Outside the Qingyi Chaos World.
The Victorious Fighting Buddha sat cross-legged. His face was hairy, his mouth jutting like the Thunder God's, yet he looked utterly serene, with kindly brows and gentle eyes.
There was not a trace of defiance, nor the slightest swagger.
Still less was there any of that peerless grandeur that dared battle heaven and earth and drag the Jade Emperor from his throne!
He was like a Buddha in a temple, his heart as still as an ancient well, quietly watching the mortal world.
Li Yue recalled the unruly Great Sage Equaling Heaven he had seen before, clad in golden chain mail, his whole body blazing with golden radiance, his fighting spirit reaching through heaven and earth. Emotion welled up within him.
He did not know—
Whether the Great Sage Equaling Heaven was stronger.
Or the Victorious Fighting Buddha was stronger.
But he understood one thing.
The Great Sage Equaling Heaven was what Sun Wukong's true nature should have been.
Without that defiance, without that fighting spirit, was he still the Sun Wukong who dared punch a hole through the heavens?
But this might involve the schemes of some of the Pangu Dimension's most exalted beings. He had no basis on which to judge.
In fact—
He felt that it might even be connected to the earth-shattering secret hidden within Sun Wukong!
His transformation into the Victorious Fighting Buddha might have been due to his terrifying origins.
After all—
At least three others in history had known that earth-shattering secret.
Who were those three?
Sun Wukong's transformation into a Buddha might have been the work of one of those three, or even several of them acting together!
They had suppressed his true nature.
And turned him into a Buddha.
There might have been a profound purpose