Chapter 460

Kill without question!

Tens of thousands of golden chains, wrapped in the destructive power of the Heavenly Dao Law, surged to strangle.

Sun Wukong moved.

He did not retreat.

The Tiěbàng spun half a circle in his hand, and scarlet-gold light burst forth.

The Monkey Heart gave a violent throb, and the tattered battle armor woven from No Regret Dao Rhythm on his chest burst with blinding light.

He stepped forward.

One step.

Just one step.

The Tiěbàng swept out horizontally.

At the instant it touched the chains, it was not the chains that rebounded the Tiěbàng; the chains shattered.

The golden fragments exploded like fireworks in the void.

One broke.

Ten broke.

A hundred broke.

Within the sweep of the staff's wind, all Heavenly Dao Chains snapped and dissolved, turning into drifting golden powder.

Sun Wukong lifted the Tiěbàng and walked out from the rain of golden powder, his scarlet-gold eyes fixed tightly on the figure in golden robes high above.

He raised the Tiěbàng.

The tip of the staff was aimed at Hongjun's nose.

"Old thing."

His voice was not loud, but the words carried clearly throughout the sealed space.

"Where were you when the Original Mistake was out there killing and setting fires?"

"Where were you when I risked half my life to hack it?"

"Where the hell were you when Yao gave her life to plug the gap?"

He took two steps forward, the Tiěbàng always pointing at Hongjun.

"Now that I've beaten the person to death, you've popped out?"

"Huh?"

"You shrunken-headed turtle!"

These three words burst from Sun Wukong's throat, accompanied by scorching spittle.

Above.

Hongjun's complexion changed.

It was not extreme anger, but a feeling he had never experienced after living through three eons.

Being pointed at the nose and scolded.

A monkey.

Pointing at his nose.

Calling him a turtle.

The condescending disdain in his golden vertical pupils vanished.

He clenched his five fingers, and his robe stirred without wind.

The Heavenly Dao's law throbbed violently around him.

"Impudent."

Only two words.

When those two words fell, purple thunderclouds formed out of nowhere above the torn void.

Not a single bolt.

It was myriad bolts.

Vast purple divine lightning poured down like a waterfall.

Each bolt was as thick as a mountain, and when it struck it carried the Heavenly Dao's destructive power enough to obliterate a Golden Immortal of the Great Luo.

Boom—boom!

The entire Wanshen Fenchang turned white in the purple light.

Bodhi narrowed his eyes from that terrifying light.

Then he saw a scene that made the corner of his mouth twitch upward.

Sun Wukong did not dodge.

He drew the Tiěbàng back from pointing at Hongjun's nose, gripping the staff with both hands.

Then he swung.

The first bolt of violet lightning struck down.

The staff rose to meet it.

Bang!

The lightning shattered.

Purple arcs and scarlet-gold staff light crisscrossed and shot outward.

The second.

The third.

The tenth path.

The one hundredth path.

Sun Wukong stood at the center of the sea of thunder, swinging his Tiěbàng in a wide arc.

Each collision burst out a spray of fire sparks.

His speed grew faster and faster.

The staff's afterimages linked into a perfect crimson-gold light sphere, enveloping his whole body.

All the Purple Firmament Divine Thunder that struck the light sphere were shattered, turning into harmless purple specks that scattered in all directions.

Just this?

He shouted at the top of his lungs amid the thunder.

Lord of Heavenly Dao, is that all you've got?

The beatings I took in the belly of the Original Mistake hurt more than this!

Hongjun's eyelid twitched.

He increased the output.

The myriad purple thunderbolts became a hundred thousand.

The density increased tenfold, and the power of each bolt increased tenfold.

The whole space trembled and warped in the purple light.

Sun Wukong's crimson-gold light sphere was compressed by one-third.

His arm trembled, and the tiger's mouth split open with blood.

But the Tiěbàng did not stop.

Each strike grew fiercer than the last.

Each strike grew faster than the last.

He was laughing.

He bared his teeth and laughed amidst the sky-filling thunder and fire.

Bring on more!

Bodhi shook his head from afar.

This reckless monkey.

Asking for a beating.

As his words fell.

Suddenly, a strange sound came from the void.

It wasn't thunder.

It was the sound of space being torn apart.

Sun Wukong's peripheral vision swept to the left.

A huge spatial gate was forming.

Golden Buddha light poured out from the gate.

There was one on the right as well.

Another spatial gate, with surging white-jade immortal energy.

Sun Wukong's Smile froze for a moment.

Then the left spatial gate fully opened.

Rulai Buddha sat exalted on a nine-grade Liántái, behind him followed three thousand Golden-bodied Arhats and five hundred Bodhisattvas, his Buddha voice shaking the heavens.

In the right-hand spatial gate, the Jade Emperor sat enthroned on a phoenix palanquin, to either side were the Pagoda-bearing Heavenly King, the Third Prince Nezha, and a boundless black mass of Heavenly Soldiers and Generals.

A hundred-thousand-strong army.

The two forces descended almost simultaneously.

Sun Wukong stopped the staff in his hand.

The Purple Firmament Divine Thunder also paused at Hongjun's indication.

The whole battlefield fell eerily silent for a moment.

Sun Wukong looked at the Tathagata on the left, then at the Jade Emperor on the right.

His expression shifted from stunned to incredulous.

It finally settled on a strange Smile.

That Smile held no warmth.

Good.

They've all come.

The Tathagata pressed his palms together, his sacred appearance solemn.

Namo Amitabha.

Wukong, your hostility runs deep; you have entered the demonic path.

Today, the humble monk, acting on the Heavenly Dao's decree, has come to save you.

Lay down the butcher's blade; there is still a way back.

Sun Wukong stared at him for three seconds.

What did you say?

I said you have entered the demonic path.

The Tathagata's voice was compassionate and calm: "Just now, in your struggle with that demon, your mind has been tainted by it. With my boundless compassion and mercy, I can cleanse the demonic energy within you."

The Jade Emperor also spoke from the other side.

"Great Sage Equal to Heaven."

His voice carried a tone, speaking from above.

"I recall your past merits, so you may escape the death penalty. But you must immediately lay down your weapons and follow the Heavenly Soldiers back to Heaven to stand trial."

Behind him, the Pagoda-bearing Heavenly King immediately understood, lifted the Linglong Treasure Pagoda, and the hundred thousand Heavenly Soldiers and Generals began to shift formation, forming a net of heaven and earth covering half the battlefield.

Sun Wukong stood in place for a good while.

He looked at the Tathagata's face, bearing an expression of compassion for the world.

He also looked at the Jade Emperor's lofty demeanor.

He then looked at the hundred thousand Heavenly Soldiers and the three thousand Arhats.

He laughed.

He really laughed.

He laughed until his shoulders shook.

He laughed until tears glistened at the corners of his eyes.

Bodhi sighed softly behind him.

The old man knew his disciple all too well.

This was not a happy laugh.

This was the laugh that comes only when anger reaches its peak.

"I'm fighting desperately up front."

Sun Wukong's laughter ceased, his voice flat without a hint of inflection.

"You're just watching the show from behind."

"Yao is dead."

"Countless worlds have died."

"You're holed up in your old lair, not letting out a single fart."

"Now I've destroyed that thing."

"You've come out."

"You open your mouth only to speak of salvation? Or trial?"

He turned around, facing the Tathagata and the Jade Emperor directly.

In his crimson-gold pupils surged magma-like rage.

"What about your faces?"

The Tathagata's compassionate expression froze for a moment.

The Jade Emperor's hand clenched inside his sleeve.

Sun Wukong did not wait for their response.

He raised his iron staff and slammed its butt hard into the ground.

Boom!

With the iron staff as the center, a crimson-gold line of light extended outward to both sides.

The light split the void, drawing a clear line in the exact center of the Wanshen Fenchang.

On this side of the line are him and his master.

On the other side are Hongjun, the Tathagata, the Jade Emperor, and their million-strong army.

"Listen well."

Sun Wukong hoisted the iron staff onto his shoulder, his crimson-gold eyes sweeping from left to right, scanning every face.

Three thousand Arhats.

Five hundred Bodhisattvas.

One hundred thousand Heavenly Soldiers.

One by one, he swept past them.

No one dared to meet his gaze.

"This line."

His voice was like a dull knife cutting flesh, each word squeezed out from his throat.

"Whoever steps forward,"

"will die."

The words fell.

On the battlefield, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

The Tathagata's lotus pedestal retreated half an inch.

The Heavenly Soldiers beside the Jade Emperor trembled as they gripped their weapons.

No one moved.

No one dared to take a single step forward.

A monkey, a staff.

He blocked the three strongest forces of the Three Realms.

The silence lasted a long time.

Finally, Hongjun broke this deathly silence.

He stood at the highest point, his golden vertical pupils withdrawing from that crimson-gold line and falling upon Sun Wukong.

Interesting.

He raised his right hand.

His five fingers slowly clenched.

The entire sealed space began to contract following his gesture.

The Tathagata and the Jade Emperor simultaneously changed expression, and without prior agreement retreated three steps backward.

They recognized this gesture.

This was a sign that Hongjun was about to act personally.

Then let me have a look.

Hongjun's voice echoed in the contracting space.

Who can your line stop?

Sun Wukong grinned, the Tiěbàng lowered from his shoulder and lay horizontally across his chest.

Come.

He said.

I have waited for three ages.

Just then.

Bodhi's eyelid twitched suddenly.

His gaze did not fall on Hongjun.

Instead, it drifted toward a dark corner at the very edge of the battlefield.

There was nothing there.

It was utterly empty.

But Bodhi's pupils contracted sharply.

For in his Dharma Eye, within that void of 'utter emptiness,' a pair of eyes older and deeper than Hongjun's was watching all this.

And they were smiling.