Wan Lei, stunned by the scene before him, looked at the monkey in disbelief.
"Did you... did you do all this?"
The monkey shrugged, offering no denial.
"I don't understand what you're referring to. In fact, we haven't done anything. We've merely given them a beautiful, happy life."
"You call this a happy life? They're all dead, what kind of life is this? Their souls must be trapped within their bodies, unable to reincarnate. You've turned them into walking corpses, and you tell me this is for their own good?"
"They weren't killed by us. I've said it before, the monkeys of our Flower Fruit Mountain do not kill innocent lives.
More importantly, their previous lives were filled with too much suffering. So, they prayed to the Great Sage, telling him of the happy and fulfilling lives they desired.
After their deaths, the Great Sage granted them happiness and fulfillment, giving them everything they wanted. Isn't that wonderful?"
The monkey remained calm, as if the tens of thousands of zombies before them didn't exist.
"But... there are rules for everything in this world. After death, people should go to the underworld to reincarnate."
"And what about after reincarnation? Can you guarantee they'll have a happy life in their next one? No, you can't.
All mortals are foolish, thus all mortals suffer.
All mortals suffer, thus all mortals are wicked.
This is a world filled with sorrow and evil. Where can one find happiness? Just like you, as powerful as you are as a disciple of the Five Elements Hall, can you truly say you are happy? Can you say you have no worries at all?
You can't. But they can. The Great Sage has achieved this. This is a paradise."
"Great Sage Equal to Heaven..."
Wan Lei's voice trembled, almost roaring.
"The Great Sage Equal to Heaven can trap all these souls, making them live in false happiness? If one day they awaken and discover it's all a lie, that they are already dead, what then? How much pain would they endure!"
"If you hadn't come, how would they have awakened!"
The monkey also grew angry. He jumped down from the cart, forcefully threw the fruit pit in his hand onto the ground, tilted his head back, and pointed at Wan Lei's nose.
"How do you know this current life isn't what they wanted? What right do you have to judge us from a moral high ground? How do you know they don't desire this false happiness, rather than that tragic reality?
Stop flaunting your superiority and speaking from a position of comfort. You have no idea what they've been through."
The monkey pointed towards the very end of the town, at the old woman who sold firewood.
The old woman was not there; only a collapsed house stood.
"That woodcutter you were talking to, Xiao He, his family was poor their entire lives. His mother raised him through hardship. He knew nothing else and was honest and diligent, possessing only physical strength, so he could only make a living chopping wood on the mountain.
He opened a firewood stall at the edge of town, relying on selling firewood to barely earn some copper coins for rice and flour to support his elderly mother, and to feed himself.
His family was poor, and he couldn't afford a wife, but as he lived with his aging mother, he was also happy.
However, one winter, a severe cold struck, and people had no firewood. Those wicked people, taking advantage of his absence to chop wood on the mountain, killed his mother who stayed home to guard their possessions, stole his firewood, and even dismantled his door, roof beams, and bed, taking them back to burn themselves!
What could he do?
His greatest wish was simply to chop wood on the mountain while his mother at home had enough to eat.
It wasn't a big deal for him; he had simply lost everything."
The monkey's emotions calmed slightly as he spoke, but a hint of indignation remained. He then pointed to another collapsed house across the way.
"The fish stall owner. He started as a fisherman and worked for decades, finally building his own shop.
He had a few employees. In the mornings, they would go out to sea to fish, and in the afternoons, they would clean and sell the fish.
He also had a wife and two children. Their life was fulfilling, the goal he had strived for his entire life, and he had achieved it.
But one day, while fishing at sea with his son and three employees, they encountered pirates. The pirates stole his boat, killed his son and employees, and he swam back to the island with great effort.
Before he could even grieve, the families of his employees came to demand compensation. How could he possibly afford it?
Enraged, the employees' families looted his home, dragged his wife and daughters away to settle the debt, and set his house on fire before they left.
His entire life's efforts were gone.
It wasn't a big deal for him; he had simply lost everything."
The monkey's tone was casual as he pointed to a decaying corpse sitting by the entrance, an infant also rotting in its embrace.
"Her name was Xiao Ying. She was a renowned beauty in town, married to a degenerate gambler.
The gambler owed a mountain of gambling debts and fled to another island, abandoning her and their child.
The child was still young but gravely ill. To afford the child's medical treatment, she sold everything she owned. However, the unscrupulous doctor was still not satisfied and demanded an exorbitant sum.
She couldn't pay, so she resorted to selling her body. A renowned beauty in town became a prostitute sought by many.
Later, her child died. Due to the wrong medication, the doctor was incompetent and only knew how to scam people for money.
From then on, she lost all hope. When taking clients, she remained silent and motionless, like a corpse, numb like a walking dead, often enduring beatings from her clients.
After the beatings, she would take the money and buy food, but sometimes her money would be stolen.
She only wanted her child to live.
It wasn't a big deal for her; she had simply lost everything."
After speaking, the monkey did not look at Wan Lei's reaction. He then pointed to a couple at the bun stall.
There was no couple, only a still corpse lying down and a moving corpse.
"The young couple at the bun stall had a son, about seven or eight years old. He was an excellent student, always the pride of their family.
But one day, the child returned home covered in bruises. His parents asked him what happened, but he wouldn't say. Later, his father found out that his son had been extorted for money by a delinquent classmate at school.
The child had no money, so he was beaten like this.
What father could stand this? He immediately took his son to confront the classmate and couldn't help but slap the child.
The delinquent returned home and told his father, who was a notorious thug. He led a group of his cronies and smashed the bun stall.
The bun stall couple's son was beaten to death. The husband had his limbs broken, and the wife was taken away by them and violated for over ten days. By the time she escaped home, her husband had starved to death.
During those ten days, no one was willing to help the man; no one brought him even a bite of food.
What was her fault? She simply wanted a happy family.
It wasn't a big deal for her; she had simply lost everything."