"The old and young hid in the southern village; before their doors, no clamor stirred. Divine abilities went unseen by the world; their hearts were set on a Peach Paradise dream."
Qiuyuzi watched the scene of Peach Paradise expand and take shape around Chen Cuo. He did not resist, letting it envelop him and draw him into Void and Reality. Green hills, flowing streams, and a web of paths through the Mortal World appeared before him, and he could not help murmuring in wonder.
After a moment, he looked at Chen Cuo. "You've truly won me over this time! Back then, you were nothing more than a wealthy mortal. At most, you'd grasped the barest fringe of a few arts. Who could have imagined that in just a few decades, you'd come this far? It's... it's..."
By the end, the Kunlun Daoist could find no words to describe it, much less express the shock in his heart.
Brahma Tathagata was no less moved. "A spirit beyond the Mundane, a Buddha Land in your palm! This humble monk congratulates you, my lord! With a Buddha Land established in your palm, transcendence and enlightenment are yours, and the Buddha Fruit stands at your door!"
Chen Cuo glanced at him and smiled without speaking.
He knew the Buddhist monk's cultivation was profound, no lower than that of the monks from Beyond the Mundane and perhaps higher still. Only the constraints of heaven and earth, coupled with Chen Cuo's use of a Dao Mark to borrow the River of Time's power, had allowed him to keep the monk firmly suppressed.
But Brahma Tathagata's shock was genuine.
Someone like him had descended to the Mortal World through various means. Though he had his own aims, he also kept watch over changes in the world and