Chapter 275: Source of Ten Thousand Paths, Ultimate Tribunal

The moment of stepping through the gate was not the dizzying teleportation I had imagined.

That feeling was like a Mortal plunging into icy deep water.

No tearing sensation.

No dizziness.

Just passing through a thin yet all‑blocking water curtain.

When Sun Wukong opened his eyes again, the mighty battle intent ready to shatter heaven and earth stalled abruptly.

Here, there is no battlefield.

No earth paved with fresh blood and white bones.

Nor the icy, arena‑like black platform.

This is a space that cannot be described with any known concept.

No up or down.

No left or right.

No past or future.

Only……the Dao.

Countless Dao‑like 'roots', thick as mountains yet fine as hairs, intertwine, coil, and stretch toward infinite distance here.

Each 'root' emits a different light.

Some blaze like fire, representing destruction and rebirth.

Some are icy as frost, symbolizing order and Deathly Silence.

Some flow like water, full of change and possibility.

They converge into vast stellar rivers that slowly flow within this space,

touching and parting, they play the universe's most primordial melody.

Sun Wukong stared, dumbfounded.

His ferocious Equal Heaven Path here is like a drop of magma plunging into an endless sea,

it couldn't even bubble before being assimilated by a vaster, older power.

And not far from him, the apparition of Hóngjūn Dàozǔ likewise appeared.

This old Daoist who has overseen the Heavenly Dao for eons now has a face uglier than a stone in a latrine, having lost all trace of a Daoist patriarch's dignity.

The madness and greed in his eyes have been replaced by a deeper awe and fear.

At this moment.

"Hum—"

At the center of this space, the source where countless law‑roots converge,

an eye‑pupil so huge it beggars imagination slowly, inch by inch, opened.

Within that pupil, there is no emotion.

No anger.

No joy.

No life, no death.

Only an absolute neutrality, absolute indifference, as if it were 'Principle' itself, 'Rule' itself.

This is the Cosmic Pan-Consciousness!

Sun Wukong instinctively activated his Fiery Golden Eyes, two golden beams shooting out, hoping to pierce the pupil's essence.

However!

"Hiss!"

The instant the golden light touched the pupil, Sun Wukong felt his eyes as if two red‑hot iron needles were viciously stabbed into them!

A searing pain, as if his Divine Soul, bloodline, and every particle of his existence were thoroughly seen through and analyzed, made him involuntarily groan!

This is an unprecedented experience!

His Fiery Golden Eyes break through everything, see everything!

Yet before this pupil, he himself became the object laid bare and transparent!

Hóngjūn Dàozǔ's situation is no better.

He dare not lift his head to stare directly at that pupil, merely bowing his head deeply,

that posture resembles a minor regional official finally meeting the true sovereign he has never seen, yet who rules over all his affairs.

Merging with the Dao?

Heavenly Dao?

Before the true Cosmic Pan-Consciousness, they are merely a joke!

A sound devoid of joy or sorrow, containing no emotion yet bearing supreme majesty, rang directly in the deepest depths of Sun Wukong's and Hongjun's Divine Souls.

"Arbitration… begin."

That sound made Sun Wukong's Divine Soul shudder violently.

He recalled that icy voice, the bastard who had decreed they must 'devour' each other.

But this voice is older than that one, and… more decisive.

"This place is the Source of Ten Thousand Paths."

"Here, violence is ineffective."

"Here, laws are ineffective."

The voice spoke slowly, each word like a brand‑new cosmic law etched into this space.

Sun Wukong clenched his Golden Cudgel tightly.

Violence is ineffective?

The law is ineffective?

What's the point of fighting?

That voice seemed to have seen through his thoughts, and it continued speaking.

You two must each prove your own Dao.

What is a 'variable'?

What is a 'fixed number'?

Which... can better guarantee the perpetual existence of the multiverse?

Debate the Dao?

Sun Wukong froze, thinking he had misheard.

Let him, this monkey born from stone, naturally destined to smash all rules,

to go debate with an old Taoist who has toyed with rules for hundreds of millions of years?

Isn't this just making him use his weaknesses to clash head‑on with the other's strengths?!

As expected!

In the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of intense, undisguisable confidence on Hongjun's deathly pale face.

Debate the Dao?

Debating one's understanding of the Heavenly Dao Law, debating one's control of cosmic order—through the Three Realms and Six Paths, throughout history, who could surpass him, Hongjun?!

This reckless monkey, all brute strength and wildness, can't even explain his own Dao—what does he have to fight with?

He's sure to win this round!

As long as he wins this debate, he can rightfully claim everything about this monkey as his own, becoming the true 'sole one'!

"Perpetual existence?"

Sun Wukong suddenly laughed, opening his mouth to reveal two rows of stark white teeth,

His eyes showed no trace of fear, instead filled with the most primal, wild provocation.

"I, Old Sun, only trust the staff in my hand!"

"Whoever has the bigger fist is the one who's right!"

"Want perpetuity? Then beat into submission everyone who refuses to yield!"

"This is my Dao, Old Sun!"

His voice was arrogant, unrestrained, full of contempt for this so‑called arbitration.

However.

That huge pupil showed not the slightest ripple.

It merely spoke coldly, as if stating an established fact, announcing the next step.

"Objection is ineffective."

"The Dao of the Fixed Number—discuss it first."

The moment his words fell.

Hongjun the Dao Ancestor moved.

He slowly took a step forward.

This step seemed ordinary, yet it felt as if he were stepping on the very heartbeat of the universe.

The aura that had been suppressed within him burst forth explosively at this moment!

It was no longer mere Heavenly Dao majesty, but a more pure embodiment of 'order' and 'rules'!

Countless law‑roots that had been flowing quietly, as if summoned by an emperor, began to frenziedly converge toward him.

"Cold Absolute Order."

"Deathly Silence of the Final Destiny."

"Precise Chain of Causality."

……

Countless Great Dao laws representing the Fixed Number intertwined behind him into an immense throne that overlooks all beings!

Hongjun slowly turned, took his seat on the throne, his murky eyes,

For the first time, he truly looked down upon Sun Wukong with the gaze of one looking down on ants.

At this moment, he was no longer the desperate stray dog driven to a dead end.

He is the judge of the Source of Ten Thousand Paths!

And Sun Wukong is the prisoner awaiting his death sentence!

Hongjun's aura, in this instant, actually pressed down Sun Wukong's rebellious fighting spirit!