Chapter 99: Eternal Temptation, Surrender Your Heart

A sentence from the Bodhi Patriarch.

It made Sun Wukong's somewhat dazed, somewhat sinking heart instantly clear up a bit!

Who am I?

I am...

Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong!

That thought, like a bolt of lightning in the darkness, tore through the fog in his mind.

The gentleness and tranquility that had almost engulfed him, at this moment, seemed to show a slight crack.

The Primordial Demon God formed of light and shadow also seemed to sense Sun Wukong's wavering.

She let out a soft sigh.

In that sigh was a trace of lingering sorrow, a trace of helplessness.

Her gaze passed over Sun Wukong and fell on Bodhi, who stood beyond the garden.

"Void."

"You always do this, love to shatter every beautiful thing in the world."

Her voice was no longer purely compassionate; it carried an indescribable, complex emotion.

The Bodhi Patriarch heard this, gave a faint smile, and offered no judgment.

The Primordial Demon God withdrew her gaze and placed it again on Sun Wukong.

She seemed to know that ordinary means could no longer sway the monkey's heart.

She no longer circled around the issue.

"Child, I know why you have come."

Her voice remained gentle, yet added a note of solemnity.

"The final Chaos Core Fragment is right here with me."

The words fell.

She extended the hand of light and shadow, and lightly tapped her own chest.

There.

The light faded, revealing the interior.

A crystal dazzling to the extreme, as if forged from billions of star rivers, was slowly pulsating.

Each pulse emitted endless creative power,

making the vitality of the entire Primordial Garden grow even richer!

That was indeed the final Chaos Core Fragment!

It was also hers...

"Heart."

Sun Wukong's pupils suddenly contracted.

He could feel the power contained within that crystal,

greater and purer than the two pieces he had obtained combined!

"I can give it to you."

The Primordial Demon God looked at Sun Wukong, her eyes filled with maternal radiance and deep reluctance.

That expression seemed like making an extremely difficult, yet unavoidable decision.

"I could even give you the entire Primordial Garden."

"I have only one condition."

Sun Wukong's heartbeat missed a beat.

He instinctively tightened his grip on the Golden Cudgel.

"What condition?"

The Primordial Demon God's voice at that moment was filled with endless, irresistible allure.

"Stay."

"Forever, stay by my side."

"Do not fight any more, do not kill any more. The outside world,

is filled with betrayal and pain; only here is your eternal harbor."

Her voice seemed to carry a magic of Words Follow Law,

each word striking heavily upon Sun Wukong's Dao Heart.

"Here, you are the sole king."

"You will obtain eternal peace and happiness."

Peace!

Happiness!

Those two words pierced Sun Wukong's deepest inner corner, a place he himself rarely touched.

Had his whole life ever known true peace?

From the moment of birth, he fought for survival.

Later, he fought for freedom, for dignity, for his master!

His hands were stained with the blood of gods, Buddhas, demons, and monsters.

His heart had long become as hard as iron in endless battles.

But who knows.

In countless quiet nights, he would feel weary and tired.

He also longed for a place where he could shed all pretenses and defenses and sleep peacefully.

And now.

This place is right before his eyes.

Within arm's reach.

He looked at the kind‑eyed figure before him, whose whole heart seemed to be his "mother."

Then he turned his head to glance at the distant, indifferent, ever‑silent Master.

On one side lay an eternally un‑dying paradise crafted just for him.

On the other, an unknown road still filled with blood‑soaked storms.

He fell into an unprecedented, arduous dilemma.

Damn the battle!

Damn the Chaos Realm!

Stay!

A voice in his heart shouted wildly!

Another voice calmly reminded him.

Sun Wukong, have you forgotten the five hundred years beneath Wǔxíng Shān?

Have you forgotten the eighty‑one trials on Xi Xing Lu?

Have you forgotten that Master shattered Lingxiao for you and fought a bloody war in the Three Realms?

The two voices tore at his mind wildly, a tug‑of‑war!

Making his head ache as if it would split!

"I…"

Sun Wukong's lips moved, trying to say something, but his throat was terribly dry.

The Golden Cudgel in his hand creaked as he gripped it.

His knuckles turned pale from overexertion.

Finally.

He still slowly turned his head.

With an almost pleading gaze, tinged with a hint of bewilderment,

he looked toward the figure who gave him his power and held up a sky for him.

He spoke laboriously, each word stumbling.

His voice was hoarse, full of struggle.

"Master…"

"I…"

"What should I do?"

#Chapter 101: Master's Answer, Shattering This Heaven

Sun Wukong asked this question with extreme difficulty.

He placed all his inner contradictions, struggles, and hopes onto that white‑haired figure.

He hoped Master could give him an answer.

An answer that would end his confusion and pain.

Whether Master tells him to stay or to fight, he will accept it!

The entire Primeval Garden was terrifyingly silent at that moment.

The Primeval Demon God said nothing further, merely watching him silently, its eyes still filled with inescapable love and expectation.

Yao knelt in the distance, her face full of worry as she stared at Sun Wukong, yet dared not utter a sound.

Everyone's gaze focused on the Bodhi Patriarch.

The Bodhi Patriarch's expression remained calm.

He looked at his disciple, and in those deep eyes there was not a ripple.

He did not answer Sun Wukong's question directly.

Instead, he slowly raised his right hand.

That hand was slender and powerful.

It had once overseen enlightenment and once wielded god‑powers that could destroy heaven and earth.

But at this moment, he only performed the simplest action.

He clenched his fist.

Then, toward Sun Wukong's direction, from afar, he launched a punch!

The punch produced no rule‑based ripple.

No divine power manifested.

Not even a trace of Chaos Realm airflow was stirred.

It was just an ordinary, unremarkable punch.

However.

At the instant the punch was thrown, the Primeval Demon God's face, formed of light and shadow, lost all its blood‑red hue!

That loving expression was instantly replaced by endless horror and fear!

"No!"

Emptiness! You dare!

She let out a piercing scream!

She wanted to stop, but discovered that her body, together with the entire Primordial Garden,

were tightly imprisoned by an invisible yet omnipresent 'force'!

Her Source Power, which she prided herself on, enough to rival a Saint King's, was as fragile as paper before this 'force'!

Sun Wukong also froze.

He didn't understand why Master suddenly made a move.

Moreover, he didn't understand who the target of this punch was.

Next second.

He knew the answer.

That invisible 'force' did not act upon his body.

But it acted upon... the entire world before his eyes!

Crack…

A faint sound, like glass shattering, rang in his ears.

He saw.

The garden before his eyes, beautiful to the point of unreality, the verdant immortal herbs,

The ringing Divine Spring, the heaven‑piercing, earth‑linking Tree of Life…

Everything seemed like a mirror gripped by an invisible giant hand.

Starting from the center, a fine crack appeared!

Immediately after.

Crack! Crack crack crack!

The crack, like a spiderweb, spread in an unstoppable manner, wildly extending to every corner of the world!

Perfect paradise.

Shattered!

With the shattering of space, the warm aura that enveloped and intoxicated him vanished instantly without a trace.

In its place came a cold, decaying aura filled with deceit and falsehood!

The scene before his eyes began to violently twist and peel away!

Immortal blossoms turned to withered bones.

The divine spring turned into pus and blood.

The gentle living beings revealed grotesque, agonized faces.

The heaven‑piercing, earth‑linking Tree of Life collapsed with a thunderous crash,

Transforming into a colossal ancient magic god corpse, immense beyond description, yet long devoid of any vital breath!

The so‑called Primordial Garden.

The so‑called Eternal Paradise.

It was fundamentally a massive, lifelike illusion built upon the corpse of a magic god!

An illusion woven from the most perfect dream, the gentlest prison!

Pff—

With the illusion's complete shattering.

The primordial magic god formed of light and shadow let out a Cànjiào, its light rapidly dimming, almost on the verge of dissipating.

Her aura, too, plummeted instantly from unfathomable depths to a level Sun Wukong knew all too well.

Saint King!

Moreover, it was a Saint King grievously wounded, with depleted Source Power!

She was no Creator God at all!

Clearly just a con artist skilled in illusion arts!

Sun Wukong stared blankly at the desolate, death‑filled real scene before his eyes.

His brain crashed again.

This…

What on earth is going on?

Wukong.

Bodhi Patriarch's voice came, slow and distant.

He still stood in the same spot, not even changing his posture.

It was as if the earth‑shattering punch just now hadn't been thrown by him at all.

Master now gives you the answer.

His voice, carrying a hint of a smile, spread throughout this shattered space.

When you don't know how to choose.

Then smash both options to pieces.

Then, walk your own path!