Chapter 333: The Invisible Chess Player

The Dao Rhythm inscriptions condensed on the tea surface were like a thunderbolt splitting chaos.

In Sun Wukong's mind, it boomed explosively!

He stared blankly.

His whole person seemed to have had his soul sucked out, turning into a stone statue.

Apostle…

Its root lies beyond the "chain"……

That short line of text contained terrifying information that almost made his blood freeze!

He had always thought the enemy was the Tathagata who spread the gospel of death.

He thought the final boss was the "Absolute Malice" sealed layer upon layer by his master!

But now it seems.

He was wrong!

Gravely wrong!

Wrong to an absurd degree!

"Fuck!"

From Sun Wukong's throat came a dry, hoarse, vulgar word.

A chill, colder and more bone‑piercing than ever before, surged from his tailbone all the way to the crown of his head!

The Tathagata is merely an apostle!

A pitiful creature pushed onto the stage to draw fire!

And that towering, terrifying shadow, seen by Yao in the depths of the Dream Realm, bound by myriad chains…

That which he regarded as his ultimate enemy, the "Absolute Malice"!

It turned out to be merely a locked‑away "tool"!

That…

Who is the true enemy?!

The answer goes without saying!

It's that one!

The one who stands beyond infinite dimensions, clutching those myriad chains in his hand…

That unseen, damned chessmaster!

What the hell is this?

Myself, from birth, to causing havoc in the Heavenly Palace, to shattering Ling Shan and clashing head‑on with Hongjun…

All the way fighting for survival, I thought I was contending with Heaven and fate!

In the end, I still hadn't figured out who the true enemy was!

He was like a monkey being toyed with!

On a carefully staged set, he leapt up and down, fighting to the death against the puppets thrown at him!

And the true spectator, the real mastermind behind the scenes, lay hidden in the deepest darkness.

Sipping tea, wearing a mocking smile, they watched his self‑important tragic performance!

"Pfft—"

Sun Wukong suddenly laughed.

Not a manic laugh.

Nor a cold laugh.

But a kind of laugh that burst forth after extreme repression—self‑mocking, nervous.

That laugh, in this quiet study, sounded especially grating.

Just as he was about to be completely overwhelmed by this immense absurdity…

In the tea cup, the Dao Rhythm inscriptions that had been slowly dissipating changed once again.

Ripples rose again.

But this time, what coalesced was not text.

But an image!

In the image lay a stretch of endless void, even more deathly silent and hollow than this study of the heart.

It was a kind of absolute "emptiness" that nearly erased even the concept of "nothing".

Sun Wukong's divine sense merely glanced at it from afar.

He felt his indestructible Dao heart about to be sucked into that emptiness and utterly dissolved!

And at the furthest edge of that realm where light, darkness, time, and space do not exist—absolute nothingness—

Sun Wukong saw.

Something smaller than dust.

Something that can hardly be described in any words…

A black speck.

Yes.

Just an ordinary black speck.

It simply hung there, motionless.

No aura.

No energy.

Nothing can be perceived.

It doesn't even seem like an 'existence'.

It is more like a hole forcibly dug out atop 'absolute emptiness'.

A hole leading to the unknown, to even deeper despair!

The scene flickered and vanished.

The curling steam rising in the teacup finally dissipated completely.

The clear tea also regained its proper chill and deathly silence.

It seemed as if everything just now was merely an illusion of Sun Wukong.

But.

Sun Wukong, however, had completely calmed down.

An unprecedented calm!

That mad urge to self-detonate the Great Dao and perish together with the enemy.

That feeling of frustration and helplessness, being toyed with in the palm.

That blazing anger that almost burned his reason to ashes.

At this moment, they all vanished.

In their place came a deep‑bone‑chilling, icy calm.

And lurking beneath that calm was a battle intent so fierce it could ignite the entire multiverse!

I found you.

Although I don't know what you are.

Although I don't know where you are.

But this Old Monkey has seen you!

Hum—!

Sun Wukong's Original Spirit instantly returned!

Before his eyes lay still the desolate ruins of the Purple Cloud Palace, filled with the aura of death.

The withered monk cloaked in a Tathagata's skin still sat cross‑legged there, spreading his nauseating 'Death Gospel'.

Sun Wukong once again turned his gaze toward his former arch‑enemy.

At this moment.

His eyes held no trace of anger or ferocity anymore.

All that remained was a feeling akin to looking at a smug maggot wallowing in a cesspool...

Pity.

and disgust.

A pitiful wretch.

He had been turned into a mere pawn, toyed with, to the point that even his very existence had been utterly erased.

Yet he still believed he had mastered the so‑called ultimate truth.

Really...

Pathetic and laughable.

Sun Wukong slowly retracted his staff, now gray‑white, the Golden Cudgel.

Then.

Under the deathly‑silent, black‑hole‑like gaze of the withered monk,

He performed an act that no one watching could understand.

He turned around.

He bared his utterly defenseless back, openly, before this most bizarre and dangerous foe.

He did not even glance at the monk.

Instead, he slowly lifted his head.

His eyes, now blazing gold, pierced the dust of the ruins, the endless Star Sea, and the very flow of time.

He gazed into the void that seemed to hide all ultimate answers, the deepest reaches of the starry sky.

The whole universe seemed to plunge into an eerie deathly silence at that moment.

All worlds plagued by the 'Death Gospel' seemed to catch a brief breath.

The withered monk also stopped his preaching.

For the first time, those black‑hole‑like eyes flickered with incomprehension.

It did not understand.

Why would this greatest 'Error', driven into desperation by its own hand, suddenly give up resistance?

Amid this deathlike silence,

Sun Wukong spoke.

His voice was not loud.

It was even a little hoarse.

Yet his voice carried an ineffable, domineering power!

It disregarded distance in space!

It ignored the barriers of time!

It defied every law and order!

It, as if, is directly, in that unknown, ultimate existence's heart, directly explodes!

Hiding behind, pulling the strings, that scum!

Principle, this old monkey, I can't argue with you.

Fighting, this old monkey, I can't even hit you.

But...

Sun Wukong's voice, paused.

The corner of his mouth, slowly, split open, filled with, endless, unrestrained and wild, smile.

This old monkey today, I'll lay down my words here!

Wash clean, your neck...

Wait!

I...

Then I'll come find you!