Chapter 382: The Meaning of This Old Monkey

Within those chaos eyes, all struggle and conflict had completely vanished.

What took their place was an unprecedented, pure, tranquility.

Then.

Under Yao's gaze, which had completely lost all color and was desperate.

In the pitying "gaze" of the "Original Mistake," which seemed to have already foreseen the outcome.

Sun Wukong's mouth corner slowly split into a smile.

That smile held not a trace of ferocity or madness.

Nor even a hint of coldness or deathly silence.

It was a smile brilliant to the extreme, pure to the extreme, seeming to spring from the deepest part of the soul, childlike.

Just like when he, back on Fangcun Mountain, first learned the Seventy-two Transformations and couldn't help showing off before his senior brothers, exactly the same.

This smile made Yao's sobbing stop abruptly.

It also caused the indefinable "Original Mistake," that unchanging "face," for the first time, to show a hint of incomprehensible stagnation.

Immediately after, Sun Wukong spoke.

His voice was calm, gentle, even carrying a hint of relief, as if he had finally figured out some problem.

"You're right about everything."

Boom!

These simple five words were like five Tai Gu Shen Shan mountains, smashing hard into Yao's heart!

Her heart instantly sank into an abyss deeper and colder than the Wanshen Fenchang!

It's over.

Everything is over.

Even him, even that Great Sage Equal to Heaven who would rather die standing than live kneeling, was he ultimately convinced by that cold "truth"?

After all, even a blazing monkey heart could not withstand the universe's end, that indisputable, cold logic.

After all, the so-called resistance really was just a joke.

The "Original Mistake"'s form also seemed to ease a bit because of those words.

In its view, this was the most "correct" answer.

For a sentient being, after witnessing the ultimate truth, the only correct choice it could make.

However.

The next second.

Sun Wukong's tone suddenly shifted!

His smile remained unchanged, but his eyes suddenly turned sharp, defiant, … like a red-hot iron staff,

viciously piercing through this shroud of deathly-silent truth!

"But,"

He casually hoisted the ordinary stone staff on his shoulder, the motion relaxed and free, as if he weren't undergoing judgment of truth but merely taking a nap.

"So what?"

Just four simple words.

Carrying no Dao arts, containing no divine abilities.

Yet it was like a punch, completely irrational, a hooligan's old-school blow!

It slammed hard onto the "face" of the "Original Mistake," forged from cosmic principles!

The ever-shifting form of the "Original Mistake" for the first time showed a complete, momentary solidification!

Its "thought," which held the universe's ultimate secrets, at this moment seemed to have been halted by the simplest, most brutal question!

Yeah.

So what?

This question exceeded all its calculations, defied all its logic!

It could calculate the birth and death of the universe, define right and wrong of existence, yet it could not compute what lay behind these four characters,

that pure, unreasonable, monkey-spirit vigor!

"If the ending is destined to be death, does that mean we shouldn't live?"

Sun Wukong tilted his head, looking at the creature before him that represented ultimate wisdom,

using the plainest, simplest words to ask a question that struck straight at the soul.

This question left the "Original Mistake" unable to answer.

Because it had never "lived."

"Isn't the sunset beautiful?"

Sun Wukong said, as if chatting casually.

"But once it appears, it's destined to vanish into the night."

"Aren't fireworks also splendid?"

"But when it shoots up to the sky, it's only that fleeting moment of light."

"Just because they're brief, does that mean they have no meaning?"

His voice wasn't loud, yet it was like red-hot iron nails, driven hard into the logic core of the "Original Mistake"!

"Meaning?"

The "Original Mistake" finally recovered from its halt, its cold voice sounding again.

"Fleeting beauty ultimately leads to eternal void; that in itself is the greatest meaninglessness."

"Error!"

Sun Wukong shouted resolutely!

He thrust out his finger, pointing at the door the monster had torn open itself, a gaping portal!

Pointing beyond that portal, into the depths of endless darkness!

Pointing at that, the Dao Heart of his master, wrapped in countless resentments and malice yet still beating stubbornly!

"My master, defeated through ten thousand ages, who has simulated the Universe's countless failures, does he regret?"

Sun Wukong's voice rose sharply!

"No!"

"I, Old Sun, burst out of a stone, wreaked havoc in Heaven, and was crushed by your countless gods and Buddhas beneath the Five Elements Mountain for a full five hundred years!"

"On the Western Journey, I was your Fómén's resentful lapdog for fourteen years!"

"Do I regret?"

His chest heaved violently, and in his chaotic eyes, the crimson‑gold hue representing 【Variable】 burned like never before at this moment!

"Also no!"

Those two "No"s thundered like creation‑shattering bolts, exploding across this Deathly Silence cemetery!

Within it lay an unbending stubbornness and pride that made Yao's heart, once frozen in an ice cave, suddenly reignite with a scorching flame!

She watched the figure bearing the Tiěbàng, his spine upright, and tears once again surged uncontrollably!

But this time, not from despair.

Rather, because of an indescribable pride and peace of mind.

That's it.

This is who he truly is.

This is the one, even after being pressed beneath the mountain for five hundred years, who never bowed his proud head: the Great Sage Equal to Heaven!

Sun Wukong's voice grew louder, wilder!

Finally, it turned into a deafening roar that rang through the entire Wanshen Fenchang, shaking the corpses of three thousand Chaotic Demon Gods.

"I don't know any damn ultimate truth!"

"I also don't understand any damn cosmic heat death!"

"I only know!"

"My master said, there must be light!"

"I'll give him a bright, clear world!"

"He wants all beings in this world to live well, with dignity!"

"I'll smash every thing that makes them unable to survive!"

"No matter what it is—Heaven! Ling Shan! Hongjun! Or you, that mother‑born 'Error'!"

His roar was filled with the most primal, most barbaric, most irrational power!

At this moment, he was no longer the Chaos Walker who had merged the three Dao Fruits.

He is that Yě hóuzi who leapt out of Mount Huaguo's Water Curtain Cave, fearless of heaven and earth!

"You say resistance is meaningless?"

"You say protection is meaningless?"

"To hell with meaning!"

Sun Wukong's eyes glowed crimson, like a mad demon, and with all his might he issued the wildest declaration of his life!

"This!"

"Damn it!"

"This is Old Sun's meaning!!!"

The moment his words fell!

He slammed the Chaos Dao Iron in his hand hard onto the blood‑red ground of corpses beneath his feet!

Thud！！！！！！

This strike was not a divine technique.

This strike contained only one thing.

"No Regret!"

A force pure to the extreme, domineering to the extreme, affirming all its failures and pains,

the ultimate will of all resistance, like a golden Storm, erupted explosively from the tip of the Stone Staff!

Boom—!

The entire Wanshen Fenchang trembled violently under the impact of this will!

The realm built by the "End" Dao of the "Original Mistake", a domain that can strip all meaning and return everything to Deathly Silence…

At this moment, it was forced back by this pure, irrational, "living" will!

It stubbornly pushed back, a full three points!