Chapter 417: A Single Lamp of the Heart

Sun Wukong clung tightly to his Dao Heart.

He cracked his dry lips and laughed wildly.

"Old man…"

"I've caught you."

Just as he clung to that stubborn stone,

An anomaly occurred.

A faint yet warm halo of light seeped out from the cracks in the stone.

This halo was truly insignificant.

Normally it wouldn't even be enough to light a toe.

But in this ultimate trash heap that would flay and devour a person alive,

this thin layer of light inexplicably enveloped Sun Wukong.

The erasing sensation that had been gnawing at his flesh and blood halted.

It remained stuck there, suspended in midair.

Sun Wukong lowered his head and glanced.

His left side, which was about to dissipate, stopped fading.

Even the fine hairs on his arm steadied.

Not a trace of him was forcibly erased anymore.

Before he could even catch his breath,

An indescribable feeling surged from his palm straight into the depths of his Divine Soul.

No words.

No images.

Nor the old man's usual nagging lecture.

There was only an utterly pure sensation.

An obsession that spanned the river of billions of years.

"I think."

"Therefore I am."

These five words made not a sound.

Yet they struck solidly into Sun Wukong's Divine Soul.

His raging frenzy,

the terror and brutality forced into a corner,

were wiped clean before this brief obsession.

Like a bucket of cold water extinguishing a mountain-wide fire.

An awakening!

Veins bulged on Sun Wukong's forehead.

He suddenly fucking understood everything!

The old man back then willingly threw himself into this dead land.

His final instruction left behind never mentioned any cultivation method.

This damned place doesn't follow physical laws.

Here, if you fight with all your might,

it's no different than sticking your face out for someone to slap.

Here, everything visible as an "external object" is just an empty shell.

Even armor can't hold up.

Nor can Dao arts.

Not even this body, forged through a thousand tempers, can withstand the so‑called rules of nothingness.

In this land that negates everything,

the only thing worthy of being called "real"

is one's own inner heart!

If you feel you exist,

then you do!

Not even the Heavenly King and Old Father could erase it!

"Still struggling in your death throes here?"

From the surrounding darkness came another venomous taunt.

The voice of the Original Mistake dripped with contempt.

"You think clutching a broken stone can save your life?"

"What do you think the ultimate truth of the Universe is?"

"That's laughable."

"I'll grind you and your worthless master's obsession to ashes!"

The all‑encompassing erasing force pressed down again.

This time the assault was more than ten times as fierce as before.

The surrounding air was kneaded into an invisible grindstone.

That oppressive force would grind Sun Wukong straight into meat paste.

They wanted to toss him, body and divine soul, into the trash station to be formatted.

But Sun Wukong didn't even furrow his brow.

He curled his lips into an extremely mocking arc.

He simply let go with both hands.

The Chaos Dao Iron, weighing over ten million jin, slipped from his grasp and fell.

This weapon that had accompanied him in slaughtering the heavens fell into the black water.

It vanished without even making a sound.

He didn't even glance at it.

Immediately afterward, he performed an action that baffled onlookers.

He crossed his legs and sat down directly in the void.

At this critical moment when one couldn't see five fingers ahead.

On the thin line between life and death with a formidable foe before him.

Sun Wukong closed his eyes.

He blocked his hearing.

He severed his sense of smell and taste.

He forcibly shut down all his senses on his own.

He became a piece of wood that could not be heard, seen, or touched.

He let the Original Mistake rage outside with wind and rain.

He remained unmoving, steadfast.

He gave up all futile struggle.

He did not seek where the enemy's Primordial Source lay hidden.

He did not care how hostile the surrounding void was.

He didn't even care about his own flesh and blood being stripped away.

Sun Wukong entirely sank into his own inner world.

In this world there were no schemes of the myriad gods and buddhas.

No burden of a deep grudge born of seas of blood.

Nor any lofty Original Mistake pretending to be divine.

Here it was terrifyingly clean.

Sun Wukong focused on only one thing.

He concentrated all his spirit in his chest.

To feel that unregretful monkey heart.

"Thump."

The monkey heart gave a heavy thump.

"Thump."

The second beat was stronger.

The sound in the sealed sea of consciousness was loud enough to frighten.

With each beat.

His sense of self-identity doubled each time.

The outside world.

The erasing power released by the Original Mistake frenetically scoured this body.

Those energy torrents capable of reducing a Golden Immortal of the Great Luo to ashes.

They struck Sun Wukong from all directions, leaving no blind spot.

Layer upon layer.

Each wave higher than the last.

According to the fixed underlying logic.

This unruly monkey couldn't even hold on for half a second.

He should have vanished on the spot.

Turned into a piece of erroneous code and purged.

But the Original Mistake quickly realized something was off.

Extremely off!

When this heaven‑destroying, earth‑annihilating power touched Sun Wukong's surface.

It just slid right off.

Like a rushing stream encountering a filthy, hard stone in a latrine.

It could only flow around the stone's edges.

It couldn't leave a single scratch on it.

The black water capable of corroding concepts.

Poured down from the top of Sun Wukong's head.

Yet it couldn't corrode even a single monkey hair.

The erasing force was forcibly diverted to both sides.

Sun Wukong just honestly drifted in the endless void.

He didn't move at all.

But he was completely unharmed.

He became the biggest bug in the erasure zone.

The Original Mistake, secretly in control of everything, was stunned.

This completely overturned its cognitive axioms.

Anything judged as 'existent'.

In this realm, there is no escaping erasure.

Even the ancient chaos demons can only lament here.

This monkey is sitting there, completely at ease, with a golden knife.

Why did my administrator privileges suddenly fail!

What the hell are you doing!

The Original Mistake's voice changed tone for the first time.

Gone was the lazy, condescending air of toying with a mouse from on high.

His voice now carried a blatant irritation and unease.

Speak!

What despicable, underhanded trick did you use to dodge my rule's judgment!

It really panicked.

It frantically mobilized power from all directions.

It turned the intangible void into countless sharp blades.

It frantically sliced at Sun Wukong's divine soul.

It tried to discover what treasure protected his barrier.

But all its attacks sank like stones into the sea.

Not even a ripple was raised.

This monkey truly became an unrestrained spirit.

Sun Wukong still hadn't opened his eyes.

He couldn't hear a single word of the frantic barking from outside.

He was immersed in an incredibly vast new dimension.

After his six senses were closed.

In his 'heart'.

A transformation occurred naturally.

In this realm of the heart.

Sun Wukong slowly opened a pair of eyes.

A pair of wise eyes formed from unyielding will.

These eyes had no physical form.

But they do not look at appearances.

They look only at the essence.

They can directly pierce the underlying logic of the virtual world.

Sun Wukong, through these newly born wise eyes,

leisurely looked around.

He curled the corner of his mouth.

He understood.

I fucking figured it all out!

This place has no deadly trap that devours people without leaving bones.

This darkness is also a bluff.

It's just an empty shell!

There are no painted mountains and flowing waters here.

Nor are there any life-and-death rules self-proclaimed by the Heavenly Dao.

It is a vast black canvas stretching to the edge of the universe!

It is a blank sheet of paper that no one has touched!

Only the background has been painted black.

Precisely because there is nothing here.

So the Original Mistake can play god.

It can casually fabricate an erasure rule to scare intruders.

If you believe its rules,

you will slowly fade away in terror.

The old man's meaning is too blunt.

Fuck the rules!

As long as I think your rule is bullshit in my heart,

It's not even worth a fart!

The Original Mistake was still raving outside.

The roar of impotent fury shook this space into layers of ripples.

Die!

Don't play dead in my kingdom!

I command you to be terminated at once!

Countless horrifying storms capable of twisting concepts focused all their fire on Sun Wukong alone.

They wanted to grind him to powder.

In the midst of this sky-covering, earth-covering attack.

Sun Wukong finally made a move.

He still kept his physical eyes shut.

Yet his face split into an extremely arrogant cackle.

It's so noisy it's killing me!

For the first time, Sun Wukong's voice rang out clearly in the land of the dead.

This voice wasn't loud at all.

Yet it carried a shameless, roguish air and an overwhelming arrogance.

It directly defied the Original Mistake's rule of silence.

It forcibly pierced the concept barrier.

It echoed in all directions through the empty void.

The Original Mistake choked on those words and fell silent.

That arrogant aura hung suspended in midair.

This monkey can actually still talk!

This goes far beyond merely breaking rules.

This is like taking a dump on its neck!

You're nothing but a mouse that hides in the gutter playing in the mud.

Sun Wukong worked the stiffness out of his neck.

His bones gave a crisp crack.

In the silence, it was especially grating.

I was still thinking with my eyes closed just now.

This godforsaken place is nothing but black.

There's not even a place for me to rest and enjoy the view.

He slowly lifted his left arm, which had been mostly erased.

At his thought,

The missing half of his linked golden armor.

Without any external spiritual power or laws,

It instantly regenerated out of thin air!

The shining golden shoulder plates snapped perfectly back onto his shoulders.

Sun Wukong patted the armor on his left shoulder.

He felt the real cold hardness of the metal.

This is what I call 'I think, therefore I am'.

I firmly believe it's still there.

It must stay firmly on my body!

Too boring.

Sun Wukong hummed an unknown tune.

He completely ignored the enraged Original Mistake.

I'm just thinking.

Since your ragged black cloth hasn't been dyed.

Leaving it empty is just a waste.

Why not...

Let me add some color to it?

He reached out with one hand into the void.

The Chaos Dao Iron that had fallen into the dark abyss, severed from contact,

It violently tore apart the concept of the void.

It flew back hard into his palm!

The stone staff let out a heaven-shaking, earth-shaking dragon's roar.

In the joy of seeing the sky again,

Sun Wukong gripped the staff tightly.

His head casually tilted toward an empty direction ahead.

He didn't open his eyes.

But he knew the mouse was hiding there.

The smile on his face reached utter extravagance.

Every word and sentence bears an undisputed domineering presence.

"For example."

"Add a touch so that you dark scum will find it blinding…"

"Golden?"

As this rhetorical question fell.

His chest's No Regret Monkey Heart emitted an unprecedented violent roar.

A strand of crimson-gold light, millions of times more blinding than the sun.

Along his chest.

It burst forth without any warning!

This light directly split the thick darkness.

It straightly illuminated a vast expanse of boundless void ahead!