Chapter 431: Kill the Great Sage Equal to Heaven at the Root

After the gray-white humanoid left, darkness returned to Deathly Silence.

Stone Monkey thought the next would be another long wait.

Wait for that voice to come again to talk Principle, again to urge surrender, again to play a bitter drama.

He even got ready—no matter what you say, I'll grit my teeth and not interject.

He was wrong.

The other party didn't come.

No more speaking.

No more talking Principle.

Changed approach.

Stone Monkey closed his eyes, counting the throbbing of the light spots on his chest; when he counted to the seventy-second beat, his consciousness suddenly sank.

Like being pressed from the Back of Head into water.

He opened his eyes.

Not darkness anymore.

It's fire.

Fire filling the sky and earth.

A city is burning.

The city gate tower collapsed halfway, rubble smashed onto the street, everywhere lay overturned corpses and shattered stalls.

Stone Monkey lowered his head to look at his hand.

Thick, covered in golden fur.

Between his five fingers he gripped an iron rod.

Heavy enough to weigh down his hand, and on it clung something Niánhuhu.

Red.

Stone Monkey's pupils suddenly dilated.

Before him knelt a group of people.

Old.

Woman.

Child.

All were crying.

An old woman held a cloth bundle, inside faintly a baby; she knelt on the gravel and kowtowed, her forehead split open and flesh torn.

"Great Sage, spare my life—"

"Great Sage, spare my life ah—"

Stone Monkey wanted to loosen his grip.

Wanted to throw away the iron rod.

Wanted to say "I didn't come to kill you."

But his body wouldn't obey.

His arm rose high.

The iron rod fell down.

A dull thud.

A cracking sound.

The old woman's head was gone.

The cloth bundle rolled three feet away; inside the baby wailed once, then fell silent.

Stone Monkey's mind buzzed and exploded.

But he couldn't stop.

His body was like a puppet pulled by strings, striking down blow after blow.

With each strike, a chorus of cheers rose behind him.

"Good! Good! Good! The Great Sage Equal to Heaven is indeed refreshing!"

Those cheering wore Heavenly Court armor, one laughing until he bent forward and backward.

Stone Monkey strained with all his might to break free, to roar, but his vocal cords were locked.

He could only watch.

Watching his own hand pound people one by one into minced meat.

The dream shattered.

Stone Monkey sprang to sit up, his whole body's fur soaked through, clinging to his skin, like just fished out of a blood pool.

His heartbeat raced as if it would leap out of his throat.

He turned his hands over and over to look.

Clean.

Skinny, bony monkey paws, nothing stuck to them.

It was fake.

It was a dream.

He knew.

But the clack of the iron rod entering flesh still turned in his ears.

The sensation of the hot liquid splashed on the face still burned on the skin.

The old woman's final expression before she shattered still lingered in his vision—not Fear Heart Demon.

It was disappointment.

It was as if saying: 'You are indeed a beast.'

Shi Hou's stomach churned; he retched twice, but couldn't bring anything up.

The second Dream came faster than he could catch his breath.

A woman knelt before him.

He couldn't see what she looked like.

But tears streamed down her face, her skirt was soaked in mud, and she clung desperately to his pant legs with both hands.

"Please don't go… if you leave, I'll have nothing…"

Shi Hou—no, the 'him' in the Dream, lowered his head and glanced at that woman.

Cold.

Without a shred of reluctance.

He kicked her hand away with one foot.

He stepped onto a cloud.

He left.

A piercing scream came from behind, drawn out, then cut off abruptly.

Wind sound.

The sound of wind from a falling cliff.

The 'him' in the Dream didn't hesitate in his steps.

He didn't even turn his head.

The third Dream.

A group of monkeys.

Some were so thin their ribs jutted out; others had lost all fur, exposing festering sores.

Iron chains pierced their collarbones, linked together, and they were led like livestock.

Heavenly Soldiers stood outside the cage.

The leader, wearing his helmet askew, a blade of grass in his mouth, casually pointed his spear shaft at Shi Hou.

"It's precisely because this thing caused a ruckus in the Heavenly Palace."

"Its kin have suffered in its place."

"Such is Heaven's rule."

In the monkey troop, a baby monkey reached out a hand to Shi Hou, lips moving, shouting something.

Shi Hou couldn't hear it.

He wanted to rush over, to break open the cage.

His feet were nailed to the ground.

Not moving an inch.

He could only watch as the monkeys were dragged one by one into the Heavenly Gate.

The Heavenly Gate closed.

With a clang.

Then came the fourth Dream.

The fifth.

The sixth.

The seventh.

No gap.

No moment to wake up.

One after another crashed down, like a spinning lantern shaken madly.

In every Dream, 'he' was the one who committed violence, abandoned others, and brought harm.

Some lost their families and were ruined because of 'him'.

Some ended their lives holding grudges because of 'him'.

Some could never be reborn because of 'him'.

These Dreams possess a terrifying 'reasonableness'.

Not like something made up out of thin air.

Like they were excerpted from some true past, except all light was drained away, leaving only the thickest darkness.

Shi Hou began to lose himself.

Which is the Dream?

Which is him?

Perhaps…… the four characters 'Great Sage Equal to Heaven' never represented any hero at all.

Perhaps it was merely a violent, selfish disaster star that brings ruin wherever it goes.

And now he—stripped of power, imprisoned in a Prison, beaten back to his original form.

That is the correct ending of this story.

The Dream finally ceased.

I don't know how long it's been.

Shíhóu curled in the void, hugging his own head, his whole body shaking like a sieve.

A voice seeped in from all directions.

Not big.

Not urgent.

Like the chanting of sutras heard through a wall in the dead of night.

「Equal Heaven……to be equal with Heaven. 」

「Do you deserve it? 」

「What is Heaven? Heaven is the Principle that lets all things settle in their proper places. 」

「And you? 」

「You are derailed. You are collapse. You are the iron nail that lets all the gears shatter. 」

「Back then they pressed you for five hundred years. 」

「It wasn't punishment. 」

……It was mercy.

Shíhóu's teeth were chattering.

He wanted to retort.

He wanted to shout back.

He wanted to yell "Bullshit!"

But his mouth opened and closed, and the sound that came out was finer than a mosquito's.

「No…………」

「No…………」

He wanted to find something.

One thing would be enough.

One thing that could prove "I am not a monster."

But his mind was empty.

Nothing at all.

His memories had been scraped clean.

The Prison only let him see slaughter, see abandonment, see implication.

Not a single good thing was left for him.

What could he use to retort?

Use air?

Shíhóu knocked his forehead against the void, fingers gripping his own skull, nails digging into his scalp.

The blood seeped out, but he didn't feel it.

The crimson-gold light speck in his chest jumped when he lowered his head.

It was much weaker than before.

It jumped again.

It became even weaker.

The edge of the light speck began to show grayish-white patterns.

They crept inward, thread by thread.

Like frost flowers spreading across a morning windowpane.

That was the color of Negation.

It was eating that light speck.

From outside to inside.

Bite by bite.

Shíhóu could no longer feel pain.

He could feel nothing at all.

Only a growing drowsiness.

And a thought that kept echoing in the depths of his consciousness——

Perhaps close his eyes.

Never wake up again.

That would be the best explanation to everyone.

The light speck dimmed another notch.

The gray patterns swallowed a third of its area.

At the moment Shíhóu was about to close his eyes completely——

In the depths of the darkness, an extremely faint sound suddenly sounded.

It wasn't the voice of that "Prison."

It wasn't the Master's voice.

It was a young, hoarse, tearful woman's voice.

Only one sentence.

「You promised me……you would come back……」「