At their words, Ran Deng's expression remained unchanged, though the corner of his eye twitched slightly. You want me to go up to heaven and tell the Ancestral Bear that?
What a joke! We're hardly on such good terms. You could even say we have a grudge. Even if we didn't, how could a dignified Innate Deity like me bring myself to beg someone for merit? Do you think I have no pride?
Ran Deng immediately turned and rebuked Cihang and the others. "The flourishing of Buddhism is their affair, not our Expounding Teaching's. Rather than thinking about taking advantage of them, you should devote more attention to your cultivation. Whether we have fortune to bolster us or merit to our names, as long as we cultivate diligently, we can still break through our bottlenecks and attain the Great Dao!"
"But..."
"Enough. No matter what, I will not make such a request of the Heavenly Emperor. Nor may any of you do so, lest you diminish the prestige of our Expounding Teaching. Understood?" Ran Deng interrupted Cihang and warned them all.
Seeing how resolute Ran Deng was, Cihang and the others could only lower their heads helplessly and reply, "Yes, Teacher."
"Mm." Ran Deng nodded, his face stern.
Late that night, while the other disciples of the Expounding Teaching contemplated the Dao in their respective Daoist Palaces on Mount Kunlun, an elderly figure suddenly emerged from the darkness. It was Ran Deng.
Watching the monkey sneaking into Yuding's room on distant Mount Fangcun, he sighed and thought, Merit...
Cihang and the others all wanted merit, but did he not want it too?
In fact, his yearning for merit surpassed all of theirs combined, because... I've been stuck at the great Luo peak for hundreds of thousands of years!
"Ah..." At