Deathly silence.
Outside Vulture Peak, between heaven and earth, there was only deathly silence.
The Buddha Light that blanketed the sky, the solemn, majestic chanting, the myriad streams of auspicious radiance stirred up when Jieyin's Dharma manifestation appeared... all seemed to freeze at that moment, becoming a motionless painting.
And at the very center of that painting, two figures faced each other across the distance.
One was the lord of Vulture Peak, Amitabha, a Hunyuan Limitless Daluo Golden Immortal-Jieyin.
The other was the Interception Sect's Wine Sword Immortal, the Primordial World's greatest troublemaker, likewise a Hunyuan Limitless Daluo Golden Immortal-Gu Changqing.
These two beings who had surpassed the level of Sages simply gazed at each other in silence across hundreds of miles of empty space.
Calling it a "standoff" was not entirely accurate, however.
Because from beginning to end, Jieyin alone was taking a stand.
The Buddha Kingdom Pure Land unfolded around him, billions of rays of Buddha Light shone everywhere, and his vast Hunyuan Wuji might swept outward, enveloping all of Vulture Peak. It was a silent warning, and an unmistakable show of vigilance.
This was the Buddhist School's sacred ground. Insolence would not be tolerated.
Yet what about Gu Changqing on the other side?
He simply hovered crookedly in midair, cradling the Wine God Gourd, reeking of wine, his eyes hazy with drunkenness, as though he could not feel Jieyin's overwhelming might at all.
Or rather... he felt it, but did not care.
He stood there without circulating his magic power or manifesting any phenomena. He did not even straighten his back.
He looked every inch a drunkard, yet somehow exuded an air of "throughout heaven and earth, I alone reign supreme."
The cultivators hovered far beyond Vulture Peak's outskirts, holding their breath and focusing intently, not daring