In the early days of the conflict between Buddhism and Daoism, Daoist priests and Buddhist monks were like fire and water.
They were sworn enemies who could not coexist.
Yet countless films and television dramas had taught us one thing: the more hostile the relationship, the more likely it was to produce two rebels.
Without a doubt, Gongsun Jing and the monk Daojue were those two rebels.
One was a Daoist and the other a Buddhist, yet they became the closest of friends when the conflict between Buddhism and Daoism was at its fiercest.
As for why they became such close friends, back then, the monk Daojue had been ostracized and bullied by his fellow disciples because his Dharma name contained the character "Dao."
That might sound absurd, but in those days, it was entirely normal.
Of course, that was only one reason. The other was that the monk Daojue had been born with three eyes.
He had three eyes from birth, so people treated him as a monster. In that ignorant, unenlightened age, the monk Daojue's birth was a tragedy. He only managed to grow up safely because his parents sent him to a temple.
A ritual master at the temple took Daojue in.
But before Daojue reached adulthood, that ritual master died. With no one to protect him, even the monks at the temple discriminated against him.
Then, as the conflict between Buddhism and Daoism intensified, Daojue was driven straight out of the temple because his Dharma name contained the character "Dao."
After leaving the temple, he met Gongsun Jing. The moment Gongsun Jing saw Daojue's three eyes, he found them wondrous.
That was because there was a deity in Daoism who also had three eyes: the Perfected Lord of Clear Origin and Sublime Way, also known as