Jinlian

Jinlian is a reincarnating Maha and the ancestor of the Lotus Sect. His confidence in his fate-working and later refusal to join a southern campaign are tempered by injuries he concealed from the wider Buddhist community. (Chapters 307, 1664–1666)

Biography

A fate-working ends in lost memory

In one reincarnated body, Jinlian appears as a child and has already spent three hundred years cultivating as a Maha across seven lifetimes. When Minghui presents a golden palace containing unusual light, Jinlian believes he can dissolve one thread of fate even if he could not defeat a Golden Core cultivator. A fragment of his spirit is later tormented inside the mirror until it bursts. Jinlian’s embodied self wakes as if from a long dream, cannot remember the episode, and sends Minghui back south. (Chapters 307–309)

He refuses to govern through another southern campaign

Years later, Jinlian rejects a request to send Mahas south, warning that those who govern all beings eventually seek to become their masters and create endless enmity. He later explains that examining Minghui’s dharma artifact had broken his Immaculate Body and damaged his soul; the force behind it remains unknown to him. To conceal the injury, he secretly divides his soul among separate bodies, but his cultivation has stagnated and he cannot leave the Buddhist land. He sends another Maha in his place rather than expose himself. (Chapters 1664–1666)

Appearance and personality

Jinlian appears in a child’s body during the fate-working and later as a young man. He is blunt, profane, and irreverent, but his argument with Fachang shows a serious concern that religious leaders not rule over ordinary people. (Chapters 307, 1664–1665)

Abilities and cultivation

Jinlian has cultivated as a Maha for centuries and reincarnated seven times; he is described as near the Dharma Master realm and comparable in power to a peak Purple Mansion cultivator. His Great Compassion and Joyous Lotus Manifestation is identified as his Buddhist cultivation method. His Immaculate Body of All Buddhas was broken, however, and his soul injury has left his cultivation stagnant. He uses a clone technique that divides his soul among separate bodies to conceal the damage, but he still cannot leave the Buddhist land and needs Soul-Tuning Mulberry Wood. (Chapters 307, 1666)

Relationships

• Minghui: His disciple, whom he raised and taught. Minghui’s damaged dharma artifact was involved in the event that injured Jinlian. (Chapters 308, 1666)
• Fachang: Asks Jinlian to send Mahas south. Jinlian refuses and challenges the idea that saving people requires governing them. (Chapters 1664–1665)

Items

Minghui presents Jinlian with the golden palace for the fate-working; it is Minghui’s dharma artifact, not an item Jinlian is shown keeping. Jinlian later says he needs Soul-Tuning Mulberry Wood, but his custody of any such wood is not established. (Chapters 307, 1666)