Chapter 137: Mundane Affairs Are Done, the Journey Is the Stars and the Sea!

The space gate vanished.

On the ruins of the Daxiong Baodian, the last trace of another world's aura also completely dissipated.

All sounds fell silent.

Sun Wukong stood still in place.

He did not move.

He seemed to have turned into an eternal stone statue.

Boom—

A deep, earth‑shaking roar came from beneath his feet.

It was not an explosion.

It was more like a weary sigh that had stretched through eternity.

The entire Ling Shan, once shrouded in endless Buddha light and worshipped by countless believers as the Western Heaven Holy Realm.

Its foundation, its divinity, its very existence, had been completely erased.

At this moment, it could no longer support this massive body forged from mundane earth and stone.

The mountain began to collapse inch by inch downward.

The Da Lei Yin Si, symbol of the supreme authority of the Buddhist sect, did not even utter a cry.

Thus, amidst the deathly silence, the collapsing mountain shattered with a roar.

Broken beams and pillars, shattered Buddha statues, rotting scriptures.

All that was once regarded as sacred.

Now they mingled in the sky‑filled dust, becoming the most ordinary, most humble gravel and ash.

An era.

Thus it came to an end.

Dust billowed.

It blotted out the sun and sky.

For a long, long time.

When that choking dust finally began to disperse.

In the ruins, disheveled figures crawled out, stumbling and swaying.

They were those who had been stripped of their divine status and cast down to the mortal realm, the former gods and buddhas.

A former arhat instinctively tried to form a hand seal to cleanse the filth from his body.

But his fingertips could only stir a mortal gust of wind, with no trace of magical power.

He froze.

He stared blankly at his own hands, calloused and no different from those of a mortal.

His eyes filled with endless bewilderment and… despair.

Not far away.

Guanyin, the once‑compassionate bodhisattva, had become an ordinary old woman with white hair and a wrinkled face.

She leaned on that willow branch, long since turned into a withered twig.

She glanced deeply at the figure standing atop the ruins, resembling a god or demon—Sun Wukong's back.

Her gaze was complex to the extreme.

There was fear.

There was resentment.

But more than that, there was an indescribable sense of liberation.

Finally.

She said nothing.

She merely hunched her body, turned, and limped down the mountain.

Her silhouette quickly merged with the crowd of equally lost souls scattering away.

One could no longer tell them apart.

They would live as mortals.

With a pair of eyes that would experience birth, aging, sickness, and death.

To personally experience what the world they once overlooked from above, across countless ages, truly looked like.

The mountain wind howled.

It swept over this vast graveyard.

It lifted Sun Wukong's ordinary robe hem, no longer battle armor.

He slowly lifted his head.

He closed his eyes.

Then.

He exhaled a long, long breath.

That breath was very long.

It seemed to expel, in one go, all the weight of countless ages pressing on his heart.

The five hundred years of solitude pressed beneath the Five Elements Mountain.

The endless humiliation of wearing the golden hoop.

On the Journey to the West, repeated compromises and… anger.

Moreover, that hatred, deep as bone and almost devouring him completely, was sky‑high.

All of everything.

Everything followed this breath.

Smoke dissipated, clouds scattered.

A never‑before‑felt sense of ease surged through his whole body.

It was like a prisoner bearing billions of jin of shackles who, one day, finally heard the click of his lifelong handcuffs shattering completely.

His body was empty.

His heart was empty as well.

But this emptiness,

Yet it was not painful.

On the contrary, it was filled with an indescribable sense of freedom and… ease.

He won.

He avenged all his grudges.

He settled all karma.

From now on.

Within the Three Realms, nothing could bind him anymore.

Sun Wukong opened his eyes again.

He finally glanced at this familiar yet unfamiliar land.

Dongsheng Shenzhou.

Nan Shan Bu Zhou.

Xiniu Hezhou.

Bei Ju Lu Zhou.

Those mountains, waters, clouds, and winds.

Everything was exactly as he remembered.

But.

He didn't know why.

Yet he felt it all looked like a yellowed old painting hanging on a wall.

It was very beautiful.

It held great commemorative significance.

But that was all.

His heart was no longer here.

Here.

It could no longer contain him.

Just then.

A gentle, hopeful voice echoed deep in his mind.

"Disciple."

"Go walk your own path."

"Go pursue true freedom."

"It was the Master's voice."

Sun Wukong laughed.

That smile held no trace of ferocity or cruelty.

There was.

Only a heartfelt relief.

And endless longing.

Yes.

His own path.

True freedom.

His path was not here.

Here was merely a preserved past.

A notebook used to settle old scores.

And now.

The homework was already done.

Sun Wukong slowly raised his head.

His pure golden eyes seemed to transcend time and space.

Ignoring the fragile barrier of this 'world bubble'.

He gazed straight past the barrier into the vaster, deeper endless void!

There.

There were countless newly born brilliant galaxies.

There were innumerable laws of infinite possibility.

There lay a brand‑new realm truly his own.

Master...

Sun Wukong, in his heart, whispered softly.

You said that.

We will meet again in the future.

Old Sun, I understand.

I'm coming to find you now!

That, just now, because he had set down all burdens, his heart became somewhat empty.

In an instant, it was filled by a brand-new, even grander goal!

In his eyes, once again, ignited was a light more brilliant and dazzling than ever before!

That was not the flame of revenge.

Nor was it the desire for battle.

But rather, it was an endless anticipation for the future!

With a thought.

A simple divine thought instantly crossed the world's barrier.

It was transmitted to that figure outside, who had been waiting for a long time.

Yao.

Old Sun, I've finished the task.

Having done all this.

Sun Wukong finally glanced toward the direction of Mount Huaguo.

That gaze was light and faint.

No reluctance.

No unwillingness.

As if facing that once lawless yet helpless 'Great Sage Equal to Heaven'.

Making a final farewell.

Then.

He withdrew his gaze.

He stepped forward.

This step.

His form then transformed into a beam of ultimate brilliant golden light.

Silently.

It penetrated the final layer of the barrier of this fragile 'world bubble'.

There was no tremendous sound of space being torn.

Nor any fluctuation of laws shattering.

He simply walked out naturally.

Just like a person walking out of an old house they had lived in for a long time but had already decided to move away from.

With his departure.

This Three Realms debris, which had just experienced a heaven-shaking upheaval.

And it regained its former tranquility.

As if nothing had ever happened.

The chapter of the past has thus been completely turned over.

And Sun Wukong's new journey.

Has only just begun!