Honghuang: My understanding is beyond belief. I am the first immortal of Jiejiao.

"Amitabha."

Dipankara Buddha chanted a Buddhist mantra softly, said nothing more, and simply nodded. His figure then transformed into a stream of ancient light and headed towards the primordial chaos beyond the heavens.

He also didn't want to directly confront the enraged ancient dragons.

After seeing off Dipankara Buddha, Tathagata Buddha seemed to have exhausted the last bit of his feigned composure.

He took another deep breath and addressed the Buddhas in the hall in a solemn voice.

"Gentlemen, please follow me... out to 'receive guests'."

He spoke the words "receiving guests" with extreme difficulty, his voice filled with endless humiliation and helplessness.

Upon hearing this, the three thousand Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Arhats all turned ashen-faced, as if they had lost their parents, yet they dared not disobey. They could only muster their spirits and follow behind the Tathagata Buddha, as if heading to the execution ground, taking heavy steps as they left the solemn yet lifeless Great Thunderclap Temple.

However, they had barely stepped out of the temple gate, and hadn't even had a chance to see the scenery outside Mount Ling clearly—

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Nine terrifying auras, majestic, ancient, and domineering beyond description, descended with overwhelming force, like nine world-destroying meteors thrown from the primordial era, crashing heavily outside the Western Heavenly Spirit Mountain with a violent power that could crush and destroy everything!
Instead of crashing into the mountain-protecting formation, it directly used its supreme dragon might to forcefully suppress and cover the entire Ling Mountain Daoist Temple!

"Buzz—!!!"

At this moment, the entire Western Paradise Spirit Mountain emitted a violent roar and tremor as if it were about to collapse completely under the strain! The main body of the Spirit Mountain, which had stood majestically and been bathed in Buddha's light for countless years, shook wildly like a sapling in a storm!
The mountainside was cracked with jagged fissures, and countless exquisite pagodas and temples groaned and creaked as glazed tiles fell and shattered!
On Mount Ling, the once wondrous spiritual gardens, blessed by Buddhist teachings and perpetually blooming with exotic flowers and flowing with sweet springs, were now in utter chaos! Immortal herbs and roots lay scattered about, the springs had dried up, and mythical beasts and birds fled in terror, uttering mournful cries! The entire Buddhist paradise had instantly transformed from a blissful haven into a terrifying scene of impending doom!
"What's going on?!"

"An earth-shattering event? No! It's an external enemy!!"

"Heavens! Mount Ling... Is Mount Ling about to collapse?!"

"How long has it been peaceful? Why are they here again? Last time it was Prison God Lin Zhu, who is it this time?!"

Throughout Mount Ling, countless monks, novices, and guardian deities were in a state of panic and chaos, gazing up at the terrifying dragon's might that seemed to crush the heavens, their hearts filled with bewilderment and despair.

Why does this Western Paradise seem to have become a place of trouble, with the earth shaking and the sky trembling at the drop of a hat?
"Stabilize Mount Ling!!"

The Buddha's eyes widened in fury. He and several other powerful Buddhas beside him, who were also at the Quasi-Saint level, simultaneously unleashed their full magical power, transforming it into thick beams of merit and Buddha light containing the fundamental laws of Buddhism. Like pillars stabilizing the sea, they forcefully injected themselves into the violently shaking Mount Ling and the core of the protective array!
Several quasi-saint level experts joined forces, along with the accumulated strength of Mount Ling over countless years, and only then were they able to barely contain the earth-shattering impact and tremors. The shaking of Mount Ling gradually stopped, but the cracks on the mountain and the mess on the ground silently testified to the terror of what had just happened.

The dust has not yet settled.

The Buddha's face was pale, beads of sweat appearing on his forehead. He exchanged glances with the other ancient Buddhas who had attacked, all seeing the horror in their eyes. A single, overwhelming surge of power had nearly shaken the very foundations of the Western Paradise! The strength of this newcomer…

He still harbored a sliver of hope, or rather, a flicker of anger and resentment from the current Buddhist rulers, driven to the brink of despair. The Western Paradise was a supreme religion jointly established by the two saints, Jieyin and Zhunti, controlling the faith of billions of beings in Xiniu Hezhou, possessing enduring fortune and countless masters!
Even if your dragon race is ancient, it is still a race that declined and lived in a remote corner after the Dragon-Phoenix Tribulation. How dare you be so arrogant as to come directly to our door and act presumptuously in front of the sage's dojo?!

This anger, coupled with his dignity as the Buddha, forced him to straighten his spine.

He straightened his slightly disheveled robe, and with a renewed sense of Buddha's majesty and tranquility, he addressed the three thousand Buddhas behind him who remained terrified.

"Come with me! Let's see who this deity is, daring to run wild in my sacred Western Paradise! Don't disgrace the dignity of Buddhism!"

He had to uphold the dignity of the Western Paradise! Even if he was in the wrong, even if he might lose, he couldn't afford to lose his momentum!

Led by the Buddha, the three thousand Buddhas, each displaying their Buddha light and solemn appearance, flew out of the range of the protective array of Mount Ling like a golden auspicious cloud, and came to the front of the nine terrifying dragon shadows that stood in the void like ancient mountains.

However, when the Buddha truly stood still and looked up to see the complete form of the nine giant dragons, especially when he felt their undisguised, almost tangible, terrifying dragon might that carried the weight of primordial wilderness and the accumulation of countless ages...

The little bit of prestige and dignity he had painstakingly mustered vanished instantly, like ice and snow under the sun! In its place rose an almost uncontrollable fear from the depths of his soul!
Nine colossal dragons! Each one stretched for tens of thousands of miles, its scales menacing, its claws and teeth ferocious, its bodies swirling with terrifying phenomena of chaotic energy and its own primordial laws! Their eyes, like nine cold suns, looked down without a trace of emotion, filled only with boundless rage and an arrogant disdain for all things!

What made Tathagata's heart stop even more was that the aura emanating from these nine giant dragons was no weaker than his own, a quasi-saint at the peak of his power who ruled the central Saha world! In fact, the aura of the three leading dragons, whose colors were the deepest and most ancient, was so obscure and terrifying that even he felt they were unfathomable!
But that's not the worst part.

What made the Buddha's scalp tingle and his legs go weak was what he saw among the three leading dragons: the one with a body entirely purple-gold, as if formed from the purest dragon energy and supreme laws, had three floating crowns that appeared to be interwoven with boundless fortune and ancient glory—the Purple-Gold Dragon Crown!
A purple-gold dragon crown!!
It was as if billions of thunderbolts exploded simultaneously in Tathagata's mind! The oldest and most core secrets of the Dragon Clan instantly surfaced!

That was the supreme symbol formed when the Dragon Clan was at its peak in the primordial era, dominating the world and swallowing the universe. It was the result of the entire race possessing nearly one-third of the supreme fortune and glory of the Three Realms! Only the Dragon Emperors of each generation were qualified to wear it!

It not only represents power, but also embodies the recognition of heaven and earth and the favor of the Great Dao during the most glorious era of the Dragon Clan! It is more noble and more inviolable than any innate spiritual treasure... the crown of power!
In those days, the Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin clans stood in a tripartite balance of power, with the Dragon clan reigning supreme, suppressing the Phoenix and Qilin clans, dominating the four seas and eight wastelands, and shaking the primordial world! At that time, the Dragon Emperor was a supreme being of heaven and earth, whom even the Dao Ancestor Hongjun had to show deference to before he became a saint! His status and strength were unparalleled in the primordial world!
Before them appeared three colossal dragons, each with a purple-gold dragon crown atop its head! What did this mean? It meant that these nine dragons were likely the true emperors and supreme elders of the dragon race, survivors of the great calamity of the dragons and phoenixes, from that glorious era! They were the true foundation and backbone of the dragon race!
He, Tathagata, though currently the head of Buddhism, a peak Quasi-Saint, and in charge of a major sect, is nothing compared to this ancient Dragon Emperor, who has lived since the beginning of time and once contended with the Dao Ancestor! He's probably not even a "rising star"! In terms of strength and seniority, if the other party were to be serious, it wouldn't be an exaggeration for him to call him "Senior" or even "Great Father"! If the Dragon Emperor were to be enraged and reprimand him, it would likely damage his fortune and lifespan! If Dipankara Buddha were here, facing this situation, he would probably be quite apprehensive!
At this moment, the Buddha finally understood how ridiculous and ignorant his previous anger and resentment had been! Faced with absolute power and ancient status, the "prestige" of the Western Paradise was as thin as a cicada's wing!
He stood before Kowloon, feeling as insignificant as a speck of dust. An overwhelming sense of fear, like a icy tide, engulfed him.

He could even sense that if any of the dragon emperors showed him true killing intent at this moment, even if the two saints, Jieyin and Zhunti, were to descend immediately, they might not be able to save his life one hundred percent!

Saints do not defy the heavens, for even those who defy the heavens have karmic consequences. But if such an ancient dragon emperor were to fight to the death, the backlash from the Great Dao and the entanglement of karma contained within would give even saints a headache!
It felt as if an invisible hand was gripping the Buddha's throat, and cold sweat instantly soaked through the monk's robe on his back.

He opened his mouth, but found that he couldn't make a sound.

He took several deep breaths of the air, thick with the dragon's might, which almost suffocated him, before he could barely steady his mind, which was on the verge of collapse.

She forced a smile, but it looked ten times worse than crying.

He bowed slightly, his voice dry and hoarse, filled with unprecedented humility and fawning, as he spoke tremblingly to the nine giant dragons that resembled ancient divine mountains, especially the three dragon emperors with purple-gold dragon crowns on their heads.

"Esteemed...elders of the dragon race...we have come from afar, and we have failed to greet you properly. Please forgive us..."

He swallowed a non-existent saliva and continued speaking in an extremely humble tone.

"This...this is not the place to talk, I'm afraid...I'm afraid it would offend your eyes. How about...we move to my Great Thunderclap Temple in the Western Paradise? Please...please allow me to serve you the finest tea from Mount Ling, and we...we can sit down and...we can discuss this properly? Everything...is negotiable, everything is negotiable..."

He was practically begging, hoping to first invite these evil spirits into Mount Ling, where the home-field formation might alleviate the pressure slightly, and then slowly delay, waiting for the Ancient Buddha Dipankara to invite the saint to guide them.

However, what responded to him was the oldest dragon, the one with the most obscure and terrifying aura, the one with the most purple-gold body and the most dazzling light on the dragon crown on its head—the current Dragon Emperor, or rather, the head of the Dragon Emperors.

The Dragon Emperor's golden vertical pupils, larger than stars, coldly looked down at the Buddha below, who was as humble and obsequious as an ant. His eyes were devoid of any emotion, only filled with endless anger and a kind of disdain born of being deeply offended.

There was absolutely no intention to "save face" or "sit down and talk".

The Dragon Emperor's enormous tail, stretching for tens of thousands of miles, arrived without warning, carrying a terrifying power capable of shattering galaxies and reversing time, as casually and domineeringly as it shooed away flies from the Buddha and the "golden auspicious clouds" behind him.

Suddenly, he swung it!
The Buddha's humble, almost fawning "invitation" had barely faded, even the last syllables still trembling in the air—

His response was that of the oldest and most noble Purple-Gold Dragon Emperor, whose actions were undisguised and merciless!
"Buzz—!!!"

The void trembled! The unimaginably massive dragon body of the Purple-Gold Dragon Emperor twitched slightly, and its enormous tail, thicker than a pillar supporting the sky, covered with ancient purple-gold scales and swirling with chaotic energy and supreme dragon might, swept fiercely towards the Buddha and the three thousand Buddhas' "auspicious clouds" behind him, which seemed vast but were actually as fragile as paper before such beings!

There were no words, no warnings, not even a single extra glance!

This is the simplest and most direct law believed by those supreme beings who seized the creation of heaven and earth at the beginning of time, whose souls were imprinted with the most primal arrogance and power: Might makes right! Violence is order! Cooperation? Sure.

But if the cooperation fails, or if you offend me, then there's nothing to talk about! I'll flip the table! I'll smash everything you're so proud of to pieces!

All schemes and plots, all weighing pros and cons, all the dignity of a saint—in the eyes of this ancient emperor who has fought his way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, through the rise and fall of races, are nothing but illusions! Only absolute power is the sole language of communication!

Before the dragon's tail even arrived, the terrifying pressure, pure to the extreme and domineering to the extreme, had already struck the protective array of Mount Ling and the minds of Tathagata and the others like a massive hammer blow!

Mount Ling, which had just been barely stabilized by the combined efforts of several quasi-saints, once again let out a mournful cry of unbearable strain, as if it were about to collapse completely at any moment! The cracks in the mountain widened, rocks tumbled down, and the Buddha's light flickered violently!

"not good!!"

The Buddha was terrified; the humble smile on his face froze instantly, replaced by boundless horror! He never imagined that his opponent would attack without uttering a single word! And with such a ruthless and destructive attack!

"Protect the Great Thunderclap Temple! Form the array!!"

At this critical moment of life and death, Tathagata could not care about anything else. He roared hoarsely, his voice distorted! He knew that if this tail struck him squarely, not only would their group suffer, but the entire core area of ​​Mount Sumeru would likely be destroyed in unimaginable ways!

"Om Mani Padme Hum—!!"

Although the three thousand Buddhas were filled with extreme fear, they also unleashed their survival instinct and the last bit of dignity as Buddhas in response to the Tathagata's almost desperate roar! They all leaped up, their bodies radiating brilliant Buddhist light, chanting the six-syllable mantra of Avalokiteshvara, and simultaneously unleashing their most treasured magical artifacts!

In an instant, the sky seemed to transform into a golden ocean! Countless alms bowls, staffs, prayer beads, pagodas, golden wheels, lotuses... all kinds of Buddhist treasures of extraordinary quality shimmered with various colors of Buddhist light and runes, like a galaxy of stars!
Furthermore, streams of pure, vast, and unified Buddhist power surged forth from each Buddha, Arhat, and Bodhisattva, rapidly intertwining and converging in the air! (End of Chapter)