He was the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, the Ancestor of All Buddhas, and yet in the end he was nothing but a stone statue hollowed out by karma. The world only knew to kneel before that golden body, never realizing that Buddhism had used this supreme title to nail him to the cross of faith, making him bear the endless karmic burden of the entire Western Heaven, drawn from the Three Realms and Six Paths.
His golden body destroyed and his true spirit on the verge of scattering, Wukong sent a spark of spiritual light beyond the Three Realms in his final moment.
This was his last chance to cultivate anew. He sought no more offerings of incense, only to sever the invisible chains of karma and make that decaying stone statue represent no one but himself. This time, he would not cultivate Buddhist law or revere Suchness. He only wanted that rotting Buddha statue to know that its true form had once been a monkey no one could tame.
