With Wu Tian's current strength, only a hair's breadth separated him from the Heavenly Dao. All he lacked were insight and the right opportunity. Creating a dream world out of thin air for Sun Wukong to live an entire lifetime in was nothing to him.
Even a real world would have been easy!
So once he made up his mind,
Wu Tian sent his divine sense surging forth. The strand of thought he had left near Flower-Fruit Mountain grew stronger, then quietly descended upon the Sky-Mending Stone...
It became a current of incomparably mysterious Daoist Charm!
Inside the Sky-Mending Stone,
the sage's blood essence slowly released its power, nourishing the Lingming Stone Monkey's Stone Embryo and making the spark of life within it ever stronger. Then, as the mysterious Daoist Charm descended, the Stone Embryo stirred faintly, as though it had slipped into a sweet dream...
Within that dream,
the Lingming Stone Monkey was born!
Then he became the Handsome Monkey King...
At an old monkey's urging, he ventured out to seek the Dao and learn its arts. After returning, he was appointed Bimawen, only to fly into a rage and wreak havoc in Heaven. He proclaimed himself the Great Sage Equal to Heaven...
Then he was sealed beneath Five Finger Mountain, joined the Scripture-Fetching Team, and endured the Eighty-One Tribulations!
It all felt like a real world, a life truly lived. The affairs of the world became a furnace, tempering the Lingming Stone Monkey's heart and sending the rate at which he absorbed the sage's blood essence soaring.
The power of that blood essence kept sinking into him,
becoming the Lingming Stone Monkey's foundation through and through!
Once that was done,
Wu Tian finally breathed a sigh of relief!
Now he could relax... The monkey was still the same