As a father, I just want to quietly watch you live a long life Chapter 1757 - 457: The Monkey Who Defies All Rules Within the Heart, Gathering the Final Qitian Mask
Previously on As a father, I just want to quietly watch you live a long life...
"Brother, did you secretly consume every single flat peach in the garden? Surely, you haven't taken on a task like that, have you?"
Yet, Li Che's face twisted into a strange look as he answered.
"I have."
Sincerely, with utter certainty.
Nearly posing with hands akimbo and chest puffed out just like Xi Xi, bold and unapologetic.
The Monkey King erupted in laughter, convinced beyond doubt that Li Che had truly sneaked those peaches.
His guffaws echoed up to the skies, and the Monkey King yanked off his official hat, hurled it down, and crushed it underfoot: "If holding this position fails to shield my monkeys and kin, and just brings needless shame, then this minor post is better abandoned!"
Chuckling wildly, the Monkey King departed from the Heavenly Que and headed back to his demonic abode.
Li Che trailed after him silently without pause, or more precisely, the Temple God Resonance guided him to persist in the pursuit.
He witnessed the Monkey King facing judgment from the Heavenly Court, and in rage, he smashed the accusing Heavenly God with his staff.
In a daze, Li Che appeared to recall the time he and Xi Xi slew an Imperial Official in the Divine Capital...
Those moments blended together.
The Monkey King acted for his monkeys and descendants, while Li Che... acted for his daughter.
It felt like a wild monkey dwelled in the hearts of them both!
Buzzing...
Within his arm, the Heart-following Gold Iron Divine Rod shook without stop.
Li Che's heart quivered faintly, enveloped by endless enigmatic mists.
Then the vision changed.
He beheld the Monkey King confronting a colossal Golden Great Buddha, spanning the heavens, boundless in stature, as if merged seamlessly with the cosmos.
The Monkey King's Golden Armor cracked apart, but his rebellion endured.
Observing this, Li Che experienced a strangely recognizable feeling.
He barely stirred, but the Temple God Resonance around him was evidently surging upward swiftly.
It appeared...
A connection within him had long echoed the Monkey King's deeds.
He, like the Monkey King, had rebelled fiercely, stood firm, and battled formidable foes.
However...
The Monkey King's rebellion, his resolve, his safeguarding, served the monkeys of Huaguo Mountain.
For Li Che, it was all for his daughter, for his loved ones.
Yet the identical resolve, the shared spirit...
Maybe, this forms the perfect bond.
In his right grip, the Heart-following Gold Iron Divine Rod quivered nonstop, with enigmatic mists pouring out without end.
Across Li Che's features, a flash of realization appeared.
"Thus, from the beginning, I've been performing Temple God Resonance, whether in Golden Light Prefecture City, in Dao City, in the Divine Capital... all my deeds have aligned with the Temple God."
"Therefore, my bond with Equaling Heaven began much earlier..."
Li Che let out a soft chuckle.
Abruptly, the grin on Li Che's countenance started to dim gradually.
Enigmatic mists billowed, the vision altered.
The Monkey King fell in defeat, pinned under the mountain, and to save his monkeys and kin, he struck a deal with the Buddhist Sect, aiding a reborn monk on the westward quest...
During the journey, this ex-Demon Saint Monkey King eliminated numerous known Demon Saints, carving a path stained with blood.
Yet the Monkey King's spirit dulled more and more.
Upon victory, a constricting hoop aglow with Buddha's radiance crowned the Monkey King's head, stripping away his free-spirited majesty from his face.
The kasaya billowed, the form crowned with the hoop resembled a monk perched on a barren summit.
That was Huaguo Mountain, reduced to cinders, wreckage, charred ground, with dark fumes coiling like a Jiao Long.
Shattered remnants of a Spirit Stone littered the earth, gleaming with rainbow hues.
But the Buddha's compassionate light swept by, fading the Spirit Stone's vibrant colors, as though all vitality had ebbed away.
Much like the Monkey King now.
He perched on the barren peak, clutching a stone stripped of its spiritual shine.
From this stone he was born, the stone granted him life, and now that life had faded...
Gazing at the mountain's burned wasteland.
The monkeys and kin he once defended and bargained for, now turned to mere ashes.
He parted his lips, attempting a roar, yet not a single tear could form.
He slumped desolately on the summit, his posture slowly hunching over.
"Are you a Buddha?"
"To safeguard what's in your heart, would you consent to becoming a Buddha?"
Raspy utterances arose, a steady tone issued from the Monkey King's lips.
The bond halted right then, unable to advance further.
As though awaiting Li Che's response.
A choice between life and death.
Should Li Che reply wrongly, the bond would dissolve at once.
If Li Che replied rightly, the bond would surge onward, fulfilling the complete Temple God Resonance.
Li Che touched the Divine Monkey Mask upon his visage.
The mask lay fractured, in three fragments, with two now gathered.
Heeding the Monkey King turned Buddha, serene and no longer challenging with wild abandon.
He drew in a slow breath.
Li Che stated evenly, "I am not a Buddha."
"Even if to shield my daughter I must yield, but my daughter... she would prefer her father as a mighty hero, riding rainbow clouds to sweep away every hurdle for her, over a Buddha yielding to harsh truths, pretending it's for her sake while feeling nothing for her."
"Hence, I refuse to become a Buddha."
Li Che lifted his palm, and the Dream Master’s Dao Fruit pulsed within his torso.
In his grasp, it looked as if rainbow lights wove together, gradually forming a scroll like a dream realm.
Inside the scroll stood Xi Xi.
Every image featured Xi Xi, Li Che's beloved daughter.
Each instant showed Xi Xi beaming proudly at her father.
The Monkey King stared blankly, watching that lively young girl, reminiscent of the monkeys and offspring who once frolicked and shouted for him across the peaks.
The peaks lay wasted, scarred by fire.
"Your daughter looks truly adorable," the Monkey King remarked.
Li Che offered a faint smile, "I agree, thanks."
Every lad harbors an Equaling Heaven within; wild and free in youth, but with years passing, family forming, wife and child arriving, he tames the Equaling Heaven inside, muffling it, curbing the wildness.
Yet Equaling Heaven muffled doesn't equate to gone.
It's akin to a fierce blaze.
As long as it endures, that Equaling Heaven who once wrecked the Southern Heavens, toppled the Immortal Furnace, trod the clouds, lives on eternally!
Someday, it shall blaze back in rebellious fury!
Each person grasps Equaling Heaven differently, and this marks Li Che’s grasp of Equaling Heaven.
The Monkey King rested at the mountain's crest, as if grasping a truth, he lifted his hand to his chest, a quiet chuckle slipped out.
"Thanks, young brother."
"I failed them once, but I won't fail them anew..."
"Time to come back."
Thud, thud, thud—
A powerful heartbeat resounded, like an ancient forge in shadows suddenly roaring to life with flames fierce enough to scorch lands and seethe oceans!
In the instant that followed, he tilted back his head in laughter, dark clouds churned across the firmament.
As if rent apart by his booming mirth!
Woosh, woosh, woosh, woosh—
Enigmatic mists ballooned suddenly, like a gale ravaging everything nearby.
Clang, clang...
The clamor of chains rattling nonstop came from the Inner City, as if a mighty fearsome being started thrashing wildly, seeking to snap the bonds, break free from bonds, and return unbound!
With the world-shaking laughter, that shrill cackle ripped the heavens, shattered cloud barriers.
The whole of Qi Tian City quaked violently!
Three hundred zhang distant.
Lv Taibai, Fang Hanshu, and the rest jolted in shock, staring with bulging eyes.
"Temple God awakening!"
"Has the Temple God Resonance outcome arrived?!"
"This fast?!"
A peculiar glint flickered in Fang Hanshu’s gaze.
He fixed his stare on the enigmatic mists cloaking the three hundred zhang path, spotting the Divine Monkey's silhouette now looming at the Qi Tian Inner City gateway.
But no chance to ponder.
Fang Hanshu got pulled toward something else.
He looked up at the Qi Tian Inner City ramparts.
And beheld, myriad enigmatic mists, as if savagely cleaved by a horrifying great blade, divided cleanly.
Enigmatic mists dispersed fully, and then, upon the city wall, a dark stone column there quivered lightly, gradually, its charred shell cracked and flaked off.
Once shed, brilliant golden radiance exploded from the core.
A renewing blaze ignited to flare!
Lv Taibai, Fang Hanshu, Lv Qiankun, and fellow failed Temple God Resonance seekers could only watch from three hundred zhang away; the various Divine Tribulation Cultivators inhaled sharply.
"That's..."
"Qitian Temple God Weapon!"
"Hunyuan Ruyi Golden Cudgel!"
...
...
Li Che's eyes snapped open; he hefted the Heart-following Gold Iron Divine Rod on his shoulder, positioned before the ebony portal.
That marked the Qi Tian Inner City entry.
Temple God Resonance spanning three hundred zhang, he had reached the conclusion.
Still, Li Che remained motionless.
For...
Ahead of him, a fractured mask hovered, casting a soft luminescence.
That was...
The final Equal to Heaven’s Face!