That great Buddha who came walking had cultivated with his hair unshorn, unlike other monks; he wore no monk's robe, and looked like an ordinary man of the mundane world. Yet as he walked, Buddha-sounds rolled in vast waves and Buddha-light surged, gathering behind his head into ring upon ring of halos. Within those halos, one heaven of the Buddha-realm after another appeared, twenty-eight tiers in all, with a great Mount Sumeru at their center. Holy Buddhas stood amid those heavens, sutras on their lips, and flowers rained down from the sky, so that the Lame Old Man and the Blind Old Man, who had been fighting, calmed their hearts and ceased their struggle. This great Buddha was none other than Lord Huo of Yincan Village, Ma the Divine Constable, Ma Rulai. He came striding forward, layer upon layer of Buddha-light behind him, and the twenty-eight heavens of the Buddha-realm grew ever more vivid and real; Buddha-treasures of every kind hung within those heavens, wreathed in precious radiance, solemn and extraordinary. Ignoring the crowd, Lord Huo went straight to Shen Mu's side and raised a hand, pointing into Shen Mu's dream. And just like that, the dream opened. Lord Huo stepped into Shen Mu's dream, came to the point between Shen Mu's brows, and sat down cross-legged in the lotus position. Hum, hum, hum — Vibration after vibration came; the twenty-eight heavens of the Buddha-realm behind Lord Huo's head revolved and hung behind the head of Shen Mu's primal spirit. The Buddhas of those heavens chanted in a great chorus, Buddha-sounds coiled and lingered, Brahma-notes rang through all the heavens. Lord Huo slowly closed his eyes, yet the eye at the point between his brows slowly opened. Ma Rulai's third eye was the Buddha Eye, which ordinarily stayed shut; when the Buddha Eye opened, it meant the situation was dire beyond measure. But once this Buddha Eye opened, a beam of Buddha-light shot from it and fixed upon the Buddha Shen Mu, and that Buddha Shen Mu in the dream at once ceased assimilating. From the vertical eye between Ma Rulai's brows, beam after beam of Buddha-light shot out, fixing each Shen Mu in the dream in place. He gave a soft cry: "Delusion." At once the Shen Mus in the dream all fell silent, one after another. Some struggled to open their mouths, but the moment they spoke it was deluded speech, no longer the scriptures of the Mira Palace Primordial Sage. Ma Rulai's two eyes remained tightly shut, but the third eye at the point between his brows stayed open, continuing to hold fast the countless Shen Mus in the dream. He spoke: "I can help the child Shen hold out for a few days, but not for long. I have a junior fellow disciple, Zhankong, whose Buddha-heart is lofty and bright. He dwells in the Great Tingming Temple, and his Buddha-nature has already reached deep into the Great Brahma Heaven. Lame Old Man, go and invite him here." The Lame Old Man's spirits soared. His primal spirit flew back into his flesh at once, and in a sudden flicker of movement — the Blind Old Man gave a startled cry — every stitch of his clothing was stolen clean away, not even his socks left behind. The Blind Old Man hastily shielded his privates with the Longtuo Divine Spear and raged: "Lame Old Man, you vent your spite on whoever is at hand, and take it out on me!" The Lame Old Man had long since swaggered off, scattering the Blind Old Man's underdrawers, socks, inner robe and outer robe every which way. The Silent Artisan brought over a set of clothes. The Blind Old Man hurried off to a quiet, deserted spot to put them on, and fumed: "Venting your spite on others — you damned Lame Old Man! It was Granny Zhu who beat you first. I only lent a hand. If you've got the guts, go steal Granny Zhu's clothes..." Before his words had died away, a rumbling string of great Yuanci divine arts came crashing down, and the Blind Old Man was instantly pressed flat to the ground, spread-eagled, unable to move. Rumble, rumble — another string of great divine arts pressed down. All the Blind Old Man could do was kick his legs; even the Longtuo Divine Spear was pressed into meek submission, grumbling at him without end. Several days later, the Lame Old Man came racing back swift as wind and lightning, both hands holding up a Xuanliao Demon Ape with glossy black fur. The Xuanliao Demon Ape was huge as a mountain, yet held aloft by him it still slept soundly, snoring like thunder. The Blind Old Man felt the weight on him lighten, and only then breathed a sigh of relief and scrambled up in haste — he had been pinned down for several days, and no doubt Granny Zhu, seeing the Lame Old Man come racing over with the Xuanliao Demon Ape Zhankong in his hands, had let her anger cool and let him off. "Zhankong Rulai was still asleep, and you brought him here anyway?" The Blind Old Man stepped forward to meet him and asked. The Lame Old Man carried Zhankong Rulai over to Shen Mu's side and set this Reclining Buddha down. The fur of the Xuanliao Demon Ape Zhankong Rulai had grown longer than before; there was no telling at all that he was a great Buddha possessed of vast Buddha-dharma and a Buddha-heart — he looked instead like a demon-monster out of Youdu. "He was asleep. Monks and Buddhas were all over the mountains and plains. I tried to wake him, but no matter what I did he would not wake, so I had no choice but to steal him." The Lame Old Man said resentfully: "The monks and Buddhas of the Great Tingming Temple are a stingy lot too — they actually came after me with blades and weapons. Good thing I run fast." The Blind Old Man was speechless. Lord Huo's voice came from the layered depths of Shen Mu's dreams: "Though my junior fellow disciple Zhankong is poor in dharma power and cultivation, in cultivation of the heart he stands above me. He is the only one who comes close to the Old Buddha. With him here, we can hold out another month." He sat within the point between the brows of Shen Mu's primal spirit, his figure swaying as if about to fall, and the beams of Buddha-light from the Buddha Eye between his brows dimmed as well, hard put to hold those Shen Mus fast, unable to keep them from speaking their deluded words. The Xuanliao Demon Ape Zhankong suddenly rose to his feet, yet his eyes remained tightly shut and his snores were like thunder, and in this state he strode into Shen Mu's dream. Once inside Shen Mu's dream, he went on snoring loudly, flopped down and slept soundly, unlike Lord Huo, who still had to rouse his Buddha-dharma to suppress them. Outside, the crowd looked at one another. In the sound of his snoring, the Shen Mus in the dream had all fallen asleep as well, breathing with him, entering dream with him, sleeping sweetly. Seeing this, the crowd finally set their hearts at ease. Granny Zhu lowered the prehistoric divine bow and said softly: "Now that two Buddhas are here, we can hold out another month. I wonder whether Patriarch Wei and Shu Jun and the others have found the Jade Capital City of the Ancestral Court and drawn the Ten Heavenly Venerables here..." She raised her head and gazed up at the sky. From the summit of the Hundred Thousand Sacred Mountains, one could look up at the sky and see Xuandu as well. Of the Ten Heavenly Venerables at this moment, most should still be in Xuandu, carving up its spoils, subduing the Way of Heaven, and refining the flesh of the Lord of Heaven. To hurry from Xuandu to the Ancestral Court would also take a very long time. The Heavenly Court above the Ancestral Court, though it had Heavenly Venerables holding it down at present, had no great number of them. "And besides, most of the Ten Heavenly Venerables are wounded. Can they really reach the Ancestral Court within this one month and find the Jade Capital City?" Granny Zhu said softly: "Even if they find the Jade Capital City, can they break open the Pixiang Hall and kill that Mira Palace Primordial Sage..." She was heavy with worry. At that very moment, Wei Suifeng and S