Chapter 279: No Rebuttal, Only One Story

That sentence "The freedom I gave is still far from enough," was like a thunder that split the Chaos Realm.

It gave no explanation.

It offered no rebuttal.

It was only a more arrogant, more incomprehensible… proclamation.

On Hóngjūn Dàozǔ's eternally unchanging face, the faint curve of a newly‑appearing victor froze completely.

He stared at Sun Wukong.

He looked at those eyes that reignited with flame.

Within them, the previous struggle and confusion were gone.

In their place was an unprecedented clarity.

A transparency that comprehended everything and embraced everything!

And… a resolve that even Hongjun felt a shiver in his core!

This monkey has gone mad!

That was the only thought flashing through Hongjun's mind.

He used the destruction of countless Universes as iron proof, already forcing this monkey's Dao into a dead end.

Yet this monkey, far from collapsing,

He actually still tried to carve a sky‑piercing road out of that dead end?!

Absurd!

Ridiculous!

Just as Hongjun was about to speak, using an even colder logic to completely crush this mad monkey's final Illusion,

Sun Wukong, however, gave him a wide grin.

That smile shone as brilliantly as the sunrise over Mount Huaguo.

"I, Old Sun, can't argue with you."

A simple, straightforward sentence.

Hongjun was stunned.

The massive pupil representing the Cosmic Pan-Consciousness, its internal torrent of data, also stalled for a moment.

Yao, who had been anxiously watching from beyond the newborn world, felt her heart tighten.

Admitted defeat?

No!

Wrong!

In Sun Wukong's tone there was not a hint of despondency or resentment.

It was more like… disdain.

Like a towering giant too lazy to argue with the ants beneath his feet about how high the sky is or how thick the earth is.

Indeed.

After Sun Wukong finished that line, he never glanced at Hongjun again.

He simply turned his back.

He laid his back—the biggest vulnerability—utterly defenseless, fully exposed before Hóngjūn Dàozǔ.

What a contempt!

Hongjun's eye corner twitched violently.

The raging fury nearly burned his reason to ash.

Yet he ultimately did not strike.

Because this is the Source of Ten Thousand Paths.

It is the supreme arbitrator's arena.

Moreover, seeing Sun Wukong's next move made his Dao Heart, already turned into absolute order, tremble sharply.

Sun Wukong faced the massive pupil representing the Cosmic Pan-Consciousness.

He said nothing further.

Nor did he release any earth‑shaking aura.

He simply stood there in silence.

Then, he gently planted the Golden Cudgel that had accompanied him all his life into the Concept dimension beneath his feet.

He spread his arms.

As if to embrace the entire Universe.

In the next instant,

His whole life,

All his memories,

All his emotions,

From when he was that stubborn stone, to becoming the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, and now standing here…

Everything transformed into the purest, most primal light and shadow, without any embellishment or justification.

Unreservedly projected onto this empty "court".

No rebuttal.

Only one story.

The first image that surfaced was not some earth‑shaking grand scene.

That was just Mount Huaguo, an ordinary afternoon.

A stone that had just newly birthed sentient intelligence clumsily mimicked the furry peers around it.

He learned their ways, cautiously, and for an old monkey whose fur was nearly all gone, he plucked the lice from its body.

Sunlight, warm and gentle, poured over his body.

A breeze carried the fresh scent of wild fruit.

Around him, the carefree laughter of his kind echoed.

At that time, he did not understand what the Great Dao was.

He did not understand what order was.

He only knew that the sunlight at that moment was very warm.

Time was tranquil and good.

The second scene changed.

It was before the Slanting Moon Three Stars Cave.

A monkey who already understood birth, aging, illness, death, and who knew reverence and longing.

His heart was full of anxiety, his mind full of hope.

For the first time, he knelt respectfully before the Dàorén named "Bodhi".

What he kowtowed to was not authority.

What he worshipped was not power.

What he sought was the "possibility" that could let him leap beyond the Three Realms, outside the Five Elements.

A "variable" belonging to himself.

The third scene switched again.

Dim, oppressive.

Below the Wǔxíng Shān.

The wind blew like knives.

The rain drenched like ice spikes.

Copper pellets and iron juice pierced his intestines and rotted his belly.

Loneliness, solitude, day after day, year after year.

A full five hundred years.

That seal symbolizing the supreme "order" between Heaven and Earth was affixed to his crown.

It was to grind down his edges.

It was to crush his proud bones.

It was to make him "submit".

In the scene, the figure pressed beneath the mountain was filthy and in a wretched state.

But his head—

That proud head never, from start to finish, truly lowered even a fraction!

In his eyes there had been confusion, anger, and unwillingness.

But there was never any "regret".

Immediately after.

The scenes shifted faster and faster.

He rampaged through the Underworld, delighting as he crossed out the Book of Life and Death.

He stormed the Dragon Palace, flamboyantly taking the Sea‑Stabilizing Needle.

He faced a hundred thousand Heavenly Soldiers and generals alone, resolutely defending the entire Mount Huaguo.

He stormed the Lingxiao Treasure Hall, arrogantly kicking the supreme Divine Throne over!

And also…

Also the ninety‑nine hardships on the Xi Xing Lu.

Those struggles.

Those anger born of deception.

Those sorrows after seeing through the false faces of countless gods and Buddhas.

And finally, atop Ling Shan, the endless oppression and unwillingness bound by the so‑called "Fighting Victory Buddha" Golden Body!

Sun Wukong did not argue about what was right or wrong.

He also did not refute Hongjun's cold "truth".

He merely told the story of his own "variable".

He recounted his tumultuous life, full of Error, full of regret, full of struggle, yet also full of endless light and heat.

He told it verbatim to this cold "court".

He told it to this supreme arbiter.

Deathly Silence.

Within the Source of Ten Thousand Paths, a realm of Deathly Silence.

Hóngjūn Dàozǔ watched the flowing lights and shadows, watching the monkey move from a stubborn stone step by step to today.

On his face, for the first time, an uncontrollable… shock!

Because he discovered.

Everything Sun Wukong displayed, his cold, ruthless "order" Great Dao could not parse at all!

What is warmth?

What is longing?

What is pride?

What is refusing to yield even unto death?

These things cannot be quantified, cannot be calculated, and cannot be fitted into any stable model!

They are pure 'variables'!

They are... 'logic bombs' capable of instantly shattering any precision instrument!

And at this moment.

Sun Wukong personally handed over this 'bomb' capable of destroying all order to the Cosmic Pan-Consciousness.

He seemed to be saying.

Principle, I can't argue with you.

Then.

My story — do you dare to listen?