Secret Buyer

The low, hoarse words echoed, everyone looked at each other in confusion, the Buddha Son stood still, but the lamp flames in His eyes surged tens of thousands of feet high!

Then.

The flames died down.

The Buddha Son was now unknowingly seated cross-legged on the clouds, fingers forming a treasure seal, it was Him, but also seemed not to be Him.

"Who is this young benefactor?"

'Buddha Son' gazed at the middle-aged man, asking calmly, with a thunderous voice, as the great desolate world tore apart amid the thunder!

Just as life began to flourish, in the blink of an eye, it wilted again.

The middle-aged man too sat cross-legged, facing the 'Buddha Son', suddenly smiling:

"To be utterly void yet utterly real, utterly vast yet utterly tiny, the highest is the lowest, the weakest is the strongest...Tao Fruit, Tao Fruit, only when pursued yet unattained is it Tao Fruit."

"If I said, everyone is a Tao Fruit, would Luminous Buddha believe it or not?"

As these words spread, Li Jing's scalp tingled, and the others realized something was amiss, Luminous... Buddha?

Buddha!!!

They looked in horror at the 'Buddha Son'.

'Buddha Son' stood unmoved, flames flowing from His eyes, wrapping His being, resembling a grand figure of the present world.

'Buddha Son' said:

"Taoist friend seems to have a profound understanding of Tao Fruit?"

The young benefactor became a Taoist friend, and the Taoist friend spoke:

"The worldly embodiment of Luminous Buddha should be heading towards the Other Shore World at this moment?"

"Naturally." 'Buddha Son', or rather Luminous Buddha using Buddha Son's body to communicate with the middle-aged man, answered thus.

The middle-aged man's body was unknowingly showing signs of disintegration, as if ready to transcend.

He said meaningfully:

"Tao Fruit, it existed from the beginning, always has been, does Buddha still remember when Tao Fruit disappeared?"

Luminous was silent for a moment, "When Fuli transformed into The Three Pristine Ones."

The middle-aged man, bursting with radiant light through the dense cracks on his disintegrating, transcending body, stood with a bang,

The clouds churned, the cosmos rose and fell, the collapse of the desolate world accelerated with a roar—time had accelerated!

Everyone looked around in horror, seeing a mighty mountain pass through millions upon millions of years in an instant, weathering, decaying, vanishing,

Then the earth, the river, the ocean followed!

An entire world, traversing infinite ages within a few breaths, reaching the end, beginning to collapse inward, returning to nothingness.

The middle-aged man, who had taken a step through countless years, struck a solemn posture, becoming more ethereal, yet his voice grew more solemn:

"Buddha, Buddha."

"Fuli transformed into The Three Pristine Ones, who did The Three Pristine Ones transform into?"

Luminous Buddha, using the Buddha Son's body, displayed an extremely solemn expression, He was merely an insignificant entity, lacking the supreme power,

Thus, unable to discern the essence, real or virtual, of the being before Him—yet when did such existence appear in the myriad worlds?

Moreover, on the other person, there was a unique status never before seen, high, infinitely high, elevated infinitely by Tao and reason!

The stranger, the more mysterious.

Luminous Buddha held no more underestimation:

"The Three Pristine Ones have always been The Three Pristine Ones, never once transformed."

"Wrong, wrong." The middle-aged man sighed, then sighed again, as his shell became ethereal to a certain extreme:

"Buddha, Luminous Buddha."

"Think again, if there has only ever been one Supreme being under the heavens—then how differs that from Tao Fruit?"

"The Supreme, inherently omniscient and omnipotent, lost such ability due to constraints by other Supremes—but consider it differently...."

The middle-aged man smiled:

"Consider it differently, when a Supreme creates another Supreme, are they not actively dividing their authority? Are they not transforming [化]?"

"Fuli transformed into The Three Pristine Ones, The Three Pristine Ones transformed into three Buddhas, then the Celestial Emperor, Amitabha, Bodhi, Taiyi, Di Jun, Wa, Houtu!"

As each supreme name was uttered, the middle-aged man's voice grew higher and higher!

He stepped forward, approaching [Luminous Buddha], the two frail bodies facing each other, yet in essence, it was the confrontation of two infinitely terrifying wills behind the frail forms!

The void collapsed, disintegrated, shattered!

Great Tide, Great Tide!

They resembled small boats swaying in the Great Tide.

The middle-aged man confronted Luminous Buddha:

"So...."

"Fuli transformed into The Three Pristine Ones, also Fuli transformed supremely into all Supremes, without exception—all your power and authority derive from [Fuli]."

"Since this is so, to seek Tao Fruit, to remold Fuli—"

"Then no Supremes are permitted to exist, that is when you are returned to one!"

"Luminous, have you yet to awaken?!"

A severe admonishment, morning bells, evening drums!

'Buddha Son' turned livid, lamp flames intertwining into an ocean of solemn dignity, He pondered deeply:

"The Three Pristine Ones...The Three Pristine Ones wish to annihilate us?"

"How not? How not?" The middle-aged man's once passionate voice calmed unknowingly, like a gentle breeze wafting through a verdant bamboo grove.

"That child was never a reliance for The Three Pristine Ones to achieve Tao Fruit...that child was merely bait, you are the bait."

The patrons did not know who 'that child' was, but Luminous Buddha did.

He gazed at the middle-aged man who was about to dissipate:

"Who exactly are you?"

The middle-aged man turned around, with his back to him, and did not answer immediately. Instead, he looked up at the boundless void world and sighed:

"Have you ever thought that if it is not Floating Realm, then there is a 'ceiling', no matter how strong the Supreme it is still just a Supreme."

"The Three Pristine Ones can suppress you, but they cannot kill you—let alone devour you."

Luminous Buddha seemed to understand something, his gaze sharp:

"What do you mean?"

"If humans don't eat, they will starve." The middle-aged man smiled, "If they eat too much... they will burst."

Pausing for a moment, he looked up at the infinite, gazing down at the endless, suddenly calm:

"Just now you asked me who I am, I am...."

"Floating Realm."

The middle-aged man suddenly dissipated.

No.

He did not dissipate, but 'fell' down, shattering in the void, akin to a whale fall,

As he shattered, a Great Realm was nourished by his blood and flesh, and then a second, a third, a tenth...

In the blink of an eye, one person turned into thousands and thousands of realms, these worlds overlapped, blooming with infinite light.

Luminous Buddha felt a sense of melancholy and loss.

"Floating Realm..."

He frowned, chewing on the name, as if he had made a decision.

Thereafter.

The earth lamp flame in the Buddha Son's eyes disappeared, and the Buddha Son reverted back to being the Buddha Son, no longer Luminous.

"What happened?" He looked at the thousands upon thousands of realms before him and opened his mouth in astonishment, while the patrons remained silent, none speaking.

.........

Beyond time, the ultimate place.

'Clang!!'

The long sword fell, Buddha's blood like a waterfall.

"So... that's how it is." Luminous Buddha was scarred, having died countless times, yet he started to smile.

Taiqing wielded the sword, suppressing all the Supremes, suddenly frowning:

"Luminous, what did you do?"

Luminous smiled:

"Taoist Friend Taiqing... I have already understood."

"Do you know why Floating Realm turns into the Three Pristine Ones?"

All the Supremes looked over, confused, while Taiqing lowered his gaze:

"I do not know."

"I know!" Luminous Buddha's smile broadened: "Floating Realm's compassion—true compassion, he saw the [void amidst the Tao] and transformed into the Three Pristine Ones, and then into another Supreme Fruit Position."

"Just like..."

Luminous Buddha recalled the scene he had just witnessed, the middle-aged man falling and shattering, transforming into a myriad of realms:

"Just like, he saw a place in the void full of nothingness, then transformed into one realm, ten realms, then hundreds and thousands of realms."

The Supremes did not understand the meaning of this Past Adornment Buddha, but Luminous did not intend to explain—he was smiling, thinking he had glimpsed the true origin!!

"Floating Realm Great Compassion!"

Luminous Buddha folded his hands, sighing.

Yes, yes!

Floating Realm's Great Compassion, therefore transforming into Supreme Fruit Position, gave up himself—if so, how could he be willing to see the Supremes return to unity, Floating Realm reappear?

He is here, he has always been here—just now was the Floating Realm personally present, he did not wish to be the Tao Fruit again, Tao Fruit is not anyone, whoever is Tao Fruit is Floating Realm, whoever is Floating Realm is Tao Fruit!!

"Good, good, great good, great compassion!"

Luminous Buddha raised his head, calmly looking at the sword Taiqing slashed forward:

"Fellow Daoists, please discuss with me—excluding the Three Pristine Ones."

.........

Now node, Great Universe.

"Has it succeeded?"

Zhang Fusheng sat cross-legged in Yin Chang'an, muttering to himself.

He did not know.

The stronger the person, the easier it is to go astray, to fall into misconceptions... but after all, it is a Supreme, deceiving a Supreme, he really had no confidence.... Hmm?

Zhang Fusheng suddenly paused, raised his head, and lifted his gaze.

In his eyes gushed the light of the earth lamp.

"It succeeded."

He smiled, lifting his head, the earth lamp gifted by [Luminous Buddha] from some past time rose and fell in his eyes,

Zhang Fusheng raised his head, looking above Yin Chang'an, looking at the Great Other Shore World, outside the Other Shore, silhouettes descended, and the incarnations of the Supremes' external mortal bodies had personally arrived.