Recaps

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.

The Preaching Squad prepared to impersonate the Three Pure Ones Sacred Statues and frighten Chechi Kingdom’s royal preceptors, but the statues revealed the Three Pure Ones Heavenly Venerates’ wrath and stopped them. The three royal preceptors arrived at the Three Pure Ones Temple as the squad reconsidered its plan.

• Tiger Strength Immortal, Deer Strength Immortal, and Goat Strength Immortal arrived at the Three Pure Ones Temple with Daoist soldiers.
• Tang Sanzang realized the royal preceptors had come to test whether they still controlled the temple.
• Sun Wukong proposed that he, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujin impersonate the Three Pure Ones Sacred Statues and manifest their power to frighten the visitors.
• The Preaching Squad agreed, and Sun Wukong reached toward the Primordial Heavenly Venerate’s statue.
• The Three Pure Ones Sacred Statues changed their expressions and radiated wrath, warning the squad not to profane their forms.

The Preaching Squad hid in the Three Pure Ones Temple and confronted Tiger Strength Immortal, Deer Strength Immortal, and Goat Strength Immortal when they tried to restore the sacred statues to their former arrangement. The three demons summoned their divine beasts and attacked, and Sun Wukong prepared to strike back.

• The Three Pure Ones’ anger faded, so Sun Wukong told the Preaching Squad to turn invisible and let the three demon Daoists enter.
• Tiger Strength Immortal, Deer Strength Immortal, and Goat Strength Immortal noticed that the statues’ positions had changed and tried to move them back.
• The Preaching Squad emerged and stopped the demons’ magic, while Sun Wukong said he had restored the statues to their proper positions.
• Tang Sanzang and Sha Wujin accused the demons of arranging the statues incorrectly and using the Three Pure Ones rather than worshipping them.
• The three demons summoned the phantoms of a tiger, a deer, and a mountain goat, and Sun Wukong swept his Golden-Hooped Staff at them.

Tiger Strength Immortal and his brothers turned the Preaching Squad's attack into a public accusation, but Tang Sanzang challenged their claim to Daoist orthodoxy by correcting the Three Pure Ones' arrangement and showing the squad's Tang Empire travel document. The crowd began to doubt the Imperial Preceptors, who rose to denounce the document as proof of nothing.

• Tiger Strength Immortal, Deer Strength Immortal, and Goat Strength Immortal knelt before the Three Pure Ones statues and accused the Preaching Squad of desecrating the temple and bullying them.
• Chechi Kingdom citizens, officials, and soldiers rushed into the temple, blamed the five outsiders, and demanded that they leave.
• Tang Sanzang admitted that the squad had moved the statues, then said they had restored the orthodox arrangement and suggested the Imperial Preceptors were not Daoists.
• Tang Sanzang showed the squad's travel document bearing the Eastern Tang Empire's seal, and the crowd began to question the Imperial Preceptors.
• Tiger Strength Immortal and Deer Strength Immortal stood up and insisted that the travel document proved nothing and that their decades of service established their authority.

After accusing the Tang visitors of being Daoist impostors, Tiger Strength Immortal brought them before the king of Chechi Kingdom and challenged them to a contest. The king ordered a best-of-three contest, and the first trial began with Tiger Strength Immortal praying for rain while Little White Dragon prepared to answer.

• Goat Strength Immortal rallied the townspeople against Tang Sanzang, and Tiger Strength Immortal challenged the Preaching Squad to defend their claim before the king.
• Tiger Strength Immortal and Tang Sanzang presented their accusations and explanations to the king in the Golden Throne Hall.
• The king approved a best-of-three contest, with the losing side ordered to leave Chechi Kingdom.
• Tiger Strength Immortal chose praying for rain as the first trial, and Little White Dragon volunteered to take it.
• Tiger Strength Immortal performed a rain-prayer ritual and sent a golden spell into the clouds.

Tiger Strength Immortal successfully used the Daoist Five Thunder Ritual to summon clouds and thunder, but Little White Dragon’s innate rainmaking power was mysteriously blocked. After revealing his dragon form and roaring to command the Four Seas, Little White Dragon still could not summon even a trace of rain.

• Tiger Strength Immortal used the orthodox Five Thunder Ritual, drawing clouds, wind, and thunder and winning the Chechi Kingdom citizens’ cheers.
• Little White Dragon tried to summon rain through his Dragon Clan bloodline, but the moisture around him could not spread beyond his body.
• Little White Dragon transformed into a half-dragon form and unleashed his Dragon Clan aura, alarming the crowd and forcing Tiger Strength Immortal back.
• Little White Dragon roared to summon the clouds and waters of the Four Seas, but the roar faded without bringing wind, clouds, or rain.

Little White Dragon lost the rain-summoning contest to Tiger Strength Immortal despite having intact dragon powers, and he sensed that something had prevented him from summoning rain. Sha Wujin stepped forward to face Deer Strength Immortal in the second contest, a test of seated meditation and steadfastness.

• Little White Dragon failed to summon rain, and Tiger Strength Immortal claimed victory before the king awarded him the first round.
• Little White Dragon told the Preaching Squad that something had stopped him, though he could not identify what it was.
• Tiger Strength Immortal mocked the Preaching Squad before the king asked what the second round would be.
• Tiger Strength Immortal proposed a seated-meditation contest in which each contestant would ride a cloud to a platform a hundred zhang high and lose by speaking, moving, or falling first.
• Sha Wujin volunteered for the contest and stepped onto the ritual platform to face Deer Strength Immortal.

Sha Wujin began a seated meditation contest against Deer Strength Immortal and discovered his opponent had a remarkably steady Dao heart. Deer Strength Immortal’s illusion then subjected Sha Wujin to venomous creatures and accusations about his killing, leaving him under mounting spiritual assault.

• Deer Strength Immortal and Sha Wujin sat on the high platform and began the meditation contest.
• Sha Wujin sensed that Deer Strength Immortal was deeply composed and far more firm-hearted than he had expected.
• Venomous insects appeared around Sha Wujin, and he found that neither his divine abilities nor physical strength could affect them.
• Voices accused Sha Wujin of killing too many beings and claimed his Dao heart was only an illusion built on slaughter.

Sha Wujin resisted Deer Strength Immortal’s attempt to break his Dao heart and turned the torment into overwhelming killing intent. Deer Strength Immortal fell from the platform in terror, leaving Sha Wujin the winner of the second round.

• Deer Strength Immortal used curses, poisonous creatures, and physical torment to try to make Sha Wujin’s karmic burden overwhelm his Dao heart.
• Sha Wujin endured the assault, drawing on his past punishments from the Ranking System, and converted every disturbance into killing intent.
• Sha Wujin fixed his blood-red gaze on Deer Strength Immortal, whose fear made him lose control and fall from the platform.
• The king and officials watched in shock as Sha Wujin won the second round.

After Sha Wujin won the second contest, the king proposed ending the wager in a tie, but Tiger Strength Immortal insisted that it continue. The Preaching Squad suspected Deer Strength Immortal had deliberately fallen from the cloud ladder, leaving them wary that the royal preceptors were fishing for an opening.

• The king acknowledged Sha Wujin's victory, declared the contest tied, and offered to stamp Tang Sanzang's travel permit so the Preaching Squad could continue its journey.
• Tiger Strength Immortal rejected the king's offer, rallied Deer Strength Immortal and Goat Strength Immortal, and demanded that the wager continue until there was a winner and a loser.
• The king allowed the contest to proceed, while the Preaching Squad concluded that he had been deceived by the royal preceptors rather than conspiring with them.
• Tang Sanzang said the king was not the real obstacle, and Sha Wujin told the others that Deer Strength Immortal's fall seemed deliberate.
• Sha Wujin suggested that the royal preceptors had staged the fall as bait, since Deer Strength Immortal's earlier composure made him unlikely to have been frightened off the ladder so easily.

The Preaching Squad lost the first round of the Partition Guessing Game after Tiger Strength Immortal correctly identified the garments inside the cabinet, despite Zhu Bajie secretly tearing them apart. Sun Wukong recognized that something was wrong and stepped up for the second round, which began with the queen placing a peach inside the cabinet.

• Tiger Strength Immortal asked the king to make all the remaining members of the Preaching Squad participate in the Partition Guessing Game, and the king agreed.
• The queen placed a court garment inside the Vermilion Lacquer Cabinet, and Tiger Strength Immortal identified it as a Mountain-River State Robe and a Heaven-Earth Geographic Skirt.
• Zhu Bajie secretly tore the garment apart using the Thirty-Six Transformations, but it appeared intact when the cabinet was opened, so Tiger Strength Immortal won the first round.
• Zhu Bajie told Sun Wukong through a voice transmission that something was wrong with the cabinet, and Sun Wukong said he had noticed and would handle the next round.
• The queen placed a peach inside the cabinet for the second round, and Sun Wukong prepared to take part.