After successfully retrieving the scriptures, Sanzang was granted the title “Buddha of Sandalwood Merit” by Tathagata. Every day, he ate vegetarian food and chanted Buddhist prayers, unable to feel the passage of time or the changing seasons. He was stuck in that position, with no chance of promotion. As time went on, his desire to rise to a higher Buddhist rank grew stronger and stronger. Tathagata advised him to slowly accumulate merit in Heaven and not go looking for trouble, but Sanzang was convinced that since he had survived the Eighty-One Tribulations, he could surely descend to the mortal world again to retrieve the scriptures, endure hardships, and ascend to Buddhahood. Yet when he descended, he discovered that hundreds of years had passed, and the mortal world had changed!
