Chapter 443: Entering the Wheel of Rebirth for Three Lives

"Maitreya Buddha, stay a moment, stay a moment! Where are you heading?"

The Yuan Shi Assembly had just dispersed, and Yu Lin, who was invited to observe, instantly spotted the future Buddha Maitreya, who was about to mount auspicious clouds and make a quick exit; Yu Lin flashed forward and blocked his path, wearing a very friendly smile.

On Maitreya Buddha's trademark, perpetually smiling rotund face, the smile now looked a bit stiff and helpless.

He stopped, pressed his palms together, and asked, "Amitabha, does the petitioner not know where I'm going?"

Yu Lin blinked, with an innocent expression:

"I don't know."

"Really don't know?" Maitreya Buddha's smile remained unchanged, but his eyes clearly said, "Don't try that."

"Absolutely, not the slightest bit aware."

"Fine, I'll tell you truthfully: I've been away from my dwelling for several days. Now that this assembly ends, I naturally will return home, sweep the courtyard, clean it up. After being away a few days, some dust has surely settled."

Others might say dust could fall, but Maitreya Buddha says his place has dust... never mind!

Yu Lin, after listening, slapped his own thigh hard and laughed, "Ah, you've come to the right person! I'm very good at cleaning!"

"... I, the petitioner, didn't even look for you."

"Eh~ who gave me this enthusiastic heart? Let's go, let's go, aren't we hurting feelings?"

Yu Lin, as if not hearing his polite refusal, seized Maitreya Buddha's broad, soft robe sleeve and, with familiar ease, pulled forward:

"Who gave me a naturally enthusiastic heart? When I see a friend in trouble, I can't bear it! Come on, come on, don't be formal, I'll go back with you and lend a hand!"

Maitreya Buddha, helpless, could only be turned around while being pulled, and Yu Lin didn't forget to look back, waving enthusiastically toward the incarnation of the Heavenly Venerable Yuan Shi who had just taken the main seat in the Great Hall, watching this commotion with keen interest, and said farewell:

"Heavenly Venerable! Maitreya Buddha and I will go ahead! We'll meet again next time!"

The Yuan Shi Heavenly Venerable here, of course, is not the original body, but an incarnation like Tai Shang Lao Jun; he nodded at Yu Lin and smiled, "Good, good."

"Yu, my young friend, with an ancient generous heart, loves to help others; this is a fine thing. You may act on your own, no need to be bound by worldly rites."

He said it lightly, as if enjoying a good show.

He even outright ignored the glance Maitreya Buddha cast.

Maitreya Buddha: "........"

Fine, can't count on it.

In that brief lapse of attention, Yu Lin had already "supported" him and walked out a few steps, mounting the cloud.

The auspicious cloud lifted the two slowly into the sky, and Yu Lin's eager, seemingly genuine voice came from ahead:

"By the way, Maitreya Buddha, where do you reside? Near Mount Sumeru, or have you opened a Dong Tian blessed land? This time I rashly came to visit, will I disturb your cultivation? How about... I bring my own tea and snacks?"

Maitreya Buddha strained to keep his smile, attempting a final, polite refusal: "Amitabha... I, the petitioner, gratefully receive your generosity."

"It's just that my place is usually tranquil, seldom has outsiders, if..."

He chose his words carefully: "... if there are many others, it does become somewhat inconvenient."

"Some inconvenience? That's no big deal!"

"........"

Maitreya Buddha was completely helpless; after flying away for a long time, he couldn't hold it in any longer and intended to use a technique on Yu Lin.

To trap Yu Lin in an illusion, letting him leave on his own.

"Yu, the petitioner, take a look at me."

"Hm? What's up?" Yu Lin, hearing that, turned his head cooperatively, his gaze meeting Maitreya Buddha's.

At that instant, Maitreya Buddha's ever‑smiling eyes suddenly flared with concentric circles of soft yet profoundly deep golden Buddha Light, as if containing reflections of the three thousand great worlds, capable of stirring inner demons, exposing emptiness, and pulling a person into an endless illusion constructed by his own thoughts.

He softly chanted a mantra, his voice bearing a mesmerizing power:

"Yu, the petitioner, you should depart..."

However, before the word "open" could be spoken, a sudden anomaly erupted!

Behind Yu Lin, the previously empty void began to ripple violently like water!

Immediately, one vague yet terrifying aura after another flashed rapidly like a revolving lantern!

There were imperial shadows clad in emperor's robes, whose presence pressed the world; golden Buddhist figures standing on lotus platforms, embodying both compassion and majesty; and demonic specters seething with malignant aura, unruly and fierce...

These figures moved so fast they were almost invisible, and finally, they froze on the clearest image—

It was a silhouette enveloped in pure, warm Holy Light, face blurred, looking at Maitreya Buddha, gentle yet questioning, booming directly in his mind:

"What do you intend to do to my best friend?"

Maitreya Buddha shivered, his Buddha Light instantly collapsed completely; he hurriedly pressed his palms together, bowed, and apologized sincerely:

"I was presumptuous, with no ill intent! I only... only wish the petitioner to temporarily depart, and not interfere with my child's matter."

"In a moment of urgency, I used improper means, please forgive!"

As his apology rang, the suffocating myriad anomalies behind Yu Lin slowly receded like the tide, eventually fading into nothingness.

Maitreya Buddha quietly exhaled a sigh of relief, lifted his head, and met Yu Lin's eyes, which were half‑smiling, a hint of playfulness.

"Maitreya Buddha, what's wrong? Your eyes just now were so bright—did sand get in them?"

Maitreya Buddha looked at his harmless face, bitterly smiled in his heart, but could only put on an even more helpless expression, deciding to open the Skylight and speak plainly:

"Yu, the petitioner, to be frank... indeed I am in a hurry to go to my 'Little Lei Yin Temple' to retrieve my incompetent Yellow Eyebrow Boy."

He spoke earnestly: "I, a poor monk, can vouch that my child, though mischievous and pretended to be a Buddha, trapped Sun Wukong and captured Tang Seng, yet he has never truly taken a life, nor caused boundless slaughter."

"His crime is not death‑worthy; I ask you, petitioner, to raise your noble hand and allow me to bring him back for strict discipline."

Yu Lin listened, nodded slightly: "Hmm, if it weren't for this, you wouldn't have seen me today."

Maitreya Buddha felt a slight joy, about to thank.

But he heard Yu Lin's words turn, continuing: "However... death penalty can be waived, but a living crime is hard to pardon."

"Then how about this? You will cast him into the wheel of reincarnation for three lifetimes."

"If he can keep his true heart for three lifetimes, doing good and accumulating virtue, never committing evil, then after those three lifetimes you may personally guide him back to you, to continue cultivation."

This can also be considered tempering one's mind-nature, repaying karma.

But... if in these three lifetimes of reincarnation, he in any lifetime gives rise to evil thoughts, commits evil deeds, harms the innocent...

Yu Lin's tone remained as calm as ever: "Then, please completely forget about this child, and thereafter leave it to reincarnation and the Heavenly Path to decide, with no further ties to you, how about that?"

Maitreya Buddha, hearing this, fell silent for a moment.

He knew, this was already Yu Lin, taking into account that Huang Mei had never truly harmed anyone, giving the greatest concession.

Entering reincarnation, undergoing three lifetimes, although arduous, it is also a good opportunity to temper one's mind-nature and dispel karmic obstacles.

As for that condition "if one lifetime turns evil, then completely abandon it," it appears harsh, but in fact it is also a protective constraint for Huang Mei.

If truly in the three lifetimes of reincarnation he cannot maintain good thoughts, then this child's mind-nature is beyond redemption; forcibly bringing him back to the Buddhist Sect would likely become a future calamity.

After repeated consideration, Maitreya Buddha finally nodded: "Well spoken, what Benefactor Yu Lin said is reasonable and proper."

I... have agreed.