Chapter 476

A despairing wail of ten thousand arrows piercing the heart!

Sun Wukong's head buzzed.

Master, what did you just say?

He thought he had misheard.

Yao

That girl who turned herself into a light shield and burned her life to ashes.

Is there still hope?

Bodhi didn't repeat a second time.

The old man merely tilted his head, his gaze falling on that distant expanse of Silent Extinction ruins.

There was nothing left there.

Not even dust remained.

But Bodhi's gaze told Sun Wukong he wasn't joking.

Sun Wukong's Adam's apple rolled up and down, and the fingers gripping his Iron Staff turned white.

He wanted to speak, his lips moved twice, but not a single word came out.

Bodhi turned around, not looking at him.

The old man's gaze swept over the immobilized immortals and buddhas on the battlefield, finally settling on a direction.

There hung a monkey there.

Six-Eared Macaque

Ten thousand swords of law pinned him in the void, each piercing his flesh and bone.

His gray fur was covered in black blood scabs, his six ears drooping like six rotten vegetable leaves.

He was still alive.

Bodhi kept him alive.

Because dying was too easy.

"Before saving that girl."

Bodhi spoke, his voice low, as if talking to himself.

"We must first settle this old score."

The old man extended his right index finger.

He just pointed casually.

In the void, the ten thousand swords of law pinning the Six-Eared Macaque simultaneously rotated half a turn.

It was not pulled out.

It was twisted inside the wound.

"Aaaah!!!"

That Cànjiào was squeezed from the Six-Eared Macaque's throat, sharp as scraping glass with an iron sheet.

Everyone on the battlefield shrank their necks a little.

The Heavenly Soldiers and Luohan kneeling in the ruins had faces as white as paper, wishing they could stuff their heads into stone cracks.

The Six-Eared Macaque's body spasmed in the void, blood spurting from countless holes, drawing dense red lines in the air.

His mouth hung open, unable to even let out a full Cànjiào.

Only a hoarse 'heh heh heh' breath remained.

Bodhi withdrew his finger, expressionless.

"This is the interest."

"The principal hasn't even started being calculated."

Sun Wukong gazed at the monkey hanging in the sky.

He did not smile.

He also did not feel relieved.

He just felt nauseated.

Back then at Da Lei Yin Si, this thing wore his face, his armor, wielded a staff identical to his, and stood before the Tathagata.

Everyone knew the truth.

No one spoke.

Then the true Sun Wukong just 'died' like that.

And this impostor openly embarked on the journey to retrieve the scriptures.

Living in his place.

Becoming Buddha in his place.

Enjoying all that should have been his.

Sun Wukong stepped forward, walking toward the Six-Eared Macaque.

The Iron Staff dragged on the ground, grinding over gravel, emitting a piercing screech.

The Six-Eared Macaque heard that sound.

He strained to open one eye swollen like a walnut, and saw the figure walking toward him.

Crimson-gold battle armor.

Arrogant stride.

The Chaos Dao Iron borne on his shoulder.

And there were those eyes.

Those eyes that never conceded, never bowed.

The Six-Eared Macaque's pupils twitched violently.

Fear.

It was a purer fear than even ten thousand arrows piercing the heart.

Sun Wukong stopped before him.

He looked up at him.

The two monkeys' faces had once been identical.

Now they were different.

One stood on the ground, feet planted, nothing in heaven and earth could make him bend.

One hung in the sky, his body full of holes, unable to even cry out.

Sun Wukong did not raise his staff.

He did not strike.

He merely looked at the Six-Eared Macaque's bloody, blurred face and spoke.

His voice was calm.

So calm it was as if he were speaking of something utterly unrelated to himself.

"You will never become the Great Sage Equal to Heaven in this lifetime."

Just that one sentence.

No angry scolding.

No humiliation.

Not even contempt.

Just a fact.

Like telling a beggar he will never be emperor.

Not mockery.

It was a statement.

The Six-Eared Macaque's body stiffened.

In that barely opened eye, all fear, pain, and struggle shattered at that moment.

In its place came something deeper.

Despair.

He of course knew.

He had always known.

From the day he first began to imitate Sun Wukong, he knew he could never be that monkey.

He learned Sun Wukong's martial arts.

He learned Sun Wukong's supernatural powers.

He learned Sun Wukong's every gesture, every smile.

But he could not learn that heart.

The heart that had been pressed under Five Elements Mountain for five hundred years and never yielded.

The heart that dared to defy Heaven, curse the Buddha, and say 'no' to the whole world.

He did not have it.

He never had it.

He was merely a substitute.

A tool.

A pawn to be used and discarded.

The Tathagata never regarded him as any hope of the Buddhist gate.

From beginning to end, he was nothing but a blade to kill Sun Wukong.

When the blade is spent, it ought to be thrown away.

This principle, the Six-Eared Macaque finally understood amid the agony of ten thousand arrows piercing the heart.

Tears welled from his swollen eye socket.

Mixed with blood, they trickled down his fur.

He opened his mouth to speak, but only a broken breath escaped his throat.

It was like crying.

And like laughing.

Laughing at his own foolishness.

Sun Wukong gave him one last look.

Then he turned and walked away.

With no extra motion.

No finishing blow.

Because it wasn't worth it.

A broken thing needs no second stomp.

Sun Wukong shouldered his iron staff and strode back to his master's side.

Bodhi stood in place.

The old man's gaze withdrew from the Six-Eared Macaque and fell on Sun Wukong's face.

"Alright."

Bodhi said.

"The dregs have been cleared."

The old man took a deep breath.

That breath was drawn out long.

It was so long that the surrounding void trembled along with it.

Then, Bodhi's aura changed.

No longer was it the previous restrained, low-key state.

A force older than Heavenly Dao and more primordial than Chaos surged up from his withered body.

The power of the Chaotic Demon God.

The Primordial Source that existed before the birth of the Universe.

Bodhi's eyes went from cloudy to clear, with gray light swirling in his pupils.

He raised his right hand.

His five fingers spread open.

Toward the distant ruins of Silent Extinction.

He intended to reverse life and death.

He intended to pull back into existence a soul that had been completely erased from the Universe.

Boom!

The entire Universe trembled.

The laws screamed.

Cause and effect were breaking.

Heavenly Dao issued the highest-level warning.

All the remaining Great Daos of the Three Realms manifested as entities, turning into countless golden chains that madly wound around Bodhi's arms, trying to stop his movement.

The Law of Death turned into a massive black barrier blocking Bodhi's front.

On it were carved four characters.

"Irreversible."

Bodhi glanced at that barrier.

The old man's mouth twitched.

"The person this old man wants to save—does Heavenly Dao dare to stop?"

He stepped forward with one foot.

That death barrier, which bore the Universe's supreme law, shattered like thin ice underfoot.

Crack!

It split.

It shattered.

It scattered.

The golden chains entwined around his arms snapped at once, turning into drifting golden powder.

The Universe's roar grew louder.

It was as if something was going mad in opposition.

Bodhi paid it no heed.

His hand continued to reach forward.

His five fingers probed into the depths of the void.

That was the place where souls ultimately go after dissipating.

Deeper than the Underworld.

Farther than the cycle of rebirth.

A passage leading to the Soul Abyss was forcibly torn open before Bodhi's palm.

That passage was pitch-black, bottomless, and echoed with myriad wails and murmurs.

Sun Wukong stood behind his Master.

His fists were clenched tightly.

His nails dug into his palms.

His eyes stared unblinking at that passage.

Even his breath stopped.

Yao.

You wait.

Master has come to fetch you.