Chapter 342: Heartbeat in the Tomb

After the space rift, there was a deathly silence that made one feel suffocated.

Countless gray divine chains, formed from Hongjun's 'Order' Primordial Source,

Like a giant net that captured the entire star system, it tightly bound the region known as the Blue Star Federation in the corner of the universe.

This place is a prison personally crafted by Sun Wukong.

It is also the clear evidence of his first mistake.

Yao closely followed behind Sun Wukong, gazing at the star field ahead that exuded an aura of decay and ending; even her divine soul felt a piercing chill.

She didn't understand why Wukong would return to this place of sorrow.

Here, besides endless despair and failure, there is nothing.

Yet on Sun Wukong's face, there was not a hint of hesitation or retreat.

In his golden eyes burned a near‑cruel excitement, like a hunter who had finally cornered his enemy at the door.

He hesitated not at all, and didn't even offer a single word of explanation.

"Stand firm."

Sun Wukong merely said lightly to Yao, and in the next second the golden cudgel that had made Hongjun resentful and caused myriad ways to collapse appeared in his hand!

"Let me……open!"

With a roar, Shi Potian was startled!

He raised the Tiěbàng high, then fiercely smashed it down onto the countless order divine chains he himself had set up!

This strike held nothing back!

This strike smashed his own arrangements!

This strike smashed his past foolishness and evasion!

Boom—!

An indescribable roar erupted, directly exploding in the vacuum as a tremor of law, despite the lack of air.

Those once‑impervious order divine chains, capable of temporarily isolating even Absolute Malice,

Under Sun Wukong's strike, brimming with resolve and killing intent, they were as fragile as glass!

Shattering inch by inch!

Crashing apart!

The seal, smashed to pieces by his own hands!

At the instant the seal shattered, a wave of

a nauseating Negation aura, like a black flood released from a gate, surged toward the two of them!

It was a terrifying power that erased all meaning at the conceptual level!

It seemed to say to them: "Your existence is a mistake. Your resistance is meaningless. Your arrival is worthless."

Yao's pretty face instantly turned as pale as paper, and the Illusory Dream Dao instinctively formed a barrier around her,

but under the impact of that aura, it flickered like a candle in the wind, on the verge of collapsing!

This thing simply cannot be countered by ordinary means!

However, Sun Wukong had anticipated it long ago.

He snorted coldly, grabbed Yao and pulled her behind him, while his mind stirred.

A layer of hazy, illusory dream‑realm light, seeming ready to dissipate at any moment, instantly enveloped both of them.

This was precisely Yao's Illusory Dream power.

That terrifying Negation aura washed over them, yet strangely passed straight through, as if they were merely two non‑existent phantoms.

"Don't be afraid."

Sun Wukong's voice sounded in Yao's ear, carrying a calm that seemed to comprehend everything.

"In the dream, we are 'non‑existent'."

Yao blinked, instantly grasping Wukong's intention.

That damned power is the thing that negates all "existence"!

And Yao's dream realm, precisely poised between reality and illusion, is fundamentally "non‑existent" on the level of law!

Use non‑existence to counter Negation!

They were like two ghosts sneaking into the realm of death, silently passing through the deathly silence surrounding the star system,

and finally descended upon the planet that was once azure but now lay lifeless gray.

Blue Star Federation, the primary star.

Here, there was no difference from the last time they came.

Skyscrapers stood silently, hovering lanes filled with cold vehicles, the city system operating perfectly—yet not a whisper of sound could be heard.

In the square, on the streets, inside the rooms……

Everyone retained the pose from the previous second, like statues instantaneously petrified.

Some were running, some were talking, some were embracing.

Their faces still bore fixed expressions of joy or sorrow, but their eyes held only a hollow deathly silence.

The whole world was a gigantic, lifelike tomb.

Gazing at this scene, Yao's heart still couldn't help but clench with pain.

But Sun Wukong didn't even glance at those "living dead."

He closed his eyes.

Vast, boundless divine sense unfurled from him like an intangible, weightless spiderweb!

This time, his divine sense was no longer violent, but became exquisitely delicate and incredibly gentle.

It didn't disturb anything, silently, inch by inch, sweeping over every speck of dust on the entire planet.

From ten thousand meters high altitude, to the depths of the earth's core.

From the cracks of every building, to the cells of every Living Dead.

He was searching.

Searching for the true Tomb Master hidden beneath the grave!

Time passed, minute by minute, second by second.

Yao nervously stood guard for him, even her breath reduced to the lightest.

Suddenly!

Sun Wukong's tightly shut eyes snapped open, a terrifying gleam burst forth!

"Found it!"

His divine sense, in a certain region deep within the earth's core, sensed an extremely weak yet incomparably pure energy fluctuation!

That energy shared the same source as Absolute Malice, yet was more condensed and more concealed!

That's it!

That damned bastard's lair!

Sun Wukong's face showed a ferocious ecstasy!

The power of the Way of the Equal Heaven within him surged into motion, without the slightest hesitation,

Instantly transforming into a golden light, it would drill into the earth and drag out that bastard hidden in the earth's core!

But just as he was about to move!

A cold little hand suddenly grabbed his wrist tightly.

It was Yao.

Sun Wukong blinked in confusion, turning his head to look.

He saw on Yao's face a shock and fear tens of millions of times stronger than when he had just seen the Living Dead, an indescribable terror.

Her lips trembled, her face ashen without a trace of blood.

She didn't speak, but with all her strength she lifted her other trembling hand and pointed in another direction.

Not the earth's core.

But rather, the outskirts of the city, an inconspicuous abandoned residential area.

"Sun Wukong..."

Yao's voice was dry and raspy, like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together.

"You... you listen..."

"Listen?"

Sun Wukong frowned, feeling a bit impatient.

The lair's already been found—what's there to listen to?

But he still patiently followed the direction Yao pointed,

condensing his divine sense, capable of piercing through eternity, into a single thread, and cautiously extending it forward.

At that moment.

All expressions on Sun Wukong's face instantly froze.

The power he was about to unleash, capable of destroying heaven and earth, also came to an abrupt halt.

The whole world seemed to have been hit by a pause button.

He heard it.

In that Deathly Silence, forgotten corner.

In that place where even dust does not move, amidst absolute stillness.

He heard a sound that ought not to exist in this world.

It was not an energy fluctuation.

Nor a resonance of the laws.

But rather, a beat...

another beat...

Extremely faint, so faint it seemed it could vanish at any moment.

Yet utterly, utterly resolute!

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

That was a...

a heartbeat!