Chapter 403: The Lament of All Beings

That blow was the ultimate condensation of Sun Wukong's【Chaos Realm Monkey Heart】!

It is the domineering manifestation of the【No Regret】Dao!

Boom!

The black tide was forcibly blasted open a huge hole!

That miniature version of the Chaos Dao Iron seemed to contain the power to split heaven and earth, smashing that withered monk together with his mocking smile into the purest void!

Done!

The little monkey, its whole body blazing with crimson‑gold flames, proudly hoisted the Tiěbàng onto its shoulder, its demeanor identical to Sun Wukong himself.

However.

It hadn't even been happy for a second.

The black tide that had been blasted open, as if alive, instantly healed.

And at the other end of the tide, the withered monk's figure once again slowly coalesced.

His smile grew ever richer, carrying a pity that saw through everything.

Did you see that?

Your 'resistance' is also utterly meaningless.

I am the very concept of 'End' itself; you…… cannot kill me.

Just as his words fell,

He transformed into billions of strands of black smoke invisible to the naked eye, instantly launching a more frenzied, more comprehensive infiltration into the billions of Dream Realms of the entire【Dream Pure Land】!

The Dream Realm plague is spreading wildly at a terrifyingly extreme speed!

The dreamlike splendour of the【Dream Pure Land】 is rapidly dimming visibly to the naked eye!

The outline of the city's edge began to become illusory and unstable.

The solitary city forged from 'Hope' seemed as if it could vanish completely from this real universe at any moment!

Pfft!

At the city's core, Yao's delicate body shuddered violently.

A strand of piercing golden blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.

That was not ordinary blood.

That was her Divine Soul's Primordial Source!

She knew she could barely hold on.

That little monkey was the last guardian left by Sun Wukong, pure 'War', the ultimate 'Break'.

But it could smash an enemy, yet could not smash a 'Concept'.

Going on like this, defeat is merely a matter of time.

Could it be…… that there really is no way left?

Yao's gaze flickered with a hint of despair.

But the next second, that hint of despair was replaced by an even more resolute madness!

No!

There must be a way!

Since my single dream isn't enough, I'll use the dreams of billions!

Since my 'Hope' isn't pure enough, I'll ignite the most primal desire in everyone's heart!

In Yao's beautiful eyes flashed a decisive resolve to go all out!

She made a decision that she herself felt incredibly bold, even somewhat crazy!

She wanted to…… reveal her trump card!

Everyone!

Yao exerted her last strength, turning her divine sense into a great bell's roar, echoing in the minds of every still‑conscious living being in the city!

Open your eyes!

See what we are up against!

The next second.

Yao forcibly opened the permissions for part of the Dream Realm!

One after another chilling 'live' images were 'broadcast' by her into everyone's consciousness!

They saw!

They saw how that withered monk, like a ghost, sneaked into their companions' dreams!

They saw how the sweetest candy house, under his fingertip, rotted into a hell oozing pus!

They saw how the peerless hero, under his words, was torn to pieces by myriad vengeful spirits!

They saw how hope was twisted into despair!

They saw how beauty was defined as 'meaningless'!

What…… what kind of monster is this!

He…… he is polluting our dreams!

Even in our dreams, he won't let us go!

At first, it was a panic even greater than before!

Even the safest Dream Realm became the enemy's slaughterhouse, making all living beings feel a soul‑deep tremor and helplessness!

The 'Hope' they relied on is being crushed bit by bit by the enemy in the most brutal way!

Looking at those faces twisted by fear.

Yao's heart was dripping blood.

But she knew, this was a pain that must be endured!

If we don't let them see despair, how will they ever understand how precious hope is!

"I alone can't stop him!"

Yao's voice carried a hint of tremor, yet it also harbored a steadfast resolve to break the cauldrons and sink the boats!

"I need your help!"

"I need the strength of each and every one of you!"

"Use your will! Use your dreams! Use the things you cherish most in your hearts, the things you would never want taken from you, to oppose him!"

"Drive this despicable wretch who spreads despair out of our homeland!"

Yao's shout was like a pebble thrown into the Dead Water lake named 'Panic'.

However, the response to her was a deeper silence.

Will? Dreams?

How illusory this sounds!

Against an enemy that even swords and blades cannot defeat, are these invisible, intangible things really useful?

Doubt's seeds began to take root and sprout.

Just as this Deathly Silence was about to completely devour everything,

In the most inconspicuous corner.

A little boy from a primitive tribe, his Dream Realm had already been stained black over half.

In the Dream, his clansmen, his cattle and sheep, were wailing in agony amidst the black smoke.

He trembled with fear, curled up in the corner, tears streaming uncontrollably.

In the extreme Fear Heart Demon, he subconsciously, with a child's voice choked with tears, began to hum softly.

It was a lullaby his mother would hum by his ear every night.

"Little stone, not afraid of the wind blowing..."

"Grandma Moon, cover you with a blanket..."

That melody was simple to the extreme.

Those lyrics were plain as roadside weeds.

It contained no rules, nor a trace of divine power.

What it contained was only the purest, cleanest... a child's 'love' and 'reliance' for his mother.

However!

It is precisely this lullaby!

At the moment the first note floated from the boy's trembling lips!

A soft, moon-like golden radiance burst forth from his tiny body!

That light was not blinding.

Yet it carried an undeniable warmth and resolve!

Wherever the light reached!

Those ferocious roars, the black smoke spreading despair and Fear Heart Demon, actually encountered their nemesis like ice and snow!

They emitted shrill, mournful cries, frantically retreating!

The boy's Dream Realm was instantly purified into a small, safe haven!

A spark of stars!

This scene, through Yao's 'broadcast', clearly entered the eyes of every Living Being in the city!

Everyone was stunned!

What did they see?

A simplest lullaby actually... actually dispersed that all-pervasive terrifying black smoke!

As it turned out... it really works!

As it turned out, what we treasure most in our hearts truly is strength!

Boom!

As if a volcano long suppressed erupted explosively at this moment!

"Roar——!"

A beastman warrior, muscles bulging, his Dream Realm was a Shura battlefield of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

He suddenly raised his head and roared!

Using the beastmen's most ancient language, he began to chant that fearless war song belonging solely to their ancestors!

"Blood! Glory! Never yield!"

The stirring war song transformed into a soaring blood-colored beacon, burning to ashes all despair and decadence in his Dream Realm.

"Coordinates as witness, knowledge eternal!"

A white-haired elf mage, his Dream Realm was a library on the verge of being devoured by black smoke.

He solemnly raised his staff, chanting the creation verses in elegant Elvish!

Brilliant magical radiance transformed into chains of order, firmly pinning the chaotic black smoke in place, immobile.

"Coordinates Suǒdìng! Engines full throttle! Target——the sea of stars!"

A starship captain missing an arm, in his Dream, his beloved warship was being entwined by black vines, about to crash.

He suddenly opened his eyes, facing the void, and plotted a brand-new star chart for a distant voyage to the unknown Universe!

His eyes reignited the flame of exploration!

That fearless, pioneering will caused the black vines entwining the warship to snap, inch by inch!

Lullabies, war songs, poems, star charts…

A child's love for mother.

A warrior's pursuit of glory.

A scholar's quest for truth.

An adventurer's yearning for the unknown.

Hundreds of millions of different civilizations!

Hundreds of millions of utterly different, even conflicting dreams and wills!

At this moment, guided by Yao's divine thought, they were forcibly gathered together!

It was a torrent, unprecedented, chaotic to the extreme, yet powerful to the extreme!

It was no longer a single "hope".

It was a song composed together by hundreds of millions of Living Beings…

【Song of All Beings】!

This voice was filled with the most primal yearning for "life"! Filled with the most fervent longing for "tomorrow"!

It was like an unprecedented storm sweeping the entire spiritual world!

Carrying the cries and roars of hundreds of millions of Living Beings!

It fiercely slammed into the withered monk's black dam, built from "emptiness" and "meaninglessness", which he had thought immutable for eternity!

Crack!

A clear sound, as if something shattered, suddenly rang out deep within the withered monk's divine soul!

On his face, which always bore a compassionate smile, for the first time there appeared genuine… bewilderment!

His 'truth', his universally applicable 'gospel of conclusion'.

Being ……

Being submerged by countless, tiny, humble yet utterly true individual 'stories'……!

Yao, relying on the will of hundreds of millions of Living Beings, temporarily steadied the precarious situation.

But she watched the monk whose expression began to turn ferocious, and her heart did not relax in the slightest.

She knew.

This is only the beginning!

A true war about "meaning" has only just begun!