Seeing Lianshan Xin seated amid Buddhist light, Maitreya was utterly bewildered too.
"Why does this brat look more and more like the real thing?" Maitreya muttered.
Lianshan Xin scolded, "My son, it isn't that I look more and more like the real thing. I am your senior brother Shakyamuni, and also your sternest father." Before Maitreya could get angry, Lianshan Xin dangled another grand promise before him. "As my child, you will receive Spirit Mountain from me in the future by inheriting the family estate."
Previously, Maitreya had been Shakyamuni Buddha's second-in-command.
In the future, he would be mine.
Lianshan Xin saw nothing wrong with that.
Maitreya's historical standing would not change at all.
And his chances of inheriting Spirit Mountain would be even higher.
That was how he persuaded Maitreya too. "My son, don't you feel that this greatly increases your chances of inheriting Spirit Mountain?"
Maitreya nodded instinctively.
After all, Shakyamuni was too powerful and unlikely to die, which made it very hard for a second-in-command like him to take over.
But Lianshan Xin was not that powerful, nor was he that interested in Spirit Mountain's foundations. He might very well hand Spirit Mountain straight over to him.
But after just one nod, Maitreya came to his senses and raged, "You insolent wretch, get out of my sight! When have I ever cared about Spirit Mountain's foundations?"
"You really don't care?"
Lianshan Xin was skeptical.
If anything, he felt that Shakyamuni Buddha might genuinely no longer care about Spirit Mountain's foundations. Otherwise, he would not have disappeared for so long without any news even now. Only those who had possessed something had the right to say they did not care about it.
Shakyamuni Buddha had possessed everything. Whatever airs he put on, he was justified.
Maitreya was different.