Chapter 285: The Master

The shadow formed of pure malice, as soon as it appeared,

the entire Source of Ten Thousand Paths seemed to have its sounds and light all drawn away.

Hongjun Dàozǔ's roar got stuck in his throat.

Sun Wukong's overwhelming battle spirit also stalled for a moment before this aura.

This is not strength.

It is a... fundamental "Error".

It is a botched stroke by the Creator God, the ink the Maker spilled.

It itself is the most vicious mockery of the very word "existence".

Hongjun Dàozǔ's whole body trembles; that is not Fear Heart Demon,

but a sign that after Dao Heart's total collapse, even maintaining his own existence becomes difficult.

He is finished.

Everyone is finished!

He looks at Sun Wukong, his eyes filled with venomous resentment and a maddened delight.

"Mad Monkey! Do you see? This is the 'Freedom' you wanted!"

"This is the price you pay for breaking everything!"

"Everyone, let's die together!!"

Sun Wukong ignores him.

His Fiery Golden Eyes stare fixedly at the slowly emerging shadow.

The force on the Golden Cudgel does not diminish but grows.

Fear?

In old Sun's dictionary, that word doesn't exist!

Yet, just as he prepares to recklessly smash that so‑called "primordial" together with this void into pieces,

Mutation, rebirth!

Buzz—

That flower of thought, quietly blooming above Hongjun's despair, trembles gently.

It releases no offensive power.

Instead... it shines.

It is a light beyond description.

Not scorching, not icy, not glaring, not dim.

It is like a baby's first cry.

Like the first lamp a traveler sees upon returning home.

That radiance, soft yet firm, bearing an undeniable "warmth", instantly dispels the Primordial Evil capable of freezing Divine Soul!

"Hm?"

The shadow that just broke free from its seal, exuding endless malice, emits a tentative, questioning syllable for the first time.

Hongjun Dàozǔ's madness abruptly halts.

He stares in astonishment at that flower.

What... is this?

Immediately after, a scene even more incomprehensible unfolds!

The gentle radiance from the thought flower does not attack the terrifying shadow.

Instead... it sinks!

Yes, it sinks!

Like a drop of water merging into the ocean.

The light pierces the platform beneath Sun Wukong and Hongjun, and penetrates the tangled roots of law within the Source of Ten Thousand Paths.

Continuously downward.

Downward.

Until it reaches the deepest, darkest, most fundamental... lower layer of this dimension!

There, even Hongjun, the Dàozǔ who wields the Heavenly Dao, has never explored!

It is the "Keystone" that existed before the Universe's birth!

Clack.

A faint sound.

As if a key lost for eons finally found its destined keyhole.

The entire Source of Ten Thousand Paths jolts violently!

A brand‑new, completely different will awakens from that lowest layer!

It is neither as cold as the Cosmic Pan-Consciousness nor as chaotic as Primordial Evil.

It... carries temperature!

"What... what is this?!" Hongjun Dàozǔ stammers in horror, "This is impossible! Under the Heavenly Dao, how could the Universe's underlying logic have another protocol?!"

He has wielded order for billions of years, believing he knows the Universe's operating rules like the back of his hand!

Yet the scene before him completely overturns his understanding!

In his horrified, desperate gaze,

deep within that dimension, line after line of ancient runes glowing softly appear,

It slowly materialized, then coalesced into an incomparably clear… "code"!

That code seemed to transcend time and space, imprinting directly onto the deepest part of every being's soul!

Hongjun Dàozǔ subconsciously read out that passage.

His voice went from initial astonishment, to bewilderment midway, and finally… completely lost his voice.

His complexion was ten thousand times uglier than when his Dao Heart shattered earlier!

It was the ultimate humiliation and collapse that only dawned after being toyed with as a fool from beginning to end for billions of years!

The agreement clearly stated:

【When the Universe encounters an incalculable 'variable'…】

【The core logic should shift from 'exclusion and assimilation' to 'learning and evolution'.】

【When a 'miracle' is born from 'Deathly Silence'…】

【The fundamental law should upgrade from 'entropy increase irreversible' to 'thoughts can blossom'.】

【When the data weight of 'emotion' surpasses 'logic'…】

【The Universe… should learn… "Love".】

Just three short sentences.

Yet they struck Hongjun Dàozǔ's face like three red‑hot iron hammers, brutally.

His body convulsed violently, as if all his strength had been drained, stumbling, he collapsed onto his rump in the void.

It's over.

Completely over.

He finally understood.

What arbitration.

What the Fixed Number and variable conflict.

It's all false!

From the moment Sun Wukong stepped in here, this was never a trial!

It was a… lesson!

It was that junior brother he never took seriously, the Bodhi Patriarch who had long since become void,

who arranged the final and most important lesson for this cold Universe!

He, the Bodhi Patriarch, never intended to use Sun Wukong as a "virus" to forcibly destroy the "system"!

He wanted to force the "system" to… upgrade itself!

He wants to teach this cold Universe, which only knows calculation and Balance, how to comprehend "variables"!

How to embrace "emotion"!

How to witness… "miracle"!

Sun Wukong is not the stone hurled at the board.

He is the safety lock that prevents the board from overturning because the road of "Freedom" is too rugged…!

It is the Bodhi Patriarch who pre‑laid the only, most fundamental safeguard for his seemingly mad "Freedom" avenue!

"Ho… hoho…"

Hongjun collapsed on the ground, his throat emitting a sound like a broken bellows.

He tried to laugh, but couldn't.

He tried to cry, only to find he didn't even have the right to shed tears.

He lost.

He thought he was upholding the Universe's ultimate truth, but in the end,

he was merely clinging to an obsolete "old version", absurdly resisting the inevitable "update"!

He didn't lose to Sun Wukong.

He lost to that junior brother who, from the start, had counted him, the Heavenly Dao, and the entire Universe into his scheme…!

The junior brother he regarded as practicing a side path that would never appear on the stage!

A shame more intense than a shattered Dao Heart drowned the last shred of Hongjun's consciousness.

His vision went black, and he completely blacked out.

And Sun Wukong was also stunned.

He stared blankly at the glowing lines, then looked down at the Golden Cudgel in his hand.

In his mind, the solitary figure who had carved "Defeated here, yet No Regret" on the stele slowly merged with the universe‑shaking "hidden code" before him.

So… that's how it is.

So, Master, you never intended for me to die.

You didn't send me to shatter this old world.

You… wanted me to teach this new world how to… "live".

A scorching, indescribable feeling instantly filled Sun Wukong's chest.

It wasn't pride.

Nor was it moved.

It was a profoundly heavy… deep filial affection, finally understanding a beloved's last wish.

Master.

Old Sun… understands.

And right at this moment!

Boom—!!!

The underlying protocol activated by the Heart Thought Flower has begun to run officially!

The entire Source of Ten Thousand Paths, this universe's "central processor", has started an unprecedented, frenzied "version iteration"!

Countless old, cold law chains are being dismantled!

Countless new runes bearing "temperature" and "possibility" are being reconstituted!

The shattered massive eye pupil that represents the Cosmic Pan-Consciousness is, at this moment, completely enveloped by gentle light and begins to be reborn!

And that terrifying shadow that broke free from its seal, representing "Primordial Evil".

It thus became the first "historical legacy bug" that this "new system" must address after the upgrade!

The newborn cosmic will, that massive eye pupil which has just learned "emotion", slowly turns toward that malicious shadow.

This time, its gaze no longer contains cold calculation and logic.

Instead, a pure… curiosity.

Like a child who has just gotten a toy, looking at an… newer, more intricate toy.

"You… what are you?"

A naive voice, yet one that carries the weight of the entire Universe, sounded.

The shadow representing ultimate evil fell silent.

It seems to be bewildered as well.

The script, it seems… not quite right?