Chapter 367

Sun Wukong froze.

Then, he laughed.

He laughed more joyfully and unreservedly than ever before.

His power was rebounded, carrying a feeling of disdain, as if saying: "Get lost, you contaminated trash, don't touch me."

If this had happened before, Sun Wukong would probably have gone berserk on the spot, smashing that broken tortoise shell to pieces with one blow.

But now, he only felt exhilarated!

A refreshing exhilaration throughout his body!

He understood.

He finally understood!

This tortoise shell isn't any kind of treasure at all!

It was what Master used to awaken this stupid disciple of his, the most direct and brutal "teaching tool"!

True power has never been outside!

Not on any treasure!

Nor in any damn rules!

It's right here in this old monkey's own body!

With that thought, Sun Wukong hesitated no longer.

He no longer tried to inject his impure power into the tortoise shell.

His divine sense, like the finest needle, carried an unprecedented reverence and curiosity,

cautiously probing into the deepest part of this ordinary tortoise shell.

He wanted to see what kind of sight could bear Master's "table‑leg‑propping" Dao.

No myriad golden lights.

No thousands of auspicious colors.

Sun Wukong's divine sense seemed to pass through a thin film of water, encountering no obstruction.

The next moment, he saw a expanse of ruins.

A ruin… even more desolate and deathly silent than the Wanshen Fenchang outside.

They were shattered universe models, like a pile of building blocks a child had grown bored of and tossed aside, haphazardly stacked together.

On each fragment clung a thick, inseparable aura of failure.

And in the center of the endless ruins sat a figure.

A figure so lonely it seemed capable of freezing the entire spacetime.

Bodhi Patriarch.

Sun Wukong saw that his Master now lacked his usual carefree ease, and also the composure he had when scheming over the Three Realms.

His face was written with fatigue.

That fatigue was not from battle, but rather… in the endless darkness,

having searched for billions of eons without finding even a spark, a profound weariness and bewilderment rising from the depths of the soul.

Endless failure nearly drowned this most astonishingly brilliant being who had existed since the creation of heaven and earth.

Sun Wukong's heart gave a hard tug.

He saw Master slowly pick up from the ground a fragment, not knowing which shattered universe it came from.

A fragment… of a tortoise shell.

Then Master extended his hand.

He used his own fingernail, on the tortoise shell harder than Divine Iron, with extreme difficulty, stroke by stroke, began to carve characters.

The first character was very slow.

So slow it seemed he had exhausted all his strength.

It was a… "regret" character!

At the moment the final stroke of the "regret" character fell!

Boom!!!

The entire ruin world let out a groan that could not bear the weight!

Sun Wukong clearly saw that Master's Dao‑united, indestructible Dao body actually burst from within with countless fine cracks!

His Grand Dao nearly collapsed at this moment!

Regret had come.

Master, regret had come.

After experiencing billions of failures, after watching with his own eyes the worlds he himself had created march toward destruction,

he finally gave rise to doubt, and then… regret, toward the Dao of "variables" he had clung to.

This feeling of regret was a deadly poison more terrifying than any enemy!

It was eroding everything about this great being from within!

Sun Wukong's divine soul trembled at this moment!

However, the next second.

Just as the "regret" character formed, right before it would completely shatter Master's Dao heart,

the Bodhi Patriarch sitting in the ruins suddenly seemed to have thought of something funny.

He first twitched the corner of his mouth slightly.

Then that smile could no longer be restrained, bursting fully from his face, full of weariness and bewilderment.

He laughed.

He first laughed softly, then burst into loud laughter!

Finally, it turned into a wild, unrestrained laughter that echoed throughout the ruined world!

"Hahahahaha!"

"Regret?"

Me... I don't regret a damn thing!

In the midst of laughter, he raised his hand again!

This time, his motion was no longer hesitant, no longer difficult!

Fast as lightning!

Strength exceeding ten thousand jun!

He exerted all his strength on that tortoise shell already engraved with the character "regret",

Before the "regret" character, he ruthlessly, with an almost obsessive madness, gouged out another character!

"Non!"

"No Regret!"

When these two characters were finally fully formed on that small tortoise shell,

The whole world fell still.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, no phenomenon of laws collapsing.

There was only a kind of... power that sprang from the deepest depths of "existence" and "meaning", erupting explosively!

It does not create.

It does not destroy.

It even lacks any aggressiveness.

It merely does one thing.

Affirm!

With an absolute, unquestionable, indisputable attitude, it affirmed the value of those countless failures!

It affirmed the meaning of struggling despite knowing it's futile!

Moreover, it affirmed the entirety of the meaning of his own existence as the Bodhi Patriarch, that lone seeker of the Dao!

I have done it.

I have lost.

But, I have no regret!

At the moment when this pure, utmost 【No Regret】 intention exploded, Sun Wukong saw,

At the edge of this memory wasteland, that expanse representing "Absolute Malice",

representing the ultimate negation's boundless darkness, like a shark smelling blood, surged forward violently!

It sought to devour all of this!

It sought to "negate" this newly born meaning!

However, when that darkness, enough to make myriad gods despair, touched the faint halo emanating from the two characters "No Regret"...

"Sizzle,"

Like ice and snow meeting the most scorching star!

Like shadows being bathed in the purest light!

That unstoppable, all-negating "Absolute Malice" couldn't even utter a single wail,

before the power of "affirming everything" 【No Regret】, it was instantly vaporized!

Not a trace of its existence remained!

Sun Wukong's mind, at the moment of seeing this, went blank!

His Dao heart, his divine soul, every strand of his will, at this moment, were overwhelmed by that domineering force,

yet filled with boundless warmth of the "No Regret" intention, completely ignited!

He finally understood!

He completely understood!

Win?

What is winning?

Is defeating Hongjun winning?

Is defeating that behind-the-scenes black hand winning?

No!

As long as you still pursue "winning", you've fallen short!

Because "winning" is a result that can be "defined" and "negated"!

Today you win, tomorrow he can change the rules and say that's not winning, it's cheating!

You think you won, but he can say it was just him letting you win!

In that messed-up rule set, "winning" is itself a meaningless pseudo-concept!

And "No Regret"?

"No Regret" is not a result!

"No Regret" is a choice! An attitude! An inner, ultimate affirmation of one's own will!

I fought, I enjoyed, I gave my all; even if I ended up utterly defeated, body shattered, what does it matter?

I have no regrets!

This is a kind of... even the Absolute Malice that sets the rules cannot be defined, cannot be touched, and even less can be negated — the ultimate Concept!

Because, you simply cannot negate it!

When a person doesn't even care about the result of "failure", how can you negate his "meaning"?

Boom—

Sun Wukong's Dao Heart, which had been completely shattered and was about to be entirely devoured by the gray 'rust spots', at this moment abruptly halted its continuing trend of collapse!

Immediately afterward, in Sun Wukong's own incredulous gaze.

That shattered heart did not re‑condense.

But…… with the blazing intention of No Regret as the furnace!

With that untamable monkey nature as the iron bones!

With the will, unyielding after countless failures, as the true fire!

Begin…… reforge!

Crack! Crack!

Those gray 'rust spots' covering the Dao body, like maggots in the bone, before this newly born power, like the most fragile glass, shattered and peeled off one after another!

They wanted to resist, wanted to negate all of this again!

But they found they could no longer do it!

This heart being reforged simply won't talk any principle with you!

It doesn't care who you are!

It doesn't care how strong you are!

It doesn't even care whether it will live or die next!

It only knows one thing,

I, just like this!

Love whoever you want!

Sun Wukong's shattered Dao Heart, in the blazing flames of No Regret, was burned, purified, and tempered a thousand times!

All the supernatural abilities learned postnatally, all the laws painfully comprehended, all the "meanings" bestowed by others……

At this moment, they were all burned into nothingness!

In the end, only one remained.

A crystal‑clear, flawless gem, unstained by even a speck of dust.

A one that is purer, stronger, more unruly, and even more lawless than before……

【Monkey Heart】!

Thud!

When this brand‑new heart finally took shape and, in his chest, gave its first heavy beat.

The entire Study, on the verge of collapse, shuddered violently!

That ever‑expanding, all‑consuming 'Blank' scroll emitted, for the first time in history, a violent tremor filled with terror and unease!