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

“Brother, did you ever sneak and devour every single flat peach from the garden? You definitely haven’t done this task, right?”

Yet Li Che’s face took on a strange look as he answered.

“I did.”

With utter sincerity and boldness.

Nearly posing with hands akimbo and chest puffed like Xi Xi, righteous but shameless.

The Monkey King erupted in guffaws, convinced beyond doubt that Li Che had truly pilfered them in secret.

His chuckles echoed up to the skies, as the Monkey King yanked off his hat, hurled it down, and crushed it underfoot: “If holding office fails to shield my monkey kin and offspring, bringing only pointless shame, then this minor post of no worth is best discarded!”

Roaring with mirth, the Monkey King departed the Heavenly Que and headed back to his demonic abode.

Li Che trailed after him in silence, or more precisely, the Temple God Resonance guided him onward.

He witnessed the Monkey King summoned for judgment by the Heavenly Court, and in rage, smashing the accusing Heavenly Deity with his staff.

In a daze, Li Che appeared to recall slaying an Imperial Official alongside Xi Xi in the Divine Capital...

Those moments blended together.

For the Monkey King, it was to safeguard his monkeys and young ones, while for Li Che... it was all for his child.

As though a wild monkey lurked in the depths of their souls!

Buzzing...

Within his grasp, the Heart-following Gold Iron Divine Rod quivered without stop.

Li Che’s spirit quaked faintly, enveloped by layers of enigmatic mists.

Abruptly, the vision changed.

There appeared the Monkey King confronting a colossal Golden Buddha, spanning the heavens, boundless in stature, merged seamlessly with the cosmos.

Though his Golden Armor cracked apart, the Monkey King stood unbowed.

Observing this, Li Che sensed a strange sense of recognition.

Though he barely stirred, the Temple God Resonance enveloping him surged ahead swiftly.

It appears...

Deep within, a harmony had already formed, echoing the Monkey King’s deeds.

Like him, Li Che had rebelled boldly, stood firm, and battled formidable foes.

Merely...

The Monkey King’s rebellion, his resolve, his guarding, served the monkeys upon Huaguo Mountain.

In contrast, Li Che’s was devoted to his daughter, to his kin.

Yet the identical resolve, the shared spirit...

It might just be the perfect attunement.

From his right palm, the Heart-following Gold Iron Divine Rod shook relentlessly, as ethereal mists poured out without end.

Across Li Che’s features, realization dawned abruptly.

“Thus, from the start, I’ve been pursuing Temple God Resonance—in Golden Light Prefecture City, in Dao City, in the Divine Capital... every deed of mine aligning with the Temple God.”

“Thus, my bond with Equaling Heaven began long ago...”

Li Che let out a soft laugh.

All at once, the grin on Li Che’s countenance started to diminish gradually.

Ethereal mists billowed, the vision altered.

Defeated, the Monkey King was pinned under the peak; to save his monkeys and young, he struck a pact with the Buddhist Sect, aiding a reborn monk on the journey west...

During that trek, the once Demon Saint Monkey King slew numerous known Demon Saints, carving a trail stained with gore.

Yet the Monkey King’s soul turned ever more desensitized.

Upon triumph, a constricting circlet aglow with Buddha’s radiance crowned the Monkey King’s brow, stripping his visage of its wild splendor.

Robes billowing, the form bearing the circlet posed as a monk upon a barren summit.

This was Huaguo Mountain, reduced to cinders, wreckage, barren soil, with dark fumes coiling like a mighty dragon.

Fragments of a fractured Spirit Stone littered the earth, gleaming in rainbow hues.

However, the Buddha’s compassionate rays swept by, fading the Spirit Stone’s vivid colors, as though stripped of all shine.

Much like the Monkey King now.

Perched upon the barren crest, he clutched a rock bereft of its vital essence.

From this rock he sprang, the rock granted him life, and now that life had ebbed away...

Staring at the charred slopes.

The monkey kin he once shielded and bargained for, now mere ashes in the wind.

His jaws parted, attempting a faint howl, yet not a drop of sorrow fell.

Withered upon the height, his form slumped lower over time.

“Do you count as a Buddha?”

“For safeguarding what lies within your soul, would you consent to becoming a Buddha?”

Raspy wails arose, yet a steady tone issued from the Monkey King’s lips.

At that instant, the attunement halted, refusing to advance.

As though anticipating Li Che’s reply.

A choice binding fate and demise.

Should Li Che err in his words, the attunement would dissolve at once.

Should he speak true, the attunement would surge forth, fulfilling the complete Temple God Resonance.

Li Che touched the Divine Monkey Mask upon his visage.

Shattered into three shards, the mask; he had gathered two thus far.

Heeding the Monkey King, now enlightened as a Buddha, serene and devoid of wild defiance.

He drew in a slow breath.

Li Che stated evenly, “I am no Buddha.”

“Though to shield my daughter I might yield at times, my daughter... she longs only for her father to be a mighty champion, riding rainbow clouds to sweep away all hurdles for her, not some Buddha bending to harsh truths, cloaking concessions as benevolence while feeling nothing for her.”

“Hence, I refuse to become a Buddha.”

Li Che lifted his arm, the Dream Master’s Dao Fruit pulsing within his torso.

In his grip, vibrant lights wove together, gradually shaping into an image akin to a reverie.

Inside the image stood Xi Xi.

Scene after scene featured Xi Xi, Li Che’s beloved daughter.

Moment by moment showed Xi Xi beaming with joy at her father’s feats.

The Monkey King stared blankly, beholding that lively young girl frolicking, reminiscent of the monkey folk who once bounded and whooped in delight across his peaks.

The peaks lay wasted, soils charred in swathes.

“Your girl is truly adorable,” remarked the Monkey King.

Li Che offered a faint smile, “I agree, thanks.”

In every lad beats an Equaling Heaven; wild and free in youth, but with years passing, family forming—wife and child—he tames that inner Equaling Heaven, letting it quiet, no longer rampant.

Yet a silenced Equaling Heaven endures, never gone.

Akin to a fierce blaze.

So long as the flame endures, that Equaling Heaven who toppled the Southern Skies, overturned the Immortal Forge, strode the mists, lives on eternally!

Someday, it shall blaze anew in rebellious glory!

Each person grasps Equaling Heaven differently; this forms Li Che’s grasp of Equaling Heaven.

Atop the mountain’s summit sat the Monkey King, as if grasping anew, lifting his palm to his chest, a soft chuckle slipping free.

“Thanks, young brother.”

“I failed them once, but I won’t fail them anew...”

“Time to come back.”

Thud, thud, thud—

A grand heartbeat thundered forth, resembling an ancient forge in shadow suddenly roaring to life with fearsome fires capable of scorching lands and seething oceans!

The instant after, he tilted his head skyward in laughter, dark vapors churning above.

As though rent asunder by his booming mirth!

Woosh, woosh, woosh, woosh—

Ethereal mists expanded fiercely, resembling a gale ravaging everything nearby.

Clang, clang...

Rattling chains resounded from the Inner City depths, as if a mighty dread being commenced fierce struggles, aiming to snap the bonds, break free from bonds, return unbound!

Amid the world-rending chuckles, that sharp merriment appeared to rip the firmament, shatter the cloud barriers.

All of Qi Tian City quaked violently!

At three hundred zhang’s distance.

Lv Taibai, Fang Hanshu, and their group recoiled in shock, eyes bulging wide.

“The Temple God awakens!”

“Has the Temple God Resonance’s outcome arrived?!”

“This fast?!”

A peculiar gleam sparked in Fang Hanshu’s gaze.

He fixed his stare on the mist-shrouded path three hundred zhang long, noting the Divine Monkey’s silhouette had silently emerged at the Qi Tian Inner City’s gateway.

But no chance to ponder.

Other sights pulled Fang Hanshu’s focus.

He looked up to the Qi Tian Inner City’s ramparts.

And beheld innumerable ethereal mists, as if savagely cleaved by a horrifying blade, divided clean through.

Mists dispersed completely, and then, upon the parapet, a dark rock column quivered subtly; gradually, its charred shell flaked off with snapping noises.

Once shed, brilliant golden radiance exploded from inside.

A resurgence of flames ignited fiercely!

Lv Taibai, Fang Hanshu, Lv Qiankun, and those who faltered in Temple God Resonance watched intently from afar at three hundred zhang; the host of Divine Tribulation Cultivators inhaled sharply.

“That’s...”

“The Qitian Temple God’s artifact!”

“Hunyuan Ruyi Golden Cudgel!”

...

...

Li Che’s eyes snapped open; he slung the Heart-following Gold Iron Divine Rod over his shoulder, positioned at the ebony portal.

That marked the Qi Tian Inner City’s threshold.

Through the Temple God Resonance of 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!