The moment the river's surface closed back up.
The north bank was silent.
Zhu Bajie stood where he was, one hand still outstretched, frozen in a forward-charging stance.
After a while, he lowered his hand.
"...It fell apart."
He said it very softly.
It was unlike him.
The members of the Preaching Squad looked at one another.
Although the True Martial Seven Severing Formation had ultimately been unable to withstand that pressure and had fallen apart.
The True Martial Seven Severing Formation had been correct.
The direction had been correct.
The Heaven-Reaching River had truly been severed.
It had not been an illusion.
The True Martial Seven Severing Formation had genuinely cut apart the river's form and spirit from the middle.
"So."
Tang Sanzang spoke.
"The problem isn't with the formation."
"It's with us."
"It is."
Sha Wujin said.
"The True Martial Seven Severing Formation requires seven people."
"Real people."
Little White Dragon added.
"Those two of Monkey Brother's were transformed from hairs."
"No matter how much power they possessed, they still weren't acknowledged."
Silence.
Zhu Bajie plopped down on the ground.
"Then what do we do?"
"There're only five of us."
"We're missing two."
Flames flickered in Sun Wukong's eyes.
"Finding something that can replace my clones seems a little difficult."
"Try first."
Tang Sanzang said.
"Try everything we can think of."
"There's no shame in trying and failing."
"The shame is in not trying enough."
And so they began to try.
The first thing they tried was Paper Figures.
Little White Dragon pulled a stack of yellow talisman paper from his robes.
He bit his finger and drew two little people.
Then he blew on them.
The two Paper Figures jumped up.
They had hands and feet.
They could walk.
They could laugh.
They could even make faces