Tang Monk crawled on his knees to Sun Wukong's side and gripped his hand tightly.
"Wukong, you are the Great Sage Equaling Heaven. You should have been free and unfettered on Flower-Fruit Mountain. It was me—this old monk with mortal eyes and a mortal body—who dragged you down. If you had not been protecting me, how could you have suffered such humiliation? How could that damned Soul-Suppressing Seal have injured you so badly?"
Tang Monk turned to look at Chu Yang again.
"Benefactor Chu, you were originally a wandering cultivator beyond the worldly realm, with cultivation capable of shaking heaven and earth. You saved this poor monk from danger time and again, yet I always used those pedantic precepts to criticize you. Now this poor monk sees clearly: these gods and Buddhas filling the heavens are not worthy of our kneeling worship!"
Tang Monk rose to his feet. Though his body was weak, his back stood straight. He pointed at the pitch-black night beyond the cave entrance.
"When dawn comes, we will head back! Even if we have to walk all the way back to Chang'an, even if we must face His Majesty the Tang Emperor's thunderous wrath afterward, even if we are convicted of deceiving the sovereign and beheaded before the public, this poor monk accepts it! I would rather become a wisp of the dead beneath Great Tang's blade than be an obedient dog at the steps of Mount Ling!"
An exceedingly strange silence fell over the cave.
Only the wind outside and Sun Wukong's heavy breathing, made ragged by shock, could be heard.
Sun Wukong stared blankly at Tang Monk. A profoundly complicated light suddenly flickered in his dim eyes. There was shock, there was emotion, and there was also a trace of deep helplessness. He knew