The figure shifted from illusory to solid, from faint to vivid. The way it took shape bore a striking resemblance to the earlier scene of Amitabha transforming his Dao into Buddhahood.
The same aura, the same light, Dao rhythm from the same source.
It was as though they had always been one.
A deathly silence filled the Zixiao Palace.
Laozi and Heavenly Venerable Yuanshi sat side by side, their bodies rigid as they stared fixedly at the gathering mass of golden light.
Within that light, an outline gradually became clear.
First came the figure, then the Daoist robe, and finally the features.
The instant that face fully appeared, Heavenly Venerable Yuanshi's body gave an involuntary tremor.
He knew that face all too well.
It was none other!
It was unmistakably the face of Zhunti, who should long since have perished at Gu Changqing's hands.
How was this possible?
Heavenly Venerable Yuanshi's Dao heart was as firm as bedrock, yet towering waves surged through it now.
Zhunti had clearly perished. Even his Sage Dao Fruit, entrusted to the Heavenly Dao Void, had been utterly erased and ceased to exist.
In other words, he had not even been given a chance to enter reincarnation.
Why had Zhunti reappeared here today?
He instinctively looked toward Laozi beside him, only to discover that even this senior brother, always serene and detached, had a trace of undisguisable astonishment in eyes normally as still as an ancient well.
The golden light dispersed.
The figure became fully solid, identical to Daoist Zhunti in life, even holding his signature Seven Treasures Wonderful Tree.
Yet, just like Amitabha, she no longer possessed any trace of the Dao rhythm of the Western Teachings. In its place was pure, vast, compassionate Buddhist Dharma.
"What... what is going on?"
Heavenly Venerable Yuanshi