Chapter 398: The Gentlest Battlefield

Sun Wukong's roar was like a supernova exploding in the silent universe.

That fury, capable of tearing apart the Dao, received no response.

He discovered he was grasping at empty air.

Yao, right before him.

Yet it felt as if separated by the entire universe.

Her body was semi‑transparent, surrounded by countless brilliant ribbons of light, like flowing galaxies, like billions of dancing fireflies.

This is the Dream Realm.

An absolute dream realm created by Yao burning herself.

Sun Wukong stood in place, his chaos‑filled eyes first overwhelmed by bewilderment and a panic he could not name.

"What the hell are you doing!"

He roared again, his voice trembling with a barely perceptible shake.

He was like an enraged trapped beast, futilely clawing and biting in this suffocatingly gentle Dream Realm.

Yao merely gazed at him silently, the fear and helplessness in her eyes gone, replaced by a calm that felt alien to Sun Wukong.

"Wukong."

Her voice sounded directly in his heart.

"In reality, we will be 'erased' by it."

"But in my dream, the rules are mine to set."

Her voice was clear and orderly, without a trace of panic, as if expounding the simplest principle.

"The law of Negation is greatly weakened in the illusory Dream Realm."

"Greatly weakened?"

Sun Wukong seemed to have heard the funniest joke in the world and laughed angrily.

"Your dream will be polluted! It will be torn apart!"

"You will be drained to death by it!"

He roared, step by step approaching that illusory figure, trying to mask his inner fear with anger.

"Do you know what that is? It's a monster that can even negate the Dao!"

"Your Dream Realm is nothing before it—like paper, it bursts at a single poke!"

"No."

Yao gently shook her head, and in her clear eyes flashed a light never seen before.

"My Dream Realm connects to the heart thoughts of billions of civilizations within the Dream Ark."

"As long as they keep dreaming and yearning for tomorrow, my dream will never fade."

The words fell silent.

Behind Yao, the background of the entire Dream Realm suddenly opened up.

One scene after another unfolded before Sun Wukong like a scroll.

He saw.

Inside the massive vessel of the Dream Ark.

One reborn world after another was radiating vibrant vitality.

He saw, on a planet that had just endured an apocalypse and where all things were reviving, a group of winged feathered people gathered around a bonfire, singing praises of light and hope with their simplest voices.

He saw, in a cyberpunk‑style metal city, countless mechanical beings laying down their weapons and beginning to create unprecedented, imagination‑filled artworks from scrap parts.

He saw, in an ancient magical world, a white‑haired old mage leading curious apprentices, lighting lamp after lamp of knowledge in the library.

Prayer.

Song.

Creation.

Learning.

Love.

Countless different emotions, countless yearnings for tomorrow, turned into torrents of pure thought‑force brimming with hope and gratitude.

These powers, variegated, rose from world after world, finally converging into a vast star‑river that continuously poured into Yao's Dream Realm and into her Divine Soul.

It was a force of utter purity.

Warm.

Vast.

Brimming with infinite vitality.

It was like sunlight, like spring rain, like a mother's embrace.

It was the natural, sole nemesis of the emotion "despair"!

Sun Wukong's roar cut off at the sight of this.

He stared blankly at the sea of light formed by gathered hope.

That power was neither as cold as Hongjun's order, nor as lifeless as the primal Negation's Deathly Silence, nor as violent as his own Chaos Realm.

It was merely… gentle.

Yet it was strong enough to encompass everything.

"This is no longer my solitary battle."

Yao's voice rang out again, her silhouette shining brilliantly against the sea of hope.

"This is the counter‑attack of us all against a world that knows only ending."

Sun Wukong looked at her.

Looking at this little artifact spirit that once needed his protection and would tremble when he got angry.

This moment.

He felt that within her frail, semi-transparent body lay the starlight of an entire universe.

It was so dazzling that his Chaos Realm eyes, which could see through myriad ages, dared not look directly.

He fell silent.

Like a sculpture forgotten by time.

He knew.

Yao was right.

In this damned deadlock, this was almost the only way to break through.

Using an "illusory" battlefield to separate from the "real" annihilation.

Using the "hope" of countless living beings to oppose the ultimate "despair".

This is crazy.

But also... very Sun Wukong.

But...

But it made him watch helplessly as Yao, alone, used her seemingly strong but actually fragile dream realm to face the final monster that even he found terrifying.

And he himself had to act like a hero, charging out to fight and save some damn kids...

This is more painful than being stabbed ten thousand times with a knife!

What is this?

Make him step over his woman's corpse to become that legendary hero?

Damn the hero!

A surge of humiliation and fury stronger than any before exploded again from his heart!

But this time, he did not roar.

All light in his Chaos Realm eyes withdrew, leaving only endless cold and deathly silence.

He slowly turned his back, facing away from Yao and the radiant hope Star Sea.

"Take good care of Master."

His voice was hoarse, like two rusted iron plates scraping together.

Each word seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth.

Yao's eye sockets instantly reddened; she knew he had agreed.

This heaven-defying monkey finally bowed his proud head to her, to this sole means of breaking the deadlock.

"Good." She choked back tears, but with all her strength made her voice sound firm.

Sun Wukong said nothing more.

He merely raised his hand, and the silent Chaos Dao iron emitted a muffled hum.

He did not turn back.

He feared that if he turned back, he would never be able to move again.

He feared he couldn't restrain himself, that even if he shattered this dream realm, even if he let everything fall back into despair, he would still drag her out of this damned battlefield.

So.

Cannot turn back.

Boom!

He swung his staff.

He did not smash toward Yao, nor toward this dream realm.

Instead, he fiercely smashed at the void before him!

The space, seemingly insubstantial, constructed from Yao's dream power, was struck by his staff, forcibly tearing open a violent rift leading to "reality"!

On the other side of the rift lay the ruins of the Blue Star Federation, and those apostles who were massacring his "children"!

"Wait for me."

Sun Wukong dropped those two words, hoisted his Tiěbàng, without the slightest hesitation, and dove headfirst into that violent spatial turbulence.

His figure vanished in an instant.

Only the slowly healing spatial rift remained, and behind him, the girl standing in the Star Sea's light, tears streaming down her face.

"Hmm."

Yao nodded heavily, tears tracing her cheeks, yet she bore a brilliant smile.

"I'll wait for you to return."