Everyone exchanged bewildered looks, their eyes wide.
Preach the scriptures to a stone?
Wasn't that a little too bizarre?
Maitreya Buddha's mouth hung open, the smile frozen on his face. Even his round belly seemed to have forgotten to rise and fall.
He looked at the faintly glowing Sky-Mending Stone in Zhunti's hand, then at Zhunti's face, so solemn that it brooked no questioning. His Adam's apple bobbed, and he forced the question on the tip of his tongue back down.
Guanyin Bodhisattva pressed her palms together, her expression unchanged, but a barely perceptible trace of helplessness flashed through her compassionate eyes.
She had cultivated for countless epochs and witnessed all manner of strange things, but preaching to a stone whose occupant had yet to be born was truly a first.
Manjushri Bodhisattva, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, and the others wore varying expressions. Some frowned, some pondered, and some remained expressionless, but all of them harbored doubts.
As for the ordinary disciples, they were utterly dumbfounded.
Preach to a stone?
Could a stone understand?
Even if it nurtured a living being within, that being was still developing and had yet to awaken its intelligence. Would any of the scriptures sink in?
Even taking ten thousand steps back, suppose it could absorb them-it hadn't even been born yet! Wouldn't all that preaching be wasted?
Countless questions surged through the disciples' minds, but none dared voice them.
Because Zhunti looked serious. Very serious. So serious that no one dared question him.
"What?"
Zhunti swept his gaze over them. His voice remained calm, yet carried an authority that needed no anger to command respect.
"Do any of you object to my instructions?"
"We dare not!"
The disciples all bowed their heads and answered in unison.
Object?
Who would dare object?
*Master had spoken in person.