Mysterious mirror hanging high

There are now two monks sitting upright in the hall. One of them is wearing a golden cassock. He looks fatter than Jin Yunzi, with his fat body trembling. If he had not cleansed his Dharma body and transformed his mortal body when he was building his foundation, this man would probably not live long with this fat body.

Jing Yu had asked Jin Yunzi for a portrait before. This golden-robed monk must be the abbot of the Niehai Jinlian Temple, Master Jinlian.

The monk opposite him was exactly the opposite. He was skinny and looked much older than Master Jinlian. His beard was already gray under his chin, and it was unknown how many years he had left to live.

The strangest thing is that this thin monk is clearly in the late stage of foundation building, but his spiritual pressure rises and falls like the tide, which is obviously a sign of unstable realm, and there is even a tendency for him to fall to the middle stage of foundation building.

Master Jinlian looked at the skinny monk with a complicated look in his eyes. He just chanted the Buddha's name softly and said lightly:

"Buddha-honored One! Junior Brother Jinglian, it's been years since we last met. How come you have the leisure to visit a humble household like mine?"

Master Jinglian looked distressed, clasping his hands together and saying, "Brother Jinlian, it's been one hundred and fifty years since we last met. Are you still brooding over Master expelling you from Yuntaiyuan?"

Master Jinlian laughed heartily. "How could that be! Back then, Master accused Jinlian of indulging in worldly pleasures, of not yet having completely given up her worldly desires, of not being able to find freedom, and of failing to achieve enlightenment... and he expelled me from Yuntaiyuan."

"Under desperation, I, Senior Brother, traveled overseas and switched to practicing the Taoist method of building a foundation and elixirs. Haven't I achieved success in my practice yet?"

"But Junior Brother Jinglian, why are you like this?"

Master Jinlian sneered, "Master always said that you were gifted and had extraordinary wisdom. You practiced the ancient Buddhist teachings and had the hope of forming a golden elixir relic. How come you can't even maintain the late stage of foundation building now?"

Master Jinglian lowered his brows and said, "Brother Jinlian, you may not know that since our master passed away, the temples and monasteries surrounding Yuntaiyuan have been restless, often crossing the border to provoke, and even disregarding the rules, kidnapping believers within the territory and forcing them to convert..."

"The situation in the courtyard is getting worse day by day. A few days ago, the mountain gate was occupied. Now my junior brother is in dire straits and has no one he can trust in the world. I have no choice but to come to you for help."

Master Jinlian had a cold expression. He waved his robe, his fat body trembling. "What a joke! We haven't seen each other for over a hundred years. Even the deep friendship we had back then has faded away. Am I, Jinlian, someone you can trust?"

"What are you planning to do now that you've come to me for refuge?"

Master Jinglian said with a sad face, "Brother, you made a grave mistake back then. Master wanted to destroy your cultivation, but I secretly let you go... You can't just ignore this little friendship, right?"

The fat on Master Jinlian's face twitched, and he snorted coldly, "If it weren't for this incident, how could Junior Brother even speak to me in person? But if you're relying on this incident to ask me to help you recapture that damn mountain gate, forget it."

"Yuntai Temple is our ancestral property after all. The conspiracy involved inevitably involves the involvement of the surrounding Jindan Temples. How could I possibly embarrass you like this? I just hope I can use your connections overseas to find a medium-sized island with a dense population to reestablish the Yuntai Temple legacy..."

At first, Master Jinlian just frowned and listened quietly, but after hearing these words, his face suddenly changed drastically, and he jumped up from the cushion, revealing a huge dent on the cushion beneath him:

"You are so good, Jinglian! I took you into the temple out of kindness, but you turned your kindness against me and tried to harm me!"

"The various Yuanying immortal clans in the Falling Star Sea jointly formulated the rules of the sea, one of which is that Buddhist monks are not allowed to recruit believers or collect incense and vows in the major waters of the Falling Star Sea!"

"Even if they were selling the natives in the sea and sending them to Futu Xianzhou, it would still be against the rules."

"However, after all, this isn't strictly speaking about developing followers within the Falling Star Sea. It's just a game of words. Furthermore, this matter is kept secret and cannot be completely banned, which is why the immortals turned a blind eye..."

"But if I help you establish Yuntaiyuan overseas and spread the ancient Buddhist faith, I will be publicly humiliating all the tribes in Luoxinghai! Not to mention a mere Foundation Establishment master like me, even a Golden Core Master would be unable to handle it!"

Master Jinglian's expression was dismal, his lips moving, "It's just... the Yuntai Academy inheritance will end with you, Junior Brother!"

Master Jinlian said with great regret:

"Junior brother, I'm not here to teach you a lesson..."

"Although you and I are brothers, we entered Yuntai Academy almost at the same time, so our ages are similar."

"When I was thirty, I escaped from Yuntaiyuan and turned to cultivating the foundation-building alchemy path. Now, one hundred and fifty years have passed, and I have reached the middle stage of the foundation-building stage. I am now one hundred and eighty years old. The lifespan of a Taoist foundation-building practitioner is three hundred years, so I still have one hundred and twenty years to live."

"You, the ancient Buddhist cultivators, cultivate with the power of incense and vows. Although your progress is slightly faster, your lifespan is far less. The lifespan of a Buddhist foundation-building cultivator is two hundred years, the lifespan of a Golden Core cultivator is five hundred years, and the lifespan of a Buddhist or Taoist Nascent Soul cultivator is only a mere thousand years, a full thousand years less than that of a Taoist Nascent Soul cultivator..."

"You are now one hundred and seventy-nine years old, a year younger than I am. But your beard has turned completely white, and you only have twenty years left to live."

Master Jinlian shook his head. "What good is there in this ancient method of cultivation that relies on the power of incense and vows?"

“The dogs don’t even practice anymore!”

Jing Yu, who was eavesdropping outside the hall, was shocked. It was as if he had suddenly realized something. He immediately thought of something:

"No wonder the entire Buddhist community is quite hostile to Taoist Master Changqing!"

The path of the Taoist Master Changqing can affect the lifespans of ordinary cultivators. He can improve the lifespans of cultivators in the foundation-building and elixir-making systems, allowing them to live for three hundred years, and for those in the golden elixir system to achieve a minor immortality of eight hundred years. How could he not be able to change the lifespans of Buddhist cultivators?

But it simply bypassed the Buddhist practice system of incense and vows, which was obviously intended to disgust several Buddhas!

When Taoist Master Changqing makes further progress in his path, the lifespan increased by the Taoist foundation-building pill system will only push the Buddhist incense and vow system further and further away. Then, after a few more epochs, who in the world will be so foolish as to practice Buddhist techniques?

This is going to dig up the roots of Buddhism!

On second thought, what kind of event could make Taoist Changqing do this?

But from the difference in lifespans between the Buddhist and Taoist systems, a lot of inside information could be guessed. At this moment, Jing Yu couldn't help but feel a little scared:

"Nine-Life Daojun once said that the life path of the Buddha Universal Salvation was solely focused on the four words 'universal salvation of all living beings'. Although his stance was that of a Buddhist, he had truly reached a state where all discrimination was eliminated."

"I didn't quite understand it at first, but now it seems that seeing is believing."

"Daoist Master Changqing's actions have almost made him a common enemy of Buddhism. If it were any other Buddha Lord, knowing my background, there would be no need for negotiation. I'm afraid they would have killed me with magic long ago!"