When "Shanyin" spoke of the Western Paradise, the sea of fate and clouds hovering above her head revealed more of its secrets. Layer upon layer of celestial domes were linked together, resembling a blooming lotus with twenty-four petals. Beyond the eerie Buddha seated upon the lotus of entwined lovers, Zhou Tieyi caught a glimpse of what lay in the higher domes.
One dome was desolate and silent, where a gray-robed monk sat with palms pressed together, chanting sutras. Yet before him stood no Buddha, but a long black sword with no hilt and no guard, driven straight into the earth, staining the ground around it pitch-black.
Another dome was ethereal and free, even more desolate than the one with the gray-robed monk, with only a faint, pervasive Buddha-light. In fact, this light did not originate from the dome itself, but shone down from the twenty-four lotus petals above.
Chapter 290