On the summit of Crane Mountain, the plainly dressed monk sat high on the lotus dais. His dry lips opened and closed, and word after word of true mantra rolled out across the world.

His palms were pressed together, his face full of compassion.

Countless living beings gazed up at him in reverence.

Never mind mortals—even for the cultivators of the great sects, the only thing that could stand beside the Lotus Dais Method was a true Immortal Venerable's lineage within the Three Immortals Teaching.

Golden light that breaks all methods, as they said.

All those heterodox wild methods that people hoarded like treasures were nothing at all beside the Pilgrim's path.

Something this precious, and the Bodhisattva took nothing for it and set no threshold at all. He simply taught it openly to the world. What a broad and generous heart!

Never mind cultivators—even mortals who could read hurried to pull out paper and brush. Those without paper simply stripped off their clothes and wrote right on the fronts of their robes.

Yet in the midst of all this joyous clamor, many faces darkened with fury.

High in the sky, a pale yellow mist invisible to mortal eyes was swiftly gathering. It was the human world's imperial qi that watched over the Divine Land. It surged like a long dragon, and all of it swept into the sky above Crane Mountain.

This was a warning from the Divine Dynasty!

The Seven-Treasure Bodhisattva sat upright on the lotus dais, his eyes clouded, his lids half-lowered, as if he couldn't see the change in the sky.

He explained the scripture in the plainest possible terms, like a conscientious schoolteacher who had come only to teach and transform living beings.

He finished the Three-Kalpa Lotus Dais Method without pausing at all. He only pressed his lips together and went straight on to the Six-Kalpa Lotus Dais Method.

Beyond the many towns lay a great prefectural city.

“Hnh!”

From that magnificent city, who knew how many tens of thousands of li away, came a cold, angry snort.

The imperial qi filling the sky…