"This is a tribulation from before the Great Tribulations, which corrupts and causes suffering to all phenomena in the world, without beginning or end."
"Great Sun Tathagata, I shall use this beginningless vast tribulation to send you into annihilation, to destroy you within this illusory realm of corruption and suffering, never to escape."
Huiji Vajra cast all these distorted phenomena, these ruined manifestations, into the torrent of karma, causing this pure land, which transcended time yet reflected all things, to become turbid and defiled.
Great Sun Tathagata clasped his hands together, seeing through the root cause of this tribulation:
"No one in the world can witness the torrent of karma within the Dharma, thus no one can be equal to the Buddha. Therefore, the person Huiji originally intended to kill is, in fact, the Buddha."
However, the Buddha was now at the origin of causality, something even more unfathomable than the torrent of karma, whose method of attainment was unknown to the world. As for himself and Huiji Vajra, they were entangled by a tribulation of cause.
Because of this tribulation of cause, he had prevented Huiji from ever attaining his primordial state.
Yet, it was also because of this tribulation of cause that Huiji Vajra had gained something unprecedented.
In the past, the Northern Pole True Person mastered the Vajra Seal. Once the Northern Pole True Person attained the Buddha Dharma, the primordial position would immediately manifest. Because the other party was a manifestation of the Jade Pure cultivator in the world, the Vajra could only glimpse the primordial state by borrowing the primordial nature from him.
The holder of the Vajra Seal was his manifested body.
Whatever the Northern Pole attained in the Buddha Dharma, the Vajra would gain. Whatever Buddhist principles the Northern Pole understood, the Vajra would comprehend. All of this was to borrow the primordial to illuminate the primordial.
But the Northern Pole did not attain Buddhahood, nor did he witness the torrent of karma. Instead, he finally comprehended the Great Luo through his future self and entered the Heavenly Heart. As for what happened next...
It was himself who attained, who entered the torrent of karma, and the Huiji Vajra Seal was transferred to Qingyang. He was also a being of the Jade Pure, an evil being of the Jade Pure, possessing the primordial nature.
"Indeed! I did not wish to kill you, nor did I wish to kill the Northern Pole. But now, the battles among the powerful of the Jade Pure have even erased the old time, and yet you have entered the torrent of karma, gaining the qualification to achieve the primordial state."
"I cannot see the Buddha, and yet you are so closely related to me. Tell me, can I not harm you?"
Huiji Vajra's voice was filled with regret:
"Facing an existence at your level is like facing the Buddha, an entity who has reached the pinnacle of a great Dao. I, a Heavenly Heart cultivator, cannot stir up any waves before you. It is a pity that I have mastered the beginningless vast tribulation and obtained a Dharma that does not exist in this world."
"You have it backward. You obtained the Dharma of the illusory realm, which is why you can manifest the beginningless vast tribulation."
The voice of the Twelve Jade Pure followed closely: "But the Dharma of the illusory realm is not something you can wield freely. As you yourself said, you are merely a Heavenly Heart!"
"Without years and time, past and future, even the Heavenly Dao no longer exists. What use is the Heavenly Heart!"
The old time had been completely sealed off. In the new time, there was no place for the old Heavenly Heart. The past and future, where all their traces were reflected, no longer existed. Even if the torrent of karma still recorded them, these were merely 'cause and effect'.
Cause represented the past, and effect represented the future. But they only symbolized the beginning and end of events. The entire process in between could also be recorded by cause and effect, but without the power of past and future, they could not form time. They still needed karmic affinity to connect them.
When the Four Symbols were incomplete, it meant the Dao did not continue. Therefore, the Heavenly Heart, which was omnipotent by relying on the complete Four Symbols in the old time, no longer possessed the divine power to reverse the past and reflect the future within the torrent of karma.
"If I do not succeed, I will become an image of the illusory realm, a product of delusion, and will no longer appear in the true flow of time, unable to leave even a trace within cause and effect. I have long been aware of this."
Huiji Vajra's tone was very calm: "This is when one knows it is impossible but chooses to do it anyway."
Great Sun Tathagata and the Twelve Jade Pure fell silent for a moment.
The old time was sealed off, and the new time refused his entry. To pursue the power of the primordial, he had come here, even willing to become a vessel carrying the beginningless vast tribulation. There was no turning back. A Heavenly Heart realm cultivator, at this moment, had no retreat.
"Heavenly Heart, as expected, is the wrong path. In the old time, within the known Heavenly Dao, it was called half a body, but it could not exist independently of the Heavenly Dao. Although higher realms are not easily achieved, once they appear, it is a disaster for the Heavenly Heart."
"Unable to achieve the power of self-manifesting the Four Symbols, sinking into the illusion of controlling the Four Symbols, believing oneself omnipotent by reversing the past and reflecting the future. There were many like me in the world."
"Even now, there are still many. They still intend to go to the new time, not giving up."
Huiji Vajra sighed: "Fang Shi invited me to go to the Divine Realm. Although, anyone who enters the Divine Realm, whether Buddhist, Taoist, or even Christian, will become a new 'Fang Shi'..."
"But if it's for survival, then these are trivial matters that need not be cared about."
"That place is probably inexplicably like this place, where even if the old time is completely sealed off, one can safely pass through the disaster. Even if one cannot enter the new time, one would not end up like I am now."
"But I did not go. This is not because I do not want to live, but since I have cultivated to this point, even if it is just a small Heavenly Heart realm, having schemed for thousands of years, I still want to fight for something."
"For this, I am willing to kill fellow cultivators, become a great tribulation, and even corrupt karma."
Having gambled for many years, all for a single obsession in my heart, will this obsession not be realized when the old time is sealed off?
At least, I must try once.
"Dao is fought for."
The Twelve Jade Pure's tone changed: "It seems I underestimated you. I thought someone like you shouldn't have come to this torrent of karma, nor should you have the ability to attain the state before the ultimate silence."
"But now, although you still cannot attain the state before the ultimate silence, perhaps it is because of this obsession that your will is everywhere. Perhaps it is not Great Sun Tathagata who is guiding you, but your own obsession, which is enough for you to see the torrent of karma."
Great Sun Tathagata said nothing more.
At this moment, Huiji Vajra was exactly like his past self.
Indeed, perhaps that was the obsession they both shared: to attain the primordial state. And if he had not come to the torrent of karma, on the dead-end path of the world's sealing, would he not have made the same choice as Huiji Vajra, choosing to risk his life in the end?
Even if there was a chance to survive and continue to the next era, he would be willing to give it up.
"Perhaps I am also like you. I say I give up, but my obsession still exists within the torrent of karma, which means I have not truly let go."
"Since you go to question the Buddha with death, I shall respond with the aura of annihilation."
The cause-and-effect radiance emanated from Great Sun Tathagata. He voluntarily threw himself into that corrupted karma, and the entire torrent began to shake. The Great Sun Tathagata, who had reached the same level as the Buddha, repaired and reversed the pieces of the beginningless vast tribulation manifested by Huiji Vajra. The two great Buddhas engaged in an eternal duel at the extreme end of worldly karma.
...
Until, that thread of causality descended from further beyond.
An unknown amount of time had passed, or perhaps, only an instant had passed.
"When the cause arises, the effect is already determined."
The Twelve Jade Pure turned, following that thread of causality, and saw the Thirteen Jade Pure.
Ji Xiang appeared in the torrent of karma. He looked at the two great Buddhas who were dueling and reached out to take away their "effect."
The determined effect.
"In this way, it is the true doctrine of the Buddha Dharma. From the beginningless vast tribulation, to the end of no effect."
"All things in the world, without beginning or end."
Ji Xiang took this effect as a ball of radiance, as the last of the Four Symbols in the new world. It was the future where Great Sun Tathagata and Huiji Vajra both entered annihilation yet left behind a unified Buddha fruit, a future that was destined not to happen.
"By taking away the future, one ultimately does not attain the primordial state."
The Twelve Jade Pure called out to Ji Xiang: "You see me, and you are not surprised at all, nor do you have any questions?"
Ji Xiang turned back: "The last Jade Pure cultivator in the world, your karmic affinity is not in the old time, which is why we cannot see you, and Mr. Gu cannot find you. I think you are probably an outsider like Taishang, or like me, a remnant image cast from another old time."
"But now, the First Jade Pure no longer exists, and the identity of a Jade Pure cultivator is no longer important. Your origin, your destination, is also of no consequence to me."
"As for taking away the future and not attaining the primordial state."
"You are mistaken. The primordial state they seek to attain is not the Primordial Buddha, nor the Buddha-thought of all sentient beings as the beginning, but the First Cause. Since it is the First Cause, one cannot seek it through 'effect'. Therefore, by taking away their effect, they are left only with cause, and thus they naturally achieve the 'Primordial Buddha'."
As Ji Xiang finished speaking, Great Sun Tathagata and Huiji Vajra both disappeared from the torrent of karma, and even the beginningless vast tribulation vanished.
The Twelve Jade Pure: "Where did they go?"
Ji Xiang: "Perhaps, they are now before the beginningless vast tribulation, at the time when the tribulation arose, within the illusory realm, within the true. After all, even illusion is within the First Cause."
"Twelve Jade Pure, I will also depart again. Perhaps we will meet again in the future."