Chapter 258: Stopping the Fanatics, Ununderstood

Beyond the Star Sea, Sun Wukong's blood‑red eyes stared fixedly at the battlefield.

That raging fire nearly set him himself ablaze.

Hongjun!

This old thing from the gutter only knows such lowly tactics!

The Golden Cudgel in his hand buzzed, the ferocious will of the Equal Heaven Path surged wildly along the staff, nearly tearing this Chaos Realm apart.

But he could not move.

If he rushed forward now, Hongjun would inevitably, at any cost, detonate the entire wreckage of the old Three Realms,

and perish together with those newly reborn Living Beings.

That is a yang plot.

Barefaced, a conspiracy that uses countless lives as blackmail!

"Damn!"

Sun Wukong forced a word out between his teeth, his knuckles turning white.

However, at that moment, an unexpected change occurred on the chaotic battlefield.

Ji struck.

He, in an absolute "End" fashion, erased a law enforcer.

Clean.

Neat.

Even… with a strange sense of beauty.

The fury in Sun Wukong's eyes slightly subsided, replaced by extreme gravity and incomprehension.

That dead man's face…

What on earth does he intend to do?

Save people?

Doesn't look like it.

When he eliminated the law enforcer, his hollow eyes were no different from looking at a stone.

Just as Sun Wukong's thoughts raced, a new turmoil erupted on the battlefield from his own camp.

"Brothers! Charge!"

A fervent roar echoed through the clouds.

A hulking man, newly forged from a giant bear, a hundred zhang tall, brandished a massive totem pole, his eyes glittering with intoxication and greed for power.

His name is Xiong Ba.

He is among the first beings to awaken ancient bloodlines and gain great power after the arrival of the Equal Heaven Path.

"Great Sage Equal to Heaven grants us Freedom!"

"Freedom is doing as one wishes!"

"All worlds unwilling to bathe in Freedom's radiance are Fixed Number remnants, and should be trampled flat by our 'Freedom Front'!"

Behind him stood tens of thousands of "Fanatics" whose minds were also intoxicated by power.

They were once the lower strata of the old world, oppressed and enslaved.

Sun Wukong's Equal Heaven Path gave them the power to break their shackles.

But they turned that power into new "shackles", attempting to place them around others' necks.

Their target is a small world on the fringe of the old Three Realms called "Silent Star".

That world has thin spiritual energy, weak Living Beings, and lives without conflict.

They neither chose to submit to Hongjun's old order, nor, because of Fear Heart Demon and the unknown, responded at once to Sun Wukong's new Chaos.

All they want… is to live peacefully.

But to Xiong Ba and these Fanatics, neutrality is Yuanzu!

"If you don't submit, you will be destroyed!"

Xiong Ba let out a earth‑shaking roar; the totem pole in his hand gathered ferocious demonic power and nascent Great Sage Equal to Heaven Dao Rhythm,

and smashed it hard toward the protective barrier of Silent Star!

"Boom—"

A deafening blast made the barrier, thin as cicada wings, quake violently, cracking into countless fine fissures.

Within the world, countless weak Living Beings let out desperate cries.

"Stop!"

"We are not your enemies!"

"Please, spare us!"

Their pleas were met with Xiong Ba's even more ferocious cackle.

"The wails of the weak are truly music to my ears!"

"This is the taste of Freedom!"

"Break it!"

He raised the totem pole, preparing a second strike to shatter this pitiful world into Universe dust.

Beyond the Star Sea, Sun Wukong's complexion was uglier than when he devoured Hongjun's law enforcer.

"Beast…"

He felt as if an invisible hand had slapped his face hard.

He overthrew the old order to grant Living Beings the freedom of choice, so that life could shine its own brilliance.

It's not to cultivate such a gang, flying his flag, to actually go out as bandits committing aggression!

This is the greatest insult to his Equal Heaven Path!

Sun Wukong's killing intent inside his body has already boiled to the extreme.

He even wondered whether he should personally clean house, smashing all these bastards who twisted his will back to their original forms!

However.

Another figure appeared, moving even faster than his action.

Ji.

That pale, solitary figure appeared silently before Xiongba's totem pillar.

He remained the same, expressionless, eyes hollow.

It seemed not a living being, but a manifestation of a concept.

"Huh?"

Xiongba's attack was forced to stop.

He furiously glared at the strange-aura guy who suddenly appeared before him.

"You son of a bitch, where did you jump out from a rock crevice?"

"You dare block the way of your grandfather Xiong?"

"Get lost, old man!"

He didn't even recognize that this was the terrifying existence that had just obliterated an Emissary.

In his logic, any living being bathed in the light of the Equal Heaven Path should be invincible!

Ji, without speaking.

He simply slowly raised the Blade of Terminus in his hand.

That pitch-black short blade lay across the violent totem pillar and the fragile world barrier.

Like an insurmountable heavenly moat.

"Looking for death!"

Xiongba flew into a rage, pouring all his strength without reserve into the totem pillar and smashing it down fiercely!

He wanted to grind this clueless interloper, together with the world behind him, into powder!

However.

The imagined earth-shattering collision did not occur.

The totem pillar, which had gathered the force of ten thousand jun, at the moment it touched the Blade of Terminus, its front part simply... disappeared.

Silently.

Just like a rubber eraser wiping away a patch from a painting.

No break, no debris, nothing at all.

"Uh?"

Xiongba was stunned.

He lowered his head to look at the totem pillar in his hand, missing a large chunk,

and then looked at the pale, expressionless figure opposite him, his mind momentarily unable to process.

But his so-called comrades exploded in an uproar.

"What the hell are you doing, Xiongba!"

"Can't even handle a pretty boy!"

"Charge together! Flatten this place! Offer our loyalty to the Great Sage Equal to Heaven!"

Tens of thousands of fanatics, from all directions, rushed toward Ji.

Various spells and weapons, imbued with a twisted 'Freedom' will, turned into a dazzling torrent seeking to completely submerge Ji.

Ji, still standing in place, unmoving.

He merely gave a light swing of the short blade in his hand.

Before him, it traced a semicircular, pitch-black trajectory.

Then.

Everything came to a halt.

That torrent of attack capable of destroying stars, at the instant it touched that black trajectory,

just like ink dropped into water, it silently dissolved, disintegrated, and ultimately returned to... nothingness.

The all-out strike of tens of thousands of fanatics couldn't even raise a ripple.

Silence.

A deathly silence.

All the fanatics froze in place, their eyes filled with disbelief and extreme fear.

They finally realized what kind of existence they had provoked.

"Who... who exactly are you!"

Xiongba's voice trembled uncontrollably.

"Why are you blocking us! We are spreading the glory of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven!"

His words were echoed by the countless fanatics behind him.

"Exactly! We are doing this for freedom!"

"You are opposing the Equal Heaven Path! Opposing the Great Sage!"

They regarded Sun Wukong as their final talisman.

However, just at this moment, in the world they were about to destroy, an old and weak voice, filled with deep hatred, sounded.

Monster!

You and they… are all in league together!

You are all demons come to destroy our homeland!

Get out! Get out of our world!

In an instant, Ji became the focus of mutual blame from both sides.

One side blamed him for obstructing Freedom.

The other side blamed him for bringing destruction.

He was caught in the middle, as if he had become the root of all evil in the world.

In the Purple Cloud Palace, Hongjun revealed a cold smile.

At the end of the path of reincarnation, the Tathagata let out a pleased low hum.

Beyond the Star Sea, Sun Wukong's brow furrowed even deeper.

This is…… the 'Balancer'?

One, not understood by any side, hated by all existence…… a lonely Balancer.

Under the gaze of all eyes.

Ji, on that face that had not changed for ten thousand years, finally had a subtle change, almost imperceptible.

His hollow eyes slowly swept over both sides.

One side was the frenzied and noisy Variable.

One side was the Fear Heart Demon and noisy Fixed Number.

He slowly raised the Blade of Termination in his hand.

The blade tip first pointed far toward Xiongba's group of fanatics.

Then, it shifted slightly, pointing at the world shrinking behind the barrier.

His voice remained icy, devoid of any emotion, yet clearly transmitted into the consciousness of every existence.

You……

You're all too noisy.