Chapter 326: The Losers' Resonance
Sun Wukong's silhouette, like a thread, merged into the blue smoke of the ruins.
He compressed his own sense of existence to the extreme.
Even his breathing merged with the deathly silence of this heaven and earth.
His eyes, those fiery golden eyes that once burned through the thirty-three heavens, were now ice-cold, like two pieces of ancient, never-melting black ice.
He locked his gaze dead ahead.
That strand, finer than a hair, the black "Absolute Malice".
It moved.
It was like a bodiless, hungry poisonous snake swimming upstream in the river of time.
Soundlessly, it slipped into that mass, the great ball of light formed from the lingering thoughts of Hongjun's fanatical followers.
Inside the light ball, utter chaos.
Countless mad thoughts screamed and roared wildly within.
"Kill! Kill that demon monkey! Avenge the Dao Ancestor!"
One thought, its body ablaze with pure, destructive fire.
The black strand of "Absolute Malice" slipped past it without a glance.
It, uninterested.
"Order! The universe needs order! A world without the Dao Ancestor ought to be remade!"
Another thought emitted an obsessive, icy light, seeking to force everything into its orbit.
"Absolute Malice," as before, paid it no heed.
Sun Wukong held his breath.
He understood.
This thing, what it wants, is neither destruction nor reconstruction.
It had no interest in those fervent emotions filled with "purpose."
It was searching.
Searching for something purer, more essential...
That black strand of malice wandered through the light ball, neither hurried nor slow.
It was like the most fastidious diner, sampling the full spread of dishes.
Finally.
It stopped.
Before a faint thought, curled up in the corner of the light ball.
That thought was very quiet.
It did not roar.
Nor did it hiss.
It merely quietly emitted a deathly silence so thick it could not be dissolved.
A lingering attachment to past glory without end.
A bone-deep negation of this new age!
An endless resentment and unwillingness over its own fall to this state!
Sun Wukong's pupils contracted sharply!
That's it!
He almost instantly made his judgment!
This aura, this scent!
How similar to the "rust" corroding his dao body!
Sun Wukong hesitated no longer.
Fiery Golden Eyes, divine light bursting forth!
His gaze pierced the thin shell of thought and stared straight at its primordial core!
The next second!
Sun Wukong's body suddenly stiffened!
He saw a face.
A face he knew so well he wanted to crush its bones and scatter its ashes!
On that face, the once solemn and dignified countenance had vanished completely.
Only twisted, unwilling, resentful madness remained!
Rulai!
It was actually the Rulai Buddha!
Sun Wukong's heart sank heavily!
How could he forget this old thing!
Back then, Ling Shan collapsed, the Buddhist sect was uprooted and utterly eradicated by the Bodhi Patriarch!
All Buddhas fell into silent extinction, the Dao lineage severed!
Logically, this Rulai, having lost all sources of faith, its remnant soul should have long since dissipated between heaven and earth!
Yet he, incredibly, is still here!
Sun Wukong instantly understood.
It was hatred!
It is aimed at this old monkey of mine, that hatred, deep into the bone marrow, etched into the divine soul—a sky‑high hatred!
This hatred, like the strongest shackles, forcibly binds this wisp of soul that should have dissipated, locking it in this world!
Let him barely survive until now!
Just then.
That strand of black "Absolute Malice" seemed to have found the world's most delicious delicacy.
It slowly circled the Tathagata's remnant soul.
As if expressing the utmost… satisfaction.
Yes.
Satisfied.
It is this kind of ultimate "feeling of failure"!
It is this kind that negates everything, leaving only the vengeful "final emotion".
This, then, is its perfect breeding ground.
It did not, as Sun Wukong imagined, violently surge in directly.
Instead, it gently conveyed to the Tathagata's remnant soul an icy, emotionless… concept.
【This world is wrong.】
【Look, those beings you once protected have forgotten you.】
【Look, the glorious Buddha realm you once built has now turned to dust.】
【Look, that monkey you once regarded as an ant now stands at the world's summit.】
【Change is the root of suffering.】
【All that is newly born is ugly.】
【Your failure is not your fault.】
【It is the world's fault.】
【It ought not to be like this.】
【Come with me.】
【Give up struggling, give up thinking, give up… meaning.】
【Let us be together.】
【End this huge, wrong… world.】
These words had no sound.
Yet they were like a most venomous spell, directly echoing in the deepest part of the Tathagata's remnant soul!
Hum!
The Tathagata's remnant soul trembled violently!
A faint, compassionate golden light of the Fómén, from deep within his remnant soul, stubbornly shone forth!
That was the last trace of Buddha nature remaining in him as the Buddha Patriarch!
It frantically warned him!
This is a demon!
This is a demon of emptiness, ten thousand times more terrifying than a heavenly demon—the ultimate void demon!
To touch it is to fall forever into Avīci, never to be reborn!
However!
Golden light, just now flared up.
Another surge, even more violent, black as ink resentment, erupted from all parts of his divine soul!
Scene after scene of unforgettable humiliation flashed wildly in his mind!
Before the Da Lei Yin Si!
That man's towering figure, with a single slap, flung him from the supreme Liántái!
Myriad Buddhas lay beneath his feet like ants!
Before the beings of the Three Realms!
Time rewound, the truth he had painstakingly concealed was mercilessly exposed!
He had become a vile, shameless schemer!
Finally!
It was that monkey!
That monkey, whom he once pinned under Five Fingers Mountain for five hundred years!
That monkey, whom he once regarded as a mere pawn!
That monkey, with a single blow, shattered all his pride!
It shattered his Ling Shan!
It shattered his Dao lineage!
It swept him and everything he represented into the trash heap of history!
On what grounds!
On what grounds!
I, who have governed the Fómén for countless eons, saved countless beings, and maintained order in the Three Realms!
I am the one who is right!
Wrong are you all!
It is that unreasonable Bodhi!
It is that lawless and reckless monkey!
It is this, which betrayed me, abandoned my……world!
Endless humiliation!
Heaven‑flooding resentment!
That stream of thought that denies everything, crazy!
Just like the most surging black tide, in an instant, it completely submerged that last faint trace of Buddha light!
Devour!
"I……"
One, infinitely weak yet infinitely resolute thought.
From the remnant soul of the Thus Come One, it slowly emanated.
In that voice, there was a hint of relief, like the release of a heavy burden.
"……Accept."
Boom!
At the moment those two words sounded!
That strand, long awaited, the black 'Absolute Malice'!
It seemed to hear the meal bell!
It had no hesitation whatsoever!
Suddenly, it plunged headfirst into the Thus Come One's remnant soul!
Hiss——!
There was no earth‑shattering explosion.
Nor was there a world‑destroying energy surge.
Only a sound, like a red‑hot branding iron plunged into ice water, a soft hiss!
That cluster, representing the faint light point of the Thus Come One's remnant soul.
At the instant when the Absolute Malice surged in.
It did not extinguish.
Nor did it expand.
But rather, it began in an extremely strange, indescribable way.
It began, a terrifying…… 'ascension'!
Its base, originally composed of 'resentment' and 'unwillingness,' was a pitch‑black hue.
It was gradually fading away.
Being replaced by.
It is a purer, more profound…… 'nothing'!
A kind that denies all color, denies all light and darkness, denies all existence…… an absolute, ashen white!
Sun Wukong watched this scene unfold, eyes wide open.
He felt only a chill, ten thousand times colder than when facing Hongjun's ultimate strike.
From his tailbone, it surged all the way up to his celestial crown!
He knew.
He personally witnessed it.
One, more terrifying and more unsolvable than Hongjun, more than any enemy he had ever seen…… a monster!
It was born!
End of Chapter
