The Bodhi Tree stood atop Mount Sumeru, crystalline and lush enough to drip emerald green. Its verdant canopy swayed with the light of wisdom, every leaf translucent, Dao and principle interweaving within them. It was in no way inferior to the Dao Enlightenment Tea Tree.
Lin Xian had watered it with the Desolate Antiquity Divine Spring, the Heavenly Venerable Life Spring, and Merit Divine Water, one after another. Now it stood graceful as a canopy, sixteen feet tall-the very image of the tree beneath which the Buddha had attained enlightenment long ago.
By contrast, the other Ancient Bodhi Tree bore the aura of passing ages. Its bark split outward in scales like a dragon's, and it had long since withered. Yet not a speck of dust clung to it. Instead, strands of Great Dao radiance streamed down, a thread of life hidden within its extinction.
"Neither permanence nor joy, neither self nor purity; both withered and flourishing, neither false nor empty."
Lin Xian gazed thoughtfully at the twin Bodhi Trees, then plucked a Bodhi Seed as smooth and lustrous as green jade. Holding it in his mouth, he drew upon supreme wisdom to comprehend the Dao here.
This immortal tree had survived since ancient times. No one knew how many Heavenly Venerables, Ancient Emperors, and Great Emperors had stood beneath it to develop their own arts and Dao. Amitabha Buddha Emperor was merely the most famous among them.
A great wind swept past, and the leaves against the azure heavens rustled as though three thousand Buddhas were chanting a heavenly scripture. Dao and principle intertwined, forming primordial runes that fell one after another, drawing forth new branches and tender buds and kindling the light of wisdom.
He sat cross-legged beneath the tree, immersed in contemplation. Suns rose and moons set,