.
Though hidden deep within the Celestial Path scroll, none could escape time—unless they had already attained Transcendence and reached eternity.
And time was her staircase. She went from old age to youth, then from youth to old age; through this flowing passage of years, she was always moving toward a stronger self.
The hand she pressed against Ksitigarbha's neck, the hand that held the Life-Cutting Blade, was smooth and warm as jade one moment, wrinkled like tree bark the next. The patch of neck skin pinned beneath Ksitigarbha's hand likewise turned smooth one moment and withered the next. In this cycle of aging and returning to youth, eternal lifespan was constantly peeled away, exposing its root.
The Life-and-Death Zen Art: withering and blooming each had their season!
She had mastered the teachings of both Wither-Bloom Monastery and Moon-Washing Nunnery. She was the "Venerable of the Past, Lord of Withering and Blooming," and through this, she had glimpsed Transcendence!
Her cultivation was complete and lofty; there remained only a trace of old shadow, quietly awaiting the Buddha's blood to wash it away. Transcendence lay before her eyes, separated by no more than a gauze-thin veil.
Yet at this moment of recurring withering and blooming, the cloudlike gauze around her