Volume 2: The Path That Can Be Told, Chapter 142: Unforgivable

Wukong felt a pain in his heart, but not much shock. Back in his earlier days when he met Wu Zhiqi, he had heard that the Seven Divine Apes had once been hunted by all the immortals and demons in the world. Wu Zhiqi was captured by Dayu, and it was no surprise that Wukong had been killed by him in his past life.
Seeing Dayu’s face full of remorse, Wukong, for some reason, felt no hatred at all. He smiled and said, “The past is gone; don’t dwell on it. I only hope you’ll tell me everything to resolve the many doubts in my heart.”
Seeing Wukong’s kind expression, Dayu became deeply moved. Then he began to recount a little-known story:
After the creation of heaven and earth and the separation of yin and yang, the Seven Chaos Apes stirred the energies of heaven and earth, causing yin and yang to blend together and giving rise to all things. After more than 20,000 years, the human race emerged.
At that time, yin and yang were newly separated, the five elements were clearly defined, and the creative energies were abundant. Thus, the creatures of that era had pure bloodlines. In ancient times, many divine beings and beasts with extraordinary wisdom and strength appeared.
It should be noted that in this vast world, all living beings have different natures and minds. From then on, conflicts and disputes arose. Wars lasted for years, blood flowed in the wilderness, and human lives were treated as worthless. People waged massacres for petty gains, leaving the common people in great suffering.
The Seven Divine Apes, created by nature and having lived in the world for over 20,000 years, possessed skills far surpassing those of others. Seeing people’s bloodthirst and the suffering of living beings, they abandoned their carefree lives. The Seven Chaos Apes transformed into the Seven Saviors.
At that time, the cultivation of other creatures was slow, and no one could match the Seven Divine Apes in combat. Those who refused to obey them were severely punished. Over time, peace returned to the world, thanks to the Seven Divine Apes.
Another 10,000 years passed. The Seven Divine Apes thought the world was now stable. Though they were highly skilled, they were naive. How could they know that human hearts were as unfathomable as needles at the bottom of the sea?
Many people, having been under the rule of the Seven Divine Apes for years, had already begun to rebel and sought to take their place. But at that time, the Seven Divine Apes were worshipped by all, and many even regarded them as the ancestors of humanity and the gods of all things. With such supreme status, who would dare to act rashly?
Human hearts are infinitely cunning. At some point, a rumor spread throughout the world: the world prospered because of the Seven Divine Apes, but it would also perish because of them.
This statement didn’t sound entirely heretical, but it concealed a deadly intent: if heaven and earth were to endure forever, the Seven Divine Apes must first be eliminated!
At first, no one believed such a fabricated claim. But as the saying goes, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” Often, people preferred to believe it was true rather than assume it was false.

This rumor persisted for four or five thousand years, and by then, almost everyone believed that the Mischievous Divine Ape was actually the World-Destroying Divine Ape! Some factions then began to plot to capture all seven Divine Apes at once. It’s unclear who first harbored murderous intent, but everyone rushed to join in, forgetting the benefits brought by the seven Divine Apes and disregarding everything for immortality.

After more than ten thousand years, the once weak humans, beasts, and birds had many who had attained the status of celestial immortals or even Supreme Golden Immortals. If they united to attack, no matter how powerful the seven Divine Apes were, how could they possibly resist the entire world?

This campaign of extermination lasted for a thousand years. No one expected the seven Divine Apes to possess such formidable innate powers. The battle was even more brutal than wars among humans, truly a calamity for all immortals and demons in the world. In the end, less than one in ten cultivators remained before the seven Divine Apes were finally wiped out.

Hou Kong interjected upon hearing this, “What are my innate powers?”

Dayu was taken aback and replied, “To be honest, I hadn’t been born yet at that time. I only heard these stories from our ancestors; I have no idea about your innate powers.” Hou Kong looked slightly disappointed and waved his hand for Dayu to continue.

After the seven Divine Apes disappeared from the world, the first thing people did was to destroy all statues of the Divine Apes and burn any books or images related to them. From then on, it was forbidden to mention the seven Divine Apes at all, to avoid bringing unnecessary disaster.

Hou Kong felt a chill in his heart upon hearing this. He wasn’t some naive child—he had come from a later era. Listening to Dayu describe this process, how similar it was to many events in his own time! As the saying goes, “It’s easier to control the mouths of the people than to control rivers.” But if the people knew nothing, there was no need to control them at all.

Spreading rumors, launching attacks, and silencing voices—what a clever scheme! If there wasn’t a force behind it, no one would believe it. But who was the mastermind behind this?

Seeing Hou Kong deep in thought, Dayu also stopped. He exchanged a worried glance with Chi Songzi, fearing Hou Kong might get angry. To their surprise, Hou Kong smiled and said, “Good strategy. I would have done the same. But these people have cruel hearts, using the Divine Apes as bait to lure everyone into a trap—a truly clever two-pronged approach.”

Hearing Hou Kong’s words, Dayu was stunned speechless. After a long while, he said, “If someone had been as perceptive as the Presentwise Divine Ape back then, such a grave mistake wouldn’t have been made.”

Hou Kong asked, “Do you know who’s behind this?”

Chi Songzi said, “I only saw that man once, from a great distance. My cultivation was still weak at the time, but I could faintly tell that his true form seemed to be that of some kind of dragon.”
Dayu replied, “I was born later, so I haven’t seen him either.”
Wukong nodded and said, “Well then, tell us what happened next.”
Once the Seven Divine Apes were gone, the world fell into chaos once more, with continuous wars over unknown causes—thrones, power, land… When a person dies, everything is lost.
Until one year, when a monkey rose to power, gathering many demons under his command and vowing to avenge the Seven Divine Apes. At first, no one paid attention, but when he grew stronger, it was discovered that this monkey was the Wind-Transporting Divine Ape among the Seven.
When the news spread, people were terrified—turns out the Seven Divine Apes were immortal! Then the Water-Raising Divine Ape, the Arm-Extending Divine Ape… one after another appeared in the world.
It was then that rumors arose, claiming the Seven Divine Apes could only be revived three times; after being killed three times, they would vanish forever. So, warriors from all over gathered to exterminate the divine apes once more. In these battles, it was found that the Seven Divine Apes were far less powerful than before. Immortals and demons easily killed them again and again.
With the second attempt, there was naturally a third, then a fourth… The Seven Divine Apes truly were immortal. No matter how many times they were killed, they could instantly reincarnate and gradually regain their strength, though each time weaker, unknown what they had lost in the process of killing.
I participated in the fourth battle to exterminate the divine apes, along with Chi Songzi, Ru Shou, Hou Yi, Ju Mang, Zhu Rong, Gong Gong… That time, I personally killed the Spirit-Luminous Divine Ape and trapped Wu Zhi Qi in an underground fire-oil cave using my Ruyi Lock-Demon Technique, instructing my descendants to watch over him. People say it was Dayu who controlled the floods, but in truth, floods were just a minor issue. They arose because we pursued the Water-Raising Divine Ape, who used his water-control powers while fleeing. To justify our actions, we had to claim we were controlling the floods.
After that, for a very long time, the Seven Chaos Apes never appeared again. Everyone thought the Seven Divine Apes had truly disappeared, but I secretly felt they would rise again.
And then, disaster struck.
The ancient gods and beasts who had killed the Seven Divine Apes the first time lost all their cultivation for no reason, their lifespans gradually fading. Within a few years, they became ordinary people and slowly died in helplessness. His name was Tai Hao.
Soon after, Yao died, followed by Chi You, Di Jun, Xing Tian, Ying Long… No matter how powerful a person was, if they had ever killed the Seven Divine Apes, they could not escape this fate.
Later, we realized that those who defy fate will be abandoned by fate itself.

What to do? It’s our turn now. Looking around the world, there’s nowhere for us to escape! At that moment, the Water God Gonggong said he had seen the Kunpeng in the Northern Sea. He told the Kunpeng about our situation, and the Kunpeng agreed to help us. So we left behind thousands of our people and vast lands, heading to the Northern Sea just to survive. The Kunpeng said he saw that we were all outstanding individuals and was willing to help us, as long as we entered his belly and never came out again, we would survive. However, we had to do our best to create a world for him inside his belly to relieve his loneliness. With no other choice, we agreed. Little did we know, Gonggong somehow had a dispute with Zhuanxu, and the two fought in the Northern Sea for a whole month. As the fight went on, Gonggong grew weaker and was defeated by Zhuanxu. In his anger, he rushed northwest, hitting something unknown, causing the sky there to collapse, and he died from a broken neck. Zhuanxu also exhausted his magical power in the battle. He took Gonggong’s head back, but he too could no longer withstand the forces at play. Facing the Kunpeng’s huge mouth, he was powerless to enter and died outside. The Kunpeng swallowed Gonggong’s head, and I handed the head to Gonggong’s wife, Zhurong, to keep. Whenever we missed that world, we would go to Zhurong to pay tribute to Gonggong, for he held the soil from that place in his mouth. Since we entered early and remained unharmed, we created a world here. Whenever the Kunpeng saw rare birds and animals, he would swallow them, and gradually, the population here grew. At first, we didn’t understand why we were safe here, but later we realized that the Kunpeng was also a creation of fate. Only a being of fate could protect the essence within us from dispersing. If we left the Kunpeng’s belly, in just a few years, we would suffer the same fate as Shaohao, Chiyou, and others, powerless to stop death from approaching. The Kunpeng told us that there was only one way to leave: wait for the Seven Divine Apes to arrive. Just one drop of their essence in our bodies would save our lives. In fact, the Kunpeng’s essence had the same effect, but he said that in the face of the weak, everyone has the power to life or death, but this power must not be abused, otherwise, retribution will surely follow! Dayu finished telling these secrets from tens of thousands of years ago in a sad tone. With his cultivation level, he was somewhat exhausted, sweating profusely and barely able to stand, showing how deeply these burdens weighed on him. After listening, Wukong nodded and said expressionlessly, “Good, good, good!”

Seeing Wukong’s displeased expression, Chi Songzi stepped forward and said, “I was also involved in those past events. Now that the person involved has arrived, let them be killed or tortured as they wish. I, Chi Songzi, won’t even frown. It’s just that we were exploited by others. Alas, I truly resist it!” Wukong sneered and said, “The fault isn’t yours; it lies in selfishness! Those despicable villains behind this have resorted to such a heinous scheme that shocks both humans and gods, ignoring all living beings. I must tear you to pieces!”