"Gone to the mortal world?"
Lu Chuan looked at the solemn Tathagata and shook his head, saying with considerable feeling, "Unfortunate. He missed this grand gathering. Truly too unfortunate."
Earlier, he had thought Jin Chanzi had been punished and sent to the mortal world because he had dozed off. Now that he knew, he understood this was clearly Tathagata deliberately sending Jin Chanzi off for Journey to the West!
Of course, this could also be seen as gilding him with merit.
Once he returned, he could become a Buddha, gain a golden body, and surpass tens of thousands of years of bitter cultivation by others. If that was not gilding, what was?
Originally, Lu Chuan had thought Jin Chanzi was not favored by Tathagata. Now it seemed Tathagata had opened the back door for him—he simply loved this disciple to death, all right?
Of course, as a disciple, Lu Chuan knew it was far too easy for a teacher to find a reason to punish a student in class. Luckily, Jin Chan had courted death himself this time by dozing off.
Otherwise, Lu Chuan reckoned Tathagata would have launched a wave of deathly questioning...
"All things have causes and naturally bear fruit. How can there be any talk of unfortunate coincidence?" Tathagata said with a smile.
"Buddha, you have misunderstood what I meant. The first 'unfortunate' was indeed me saying Jin Chanzi missed this grand gathering, while my second 'unfortunate' refers to another matter from the last time Venerable Jin Chan came to the Heavenly Court."
Lu Chuan said, "Buddha, do you know that when I invited the Venerable to taste the immortal tea I cultivated, Venerable Jin Chan said Buddha had a Divine Tea Treasure Tree, a spiritual root, and promised to bring me two or three catties to