Xuanzang looked at the disciples gathered before him and smiled. "In the dream your master had earlier, more than one visitor came."
"The Supreme Dao Ancestor and Yuanshi Tianzun came together."
Bajie emerged from behind Sha Wujing as well, startled by those words. "Huh?"
"They came together?"
Wukong edged half a step closer, looking first to the left, then to the right.
"Then what did they say?"
"Since both of them were there, didn't you ask them to their faces who actually opened the heavens?"
"Surely asking would've been better than all of us guessing back and forth here?"
Xuanzang said, "Didn't your master just tell you?"
"I asked twice, and each of them gave his account."
Wukong scratched his cheek. "That's not what I meant."
Xuanzang raised his eyes.
The figures within the chaos moved at once.
Four figures each occupied one side.
They slowly revolved, forming a gray circle.
None dispersed.
None overpowered the other three.
"Heaven and earth have their formation and destruction."
"Calamities have their beginnings and ends."
"Three teachings, three streams of origin."
"Three men, three voices of laughter."
Xuanzang spread his fingers.
A small white flower bloomed in his palm.
Mountains and rivers rose and fell among its petals.
Rivers flowed through fields.
Cities stood along the riverbanks.
People came and went within them, cooking smoke rose, and then night covered it all.
Xuanzang plucked a petal.
As it fell, a realm of mountains and rivers vanished with it.
"One flower, one world."
He then took a leaf from beneath the flower.
Its veins crisscrossed.
Golden light flowed through every fine vein.
"One leaf, one Tathagata."
Xuanzang said, "For sentient beings such as ourselves, whether worlds or calamities..."
"The mountains and rivers you see with your own eyes, the perilous paths you tread yourself,