Chapter 262: Wukong's Enlightenment, the Way of the Void

That voice, lazy and languid, carried a hint of irritation, as if someone had disturbed a clear dream.

But these few complaints were like a bucket of ice water, poured over the heads of all existence.

Inside the Purple Dawn Palace, Hóngjūn Dàozǔ's face, an unchanging ice block for ten thousand years, cracked for the first time.

A trash heap?

At the door?

Flowers and grasses?

What the hell kind of nonsense is this!

In the depths of the Star Sea, that radiant giant hand that had just retracted also visibly halted.

That lazy voice, for the second time, was filled with an unprecedented solemnity.

He could feel that the other side was not bluffing.

It was a kind of existence that completely transcended his understanding—strange, yet instinctively made him sense a hint of danger.

On the other side, the white-clad, snow-white, hollow-like-a-doll Ji also froze.

The Blade of Annihilation in his hand, for the first time, pointed at no target.

Because he discovered that his own Dao, before this gentle and lazy aura, could not muster the slightest fighting spirit.

Like an axe poised to split a mountain range, only to find he faced an endless sea of cotton.

Nowhere to exert force.

Even somewhat laughable.

But, now!

There was one person who paid no heed to that rift, nor analyzed that voice.

Sun Wukong!

Upon seeing Yao wrapped in that gentle power, slowly being reshaped, his heart, which had almost burst, finally settled back into his chest.

With a single somersault, he instantly crossed endless space, appearing before Yao.

He reached out to touch her, but paused in mid‑air, fearing his still‑present violent aura would disturb her.

Yao, too, was staring at him with clear yet bewildered eyes.

"Wukong..."

She called softly, her voice still trembling with the aftermath of survival.

Sun Wukong's throat churned; thousands of words condensed into a single syllable.

"I'm here."

Saying that, he carefully steadied Yao.

Just as his hand touched Yao's body.

Sun Wukong's gaze instantly froze!

A force.

A gentle yet vast, ocean‑like force that had not fully dissipated lingered within Yao, nurturing her wounded divine soul.

This force…

Sun Wukong recognized it!

No, it's not merely familiar.

Rather, they share the same source!

The root of this force is exactly the same as the root of the nine Void Seeds within his body!

But its manifestation is completely opposite!

The Void Dao he inherited from his Master is about cutting!

It severs karma, cuts bonds, shatters all illusion, thereby attaining great liberation and great freedom!

It is subtraction!

But the force within Yao is… life!

It is creation!

It brings something from nothing, nurturing new life from deathly silence!

It is addition!

One minus, one plus; one withers, one flourishes.

Clearly two extremes, yet Sun Wukong could clearly sense that their origins point to the same place!

A single thought, like the first bolt of lightning splitting chaos, exploded violently in Sun Wukong's mind!

He abruptly lifted his head, staring fixedly at the black rift!

He stared at the place called the Discarded Case Processing Ground, where his Master had once been defeated… the garbage dump!

He remembered!

He remembered everything!

His Master left these words on the stone tablet: 'Defeated here, yet no regret.'

His Master's billions of failed creations!

Those deemed 'not stable enough' or 'flawed in logic' were mercilessly rejected by the Zeroers and tossed into the garbage dump as embryonic worlds!

The Sword World!

The Painting World!

The Music World!

Each world brimmed with his Master's understanding and love for variables and life!

They were defined as "failed products".

They were considered "trash".

But are they willing?!

Those "Dao" born from Master's hand, yet never even got a chance to glimpse true Chaos, have they really been completely wiped out?!

No!

They haven't!

Hundreds of millions of failures, hundreds of millions of unwillingness.

Hundreds of millions of longings for "existence".

Hundreds of millions of times, no regrets!

All of these gathered together, in that garbage dump forgotten by all existence,

Fermenting, precipitating, merging…… finally, giving birth to something that no one could comprehend, a completely new……monster!

A will to protect the primordial source of life, forged from all "failures," all "regrets," all "unwillingness," combined together!

This, is Master's true trump card!

This, is the true face of the 【Emptiness】 Great Dao!

Emptiness, is not nothing!

Emptiness, can contain everything!

It can contain life, and also contain death!

It can contain success, and also contain……all failures!

Sun Wukong, I understand!

He finally, completely understood!

Master!

He, old man, simply didn't die!

He also did not, like those Saints, incarnate the Heavenly Dao and become a lofty ruler.

He transformed into……the lowest-level repair mechanism of this newly born Chaos!

He turned himself into a part of this land!

He became the blowing wind, the flowing water, the silent yet omnipresent……vitality!

The "Equal Heaven" path that Sun Wukong walks is a sharp spear handed out by Master to smash the old world's prison!

But Master himself transformed into a shield that guards all variables and all new life, the gentlest yet indestructible shield!

Spear, used for attack.

Shield, used for defense.

This damn, is Master's complete Great Dao!

Having figured all this out, Sun Wukong felt his blood boiling all over!

That is not the fire of anger.

But rather a kind that is indescribable, extreme, clear and ecstatic!

Turns out, I, Old Sun, have never been fighting alone!

He looked at Yao in his arms, whose complexion had returned to a healthy flush, and glanced at the distant black rift.

His eye sockets, actually felt warm.

"Master……"

He murmured softly, his voice carrying a hint of filial longing he himself hadn't noticed.

Just then.

That lazy voice seemed to have grown impatient waiting.

It emerged once more from the rift, this time with a clear target.

"Hey."

"That big-handed guy."

The voice, pointing directly at that dazzling Star Sea.

That mysterious entity that previously wanted to treat Yao as a toy and snack, dragging her toward silence.

"Yeah, stop looking around, just talking to you."

In the voice, there was a hint of undisguised disdain.

"Just now, were you trying to move my flower?"

"Flower?"

Everyone froze.

Immediately, everyone's gazes unconsciously turned to Yao.

Obviously, in the eyes of the owner of that lazy voice, beautiful Yao is just a flower he planted, a pretty good one.

Deep in the Star Sea, that lazy voice fell silent.

This is a naked provocation!

It is disregard!

And moreover……humiliation!

He, one of the mighty lords of the Star Sea, was actually compared to a flower thief?

A terrifying fury began to brew in the Star Sea.

However, the voice in the rift gave him no chance to act, continuing with that urging tone.

Also.

Your kick just now—oh no, your hand—made such a disturbance, you cracked the ground at my doorstep.

The newly laid turf, you also shook to death several patches.

You tell me, how should we settle this matter?

Is it to apologize and make amends, or... I, old man, will personally go in and have a good chat with you about 'gardening'?