Chapter 502: Dream is truth, truth is Dream

The thunderclouds haven't cleared away.

Those ashen dissipating dark clouds paused at the edge of the void for three seconds, as if suddenly realizing they'd just been played by a woman.

Yúncéng surged again.

More violent than before.

Thicker.

Darker.

The purple arcs turned blood-red, bursting one after another deep in Yúncéng, lighting up the whole star domain intermittently.

The Universe's laws were enraged.

It discovered that woman was hardly a weak half-dead person; it had been tricked, played for a fool by a girl who had just broken through.

This is an insult.

An insult to the Universe's operating laws.

The thunderclouds swelled madly, expanding from ten thousand li to a hundred thousand, then to a million li, covering nearly half the star domain.

The amount of lightning stored in Yúncéng rose from one to ten, to a hundred, to a thousand.

Each was thicker and more violent than the earlier lightning pillar capable of splitting a Star.

Sun Wukong's Smile faded.

"Is it coming again?"

His Iron Staff glowed again.

This time he truly meant to act.

No matter what Universe's laws, if you dare strike a second time, I'll really overturn your whole Heaven.

But Yao stopped him.

Not with her hands.

But with her gaze.

She glanced at Sun Wukong; the Rainbow Light in her eyes shone brighter than the stars.

In that gaze there was no Fear Heart Demon, no tension, only something Sun Wukong had never seen in her before.

Confidence.

Overwhelming, unreserved confidence springing from her very bones.

"Watch closely."

Yao said three words.

Then she took a step forward.

Stepping into the very heart of the thunderclouds.

Sun Wukong's pupils contracted: "You—"

Before he could finish shouting, Yao's figure had already vanished into the surging sea of blood-red lightning.

She walked in.

Not flashing in, not charging in.

But step by step, calmly walking in.

Like taking a stroll.

What does the interior of the thunderclouds look like?

It is hell.

Myriad bolts of blood-red lightning intertwine into a net, each carrying the power of the Universe's laws sufficient to obliterate stars.

They all target Yao, who has walked into them.

They all descend together.

Thousand upon thousand of lightning, all striking simultaneously at a single person.

Sun Wukong outside saw the thunderclouds suddenly contract, all light converging toward the center; his heart pounded, his hand already gripping the Iron Staff.

But the next second.

He let go.

Because he heard a sound.

A sound coming from the heart of the thunderclouds.

Not a Cànjiào.

Not an explosion.

It is—

Crackle-pop.

Like the sound of fireworks bursting.

One.

Two.

Ten.

A hundred.

Thousands upon thousands.

The blood-red thunderclouds were torn open from within by countless rifts, from each bursting forth not lightning.

But fireworks.

Multicolored, dazzling fireworks that can only be seen in a Dream Realm.

Yao stands at the center of the thunderclouds, countless lightning bolts that haven't yet fallen swirling around her.

She extended her hand.

She grabbed.

All the lightning twisted, deformed, and reshaped in her palm.

The deadly heavenly thunder turned into fireworks.

The destructive law turned into the most splendid fireworks display in the dream realm.

She was not resisting the heavenly tribulation.

She was playing with the heavenly tribulation.

Like a child playing with mud.

She shaped it into whatever form she wanted.

The entire thundercloud was rewritten by her in three breaths.

From a cosmic-level heavenly punishment, it became a cosmic-level fireworks show.

The light bursting from the fireworks shot out of this star region.

It crossed the boundary of the Three Realms.

It surged into every corner.

That power of dream and truth merging like a warm wind blew from one end of the universe to the other.

It brushed over every star, every land, every living being still asleep.

Where that power swept, dead planets sprouted green shoots anew, shattered space fissures healed themselves, and even the spacetime twisted by prior battles was quietly smoothed.

Not repair.

It was a refresh.

The entire universe was refreshed once by Yao's power.

Sun Wukong stood outside, head raised, mouth wide open.

His iron staff slid from his shoulder, and he didn't notice.

"Good—"

He clapped once.

"Good!!"

He clapped again.

"Hahahaha!"

He laughed so hard he doubled over, leaping up in the void, clapping seven or eight times like a rowdy spectator.

"Beautiful! Too damn beautiful!"

"My wife is the best in the world!"

His shout made the entire Star Sea echo.

The thunderclouds completely dispersed.

No, they didn't disperse.

They were utterly consumed by Yao.

All the cosmic law power and heavenly dao punitive energy contained in the tribulations were completely absorbed, transformed, and fused by her Illusory Dao.

Those powers poured into her meridians throughout her body, triggering earth-shaking changes within her.

Yao closed her eyes.

She felt her soul expanding.

Not a painful expansion.

It was the feeling of breaking out of a cocoon.

Like an eggshell being pushed apart from inside.

The battle-damaged dress on her shattered, and iridescent light leaked from the cracks.

Light rose from her feet, climbing inch by inch up her calves, waist, abdomen, and shoulders.

Where it passed, a new dress coalesced into form.

Not made of cloth.

Made of light.

A pure, long dress of light condensed from the supreme authority of dream and truth.

The hem trailed three feet on the ground, every inch flowing with galaxy-like colors.

Seven-colored light bands circled her body, drifting slowly like living things.

Yao opened her eyes.

Her pupils were no longer the previous red.

They were golden.

The same crimson-gold as Sun Wukong.

She drew a deep breath, feeling every inch of her meridians and every strand of her divine soul exulting.

Rebirth and transformation.

True rebirth and transformation.

She was no longer someone who needed to burn herself to wield power.

She was power itself.

The supreme authority of dream and truth was no longer an external tool attached to her.

It became part of her, as natural as breathing.

Whatever she wanted to become real, it became real.

Whatever she wanted to become illusory, it ceased to exist.

The height of this authority already stood above the laws of the universe.

Standing shoulder to shoulder with Sun Wukong's Equal Heaven Path.

On par with the Bodhi Patriarch's Chaos Primordial Source.

Yao slowly descended from the void where the thunderclouds had dissipated.

The hem of her light robe dragged across the Star Sea, leaving a seven-colored trail behind her.

She landed beside Sun Wukong.

Her toe touched the void, light as a feather.

Sun Wukong put away his teasing expression.

He seriously looked at Yao before him.

Not a lecherous look.

It was a warrior examining another warrior.

Her aura changed.

No longer the fragility that needed him constantly guarding her back.

In its place was a strength equal to his, heavy and moist.

She was no longer that little girl.

"How?"

Yao tilted her head at him, smiling at the corner of her mouth, "Are you stunned?"

Sun Wukong grinned.

He hoisted his iron staff onto his shoulder and stood sideways beside Yao.

Not standing in front of her.

But side by side.

"From now on when we fight," he glanced at her sideways, "you on the left, me on the right."

Yao raised an eyebrow: "Who said I have to stand on the left?"

"Because I'm used to wielding the staff with my right hand."

"... Fine."

The two exchanged a glance.

No vows of eternal love, no sweet nothings.

Only the two of them stood shoulder to shoulder in the Star Sea, one shouldering an iron staff, the other dragging a light robe.

One was a fist that shatters everything.

One was a pair of hands that create everything.

From now on, there is no one protecting whom.

Only side by side.

In the distance, Fangcun Mountain.

The Bodhi Patriarch's rattan chair creaked.

The old man set the empty teacup on the table and finally sat up straight in his chair.

His right hand, like a withered bone, turned over.

The golden light in his palm was no longer jumping.

It was trembling.

That pool of dead water, approaching from the depths of the void, had reached the doorstep.

Bodhi rose to his feet.

He gazed toward the quiet starry sky outside the Fangcun Mountain gate, his sight piercing hundreds of millions of miles, landing on something that was accelerating closer.

"Coming faster than expected."

His voice was very soft.

But the peach trees outside the mountain gate all bent over.