Chapter 397: My Dao, I Will Guard

Sun Wukong froze there.

Like a boulder weathered for a hundred million years.

To save, or not to save.

This thought was like two knives, poisoned and red-hot, one plunged into his master's heart, the other stabbed into his child's heart.

And the hilt was jammed in his own hand.

Which one to stab?

Choose.

His newly forged Chaos Monkey Heart, which he thought indestructible, was tortured by this silent torment, cracking inch by inch at this moment.

Golden Dao blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.

One drop.

Two drops.

It struck the deathly silent reddish-brown earth beneath his feet, emitting a faint "hiss" and scorching small pits that smoked black.

Yao watched him.

Watching the legendary Great Sage Equal to Heaven who fears neither heaven nor earth, his whole body now trembled violently, unable to restrain itself.

His back was no longer that imposing figure capable of shouldering heaven and earth.

But like a lost child abandoned by the whole world.

Lonely.

Helpless.

The anxiety and sorrow in Yao's eyes faded away bit by bit at this moment.

In its place arose an unprecedented, almost burning determination.

She moved.

Step by step, she walked to behind him.

Then she stretched out her arms and gently, from behind, embraced his trembling, icy body.

Sun Wukong's whole body jerked stiff.

That faint warmth coming from behind was like a bolt of lightning splitting the eternal night, instantly striking his Chaos Deathly Silence Divine Soul.

"Go."

Yao's voice was soft and gentle, like a feather falling onto his heart.

Yet within that feather lay the weight of a mountain, carrying an undeniable force.

Sun Wukong's body shuddered violently.

He snapped his head back, his blazing chaotic eyes filled with pain and madness locking onto Yao, filled with disbelief.

"What did you say?"

He doubted he had misheard.

In this situation where he had to make a choice, forced to abandon one side, she lets him go?

Go save those children?

What about that master!

Yao did not retreat.

She lifted her head, meeting his gaze that could shatter gods and demons, her eyes clear and resolute.

"Your Dao is battle, is protection, is never bowing your head."

"Is to smash all injustice, is to level every obstacle."

"You were born to stand at the forefront of the storm, not to be trapped here by a single choice, dying like a bound beast."

Each of her words struck his Dao Heart with crystal clarity.

"And my Dao..."

Yao's lips slowly curled into a faint arc.

That smile was clean, pure, carrying a hint of relief.

"Is dream."

"Is shelter."

"Is to shelter all souls homeless in reality, in the illusion, to prop up a sky where they can sleep."

She released her hold on him and stepped back a step.

At the moment she stepped back,

Boom—

The Dream Ark behind her, which had been silently hovering, bearing the sparks of myriad civilizations, suddenly burst forth with unprecedented brilliant light!

That light was neither gold nor silver, but a dreamlike, iridescent hue.

It was like the amalgamation of a hundred million dreams—gentle, vast, yet bearing an all-encompassing, mighty power.

"Go meet the enemy."

Yao stood before that brilliant light, her petite frame yet seeming to uphold an entire universe.

On her face bloomed a smile that made Sun Wukong's heart clench suddenly.

"I come to guard the home."

"Here, I'll take charge."

In an instant.

Sun Wukong fully understood.

In his head there was a "buzz", as if struck by a star, and a blankness spread.

She would use her own Illusory Dream Dao to drag this damned sealed land, together with the Dao Heart of her master behind the gate, into her dream realm!

Attacks in reality are ineffective in the dream realm!

As long as she can hold on, she can cut off for her master the endless torrents of despair pouring in!

But this…

This isn't protection at all!

This is fucking suicide!

To drag this sealed land, stared down by the Original Mistake, into the dream realm is to push her herself from behind the scenes onto the stage!

She will become a living target!

A target that is the most conspicuous, huge, and shining in the universe!

"All of the Original Mistake's attacks, all its malice, all its 'Negation,' will in the first instant mercilessly bombard her dream realm, bombard her divine soul!"

What's the difference between this and sticking her head straight into the enemy's blade?

"No way!"

"Absolutely not!"

Sun Wukong didn't even think, he flatly refused.

Those two words were almost roared from his throat, his voice violent and resolute, carrying an unquestionable overbearingness.

"Are you crazy?!"

He stepped forward to Yao's face, and in those chaos eyes, the anger that had just died flared up again, more violent than ever before.

"Do you know what you're doing?!"

"Do you know what you're up against?!"

"That's not Hongjun! That's no damn apostle!"

"That's a monster that can knead the Dao like putty!"

"Your dream realm? Your Grand Dao? Before that thing, they're not even worth a sheet of paper!"

"One prick and it bursts!"

He was practically shouting, each word filled with towering rage and a hint of fear he himself hadn't noticed…

He was afraid.

For the first time, he felt a bone‑deep fear of loss.

Facing Sun Wukong's roar, Yao merely looked at him silently.

In her eyes there was no fear, no retreat, only a strange, gentle stubbornness that made Sun Wukong feel unfamiliar.

"I know."

She said softly.

"But Wukong, you've forgotten."

"This place is also my home."

"Every civilization in the Dream Ark is my family."

"And you…"

She paused, looking at him; deep in her eyes flowed an emotion Sun Wukong had never read, infinitely complex.

"You too."

"I can't watch you be torn apart."

"Nor can I watch you kill your own heart with your own hands."

Having said that, she gave Sun Wukong no chance to speak.

She closed her eyes.

Her slender hands came together before her chest, forming an incredibly intricate yet profoundly sacred seal.

"In the name of Yao, with Illusory Dream as the guide…"

"Ten thousand dreams return to the abyss, a single thought makes flowers bloom!"

Buzz—

Behind her, the Dream Ark's light surged a hundred millionfold!

Boundless dream‑realm source power turned into torrents of brilliant light, wildly pouring into her body!

Yao's body began to turn transparent.

Not dissipation, but a qualitative shift, from "real" existence toward the concept of the illusory.

"You dare!"

Sun Wukong's eyes nearly burst as he let out a heaven‑shaking, earth‑roaring bellow!

He lunged a hand out, trying to grab her, to stop this sacrifice that in his view was utterly foolish!

However.

But his hand passed straight through Yao's semi‑transparent body.

He grasped at air.

Sun Wukong's whole body, as if struck by lightning, froze completely in place.

He looked at his own hand, then at Yao before him, who was fading bit by bit,

and in those chaos eyes that could see through myriad ages, for the first time appeared pure, helpless bewilderment.

"Don't…"

His throat was dry, but the command "stop" just wouldn't come out.

Because he knew.

Too late.

Once the ritual begins, it cannot be reversed.

Yao, she no longer belongs to this "real" world.

A dream-realm power, gentle to the extreme yet vast and irresistible, spread from Yao's body.

It was like a thin veil, lightly covering that huge door, tightly bound by golden divine chains.

It also covered that blood-stained battlefield where three thousand demons were buried, and countless "Sun Wukong"s were buried.

Finally, it covered Sun Wukong.

"Wukong."

Yao's voice echoed in his heart, carrying a hint of relief, a hint of longing, and a hint of playful smile.

"Don't forget."

"You said, your Dao is Principle."

"Now, it's my turn."

"My dream is my Principle."

"Close your eyes, go bring our child…… back."

The words fell.

The entire Wanshen Fenchang, together with that ultimate door, together with Sun Wukong, vanished completely from the "real" universe at that moment.

As if they had never existed.

And at the same moment.

Outside the ruins of the Blue Star Federation.

The three apostles who were watching the scene of "faith collapsing" suddenly paused.

Their "god," the supreme Original Mistake, for the first time in their soul link,

sent forth a thought filled with extreme bewilderment and fury.

Target……lost?!