At the boundary between life and death, heaven and hell.
A light, impossible to describe, appeared. The woman in white suddenly raised her head and saw a nine-tiered lotus dais hanging high above, with a figure seated upon it.
Buddha's light shone down. The venerable monk sat alone on the dais, his countenance solemn and dignified.
At that very moment, he lowered his eyes to look down at her.
His gaze was calm and unruffled, yet held the detached indifference of gods and Buddhas looking down upon ants.
But that gaze...
Even though he only lowered his eyes for an instant, it made the woman in white's eyes turn red.
She looked at him. Her voice carried a faint tremor she herself did not notice, yet she stubbornly asked:
"Venerable monk... why don't you dare look down at me?"
"Then why, benefactress, are your eyes filled with resentment, and your heart unwilling to accept this?"
"Yun Mo, do you sit upon that lotus dais with a clear conscience?"
The instant the words fell, the entire Karmic Pool seemed to be stirred by an invisible hand and suddenly boiled over! Scarlet water surged into the sky, gathering into a vast, crystal-clear mirror in midair.
Behind the mirror.
The image in the water mirror abruptly stopped, and the boiling Karmic Pool fell silent once more.
On the lotus dais, the dignified figure gave an almost imperceptible shudder. His eyes, which had been lowered all this time, finally lifted to look at her.
In that instant, the eternal calm in his eyes broke. Golden Buddha light trembled violently across his handsome face.
He saw her reddened eyes. He saw the tears filling those shattered yet lively eyes, tears of immense hurt rather than resentment. He also saw, reflected in the surface of the Karmic Pool, his own eyes at last rippling with emotion, no longer calm.
