Wandering Gods of Day and Night

The Lotus Throne was crafted by the will of Black Water using the bones of Heavenly Officials and Ghost hands. Each petal resembles a multicolored glazed tile, with a surface smoother than any mirror.

With an ordinary mirror, when Zhou Xuan enhances his Perception to its fullest, he can notice that even when magnified infinitely, there are some textures and pores on the mirror.

However, those glazed lotus flowers, no matter how Zhou Xuan pushes his Perception to its limit, he still only feels smoothness.

The Lotus Throne slowly rotates within the Dragon Prison Well, as the Seven-leaf Sage holds a Bodhi Branch with seven leaves, gazing at the distant Star Shield.

"After all these years, you are still as beautiful as you were back then."

The Seven-leaf Sage bent forward, bowing to the Star Shield.

"Seven-leaf, you still have not truly died?"

In the past two hundred years, the Star Shield often recalled the Seven-leaf Sage in her dreams, waking suddenly each time, tears streaming upon waking.

Yet seeing the Seven-leaf Sage today, she had anticipated being overwhelmed, eager to embrace Seven-leaf, and pour out her thoughts and longings accumulated over these years,

but she unexpectedly found herself very calm, aside from being amazed that the "Seven-leaf Sage" was still alive, she felt no impulse to rush forward and embrace, nor even the urge to approach the Sage by a few steps, only watching from afar.

Meanwhile, the Day and Night Wandering Gods from Mingjiang Prefecture and Ping Shui Prefecture also turned around, dedicating some attention towards observing the words and deeds of the Seven-leaf Sage,

after all, this Great Venerable, is not an entity with a good reputation.

Everyone present knows that he was once the lover of the Star Shield.

Whether he is friend or foe, is still not very clear.

Facing hostility, the Seven-leaf Sage remained unfazed, simply bowing to the crowd, and after a gesture of "please," a path was opened for him.

As the Seven-leaf Sage stepped forward on this path, Li Chengfeng watched carefully.

He is a Heavenly God Scholar, possessing a natural curiosity towards matters of the mysterious, and understanding the true form of the Seven-leaf Sage is part of that curiosity.

Upon careful observation, Li Chengfeng noticed that the face of the Seven-leaf Sage is peculiar, with different expressions and demeanor on either side along the central axis of the face.

The expression on the left side is like a gentle breeze, offering a sense of warmth, yet maintaining dignity.

The expression on the right side is quite alluring, both charmingly seductive and full of lust.

"My joyful Junior Brother represents the human world's love and desire; the warm face symbolizes true love in the human world, the alluring face symbolizes deep carnal desire,

with love but no desire, there is joy but no delight, with desire but without love, there is delight but no joy, only when love and desire are intertwined, mingling like milk and water, is there true human joy."

Master Wu Ya momentarily forgot to make his move, he remarked to Zhou Xuan with emotion: "Ever since my joyful Junior Brother saw the Star Shield two hundred years ago, he revealed his true self, mingling joy and delight, the boundary between the two became indistinct, demonstrating how much he favored that Star Shield woman."

"Do you ancient Buddhas among the twenty-one transcendences not abstain from lust for women?"

Zhou Xuan felt that among the twenty-one transcendences, there might even be joyful zen, which seems not to follow the path of complete emptiness.

"We do abstain."

Master Wu Ya said: "Love brings worry, love brings fear, if one departs from love, there is no worry nor fear, this is the true teaching of ancient Buddha; if my joyful Junior Brother can understand how to depart from love, he can truly master joyful zen, returning to the fruit position of the twenty-one transcendences."

...

The leaves of the seven-leaf branch held by the Seven-leaf Sage turned from lush green to withered yellow, curled by the wind.

"Ah Xing, ever since I first saw you, I was joyful, joyful for your appearance, joyful for your actions. If you do not come to Qiye Temple, I cannot recite sutras or practice zen, and you find me the same,

that night, you came to see me late at night, I was pivoting the prayer beads, reading the Buddhist classic 'The Delightful King's Quest for Dharma'..."

"Love births worry, love births fear, if one departs from love, there is no worry nor fear…"

Star Shield recited the content from 'The Delightful King's Quest for Dharma,' also recalling the story that unfolded that night.

"That night upon seeing you, my prayer beads broke, wooden beads scattered across the ground. Both of us, a Great Buddha and an Alien Ghost, in the name of love, disregarded the supreme will's restraints, and thereafter…"

"Thereafter, there were no peaceful days for us." Star Shield said.

"Love birthed worry, as soon as we fell in love, the worrying days arrived. I possess a Buddha body, you are an Alien Ghost, fundamentally we were not to love each other, constantly fearing the arrival of the supreme will, ready to justify us, worried so long it bred fear, eventually fear birthed evil."

The Seven-leaf Sage said: "To conceal our affair, we committed many wrongs, you banished the Buddha's son 'Six Desires,' sealing them in the Forbidden Tower of Qiye Temple, as my Buddha energy declined, to keep the decline of Buddha energy a secret, I was forced to seal Junior Brother Zhu Jiu in the Forbidden Tower."

"But ultimately we didn't evade it, the will located us, justified us."

Star Shield said: "With the support of my brother and the Fire Sect, I hid in the human world, and you... how did you survive?"

"This indeed baffles me."

The Seven-leaf Sage said: "Master Wu Ya appeared, gathered my fragmented soul, plunging me into the path of reincarnation, sometimes awakening, sometimes into prolonged sleep, unable to withdraw,

so I sought help from Young Master Yama's Trigram, wanting him to locate the ancient Buddha, to solve my perplexity—if I committed a grave error, unable to compensate, then why not disperse my path, to end it all.