The Buddha - 516

A truly uncountable number of years passed as Zhou Fan thought. In the end, time began to move again as if nothing had happened. Nobody could sense that anything had happened at all.

Zhou Fan sighed as he sat down. He did not have an answer as to how to advance. In the end, he could only think of a few ways to find a way.

He needed to make new paths. His path, and the path of the rest of the universe, was cultivation. Progenitor Ke represented a slight difference, but it was still cultivation in the end.

What he needed was a new path to growth, one different from cultivation. In fact, he needed not just one, but many. The issue was, creating paths artificially was not going to help. He had spent countless years thinking, and almost everything he could possibly think of had been thought.

In order for new paths to experience true difference, Zhou Fan could not be the one to traverse them. Besides, he was meant for cultivation. On other paths, he may not even grow that fast.

This could of course be overridden by his power of cultivation, but once again, that would be artificial growth.

The first thing to do would be to create the path. There was nobody in this universe that had the potential to do such a thing. Even Zhou Fan's creation of his path was more or less a freak accident. 

Zhou Fan would like to do it himself, but he faced the same problem as before. It would be artificial. He couldn't break through like this. 

In order to breakthrough, he needed someone, at least one person, like him.

And to do that, he would have to once again get involved with the affairs of the universe.

Zhou Fan sighed and looked over. Everyone with a high cultivation level was rushing towards the new realms. Their progress was slow, of course, and not many would ever leave the True God realm, but they were still excited at the prospect.

Zhou Fan paid attention to Zhu Yi after so long. As he had recovered, Zhou Fan had granted a lot to Zhu Yi.

Zhu Yi had God King rank 1 meridians. He also had the Three Qi Divine Physique.

This increased the reserves of his Qi by three times in the same level, all while keeping his cultivation speed the same.

With this, instant completion was much more useful.

The River of Cultivation still had a ban on Time Qi. Zhu Yi was the only exception. Zhu Yi was going strong and Zhou Fan did not plan to stop him.

His gaze focused on his original planet, the planet earth. Gazing through time, Zhou Fan saw a specific figure, and even himself.

—-------------------------------------

As Zhou Fan meditated, the Buddha, his mentor, walked away, leaving behind only a few words.

"We are not the same."

Seeing Zhou Fan reach some sort of understanding, the Buddha smiled and left. It was his time to die, and he was satisfied.

In the distance, he saw a beautiful tree. "A great place to breathe my last."

Suddenly, as he walked, a green and blue circle appeared in front of him. The Buddha stopped in shock. 

Looking through the circle, he saw a familiar, yet unfamiliar face.

Countless years apart, Zhou Fan looked at the Buddha. "I need your help."

The Buddha quickly calmed down and sighed. "So be it."

Without hesitation, he walked through the circle. As soon as he did, Zhou Fan closed it. He panted. 

Even for him, opening a portal so far through Time and Space was extremely difficult. The Buddha looked around, finding himself in a lavish yard, far greater than any he had ever seen, even in his prince days.

In the distance, he saw stars, but the distance was so far even they were blurry.

He looked at Zhou Fan, who was meditating under Leaf.

The Buddha was about to speak, but Leaf moved. The Buddha stared shocked as Leaf moved one of its branches to touch him.

He looked at Zhou Fan. "You've got a lot of explaining to do."

Zhou Fan nodded. "It seems I do."

The Buddha sat across from Zhou Fan as he spoke. Zhou Fan briefly described everything that had happened in his life, emitting unimportant details, as the Buddha listened.

"With all this power, what exactly do you need my help for?" The Buddha asked.

"I've reached a limit like no other. My path is the path of cultivation, but I feel that you may be able to create your own path. In doing so, perhaps, even if there is just a tiny chance, I can see something."

The Buddha thought for a moment and nodded. "I am willing. What exactly do you need me to do?"

Zhou Fan thanked him and waved his hand. A blue circle appeared. Beyond it was a random place on earth.

"I need you to go and do what you do. And I need you to do it without cultivating. I've managed to give you a few thousand years of lifetime without influencing your path. You can use Qi, but in order to help me, you must never cultivate. Of course, if you are going to die and wish to traverse the path of cultivation, I have no issue with it." Zhou Fan said.

The Buddha nodded. "And about meridians…"

"You are a mortal without the ability to cultivate. To you, meridians are like a useless organ. Perhaps you can use them for whatever your path is."

Long ago, there were countless people with no cultivation talent like the Buddha, but they had become rarer and rarer as time passed. Now, it was nearly impossible to find someone without the ability to cultivate.

The Buddha understood and stood up. Without a word, he walked through the circle. Zhou Fan hoped that the Buddha would find his own path. There was nobody else with even a slight chance. The time and effort Zhou Fan would need to put in for just a slight chance to produce another person like him and the Buddha was unfathomable.