Chapter Summaries

Wrathful Youth unleashed his Acala manifestation against the Preaching Squad, but Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujin, and Little White Dragon damaged it with coordinated attacks. Tang Sanzang then struck the youth’s Vajra True Body with a serious punch, leaving him wounded and staggering.

• Wrathful Youth enlarged his Acala manifestation and ordered it to crush the Preaching Squad.
• Zhu Bajie clamped onto the manifestation’s waist and squeezed it until its body cracked and buckled.
• Sha Wujin stomped on the manifestation’s feet, injuring Wrathful Youth and making him spit blood.
• Little White Dragon struck Wrathful Youth’s face with his tail, enraging him into merging the damaged manifestation into his body as his Vajra True Body.
• Tang Sanzang raised his fist and punched the Vajra True Body’s chest, caving it in and making Wrathful Youth falter.

Sun Wukong broke free from the Buddhist punishments and joined Tang Sanzang, Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujin, and Little White Dragon in overwhelming the Wrathful Boy. He battered the boy with pure physical strength, then handed the beating back to his companions.

• The Wrathful Boy tried to shrink back into a child to exploit his title as the Supreme Elder's Son, but Sun Wukong emerged from the punishments and stopped him.
• Sun Wukong struck the boy repeatedly with the Golden-Hooped Staff, vowing to repay the suffering caused by the Vajra Noose, molten pellets, and Trailokyavijaya Demon-Nailing.
• The boy realized Sun Wukong's strength came from neither mana nor the staff's spirituality, and feared that the punishments had helped the monkey cultivate.
• Sun Wukong declared that his spirit was destined to Equal Heaven, then asked Tang Sanzang, Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujin, and Little White Dragon to continue beating the boy.

The Heavenly Venerates compared the preaching squad’s beating of Wrathful Youth with Guanyin’s original methods for subduing Red Boy. The squad defeated him, and Amitabha Buddha accepted that their approach matched the original outcome.

• The Heavenly Venerates recalled Guanyin’s five-step plan to subdue Red Boy and recognized similar methods in the preaching squad’s attack.
• Zhu Bajie restrained Wrathful Youth, Sha Wujin pinned his feet, Little White Dragon struck his face with his tail, and Tang Sanzang punched him.
• Wrathful Youth pleaded for the beating to stop, but Sun Wukong raised his staff and delivered the final blow.
• Wrathful Youth’s Vajra True Body shattered into golden light, and his figure disappeared from Withered Pine Ravine.
• Amitabha Buddha watched the squad’s victory and concluded that they could not be stopped.

Key Plot Points and Events

• The Preaching Squad defeats the Wrathful Child Immovable Wisdom King.
• They receive new titles based on their actions during the fight.
• Sun Wukong's title, "A Filial Son Emerges from Beneath the Staff," draws criticism from the Three Pure Ones.
• Laozi, the Supreme Pure One, intervenes and decides to demonstrate the true meaning of the title using his innate supreme treasures.

Character Developments

• Sun Wukong's filial piety is questioned, leading to Laozi's intervention.
• The Preaching Squad members receive titles that reflect their actions and personalities, causing various reactions.

Significant Themes

• Filial Piety: The title given to Sun Wukong challenges the conventional understanding of filial piety, leading to a deeper exploration of its meaning.
• Power and Authority: Laozi's intervention showcases his power and authority as the Supreme Pure One, instilling fear and awe in the other Heavenly Venerates.

Character Interactions

• The Preaching Squad members interact playfully, teasing each other about their new titles.
• The Three Pure Ones discuss and criticize Sun Wukong's title, leading to Laozi's intervention.
• Laozi interacts with his younger brothers, demonstrating his power and authority.

Amitabha Buddha realized the next trial would involve the Blackwater River and feared Little White Dragon could defeat the West Sea Dragon clan. He replaced the river with Apsu Primordial Blackwater, whose strange effects astonished the villagers, leaving the new trial’s consequences unknown.

• Amitabha Buddha recalled that the Blackwater River trial was supposed to involve the West Sea Dragon King's family and Prince Mo Ang.
• Amitabha Buddha decided not to send more Dragon Kings, fearing Little White Dragon would convert them to Dao.
• Amitabha Buddha summoned Apsu Primordial Blackwater from the dream world and ordered it to replace the Blackwater River.
• The Blackwater River stopped flowing and gained a sacred aura as the Apsu spread through it.
• Villagers saw an old woman recover after falling into the river and celebrated the water as a miracle.

The Preaching Squad reached the Blackwater River, where commoners praised its miraculous water, and Little White Dragon investigated with the help of a supposed dragon cousin. After the boatman described the river as dangerous, Little White Dragon saw signs that he was lying and realized he might be leading them into a trap.

• Tang Sanzang sensed that the Blackwater River was their next trial and sent Little White Dragon to investigate.
• Little White Dragon summoned the river’s inhabitants, causing the Blackwater River to boil and frightening the commoners away from the bank.
• A boatman introduced himself as the Blackwater River God and the ninth son of the Jing River Dragon King, claiming kinship with Little White Dragon.
• The boatman said the river’s pure water could make people want to return to the furnace and be remade.
• Little White Dragon noticed emotion symbols indicating that the boatman felt guilty, was acting, and was bluffing, then concealed his anger behind a smile.

Little White Dragon exposed and punished his cousin, the Crocodile Dragon, for impersonating the Blackwater River god and occupying his home. After confirming the real river god was trustworthy, the Preaching Squad boarded his boat and set off across the river, still uncertain where their trial lay.

• Little White Dragon used his Big Slap title to beat his cousin and accused him of hiding the truth about the Blackwater River.
• The Crocodile Dragon confessed that he had driven out the river god and seized his residence.
• Little White Dragon brought his cousin to the river god and sent the Crocodile Dragon to the West Sea Dragon King for punishment.
• The Preaching Squad confirmed that the Blackwater River itself was not a trial and wondered whether a trial existed at all.
• The rescued river god offered to ferry Tang Sanzang, Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujin, and Little White Dragon across the river.

The Preaching Squad was pulled into the Blackwater River and confronted the Water Women, a symbiotic cluster that could regenerate from any remaining Apsu Blackwater. When Zhou Qingqing looked back after entering the Dream World, the Squad had drained the river, and Amitabha Buddha resolved to deal with them at the Chechi Kingdom.

• The Blackwater River turned into a swamp and dragged Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujin, Little White Dragon, and Tang Sanzang underwater.
• Tang Sanzang identified the Water Women as the Symbiotic Hydro Goddess Cluster, which could regenerate as long as any Apsu Blackwater remained.
• Sun Wukong smashed thousands of Water Women, but they quickly re-formed and bound the Squad with chains that reached their souls.
• The Water Women divided into five layers, while Zhou Qingqing dismissed the trial and shifted her attention to the Dream World.
• Zhou Qingqing returned to find the Blackwater River drained and the Water Women gone.
• Amitabha Buddha noted that the Squad had grown too powerful for the trial and said they would settle matters at the Chechi Kingdom.

The Preaching Squad entered Chechi Kingdom and found Buddhism crushed while monks were enslaved under the rule of three Daoist royal preceptors. After learning the preceptors had saved the kingdom from drought and treated its people well, the squad hesitated over whether to confront them.

• Sun Wukong and the Preaching Squad saw ruined Buddhist temples and monks in shackles being whipped into forced labor.
• Sun Wukong struck a Daoist overseer, who explained that the king had ordered the monks persecuted after the three royal preceptors brought rain to Chechi Kingdom twenty years earlier.
• Tang Sanzang, Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujin, and Little White Dragon compared the situation to the Crow-Cock Kingdom and recognized the monks’ intense resentment.
• The Daoist overseer said the royal preceptors had not harmed the common people and had protected the kingdom with favorable weather.
• The Preaching Squad realized the three preceptors served the people but tormented the monks, leaving the squad uncertain whether to act.

The Preaching Squad accepted a local Daoist priest’s invitation to visit Chechi Kingdom’s grand Three Pure Ones Temple. As they entered the hall and examined its statues, Zhou Qingqing realized Amitabha Buddha had arranged them according to the original course of events, leaving the trial’s purpose unclear.

• The Heavenly Venerates stopped fighting to listen as their disciple recalled how the original Journey to the West Squad had wreaked havoc in the temple.
• A Daoist priest invited the Preaching Squad to stay at the Three Pure Ones Temple, and Tang Sanzang accepted.
• The Preaching Squad traveled to the temple and admired its lavish architecture and offerings.
• The group examined the statues of Primordial Heavenly Venerate, Spirit Treasure Heavenly Venerate, and Dao Virtue Heavenly Venerate.
• Zhou Qingqing recognized that Amitabha Buddha had placed the second master in the center, unlike the arrangement she expected in this world.

Amitabha Buddha’s trap in the Three Pure Ones Temple activated when Tang Sanzang and the Preaching Squad bowed to its statues. The animated statues overwhelmed the group, leaving Tang Sanzang and Little White Dragon badly injured as the battle continued.

• Amitabha Buddha revealed that he had secretly empowered the Three Pure Ones statues, intending to make the Preaching Squad confront the Dao in their hearts.
• Tang Sanzang led the Preaching Squad in a respectful bow, awakening the statues with scarlet eyes and violent power.
• Sun Wukong blocked the central statue’s crushing hand while Sha Wujin and Zhu Bajie fought the other statues’ sword and staff attacks.
• The central statue wielded a Jade Ruyi, and Little White Dragon tried to shield Tang Sanzang with his dragon body and three scripture scrolls.
• The Jade Ruyi pierced the defenses, injuring Little White Dragon and Tang Sanzang, while Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujin charged back into the fight against the relentless statues.

The Preaching Squad realized the three treasures wielded by the clay statues were formed from the 24-Petal Creation Azure Lotus and used its fused origin to understand how to counter them. Tang Sanzang told the group to seek the Dao Venerable’s unifying divine ability so they could turn the treasures against their wielder.

• Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujin, and Sun Wukong struggled against the three clay statues and their powerful treasures.
• Tang Sanzang concluded that the treasures carried genuine Dao-attainment intent, despite the group’s belief that they were fake.
• Sun Wukong mentioned the 24-Petal Creation Azure Lotus, prompting Tang Sanzang to realize that the three treasures originated from it.
• The Preaching Squad used the Fusion Great Dao to combine the treasures’ auras and reveal the 24-Petal Creation Azure Lotus.
• Tang Sanzang urged the group to sense the treasures’ laws and find the Dao Venerable’s unifying divine ability so they could seize control.

The Preaching Squad fused their powers into a phantom of the 24-Petal Creation Azure Lotus and used it to shatter the three magical treasure phantoms blocking them. A fairy praised their grasp of the Dao of fusion, leaving the squad victorious in its first trial.

• Little White Dragon formed a vast Lotus Pond from gathered dragon aura.
• Sha Wujin shaped azure lotus leaves with sword qi, while Zhu Bajie made a red lotus flower from the Five Mountains True Form Diagram.
• Tang Sanzang manifested the Lotus Heart by balancing life and death, and Sun Wukong supplied the white lotus root with his As-You-Will Gold-Banded Staff.
• The five members of the Preaching Squad fused their powers to create a phantom of the 24-Petal Creation Azure Lotus.
• The lotus struck and shattered the phantoms of the Three Treasures Jade Ruyi, the Green Duckweed Sword, and the Coiled-Dragon Flat Staff.
• A fairy praised the squad for understanding the essence of the Dao of fusion.

The Preaching Squad discovered that breaking the three sacred statues’ Dharma treasures had awakened an even more powerful force within the statues. Their Creation Azure Lotus phantom failed to destroy them, leaving the squad searching for another way forward while the Three Pure Ones and Qingqing’s system reacted to their misunderstanding.

• After the Three Treasures Jade Ruyi, Green Duckweed Sword, and Coiling Dragon Flat Cane shattered, the Three Pure Ones Sacred Statues awakened and released a terrifying aura.
• Tang Sanzang ordered the Preaching Squad to combine the Five Paths and summon the 24-Petal Creation Azure Lotus phantom again.
• The lotus phantom struck the statues and knocked them back, but it only stripped away some gold paint and did not break them.
• The Preaching Squad concluded that the statues must be real because the lotus phantom could not destroy them, while Qingqing’s system urged them to try harder and warned it might assign them a mission to condense the Thirty-Six-Grade Chaos Azure Lotus.
• The Three Pure Ones realized the Preaching Squad believed their deaths were needed to pass the obstacle, and they blamed Amitabha Buddha for making the sacred statues.

Tang Sanzang discovered that the Three Pure Ones Sacred Statues formed a killing formation by standing in the wrong positions, and he decided the group had to restore their proper arrangement to break it. A Heavenly Venerate's disciple warned that attacking the central statue would let it absorb the others and transform into Heavenly King Yuanshi, just as Amitabha Buddha intended.

• Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujin, Little White Dragon, and Sun Wukong struggled against the Three Pure Ones Sacred Statues while Tang Sanzang searched for the flaw in their defenses.
• Tang Sanzang noticed that the statues' positions did not match the proper order of the Three Pure Ones.
• Sha Wujin and Little White Dragon explained that Dao Virtue Heavenly Venerate belonged in the center, Primordial Heavenly Venerate on the left, and Spirit Treasure Heavenly Venerate on the right.
• Tang Sanzang identified the arrangement as a formation that made the central Primordial Heavenly Venerate sustain the other two statues and revive them endlessly.
• Tang Sanzang warned Sun Wukong not to attack the central statue and said they needed to restore the Three Pure Ones to their correct positions.
• A Heavenly Venerate's disciple warned that attacking the central statue would make it absorb the other two and transform into Heavenly King Yuanshi, which Amitabha Buddha wanted.

Tang Sanzang realized that restoring the Three Pure Ones Sacred Statues to their proper positions might break the predicament, so the Preaching Squad used their abilities to move them. The statues shifted, but their balance collapsed, and the squad was blasted across the hall.

• Tang Sanzang identified the statues' positioning as the key and directed the squad to move the Primordial Heavenly Venerate left and the Supreme Purity Dao Virtue Heavenly Venerate to the middle.
• Zhu Bajie trained mountain-moving abilities, Sha Wujin gathered soil into his Quicksand Domain, Tang Sanzang drew a Zhen Yuanzi Trial Card, and Sun Wukong summoned monkeys to help.
• Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujin, and Tang Sanzang combined their powers to shift the three statues from their places.
• The statues' gold paint peeled away to reveal flesh and blood as the Dao Resonance reversed and their conflicting Dao power began tearing them apart.
• A devastating shock wave erupted from the statues, hurling the five members of the Preaching Squad and Sun Wukong's monkeys across the hall.

The Preaching Squad tried to stop the Three Pure Ones Sacred Statues from reviving by swapping the Dao Resonance within them. Their plan seemed to work, but the Dao power went out of control again, leaving them battered and confused.

• Sun Wukong proposed moving the Dao Resonance inside the clay statues instead of moving the statues themselves, and Tang Sanzang agreed.
• The Three Pure Ones watched the Preaching Squad’s plan, knowing the temple contained no souls and that the attempt would fail.
• Sun Wukong led the squad in using Primordial Spirit arts to shift the three statues’ souls into their correct positions.
• The squad successfully restored Supreme Purity to the center, Jade Purity to the left, and Upper Clarity to the right.
• The Dao Resonance continued flowing backward, causing the statues to split open and transform into monsters again.
• The monsters sent all five members of the Preaching Squad flying, leaving Tang Sanzang horrified that their attempt had failed.

The Preaching Squad struggled against the three reanimated clay statues in Three Pure Ones Temple, while Sun Wukong searched for the cause of their repeated attacks. Zixia’s advice led him to look beyond the statues, and he realized the offering table lacked any trace of incense.

• The Preaching Squad recovered from the statues’ attack and realized that switching bodies or souls had not stopped the statues from reviving.
• Sun Wukong asked Tang Sanzang to hold off the statues while he examined them with his Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils.
• Zixia told Sun Wukong to look beyond the clay statues for the source of the problem.
• Sun Wukong searched the temple hall but initially found no formations, talismans, or other obvious flaws.
• Sun Wukong noticed that the bronze incense burner was completely clean and wondered where the incense offerings were.

Sun Wukong lit Offering Incense, awakening the Three Pure Ones statues as Divine Path golden bodies, and the Preaching Squad destroyed them. The squad remained trapped in the Three Pure Ones Daoist Temple and realized they had to restore the statues to their rightful forms before leaving.

• Sun Wukong found unopened Offering Incense and lit nine sticks, causing the Three Pure Ones Sacred Statues to awaken as Divine Path golden bodies.
• Zhou Qingqing explained that incense offerings had revived the golden bodies, and the Preaching Squad recognized they were products of faith rather than the true Three Pure Ones.
• Zhu Bajie, Little White Dragon, Sha Wujin, and Sun Wukong attacked the golden bodies with their divine stations and the Great Dao of Punishment, but did not fully destroy them.
• Tang Sanzang used the God-Burying Scripture to shatter the golden bodies and restore some peace to the temple.
• The Preaching Squad found that the temple still would not let them leave, and Sun Wukong determined they needed to restore the Three Pure Ones statues to their rightful positions.
• Tang Sanzang turned toward the Offering Incense, preparing to use it to establish the Daoist School's Heavenly Venerates.

Tang Sanzang and the Preaching Squad restored the Three Pure Ones statues in Chechi Kingdom, cleansing them and replacing their corrupted incense anchors with Dao Resonance. With the Dao Resonance set right, they prepared to leave the Three Pure Ones Temple.

• Tang Sanzang used the Funeral Great Dao to cleanse the three clay statues of the twisted laws and corruption.
• Little White Dragon washed away the remaining incense ash, golden-body fragments, and filth with a water dragon.
• Sun Wukong explained that Dao Resonance and the Three Pure Ones’ origins, rather than ordinary incense and faith, had to anchor the statues.
• Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujin offered Dao Resonance to the statues, restoring their proper anchors and dignified aura.
• Sun Wukong kept the unopened ordinary incense for the people of Chechi Kingdom, while Qingqing and the Heavenly Venerates reflected on the restored order of the Dao.