Chapter 252: No Regret Stele, the Master's Way

This is an irresistible collapse.

Sun Wukong could feel that his very existence was being erased from the most fundamental level.

【Equal Heaven】 the Great Dao was wailing.

That should have been his proudest, most unshakable Dao, but now it acted like a traitor, wildly self-negating within his body.

"You shouldn't exist."

"Resistance is fallacy."

"Freedom is chaos."

Cold logic, like a deadly poison, seeped out from every speck of his existence, seeking to thoroughly correct this "error".

Sun Wukong's body began to become illusory, transparent.

The blood-colored flames in his Fiery Golden Eyes were gradually dying out.

He wanted to roar, but could not make a sound.

He wanted to swing his staff, but even the "concept" of lifting a finger was disappearing.

Is it over?

Old Sun, am I really going to be suffocated like this, being "negated" by myself?

He was unwilling!

On what grounds!

On what grounds does my existence deserve to be wiped out by a single "rejection"!

Just as his last will was about to be completely overwhelmed by this force emanating from himself.

At the very center of this endless gray graveyard formed from fallen universes.

A faint light quietly sparked.

That light was very dim, very weak.

Yet within this absolute deathly silence and "negation", it appeared so stubborn, so glaring.

Like a ink dot, pressed with all one's strength, that could not be erased no matter what, on a draft paper filled with "errors"!

Sun Wukong's scattering divine sense, like a drowning man clutching the last straw, instinctively turned toward that point of light.

That was a stone tablet.

A lone stone tablet, made of unknown material, utterly ordinary.

It simply stood there, silent, at the center of countless cosmic ruins.

The Zeroers' will, capable of "rejecting" everything, shrouded the entire wasteland, yet it alone bypassed it.

It seemed that this stone tablet was the sole thing in this junkyard that even the "Primordial" had no right to deny, no power to erase!

Sun Wukong exhausted his last shred of strength.

His already semi-transparent body moved toward that stone tablet, with difficulty, inch by inch.

With each inch he moved, his internal self-negation frenzied a bit more.

His physical body disintegrated even faster.

The Great Dao dissipated even more violently.

But his gaze remained locked, never leaving that stone tablet.

Finally.

He had arrived.

He extended his hand, almost completely transparent, and rested it upon the cold stone tablet.

At that very moment, he made out the line of characters carved into the stone tablet.

It was a line he knew all too well—iron strokes and silver hooks, the characters naturally embodying the Dao Rhythm.

"Defeated here, yet no regrets."

Boom—

In Sun Wukong's mind, it was as if an entire Chaos Realm had exploded!

This calligraphy!

This Dao Rhythm!

It was the Master!

It was the Bodhi Patriarch's handwriting!

Master……had he been here?

And……he had been defeated?

An indescribable shock and sorrow instantly overwhelmed his crumbling Dao Heart.

His illusory palm pressed tightly against the stone tablet.

A bleak, ancient yet filled with endless unwillingness and obstinacy surged along his palm into his sea of consciousness!

In an instant.

Before Sun Wukong's eyes, it was no longer the gray wasteland.

He saw.

He saw a familiar figure.

His master, the Bodhi Patriarch.

Standing at the center of this wasteland, before the indifferent giant eye of the Zeroers.

In his master's hand rested a world prototype brimming with infinite vitality, just born.

In that world, all things took the sword as their Dao, and the cries of myriad swords converged into the most brilliant symphony.

"This Way, can it be?"

Master's voice was calm and indifferent.

The Zeroers' giant eye swept over indifferently.

The icy thought echoed through the Chaos Realm.

"The sword's skewed path easily breeds slaughter, variables run wild, stability lacking."

"Rejected."

The words fell.

The sword-world in Master's hand instantly shattered, turning into cold fragments that fell into the graveyard below.

Master did not speak.

He merely stood still.

After a long while, he raised his hand again.

This time, a world made of painting appeared in his hand.

Mountains and rivers were ink wash, rivers were lines, living beings were vivid colors, magnificent and splendid.

"This Way, then what?"

"Based on beauty, it easily breeds illusion, lacks foundation for growth, logical closed loop fails."

"Rejected."

The world of painting shattered.

Another long while.

"The Way of Dreams?"

"Rejected."

"The Way of Emotion?"

"Rejected."

"The Way of Killing?"

"Rejected!"

Once.

Again.

Ten thousand times.

One hundred million times!

Sun Wukong saw countless silhouettes of Master overlapping in this space.

He saw Master produce countless possibilities, countless possibilities brilliant to the extreme, splendid to the extreme, embryonic forms of the Great Way.

Each embryonic form represented a brand-new future, unbound by 'order'.

But each time, what came back were those two icy judgments devoid of any feeling.

"Rejected."

Those universes that should have been brilliant, those Ways that should have burst with infinite splendor,

were so casually negated, then tossed like trash into this graveyard, becoming one of the countless 'scrapped plans' here.

Sun Wukong's body trembled.

His soul, about to dissipate, also trembled violently!

He finally understood!

He fully understood!

Master transmitted the Great Way to him, enlightened him, sent him to cause havoc in the Heavenly Palace, to break the Heavenly Dao, to create the Equal Heaven-Chaos.

That was not a passing fancy!

Nor was it some so-called scheme!

That was after experiencing hundreds of millions of failures, after all his conceptions were mercilessly rejected.

Master, placing all hope, the last reluctance, and that 'also no regret' obsession, all bet on this old monkey's body.

This old monkey!

Sun Wukong!

This stone monkey that leaps beyond the Three Realms and is not of the Five Elements!

This monkey, born defiant, born unable to be defined by 'logic'!

I…… am the final answer sheet submitted by Master.

My Way of the Equal Heaven is not just my own path!

That is, after Master's hundreds of millions of failures and rejections, the condensation of all reluctance and struggle, giving birth to…… the ultimate 'variable'.

"Hahaha!"

Sun Wukong suddenly threw his head back and laughed wildly, two streams of golden tears rolling down from his eyes, where flames had reignited.

"Master, oh Master!"

"You've kept this old monkey in the dark for so long!"

The self-negating power within his body came to an abrupt halt at this moment.

The Way of the Equal Heaven that was collapsing did not merely stop falling apart,

but instead, as if infused with the firmest foundation, it burst forth with unprecedented, supremely brilliant light!

"Rejected?"

"Failed conception?"

Go to hell!

My existence as Old Sun is not merely a "concept"!

I am a "fact"!

It is a fact forged by my Master through a trillion failures, a one-of-a-kind, living fact!

Buzz——!

Sun Wukong's illusory body, in an instant, turned from illusion to substance!

Not only did it return to its original state, but it became even more condensed and more real than before!

His Way of the Equal Heaven, after undergoing the baptism of this "self-negation",

And after finding the true "root", he had already broken through to stand anew, stepping into a brand-new realm!

He slowly raised his head; his eyes blazing with golden fire stared fixedly at the distant pair of giant eyes that remained indifferent.

He grinned, baring a mouthful of stark white fangs.

Old thing.

What did you just say?

You want to... reject me?

Within those ancient, numb giant eyes, for the first time, a trace of an emotion called "surprise" appeared.

The Zeroers' thoughts rang out again, but this time they were no longer that indifferent aloofness.

but rather carried a hint of, even it could not comprehend, logically confused gravity.

Error.

Self-repair procedure... failed.

Detected an indefinable concept of "existence"...

Re-evaluating target...

Its voice paused for a long time, as if performing some unimaginably massive computation.

Finally.

A brand-new conclusion, no longer a judgment but filled with vigilance and hostility, echoed in Sun Wukong's mind.

Target threat level... raised.

Initiating...

Final cleansing protocol.