415: A future filled with utter despair!

"What do you want me to do?" Monkey King asked after a moment of silence, looking up.

"Follow your heart, assault Spirit Mountain, and cause a ruckus in the Mahavira Hall."

"Assault Spirit Mountain? Cause a ruckus in the Mahavira Hall?" Monkey King covered his forehead with his hand, then threw his head back and laughed wildly:

"Hahahahaha, hahahahaha, so that's it, so that's it!

Both the Heavenly Court and Spirit Mountain are just playing with monkeys!"

"The only difference is whether it's one person or two people playing!"

"Playing with monkeys... hahahaha... so Old Sun struggled for five hundred years, saw through Reincarnation, and in the end, merely changed stages, from being played by Tathagata to being played by you two..."

His laughter gradually died down.

He slowly lowered the hand covering his forehead. His Fiery Eyes of Truth, which had once burned with raging flames, were now dim and lifeless, as if all his essence and spirit had been drained away.

He did not look at the Jade Emperor, nor at Lu Jiuyuan, but stared blankly at the faint, all-encompassing golden giant palm illusion in the Void Realm.

"Old Sun... always thought that as long as I was strong enough, as long as I dared to fight, I could break this damned fate..."

Monkey King's voice was very soft, carrying an unprecedented weariness: "I caused trouble in the Heavenly Palace because I felt the Heavenly Court was unfair; I was suppressed under the mountain because my skills were inferior, and I accepted that;

Journey to the West... even with the golden fillet, I still thought that with the road beneath my feet, I could always forge a different Dao..."

He lowered his head, looking at his furry palms, hands that had once gripped the golden-hooped rod, stirred the Four Seas, and pierced through the Heavenly Court.

"But it turns out... from beginning to end, everything about me, my anger, my rebellion, my compromise... even my perceived 'Awakening'... were nothing more than... lines written in a script?

A play... watched by a pair of eyes from above that palm?"

"Becoming king in Water Curtain Cave was a play... causing trouble in the Heavenly Palace was a play... being suppressed under Five Fingers Mountain was a play... the Journey to the West was a play... even my despair right now... is it also part of the play?"

He suddenly lifted his head, looking at the Jade Emperor, his eyes filled with an unresolvable sorrow and a madness on the verge of collapse:

"Tell Old Sun! What is real? My existence, my memories, my emotions... which of these truly belongs to Old Sun?"

The Jade Emperor watched him in silence, the smile long gone from his face.

And this silence was like a cold file, harshly scraping against Monkey King's heart.

"Heh... hehe..." Monkey King let out a low laugh, his shoulders subtly shaking. He no longer pressed for answers, but slowly, extremely slowly, placed the golden-hooped rod, which he had been clutching tightly, onto the ground.

"Clang."

A soft sound, yet it seemed particularly harsh in the dead silent hall.

The rod that had accompanied him throughout his battles, symbolizing his indomitable will, now seemed so heavy, so... meaningless.

"Old Sun thought that by escaping the Five Elements and the Three Realms, I could be free and unfettered..."

"Old Sun thought that by storming the Lingxiao Palace and crushing Spirit Mountain, I could gain a breath of freedom..."

"But now I know, from beginning to end, I've been within this palm, and even this 'thought,' this 'struggle,' were prearranged..."

His voice grew softer and softer, filled with weariness. He turned around, his back to the Jade Emperor and Lu Jiuyuan, and walked step by step towards the empty main door of the Hall of Miraculous Mist.

His steps were somewhat unsteady, and his once upright, pine-like figure now seemed a little hunched, filled with an indescribable desolation.

"I'm tired..." he murmured, his voice so faint it was almost inaudible, "Old Sun... is truly tired..."

"Fought for over five hundred years, struggled for over five hundred years... turns out, I was just fighting myself..."

His figure paused at the palace entrance, not looking back, only leaving behind one last sentence, as if all his strength had been exhausted:

"This monkey... whoever wants to play with it, go ahead..."

"Old Sun... won't be accompanying you."

As his voice fell, he stepped out of the palace door, his figure merging into the sea of clouds and immortal light outside, vanishing in an instant.

There was no angry roar, no desperate scream, only a tranquility that followed the death of his heart, a complete despair that had given up even struggling.

Inside the Lingxiao Palace, only Lu Jiuyuan and the Jade Emperor remained, along with the solitary golden-hooped rod on the ground.

Lu Jiuyuan looked in the direction where Monkey King had disappeared, a mix of emotions in his heart.

The Jade Emperor sighed softly, bent down, and picked up the golden-hooped rod from the ground, stroking its cold shaft.

"Do you see?"

He spoke to the empty palace door, as if to Lu Jiuyuan, and yet also to himself,

"This is... the cruelest punishment. Not destroying his Physical Body, but crushing his... spirit, turning him into a walking corpse."

Lu Jiuyuan looked in the direction where Monkey King had disappeared. The desolation and stillness in that retreating figure weighed on his heart like a giant stone.

There was an unspeakable oppression.

"Where will he go now?" Lu Jiuyuan asked.

"Where else could he go?"

The Jade Emperor looked towards the mortal world, his gaze seemingly piercing through layers of space: "A monkey with a dead heart, an 'actor' who has given up all resistance, will only return to his original stage."

...Flower-Fruit Mountain, Water Curtain Cave.

The former liveliness and bustle were long gone, replaced by desolation and stillness.

The monkey subjects were nowhere to be found.

Monkey King's figure appeared before the Water Curtain Cave.

He did not look at the cascading waterfall, nor did he enter the cave where he had once reigned as king.

He simply walked silently to the highest rock on Flower-Fruit Mountain, the place where he often sat, gazing at the sea and dreaming of the future.

He slowly sat down, hugged his knees, and buried his head deeply into his arms.

He did not use his magic to resist, allowing the cold mountain wind to ruffle his fur, allowing tiny dust motes to settle on him.

He just sat there, motionless.

Like a stone sculpture that had lost all its Soul.

In his mind, scenes from the past surged uncontrollably.

The longing and hope when he went to sea to seek immortals... the diligence and anticipation during his studies at Mount Fangcun... the dashing spirit when he seized treasures from the Dragon Palace... the recklessness when he performed Gou Hun in the Underworld... the soaring ambition when he first raised the banner of "Great Sage, Equal to Heaven"... the cunning and joy when he stole immortal peaches in the Peach Garden... the exhilaration of battling a hundred thousand heavenly soldiers and generals... the anger and unwillingness when he was captured... the pain and torment when his Fiery Eyes of Truth were forged in the Eight Trigrams Furnace... the loneliness and resentment of being suppressed under Five Fingers Mountain for five hundred years... the confusion and compromise when he met Tang Monk, wore the golden fillet, and embarked on the westward journey... along the way, subduing demons and devils, bickering with Bajie, traveling with Sha Seng... finally being conferred the title of Victorious Fighting Buddha, seemingly achieving Perfection, but in reality, hollow... and... those occasional flashes of recollection and confusion about his past free days, in the quiet nights beside ancient lamps and Buddhas... until... the appearance of Lu Jiuyuan, an anomaly, like a stone thrown into stagnant water, allowing him to glimpse that despair-inducing "truth"... all the images finally froze in the Lingxiao Palace, on the all-encompassing giant palm displayed by the Jade Emperor, and that sentence:

"Everything is predetermined; which one is not within his palm?"

It turned out that all his joys and sorrows, all his struggles and compromises, all his glory and humiliation... were merely pre-set, watched dramas.

Everything about him was meaningless.

A bone-deep chill, more intense than being crushed by Five Elements Mountain, more painful than being scorched by the Eight Trigrams Furnace, thoroughly froze his heart and his Soul.

He couldn't even muster an ounce of anger, because anger also requires strength, requires believing that one's emotions have value.

And now, he even felt his own emotions were fake.