Wukong's throat bobbed.
Subhuti noticed.
He did not look over.
He only raised his eyes toward the dusty light in the hall, poised on the verge of dispersing.
"That was when I knew."
"It was already too late."
His fingers stirred inside his sleeve.
The dusty light billowed upward, becoming boundless golden clouds.
Bells rang in the distance.
The first peal seemed to fall from beyond the heavens.
At the second, even the bluestone beneath everyone's feet trembled faintly.
As the third peal fell, a treasure temple slowly emerged from the boundless golden clouds.
It was the Great Thunderclap Treasure Temple on Spirit Mountain.
At the sight, Sanzang actually fell to his knees.
Great King Linggan, however, darted away to hide in the distance.
There stood the three thousand Buddhas, the Five Hundred Arhats, the Eight Great Vajras, and countless Bodhisattvas, each holding banners, jeweled canopies, wondrous treasures, and immortal flowers, arrayed throughout the immortal realm of Spirit Mountain.
Beneath the Sala Twin Trees, the rain of flowers never touched the ground.
Every petal hung in midair, slowly turning.
Buddhist light flowed like water.
Immortal mist hung like gauze.
Solemnity reigned in silence.
Subhuti said, "At that time, the World-Honored One had taken his leave of the Jade Emperor and returned to the Thunderclap Treasure Temple."
The assembly looked up and saw an auspicious cloud approaching from afar. It was Tathagata.
Tathagata halted his auspicious cloud and addressed them:
"With the profoundest Prajna, I have surveyed the Three Realms."
"The original source of nature is, in the end, tranquil extinction."
"It shares the aspect of the void, possessing nothing."
"I subdued the unruly monkey; none understood this deed."
"Names mark the beginning of life and death; such is the Dharma Form."
His words fell.
The relic in Tathagata's palm