Myriad Heavens: Rise of the Rune God

Chapter 235: Chapter 236: The Monkey and The Monster

The tournament continued to run smoothly. Matches had already been going on for several hours. By now, a clear pattern had formed. William’s side won most of the straight power battles. Their mechanical advantage showed itself again and again in every pairing. When the ancient gods from William’s universe got pushed hard, they activated their innate divine abilities. The principle traces hidden inside those abilities shifted the balance of power in ways that the Supremes from Willith’s universe had no proper way to handle.

On the other side, Willith’s cultivators managed several upsets. They used clever technique combinations that William’s side had never seen before. These approaches were so different from the unified system in William’s universe that even the fights they lost gave both sides very valuable new information.

The crowd had settled into real excitement. People were no longer just watching out of politeness. They were paying close attention because they genuinely wanted to see what would happen next.

Runar had not moved from his seat since the tournament began. He stayed calm and focused. His perception spread across the entire venue and even reached far into the universe at the same time. He carefully read every principle trace that appeared whenever a divine ability was used. He filed away each new fragment and kept building a growing catalogue of principles, match after match.

He noticed the Principle of Radiance in Apollo’s Solar Sovereignty once more during a later match. This time it was against a different opponent and under different pressure. That revealed a new side of the principle he had missed the first time. He quietly filed it away and continued reading.

Willith’s projection sat quietly beside him. She absorbed everything in silence and said nothing.

William sat three seats away. He was busy cataloguing all the new techniques from Willith’s cultivators. He had waited a long time for fresh material like this, and he was not wasting even a single moment.

None of the three were really focused on the current match playing out in the arena.

Wukong had been sitting near the back of the viewing area. A half-eaten peach rested forgotten in his hand. His eyes were half-closed. He was not paying attention to the fights. Instead, he stood right on the edge of a major breakthrough.

Then a new match was announced. The pairing made Wukong open his eyes and look up.

It was him against the strongest Supreme from the human race in Willith’s universe. Her name was Grand Supreme Lian. She stood at the absolute peak of the Supreme realm. Her power came from centuries of careful refinement rather than quick advancement. She represented the very best that Willith’s universe had produced in human cultivation.

They stepped into the arena together.

The galaxy interior reacted the same way it always did at the start. The very first exchange caused all matter inside to disintegrate instantly. The powerful shockwave wiped out planets and stars before either fighter had even finished their second movement. Lian’s techniques were precise, deep, and built on a completely independent system. She used combinations that Wukong had never faced before. Her approaches targeted weak angles that his raw power could not simply overpower.

The fight lasted much longer than anyone had expected. The crowd on both sides stopped watching the other matches completely. Lian matched Wukong blow for blow. Her deep technique knowledge made up for the gap in raw power. She found clever openings that his strength alone could not crush right away.

It felt like a real tie. Both of them held their ground firmly. Neither one broke.

Then, in the middle of an exchange, something finally clicked for Wukong. Lian’s technique landed solidly on him. As he absorbed the impact, the final missing piece of understanding fell perfectly into place. In that tiny fraction of a moment between receiving the hit and responding, his pseudo rule transformed into a full, complete Rule.

The change happened instantly. Wukong’s physical body dissolved. His energy lifeform nature shifted completely. Matter turned into pure information. His entire existence changed at a fundamental level. He became a full Information Lifeform. The transformation finished in the exact same instant the rule became complete. Both events happened together as one smooth process.

Lian felt the sudden shift right in the middle of their exchange. She pulled back immediately. The being standing across from her was no longer the same one she had been fighting. His presence had changed in a way that her Supreme cultivation base recognized as a total break from what came before.

The match was called to an end.

Wukong stood inside the destroyed galaxy interior and looked down at his hands. There were no hands anymore. There was no physical form. He now existed the same way Runar did — as pure information rather than matter. He had no ordinary physical presence or conventional energy signature.

For practical reasons, he reformed a visible humanoid shape and stepped out of the arena.

William felt the breakthrough the moment it occurred. It was a major Multiversal event happening inside his own universe. He absorbed the impact easily. His universe took the pressure without any surface disturbance or structural damage.

He glanced over at Willith’s projection, almost wanting to show a bit of pride. She remained quiet, her face calm and neutral.

He turned his attention back to the tournament.

Only three beings in the entire venue fully understood what had just happened in complete detail.

Runar had sensed the rule completing even before it finished. His information perception had already tracked the full path of the breakthrough. He instantly processed Wukong’s new state: a complete Information Lifeform with one full rule. He saw the ceiling of Wukong’s new power clearly.

He also understood what Willith and William were seeing. Wukong was still weaker than him. Wukong now had one complete rule and much greater computational ability thanks to the Information Lifeform change. But the gap between one rule and Runar’s four principles at peak comprehension was huge. Runar’s multiversal energy reserves — built from the merged depth of forty-one universes — existed on an entirely different scale. He had far more computational power, deeper principle understanding, and vastly greater stored energy.

Willith and William reached the same conclusion from the same information. They could not read the exact number of principles Runar had mastered — his information density made it hard to count precisely even for them — but they could tell it was clearly more than two, and likely higher.

The Universal beings and everyone below them in the crowd felt the weight of Wukong’s breakthrough. They reacted the same way they had to Runar earlier. Knees hit the ground. Foreheads lowered. The pressure was too strong to resist while standing.

Wukong walked calmly through the crowd toward Runar. People parted respectfully to make way for him.

He stopped right in front of Runar.

"Young friend," Wukong said with a grin, "it looks like it’s finally time for that spar we talked about."

Runar met his eyes and smiled. "Yes, it is," he replied simply and stood up.

William’s attention snapped to them immediately. "Not here," he said firmly before they could take another step.

"We weren’t planning to—" Runar began.

"I know what you were about to say," William cut in. "You were going to promise you’d be careful." He turned to Wukong. "This one has never been careful in his entire long life."

Wukong opened his mouth to reply.

"Don’t," William warned.

Wukong closed his mouth again.

William quickly opened a large portal that led into the empty void. It connected to a vast stretch of space far away from his universe membrane and everything he had built. He gestured toward the portal. "Out. Both of you. Go far away from my membrane and far from anything important I’ve created."

Runar and Wukong looked at the portal, then at each other.

Runar stepped through first. Wukong followed right behind, his staff held firmly in his hand.

The portal closed behind them.

William stared at the empty space where they had stood for a moment. Then he turned back to the tournament with the tired expression of someone who had done the only sensible thing possible — though he was not entirely sure it would be enough.

The crowd had watched the entire exchange with wide eyes.

"Two Multiversal beings," someone whispered.

"About to fight each other."

"In the empty void."

"And we’re stuck here."

A heavy silence fell over the viewing area.

"That’s a fight of the epoch," another person said excitedly. "Multiversal beings don’t usually spar. They rarely even have worthy opponents. Right now two of them are heading into the void to—"

"We’re going to miss it," a third voice said flatly.

The reality of that statement sank in. The tournament continued in the arena below, but almost everyone’s attention had now shifted to the closed portal.

"Can anyone follow them?" someone asked.

"Into the void between universes?"

"Maybe someone fast enough—"

"But who could survive just watching a fight between two Multiversal beings?"

The question hung in the air with no easy answer.

Then five figures stood up at the same time from different spots across the viewing area. Three came from William’s side. Two came from Willith’s side. Each one sat at the half-step Multiversal Realm — the strongest beings present who had not yet reached full Multiversal level. They looked at one another across the venue, recognized their equal strength, and reached the same decision at once.

One from William’s side spoke first. "If the five of us work together, we should be able to maintain enough combined awareness to keep ourselves safe."

"Probably safe," one from Willith’s side added.

"Probably is good enough for me," the first speaker replied.

"We’re not just going to watch," a third one said. "Being close to two Multiversal beings fighting — the principle expressions in that kind of exchange, seen up close —"

"It’s a huge comprehension opportunity," the second from Willith’s side confirmed. "Definitely worth the risk."

"Worth the risk," the others agreed.

William had been listening. He opened a second, smaller portal. This one would place them at a safe observational distance. "Stay well out of the way," he warned.

"Yes," all five answered at once.

They stepped through together. The portal closed quietly behind them.

The remaining crowd stared at the two closed portals for a long moment. Then, slowly and reluctantly, they turned their attention back to the ongoing tournament.

Far away in the empty void, Runar and Wukong now faced each other.

There was no ground beneath their feet. No air. No matter at all. Just pure emptiness in every direction. The two powerful beings stood calmly in the middle of that nothingness.

Runar glanced back toward the distant, faint glow of William’s universe membrane. It was now so far away that it looked like a tiny point of light.

"That man is truly paranoid," Runar said with a small smile.

"He’s not wrong to be," Wukong replied.

Runar thought about it for a second. "No," he agreed. "He really isn’t."

They looked at each other.

Neither moved yet.

At the very edge of Runar’s perception, five presences arrived at a safe distance — far enough to stay outside the main fight radius, but close enough to observe clearly. He read them instantly: all five were half-step Multiversal. Two from Willith’s universe and three from William’s.

He said nothing about the observers. He knew they were her to watch the fun.

Wukong adjusted his grip on his staff, ready for the spar to begin.