Chapter 453: Guardian from Behind!

Bodhi's mysterious smile!

Those runes flashed faster and faster.

Sun Wukong stared at the dense grayish-white runes covering the surface of the Dao Heart.

His heart gave a sudden jolt.

The Original Mistake hadn't lied to him.

Those runes were really counting down.

Moreover.

The speed was still increasing.

Sun Wukong gripped his iron rod tightly.

He was about to rush over and seize the Dao Heart.

The grayish-white mist ahead suddenly stopped spreading.

It began to contract wildly.

It gathered toward a single point.

In the blink of an eye.

The mist vanished completely.

Taking its place was.

a thing floating in the void.

The moment Sun Wukong saw what it was,

his stomach churned.

He almost vomited on the spot.

It was a mass of rotting flesh.

Irregular in shape.

Like a rag haphazardly balled up and tossed on the ground.

Its surface was pitted and uneven.

It was covered with abscesses and festering wounds.

From each wound oozed a grayish-white pus.

The pus dripped onto the void,

making a sizzling corrosive sound.

Even more disgustingly,

on that mass of rotting flesh

grew faces.

Dense and numerous,

large and small,

every face was twisted,

wailing,

shedding tears,

male and female,

old and young,

human and demon,

even the faces of demon gods.

They were packed together,

overlapping,

mouths opening and closing,

emitting piercing screams that made the scalp tingle.

Sun Wukong looked for two seconds.

He couldn't help but curse.

"Really fucking ugly."

He genuinely thought it was ugly.

All the disgusting things he'd seen in his life combined

still weren't as disgusting as this mass of rotting flesh.

That mass of rotting flesh heard those words.

All the faces stopped wailing at once.

They all turned in unison.

Staring at Sun Wukong.

That gaze,

was filled with vengeful hatred, terrifying to behold.

Immediately after,

all the faces opened their mouths at once.

emitting a heart‑rending scream.

"Die!"

Die!

Die die die die die!

That voice is not an ordinary voice.

It is a pure curse.

It is the resentment of countless living beings before they died, devoured by it.

Condensed into a substantive sound wave.

Viciously smashed toward Sun Wukong.

Sun Wukong only felt as if someone had fiercely stabbed his brain with an awl.

The pain made his vision go black.

His body swayed.

His movement slowed by half a beat.

Just in that half-beat's time.

That lump of rotting flesh moved.

Its surface suddenly split open countless cracks.

From each crack extended a tentacle.

The tentacles were covered with barbs.

Still continuously oozing pus.

Tens of thousands of tentacles surged forth, covering the sky and earth.

They encircled Sun Wukong.

Then.

They fiercely wrapped around.

Sun Wukong wanted to dodge.

But his brain still hurt.

His body couldn't react in time.

The tentacles wrapped around his arms.

Legs.

Waist.

Neck.

The tighter they wound, the tighter they got.

Those barbs pierced into his skin.

The pain made him grit his teeth.

The face on the rotting flesh emitted an excited laugh.

"Eat you!"

"Assimilate you!"

"Make you become part of us!"

The tentacles began injecting gray-white energy into Sun Wukong's body.

That is pure Power of Negation.

It aims to erase his existence from the root.

Sun Wukong felt his body going numb.

His strength was draining.

But he didn't panic.

Instead, he calmed down.

Because he remembered something.

His master had taught him.

Reverse devouring.

That was when he had just learned Chaos Dao.

His master had said a phrase.

"Houtou."

"Remember."

"There is no absolute poison in this world."

"The key is how you eat it."

"Others feed you poison."

"You just swallow it as a tonic."

"The more you swallow,"

"the stronger you become."

Back then Sun Wukong didn't really understand.

Now.

He understands.

He no longer struggles.

Instead, he relaxed his body.

Let those tentacles inject the Power of Negation into his body.

The face on the rotting flesh smiled even more happily.

"Hahaha!"

"You've given up resisting?"

"You know the times!"

"Be good and let me eat you!"

Sun Wukong grinned.

"Eat?"

"Sure!"

"I'm just afraid you'll eat yourself to death."

Just as his words fell.

The Monkey Heart in his chest suddenly began to beat violently.

Thud!

Thud!

Thud!

Each beat,

sounded like a war drum.

echoing through the void.

Immediately after,

the Monkey Heart began frantically absorbing the Power of Negation.

not passively receiving,

but actively devouring.

The gray-white energy injected into Sun Wukong's body through the tentacles.

As soon as it entered,

it was swallowed whole by the Monkey Heart.

then refined.

converted into crimson-gold power.

and injected into Sun Wukong's body.

The smile on the face of the rotting flesh froze.

It felt something was wrong.

The energy it had injected.

How did it all disappear?

It increased its output.

It pumped more Power of Negation in through the tentacles.

Sun Wukong's Monkey Heart refused nothing that came.

It swallowed it all.

Moreover, it swallowed faster and faster.

and more fiercely.

The rotting flesh panicked.

It discovered its power was rapidly draining away.

It wasn't just a little loss.

It was like a dam bursting.

It gushed out with a splashing sound.

"No!"

"How could this happen!"

"What are you doing!"

Sun Wukong laughed even more happily.

"What for?"

"Having a meal!"

"You weren't supposed to feed me?"

"I just happened to be hungry."

"Feed me more."

"Don't stand on ceremony."

He said.

The Monkey Heart's suction grew stronger yet again.

The surface of the rotting flesh began to shrink.

Those people's expressions changed from excitement to terror.

"Stop!"

"Stop quickly!"

"I was wrong!"

"Don't suck it!"

Sun Wukong completely ignored it.

Monkey Heart was still frenziedly devouring.

The rotting flesh's tentacles wrapped around Sun Wukong's body.

They began to wither one by one.

Like a sponge wrung dry.

Finally.

Pop.

All snapped.

Fell onto the void.

Turned to ash.

The volume of the rotting flesh visibly shrank.

From the original ten-meter diameter.

Shrunk to five meters.

Three meters.

One meter.

Getting smaller and smaller.

The faces on it screamed frenziedly.

"No!"

"Don't!"

"Please!"

"Let me go!"

Sun Wukong moved his limbs a bit.

He lifted the iron staff.

He leisurely walked to the lump of rotting flesh now the size of a fist.

"Let you go?"

He sneered.

"Weren't you just arrogant?"

"Still want to eat me?"

"Assimilate me?"

"How are you scared now?"

The rotting flesh could no longer speak.

Could only emit a weak whimper.

Sun Wukong raised the iron staff.

About to smash it down with a blow.

In the distance.

Suddenly a light laugh came from afar.

That laugh was very soft.

But in this deathly silent void.

It was especially clear.

Sun Wukong's movement paused.

He turned his head to look.

He saw his Master Bodhi.

Leaning against that broken wall.

With a smile on his face.

That smile.

Profoundly meaningful.

Mysterious and unfathomable.

As if knowing a secret he didn't know.

Sun Wukong's heart gave a jolt.

"Master?"

"What are you laughing at?"

Bodhi didn't answer.

Just raised his hand.

Pointed lightly at Sun Wukong.

Then.

And pointed at the lump of rotting flesh in his hand.

Sun Wukong lowered his head to look.

Upon looking.

He froze.

That lump of rotting flesh.

It was glowing.

It was not a grayish-white light.

It was crimson-gold.

Moreover.

The light grew brighter and brighter.

It became increasingly blinding.

Immediately after.

The surface of the rotting flesh began to crack.

It was not a rotting crack.

It was like an eggshell.

Something inside was pushing it open.

Crack.

Crack—crack.

The crack grew larger and larger.

Finally.

Boom!

The whole thing exploded.

A blinding crimson-gold column of light shot up from within.

It directly pierced the void.

Sun Wukong was dazzled by the light column and couldn't open his eyes.

After the light faded.

He took a close look.

The lump of rotting flesh in his hand was gone.

Replaced by.

It was fist-sized.

It was crimson-gold.

It was constantly beating.

It was a heart.