The instant Zuo Qiu Wu stepped out of the ice coffin in the sea of consciousness—
Above the ice coffin, the Bodhi tree stirred.
Huang Fu raised his head. The Demon-Subduing Pestle in his hand, like an inverted Buddhist pagoda, plunged into the ground beside Huang Sheli, granting her the protection to comprehend the Dao. With a single grasp of his rough, old-farmer's five fingers, he tore the tattered fur coat from his body into an old kasaya.
The little monk who had broken his vows at Wind-Thunder Temple all those years ago had already attained fruition. Yet the heterodox demoness who had sewn his kasaya was no longer here.
He rose with a shake of his body, and the kasaya fastened itself into a battle robe. His dark-brown, wrinkled face seemed lacquered in gold streaked with blood, transforming him into a... "Buddha" of overwhelming, savage might!
The Buddha's compassion piled at the corners of his deeply wrinkled eyes, like the wild laughter of World-Ending.
Of course, he was no true transcendent awakened one, still far from immortality. Yet borne up by the two great Hegemon States of the Northern Domain, he had truly condensed a Buddhist body—
One figure was even faster than he was.
As he spread his kasaya into battle robes, Jiang Zhenhe, clad in blue and wearing a sword, was already high in the heavens.
The sky bore no scar, the sea no ripples. There was no clamorous radiance, yet the shadow of the Death-Announcing Bird circled about him—
Lifespans faded, souls dispersed, the laws of the Dao froze. Thus, within this calm sea of consciousness, there appeared precisely a trace of "discord."
Li Hengzhi stepped out from that "disharmony" conflicting with this realm.
It was precisely to ensure that this interrogation would not be disturbed