Chapter 373

Yao's fear was like an invisible steel needle quenched with deadly poison.

Neither biased nor leaning, squarely, it pierced Sun Wukong's newly forged, self‑believed indestructible Monkey Heart.

He could be indifferent to the hostility of the myriad gods and Buddhas.

He could ignore the judgment of the Supreme Existence.

He could even treat his own failures and humiliations as stepping stones beneath his feet, stepping on them to grow stronger.

But he could not be indifferent.

He could not be indifferent to the girl behind him, whose gaze at him was like looking at a strange monster.

That caused him more pain than any curse in the world.

That made him feel colder than the combined resentment of all the demons in Wanshen Fenchang.

He slowly turned his body.

That lonely, resolute back once again faced the small valley formed from demon ribs.

Facing the girl curled in the corner, trembling from fear.

His movements were very slow.

It seemed each inch of movement exhausted the strength of an entire world.

His eyes, one side an order‑grinding wheel, the other an abyss of ending chaos, at this moment rarely showed a hint of clumsiness.

He withdrew the stone staff that made him look extraordinarily lonely, not shouldering it but planting it casually on the ground.

He even subconsciously restrained the aura of intertwined gold, gray, and black chaos that could make myriad Dao tremble.

He wanted to make himself look less frightening.

"I'm still me."

Sun Wukong spoke.

His voice was very calm, even a little hoarse.

It contained no supernatural powers, nor was it infused with any Dao Rhythm.

Just like many years ago on Fangcun Mountain, when the stone monkey who had just learned to speak awkwardly introduced himself to Bodhi Patriarch.

"Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong."

He repeated it once more.

It was a very plain sentence.

Yet it contained an undeniable power.

It was a kind that, after experiencing hundreds of millions of failures and witnessing countless destructions,

even after personally turning himself into a contradictory monster, still could calmly say "I am who I am" as the ultimate will.

That is the will of No Regret!

This will, like the sharpest sword, instantly pierced the layer wrapped around his body,

the icy Order shell, breaking through the all‑consuming Ending Deathly Silence.

It was like a spark, though weak, yet stubbornly in the darkness of that chaos,

rekindling a flicker of familiar, rebellious red‑gold!

In the valley, Yao's sobs stopped abruptly.

Her violently trembling body also suddenly stiffened.

She lifted her tear‑streaked face and stared in disbelief at Sun Wukong ahead.

In that terrifying chaos aura of Order, Ending, and Change that made her feel boundless fear, she… she actually felt it again!

She felt a hint of familiar, never‑yielding Monkey nature!

That aura was still as overbearing as ever.

Still as Irrational as ever.

Still… letting her heart be at peace.

Yao was stunned.

She gradually calmed, and the fear deep in her Divine Soul receded like a tide.

She began to try, using whatever she could understand, to analyze this familiar yet unfamiliar presence before her.

"You…"

She tentatively opened her mouth, her voice still carrying a tremor.

"You… turned the enemy's power into your own?"

Sun Wukong looked at her, silent for a moment.

Then he once again shouldered that ordinary stone staff.

This action brought back a bit of his carefree, lawless roguishness.

"You could say that."

He grinned, showing a mouthful of white teeth; that smile was sly yet justified.

"If you can't beat them, join them."

He shrugged, his tone as relaxed as if commenting on nice weather.

"Principle, isn't it just that simple?"

"Pfft…"

Yao looked at him like that, listening to this utterly shameless rogue logic, and couldn't catch her breath, nearly laughing from anger.

The tears on her face weren't dry yet, but the corners of her mouth involuntarily twitched up as she glared at him, both annoyed and amused.

"What do you mean 'if you can't beat them, join them'? You're inviting wolves into the house! No! You're dancing with wolves! You…"

She wanted to say something harsh to scold him, but when the words reached her lips, she just couldn't get them out.

Because she realized that the last trace of Fear Heart Demon in her heart had completely vanished amid this familiar "monkey's twisted reasoning."

Indeed.

This is still that Sun Wukong.

He is the one who caused a great ruckus in Heaven, overturned the alchemy furnace, and dared to step on the words Principle with his feet,

then, pointing at the noses of the myriad gods and Buddhas, declared "My fist is the true Principle," the chaos‑making demon king.

He may have changed.

He became stronger, more terrifying, and even less comprehensible.

But the bastard streak of "I call the shots" in his bones hasn't changed at all.

That's enough.

"So… what do we do now?"

Yao wiped away her tears, rose from the ground, and looked anxiously toward the ultimate Prison not far away, which exuded an ominous aura.

"This gate… you've made it countless times sturdier than before, and…"

She sensed the pulsating Order and Negation forces on it, her delicate brows furrowing.

"It seems… it's alive."

"The gate?"

Sun Wukong turned his head and glanced at the massive portal that gathered his greatest failure and greatest success.

Watching the golden divine chains and black roots slowly flowing over it, his face bore no hint of solemnity.

Instead, he displayed a brilliant Smile that Yao could not decipher at all.

"Who said I'm going to open the gate?"

Yao was stunned again.

Not opening the gate?

Then why did they go through all this trouble to come here?

The Master's Dao Heart is still trapped inside!

Sun Wukong gave no further explanation.

He hoisted the rustic Stone Staff, swaggered, and walked toward the gigantic portal.

His stride was unhurried yet rhythmic, like a mischievous child about to take the stage,

his whole being radiating the excitement and anticipation of "making a big splash."

In his eyes flickered a wild yet cunning light.

That light was a hundred times brighter than the ash‑gray sun hanging over Wanshen Fenchang.

As he walked, he muttered in a voice only he could hear.

"Open the gate?"

"How boring."

"After all that hard work building the wall, what's the Principle in tearing it down again?"

He arrived directly before the massive portal and halted.

Looking up at this ultimate Prison, which he called his "masterpiece," a satisfied expression spread across his face.

Sturdy.

Perfect.

Filled with the Beauty of order and conclusion.

Like a top‑tier craftsman admiring his finest creation.

Yao, standing far away, was completely bewildered.

She felt Sun Wukong's mind might truly have been burned out during the remolding of his Dao Heart.

The next moment.

Sun Wukong moved.

He didn't raise the staff to smash.

Nor did he summon any divine power to break it.

He performed an action that left Yao gaping and even made the Supreme Will peering from the void pause.

He actually…

plopped his bottom and sat directly beneath the massive portal.

Then, he casually tossed the Chaos Dao Iron to the side.

After that, he fumbled in his chest for a while.

He pulled out a… peach?

A watery, fluffy, fragrant celestial peach!

In this death‑laden, light‑warped Wanshen Fenchang, the peach's appearance,

was like a sudden splash of the most vivid Color on a post‑apocalyptic wasteland canvas!

Yao was utterly speechless.

Sun Wukong, as if back on Mount Huaguo, crossed his legs and leaned against the cold, solid golden portal,

grabbed the peach, opened his mouth wide, and took a hard bite!

"Crunch!"

The crisp sound rang unbearably shrill in this Deathly Silence.

The fragrant sweet juice dripped down his mouth corner.

He squinted contentedly and let out a refreshing sigh.

"Hmm… it's still this flavor!"

He ate with relish, as if the thing sitting under his butt wasn't a Prison that held his Master,

the ultimate Prison that could make even a Saint despair, but merely an ordinary large Green Stone at the entrance of Mount Huaguo's Water Curtain Cave.

He just sat there, eating.

Leisurely.

At ease.

He took that massive, terror‑radiating portal as… a backrest for cooling off.

At this moment.

Whether it was Yao or the Supreme Will in the void, an absurd‑to‑the‑extreme thought simultaneously sprang to mind.

He… what on earth does he intend to do?!