Indeed.
Sun Wukong understood Zhao Gongming's intention.
That seemingly thunderous binding had actually given Sun Wukong a way out.
A way to account for himself before Jieyin and Zhunti later.
He had been suppressed.
Willing, but powerless!
Those words were the best shield.
Even if the Buddhist School's two sages called him to account later, Sun Wukong could tell them frankly.
It was not that he refused to protect Sanzang, but that he could not.
All eight personal disciples of the Interception Sect had arrived, and Zhao Gongming had suppressed him with the Dragon Binding Rope, an Innate Spiritual Treasure. Even exhausting all the power of his Chaos Ape origin, he could not break free. How could he possibly protect Sanzang?
Besides, that was indeed the truth.
He truly could not defeat them.
There was nothing shameful about it. The disparity was real, so vast that even Jieyin and Zhunti could find no fault with him once they learned of it.
At that thought, the great stone weighing on Sun Wukong's heart, crushing the breath out of him, finally shifted a little.
He lowered his golden eyes and stopped struggling, allowing the Dragon Binding Rope to bind him tightly.
Only in the instant before he closed his eyes did his gaze stray involuntarily past Zhao Gongming's shoulder, settling on the figure slumped on the ground in the distance, his face ashen.
Sanzang.
The monk whose path he nominally guarded, but whom he actually wished to keep as far away from as possible.
Sanzang was trembling from head to toe. The face that had worn a gentle, compassionate smile moments earlier had already twisted into a knot, filled with disbelief and terror.
Sun Wukong glanced at him.
That glance held no resentment, no anger, and not even much sympathy.
Only an