Zhou Fan silently waited five hundred years. He did not watch in this time, only waited patiently.
To say he was not anxious would be a lie. This was extremely important, and if the Buddha couldn't succeed, then perhaps nobody could.
After five hundred years, he finally decided to check in. A blue circle appeared in front of him, showing the Buddha.
He was sitting under a tree, meditating. Around him, there were thousands of people. Some were cultivators, even up to the Core Formation realm, while others were mortals.
Others could not see, but Zhou Fan could tell at a glance that the Buddha had succeeded. Zhou Fan heaved a sigh of relief. He took a closer look at the Buddha.
Within his body was a golden heart. Around his body was a visible golden color. This was the color of Buddhist Qi. Using Buddhist Qi as a medium, the Buddha had done something that no other had ever done. He had created a path.
He was the only one that could lead this path. Even Zhou Fan could not properly help him.
This path seemed similar to some techniques, but it was in fact completely different. Even without cultivating, the path that the Buddha had created could be endlessly grown, perhaps even reaching the same level as Zhou Fan.
Zhou Fan looked at the Buddha's meridians, but they were untouched. Zhou Fan was surprised. By not utilizing the meridians, even cultivators could follow the Buddha's path.
Zhou Fan stood up and stepped through the circle. He soon sat next to the Buddha. The Buddha opened his eyes.
"You've succeeded." Zhou Fan said.
Surprisingly, the Buddha shook his head. "In my opinion, yes, but my path is different from cultivation, but it lacks Lifespan."
Zhou Fan took an even deeper look. As the Buddha had said, practicing this path would not increase the Lifespan of an individual.
Zhou Fan thought about this for a moment.
"If practiced with cultivation, do you believe that your path could reach the same heights as without cultivation but with a high Lifespan."
The Buddha shook his head. "Although this path can be cultivated along with cultivation, there will be a limit. My path requires absolute dedication to it alone. It is the Buddhist path."
Zhou Fan began to calculate. After experiencing a near infinite amount of years with the universe's time stopped, he felt as if everything that could possibly be done was much clearer.
After a moment, he spoke again. "Your path has strength enhancing properties, but no life enhancing properties. You can change this rather simply. It's more like a matter of essence."
Although the Buddha's path utilized Buddhist Qi, it created a completely different type of power within him, much like the power of cultivation to Zhou Fan.
"I understand what you say, but would you change the path of cultivation to simply fix a simple shortcoming?" The Buddha said.
"My path of cultivation doesn't have any shortcomings. On the other hand, your Buddhist path has a flaw that can be clearly seen. Even if you change it a bit, it will still be perfectly suited to you, much like cultivation to me." Zhou Fan explained.
"In my mind, your path of cultivation's lifespan is a flaw. Living so long, doesn't it all become meaningless at some point."
Zhou Fan shook his head. "You are misunderstanding something. As incredible as it is that you created your own path, the precursor of its existence is still me."
Zhou Fan snapped his finger, and all the Buddhist Qi surrounding him disappeared.
Those who had been in deep meditation around the Buddha woke up in confusion.
"I am the one who split the Qi's and I can merge them back together. Your path has flaws, this is yet another one. My path doesn't."
The Buddha remained unperturbed.
"How long did it take you to be able to produce the power of cultivation? At some point, I believe that I will be able to freely produce my power as well. It is simply a matter of time." The Buddha said.
Zhou Fan returned the Buddhist Qi to the surroundings. "Sorry. I didn't catch that last part. What was that again?"
"It's a matter of time." The Buddha repeated.
"I see. And how much time do you have left compared to how much you need?"
The Buddha remained silent without changing his expression.
Zhou Fan laughed and stood up. "I'll call this one my win. You need help changing your path?"
The Buddha sighed and the golden glow around him disappeared. It also disappeared from those in the surroundings. "I'll handle it."
Zhou Fan nodded and left. The Buddha would have to restart his path, but at least he would be able to live long enough to complete it more.
The Buddhist path was one that could be created through belief, resolve, enlightenment, and will. It would probably be much easier for the Buddha to create his own power from nothing than it was for Zhou Fan. That was since the power of cultivation only became a true thing later on. Before, it had simply been the act of cultivating.
The Buddha already had his power within him. As he sat down, Zhou Fan looked at the universe within his chest. Perhaps he could experiment on the Buddhist path with another universe later on.
It would naturally be impossible for anyone to surpass the Buddha, a great feature that came with creating your own path, but he could see if changing it in any way would help.
Of course, the Buddhist path had a long way to go before then. Zhou Fan sat and waited for the Buddha to progress.
While he did so, Leaf wrapped around him. The Time bubble did not only affect Zhou Fan, but the whole manor. In other words, Leaf had been cultivating for more than a sextillion years, up until Zhou Fan completely stopped time.
Leaf was now at the True God realm, and its power was incredible. Zhou Fan had big plans for Leaf in the future.
For now, he upgraded his meridians. Above immortal GodKing was Immortal venerable, and above Immortal Venerable rank meridians were Peak meridians. These were the Final meridians until Zhou Fan reached a new realm.
Leaf had Peak rank 1 meridians.