Spirit Mountain, Vulture Peak, atop the Treasure Pavilion.
Ancient Buddha Randeng was still in his Treasure Tower, unhurriedly contemplating the secret of the Sarira. Before his eyes was Zhun Ti's Gatha; what he had given Tathagata was only a backup.
Though he felt the true secret lay between the words, not in the Gatha itself.
Still, out of caution, he had kept the original for himself.
He also knew that comprehension could not be rushed. It was like attaining the Dao—sometimes you contemplated for tens of millions of years, yet enlightenment came only in a single evening.
Buzz!
The instant the world underwent its drastic change, Randeng, who had been sitting in meditation high atop the Treasure Lotus, abruptly opened his eyes and sighed. "The great calamity has come at last."
Of course, if it came, then it came. It did not have much to do with him.
He only needed to hang it high when it had nothing to do with him, watch the situation unfold in silence, and wait for the calamity to complete itself.
In fact, he even wanted to see how Tathagata would resolve this calamity without the Sarira.
However, matters were not as simple as he imagined.
Buzz—
Just as Randeng was about to leave, the Gatha before him suddenly began to glow.
"What? This is..."
The sudden change made Randeng delighted rather than alarmed. "Could it be that the secret of the Sarira can only be seen when the great calamity arrives?"
He waited expectantly for the Gatha to change.
Then that Gatha turned into golden light and drifted up into the air. Within it appeared one Buddha after another, each wearing a Vairocana Hat and a red kasaya.
But in the end, all these Buddhas transformed into Sarira within the golden light.
Randeng