Genjo smiled faintly, rolled another bodhi bead between his fingers, and answered unhurriedly, "Since Senior Brother asks, this humble monk shall answer truthfully. All manifestations arise from consciousness. One flower, one world; one leaf, one Tathagata. All appears from the mind, all transforms through consciousness. This body was not made by me, nor born by me. It is merely an old shadow that has always existed in the sea of consciousness, and today, by the convergence of karmic conditions, it has borrowed this petal to temporarily obtain a form."
"Then this figure, is he you, or is he not you?" Madara Uchiha's brow furrowed even deeper as he pressed the question.
Genjo gently shook his head. "He is, and he is not. This body is the old shadow of this humble monk's former dust. This body is now Genjo. It is like a cicada shedding its shell. The shell comes from the cicada, yet it is not where the cicada abides. The cast-off shell still remains on the branch, but the cicada itself has already gone, no one knows where."
As he spoke, his gaze seemed to turn casually toward Isshiki at the side.
And when he heard the words, the cicada shed its shell, although Isshiki Otsutsuki's face showed no ripple, his heart had already been thrown into a stormy sea.
The cicada sheds its shell, discards its old body, and ascends to something higher.
Was this not precisely the ultimate goal that the Otsutsuki clan had pursued for thousands upon thousands of years?
To complete the final evolution, cast aside the shell of the body, ascend into a higher dimension, and become a true god.
Has this Genjo already reached such a realm?
Had he already set foot upon the road to godhood!?
Then who exactly was he?
Isshiki Otsutsuki grew more and more horrified, and he was now certain that this mysterious young monk before him absolutely could not be one of Kaguya's two sons, because the two of them should not know this.
Could it be that someone from the clan had arrived ahead of time!?
If so, who?
A moment later, he steadied his mind and decided to reveal a few things to probe the other party's identity. "Junior Brother's realm is profound beyond measure; this foolish monk is far from being able to compare. Since the Junior Brother has already seen through this foolish monk's origins, this foolish monk shall no longer conceal them."
"The school to which this foolish monk belongs has long passed down a method: one makes one's body into a Bodhi Tree, tempers it through tribulations until it bears the fruit of bodhi, and on the day the fruit ripens, one discards the old root, escapes the sea of suffering, and beholds the Tathagata. Only after hearing Junior Brother's words today does this foolish monk realize that on this path, Junior Brother has already walked ahead of me."
What he said was extremely ingenious. Making the body into a Bodhi Tree was an allusion to how the Otsutsuki clan planted God Trees on various planets, and the fruit of bodhi naturally referred to swallowing the fruit of the God Tree and completing the final evolution and ascension.
And the nine words, escape the sea of suffering and behold the Tathagata, wrapped their ultimate pursuit, abandoning the shell of the body and ascending into a higher dimension, in Buddhist terminology, so seamlessly that anyone ignorant of the truth would only think he was talking about a cultivation method.
To understand it, one had to know both Buddhism and the Otsutsuki in order to hear the true meaning hidden within.
Madara Uchiha, who was sitting at the side, unsurprisingly did not understand a single word. He only felt that the two monks had once again begun a round of exchange in which he could not insert himself at all.
"Does the Senior Brother think this humble monk has some connection to the Senior Brother's school?"
Genjo asked with a smile.
"Is that not the case?"
Isshiki's gaze flickered slightly. "Junior Brother understands my school's methods thoroughly, and your divine powers are so exquisite. When I first saw that act of creation just now, I almost thought that the school had sent someone here ahead of time. After all, with a realm such as Junior Brother's, if one were to say you had no connection to my school at all, it would instead be difficult to believe."
"Of course not."
Genjo shook his head, his expression calm. "Of the next batch of people from Senior Brother's school who are to come, one is such that five petals bloom, crimson in color, arriving at the end of spring and falling upon peach branches. The other is such that a golden wheel appears, its light restrained within, arriving together with the peach and illuminating the summit of the full moon. This humble monk is neither the one who falls upon the peach, nor the guest who bears the wheel, so naturally I am not."
He even knew that!?
Isshiki was even more shocked.
According to the clan's arrangements, the next members who were supposed to come to replace him and Kaguya were Momoshiki and Kinshiki.
And yet the timing of their descent, their master-servant relationship, and even the imagery hidden within their names had all been casually laid bare by the young monk before him with just two lines of verse.
This was a secret known only within the Otsutsuki clan, yet this Genjo before him could recite it as easily as he could count family treasures, and still he insisted he was not one of the Otsutsuki.
Who exactly was he?
"And also, behold the Tathagata?"
While turmoil surged in his heart, the young monk spoke again, a meaningful curve hanging at the corner of his lips. "What Senior Brother's school ultimately sees after cultivating its method is not the Tathagata, but Papiyas, is it?"
Isshiki barely pulled his mind back together and frowned slightly. "Could it be that Junior Brother does not cultivate the method of the Bodhi Tree?"
"Of course not."
Genjo shook his head, his smile unchanged. "The method cultivated by Senior Brother's school does not make a Bodhi Tree, nor does it bear the fruit of bodhi. What it bears is the fruit of sin and karma. Its root arises from greed, anger, and delusion; its trunk grows from the pain of parting from what one loves; its flowers bloom amid meeting those one hates; and its fruit falls where one cannot obtain what one seeks.
"Senior Brother's school seeks the Dharma externally, borrowing the Bodhi Tree as a ladder and using the fruit of sin and karma as a boat. Layer upon layer, it clings and climbs, and in the end falls into demonic obstruction."
"This humble monk, however, observes the heart inwardly, does not seek outwardly, does not borrow the strength of another, recognizes his own nature, and knows that all illusions arise from consciousness. If consciousness is unstained, then the realm itself becomes pure."
"Those who seek outwardly, though they pass through a thousand kalpas, still cannot behold the Tathagata; those who look within, with but a single pure thought, are already at vulture peak."
Madara Uchiha's face was as dark as water.
What Tathagata and Papiyas, what Bodhi Tree and fruit of sin and karma, what flowers blooming in several petals and falling upon peach branches, he had heard every single word exchanged by the two men, yet he understood none of it. He only felt that in the back-and-forth between these two monks, they seemed to have said something earth-shattering, and yet also seemed to have said nothing at all.
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