Monk Huitong and several eminent monks of Daliang Temple looked at one another, each seeing the shock on the others' faces. Ordinarily, a monk's Dharma name would not be changed. One of the rare circumstances in which it would be changed was succession.
A few days earlier, Huitong had learned that Seated Ming King had entered nirvana. He had then meditated beneath the Buddhist statue of Buddha Seal Ming King in the temple, borrowing Mingwang Buddha's Dharma to gain wisdom in meditation and thereby realize that the news of Seated Ming King's nirvana was true.
Now that he heard Jueming had succeeded to the Dharma name bearing the character "Di," it was practically equivalent to Seated Ming King having named his successor. No Buddhist cultivator would dare falsely claim such a Dharma name, for other great Buddhist figures and the Ming King World-Honored One could see through the deception. At that point, it would be self-destruction.
"Excellent! My Buddha has a successor!"
"Excellent! Congratulations on Master Ksitigarbha's birth!"
Huitong and the eminent monks beside him from Daliang Temple performed a Buddhist greeting. Naturally, the current Master Ksitigarbha could not join the ranks of the Ming Kings merely by inheriting a Dharma name. That required long years of cultivation, perhaps even enduring all manner of tribulations. Yet it gave Master Ksitigarbha an extraordinarily high starting point, for he had received the empowerment of a Ming King's spiritual method. It also proved the strength of Master Ksitigarbha's innate root of wisdom—he was a monk whose Buddha nature had been acknowledged by a Ming King.
The former Jueming, now Seated Ming King, also rose and returned the greeting to the eminent monks of Daliang Temple.
"Excellent!"
After lowering his hands, Ksitigarbha looked toward the Bodhi Tree behind him and offered this tree, which