Chapter 317: Dawn and Shadows of the New Era

Heaven really shattered.

Hongjun's order primordial source, those golden runes, like a grand and mournful funeral, scattered across the entire multiverse.

They are no longer shackles, but nourishment.

Every world once suppressed greedily absorbs this power, bursting forth with unprecedented vitality.

Stars are reigniting.

Barren planets sprout their first tender shoots.

Countless civilizations cheer and sing, offering their hymns to the golden figure that shattered the old Heavenly Dao.

The boundless, variegated, vibrant will of 'variables,' like countless streams, flows into Sun Wukong's Way of the Equal Heaven.

His Dao is madly expanding and elevating at an unimaginable speed.

At this moment, he feels an unprecedented freedom, an unprecedented power.

Is this what Master wanted?

A world without the lofty Heaven, where all things can contend, all things have infinite possibilities... a bright and vast cosmos!

Sun Wukong bears the now gray-white Tiěbàng, standing in the void, bathed in the cheers of countless worlds.

He did it.

For Master, for those lost 'failed' universes, and for his own unyielding Monkey Heart.

His gaze pierces the endless Star Sea, falling upon one of the most brilliant and special worlds.

【Blue Star Federation】

That is his 'masterpiece'.

It is what he created using Hongjun's 'logic' itself, the first and most perfect 'BUG'.

At this moment, the world is bursting forth with dazzling light.

Countless strangely shaped star fleets, like silent swarms, shuttle between star systems, constructing astonishing marvels.

On the planet's surface, cities are as precise as artworks, with no idle person; everything runs in the most optimized way.

But beneath that cold shell of order lies boundless, limitless free thought.

In the network, new art forms are being born.

In the virtual debate arena, philosophical discussions about the ultimate universe collide, producing billions of sparks every second.

Technology, culture, art... everything is expanding wildly in an explosive manner.

This is what he wants: the 'gray'.

One that possesses order's stability while retaining freedom's possibility, a perfect exemplar.

"Damn... it looks good."

Sun Wukong grinned, feeling a pang of pride from the heart.

"Wukong."

A gentle voice sounded behind him.

Yao quietly came to his side and stood shoulder to shoulder with him.

Her Dao, after absorbing those scattered order primordial sources, became more solid; that 'Dream Ark',

has become a real, radiant world capable of bearing countless civilizations.

She did not ask about the battle's outcome.

She merely gazed silently at Sun Wukong, at his eyes, which had shed all ferocity, leaving only endless depth.

Then she gently rested her head on Sun Wukong's shoulder.

Like a little boat that has found its harbor.

Sun Wukong's body tensed slightly, then relaxed.

He did not speak, merely allowing her to lean on him.

The two stood there silently, admiring this star sea they had personally guarded and created, a newly forged Star Sea.

After the great battle, a rare tranquility.

Really good.

In Sun Wukong's heart, a sense of long-lost ease suddenly arose.

Perhaps...

It's time to return to Mount Huaguo and have a look.

Find a familiar peach tree and sleep soundly.

Let this myriad ages of fatigue all be slept away.

However.

Just at the moment this thought arose.

【Alert! Abnormal entropy surge in the blue logic circuit!】

【Alert! The consciousness-form stability anchor is undergoing an irreversible shift!】

A cold, emotionless mechanical alarm sound.

Without warning, it exploded directly in Sun Wukong's mind!

This voice came from the central AI of the 【Blue Star Federation】—'Pangu'.

It is the absolute rational civilization guardian he himself created!

Sun Wukong's brows furrowed sharply.

The atmosphere of ease was instantly torn to shreds.

What's going on?

He took a step, and his figure had already descended onto the internal network of the Blue Star Federation, upon that ocean composed purely of data.

His will instantly Suǒdìnged the source of the anomaly.

In the image.

He was the Blue Star Federation's foremost expert, a space physicist.

He had just overcome a breakthrough that could enable the entire civilization to perform spatial leaps, an epoch-making technology.

Logically, this should be ecstatic, a moment worthy of being recorded in history.

But, there was none.

That scientist, at the moment he put down his tool, that instant.

All expressions had vanished.

No joy, no excitement, not even a ripple.

He just stood there, silently.

Completely still.

Like a statue that had suddenly lost all signs of life.

Not just him!

Sun Wukong's divine sense, like a storm, instantly swept across the entire Blue Star.

On the streets.

Countless pedestrians who had just been hurrying along stopped in unison, looked up, and gazed at the empty sky.

Inside the factories.

Countless workers precisely operating mechanical arms put down their tasks, held their last motion, and froze in place.

In the network.

That sea of consciousness, which had once surged with thoughts and gave birth to billions of new ideas every second, was now becoming……calm at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Like a pot of water that had just been boiling violently.

Someone had suddenly turned off the fire.

Everyone seemed as if they had been hit with a pause button.

The entire Blue Star civilization, that vast machine running at high speed, at this moment, strangely, came to a halt.

Sun Wukong's heart sank sharply.

A chill shot up from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of his head!

This is not right!

This damn thing is totally not right!

This is not like fatigue after battle.

That is a kind of……

A kind of, after completing all settings, running all procedures, reaching the endpoint……

Emptiness.

Yes!

It is emptiness!

Just like a program, after executing its last line of code, will naturally fall into silence!

"Wake up!"

Sun Wukong let out an angry roar, containing the supreme will of the Way of the Equal Heaven, like a thunderclap exploding in the minds of all Living Beings across the entire Blue Star.

He wants to wake them up!

He wants to tell them that everything is not over yet, the future still holds infinite possibilities!

However.

His will, like a mud cow entering the sea.

No response at all.

Those stagnant souls were like one door after another, welded shut from within, cold iron doors.

His power, his Dao, his will capable of shattering the Heavenly Dao.

Before these, the strange "Emptiness".

Surprisingly, it had no effect at all!

How could this be?!

Sun Wukong's Dao Heart, for the first time, produced intense turmoil!

The perfect "gray" civilization he created, capable of deceiving Hongjun's Heavenly Dao.

In his eyes, this was the exemplar of the new era.

Could it be……that it itself is a huge mistake?!

The balance he pursued, that of 'order as shell, freedom as heart'.

When "Freedom" explored to its boundary, having fulfilled all missions bestowed by "Order".

What remained……

Surprisingly, only a expanse of Deathly Silence remained?!

Just at this moment, Sun Wukong's mind and spirit were violently shaken, unable to believe it.

His peripheral vision suddenly caught sight of a certain place.

That was, located at the deepest reaches of the Universe.

That expanse, long forgotten by him, the shattered "Source of Ten Thousand Paths".

At the very core of that Chaos Realm wasteland.

That, back then, was personally laid down by Master Bodhi Patriarch using the "Underlying Agreement", the ultimate seal.

That expanse, used to isolate, is the firewall of the most ancient and terrifying Primordial Evil.

Now.

That expanse was originally just darkness, with only wisps of black qi drifting out.

It seems…

Compared to before, when Hongjun had just fallen.

It was becoming dense, so, insignificantly…

A wisp.