Chapter 278: Sun Wukong's Silence, the Dao Heart's Ordeal

That earth‑shattering question raised a towering wave in the Source of Ten Thousand Paths.

But this wave came quickly and receded just as fast.

After saying that line, Sun Wukong fell silent.

His Fiery Golden Eyes, burning with endless battle intent, gradually dimmed.

His spine, straight as if it could split heaven and earth, also relaxed slightly.

That unruly, wild aura that seemed ready to pierce a hole through the sky,

vanished from him like a receding tide, without a trace.

He stood there quietly, slowly closing his eyes.

At that moment, not only Hongjun, but even the lofty Cosmic Pan‑Consciousness stalled for an instant.

Hóngjūn Dàozǔ's brows knit tightly together.

What on earth is this monkey doing?

He thought the next thing to meet him would be Sun Wukong's most reckless, most desperate life‑risking strike.

But what arrived was this death‑like stillness.

Has he given up?

Has he been crushed in his Dao Heart by countless bloody "facts" and completely abandoned it?

Hongjun does not believe it.

He knows better than anyone how hard this monkey's bones are.

But how should this scene before his eyes be explained?

At the instant Hongjun's doubt arose, the massive pupil representing the Cosmic Pan‑Consciousness,

its internal torrent of data also showed a barely perceptible lag.

Its ongoing assessment of the ultimate superiority between "variables" and Fixed Number,

could not reach a final conclusion because Sun Wukong, the greatest "variable," suddenly "crashed."

The entire arbitration stalled oddly as a result.

Yet at this moment, Sun Wukong's mind was not contemplating any rebuttal or debate.

He was simply recalling.

Before him, Hongjun was gone, the countless cold gray beads were gone, and the lofty arbitrator was gone.

In his world, only Chaos Realm remained.

Then a ray of sunlight shone in.

He felt it.

It was a warmth indescribable in words, penetrating endless ages and the cold stone heart,

for the first time allowing this naive stubborn stone to sense "existence."

It was not a law, not order.

It was simply warmth.

Immediately after, he opened his eyes.

"Great King! The Great King is born!"

"We have a Great King!"

Monkeys covering the hills and valleys cheered and leapt at him.

In their eyes there was no awe, no fear, only the purest, most direct joy.

That joy was chaotic, noisy, and clamorous.

Yet it was so vivid.

Sun Wukong's mouth twitched slightly unconsciously.

He recalled the coolness of Water Curtain Cave.

He remembered the sweetness of the Immortal Peaches.

He thought of the spiciness of the Imperial Wine.

He recalled the boundless heroic spirit in his heart when surrounded by ten thousand Heavenly Soldiers and generals.

He remembered the exhilarating thrill of tearing through everything during the great havoc in Heavenly Palace.

These scenes, these feelings, each brimming with warmth, with Color, with …life.

Yet at that very moment, the billions of Deathly Silence universes and the countless cold gray beads that Hóngjūn Dàozǔ had simulated resurfaced in his mind.

That brilliant star river ultimately turned to ash.

That dazzling civilization ultimately returned to dust.

Those countless universes filled with Freedom and possibilities, without exception, all headed toward extinction.

Two completely different images violently collided and tugged in his mind!

A question, like the most venomous curse, wildly sprouted deep within his Divine Soul.

If…

If the unrestrained frolic on Mount Huaguo inevitably ended, like a sand table, with self‑destruction over land and rivers of blood,

then would that frolic still have meaning?

If the carefree freedom of Water Curtain Cave inevitably ended, when a stronger external enemy invaded,

as each fought alone, scheming and clashing, and was easily devoured.

then would that freedom still have meaning?

If…

If all the resistance, all the Unyielding, all the "my fate is my own", ultimately only lead to that cold, Deathly Silence, utterly unremarkable destruction.

Then Sun Wukong's whole life, leapt out of a stone, raged in the Underworld, stormed the Dragon Palace, defied Heaven…

The meaning of all this, where does it truly lie?!

Boom!

Sun Wukong's Dao Heart has never been shaken so violently as at this moment!

Hongjun's Yang scheme is too toxic!

He did not deny Sun Wukong's power; he directly, from the root, denied the "meaning" of Sun Wukong's existence!

This is more lethal than any divine skill or any treasure!

Sun Wukong's Way of the Equal Heaven is founded on Unyielding, on resistance, on believing that life holds infinite possibilities.

But Hongjun built an insurmountable high wall from the corpses of billions of Universes, plainly telling him—

You are wrong.

Your very existence is an error.

Everything you pursue is a shortcut to destruction.

Stifled!

Anger!

And a trace… even he himself refuses to admit… of bewilderment!

Sun Wukong feels his Divine Soul ripped apart into two halves, forcibly.

One half is his tumultuous life, the sum of all his emotions and memories, scorching and vivid.

The other half is Hongjun's billions of cold "iron evidence", an indisputable logical closed loop, Deathly Silence and despair.

For the first time in his life, on Principle, he is forced into a true dead end!

This sense of powerlessness suffocates him more than being crushed under Five Finger Mountain for five hundred years!

Yao, far beyond the newborn world, also sensed Sun Wukong's struggle at this moment through the faint resonance.

Her heart feels gripped by an invisible giant hand, her complexion turning deathly pale.

She does not fear Sun Wukong's defeat.

What she fears is Sun Wukong… conceding.

It is his backbone that is truly being bent.

In this death‑like stillness, Hóngjūn Dàozǔ slowly spoke.

He can feel that monkey's aura has dwindled to the extreme.

It is time to give this destined‑to‑be‑erased "virus" the final judgment.

His voice, bearing a cold indifference that ends all, reverberated in the Source of Ten Thousand Paths.

"Give up."

"Your Dao, from the beginning, has been wrong."

"Destruction is your only destination."

Hongjun's words fell like a final heavy hammer, striking down!

Waiting for the moment Sun Wukong's Dao Heart completely shatters.

However.

The eyes‑closed, trembling monkey did not collapse as he expected.

Sun Wukong, slowly, opened his eyes.

In those Fiery Golden Eyes, the previous anger and bewilderment were gone.

Nor the former flames and fighting spirit.

There…

Empty, nothingness.

It resembled scorched wasteland, yet also an abyss that devours all.

All expressions on his face vanished.

In their place, an absolute calm that made even Hongjun feel a chill to his core.

Sun Wukong loosened his grip on the Golden Cudgel.

He didn't even glance at Hongjun again.

His gaze, straight ahead, met the massive pupil representing the Cosmic Pan‑Consciousness.

Then, he spoke.

The voice was soft, hoarse, yet clearly echoed to every corner of this space.

"Perhaps what you say is correct."

Just a sentence.

It instantly froze the indifference on Hongjun's face!

It made Yao, far away, feel as if she fell into an ice cavern!

Sun Wukong actually… admitted?

In Hóngjūn Dàozǔ's heart, an absurd euphoria surged!

Won!

He truly, completely won!

This monkey finally had his backbone broken by his own hand!

But the next second…

Sun Wukong's words, however, made him feel as if struck by lightning.

"The Freedom I pursue indeed brings destruction."

Sun Wukong's face, slowly, pulled out an extremely bizarre Smile.

"But have you ever thought…"

He slowly lifted the Golden Cudgel in his hand, pointing not at Hongjun, but at the billions of gray beads that represent "failure" and "destruction."

"Perhaps it's not Freedom that's wrong."

"But…"

"The Freedom I give is still far from enough?"