Recaps

Sun Wukong and Goat Strength Immortal both guessed that the cabinet held a peach, and Goat Strength Immortal conceded to make the score even. In the deciding round, Tang Sanzang’s attempt to change a Daoist boy’s appearance failed, leaving the Preaching Squad facing defeat.

• Sun Wukong used his Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils to see a peach inside the cabinet and guessed it first.
• Goat Strength Immortal also guessed peach and conceded the round, making the contest score one win and one loss apiece.
• Tiger Strength Immortal guessed that the cabinet held a Daoist boy, while Tang Sanzang guessed a young monk.
• The king opened the cabinet and revealed a Daoist boy whose hair and topknot were unchanged.
• Tang Sanzang realized that the Imperial Preceptors had anticipated his power and set him up with the same trick they had used against Zhu Bajie.

The Preaching Squad lost the third Partition Guessing Game after the Vermilion Lacquer Cabinet restored the Daoist novice’s hair, letting Tiger Strength Immortal claim victory. As the others prepared to leave the Chechi Kingdom, Sun Wukong noticed that the ranking system’s mission was still progressing and insisted there was another possibility.

• Tang Sanzang realized the cabinet restored anything changed inside it, undoing his Funeral Great Dao and returning the novice’s hair.
• Tiger Strength Immortal declared that he had won the third round, and the cheering crowd denounced the Preaching Squad as frauds.
• Zhu Bajie, Little White Dragon, Sha Wujin, and Tang Sanzang accepted the defeat, and Tang Sanzang took responsibility before deciding they should leave.
• Sun Wukong stopped the others and pointed out that the ranking system’s mission progress was still advancing.

After the Preaching Squad lost its contest in the Chechi Kingdom, Sun Wukong used his body as an alchemical furnace to reforge his Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils. As the old eyes burned away and a new seed awakened with the Hongmeng Creation Pill’s power, golden light enveloped everyone.

• Sun Wukong focused his essence, qi, and spirit to push his Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils beyond their limits.
• Little White Dragon recognized that Sun Wukong was turning his body into the Eight Trigrams Furnace, and Zhu Bajie and Tang Sanzang realized he could not be stopped.
• Sun Wukong endured the fire consuming his body and eyes, driven by the Preaching Squad’s loss and the danger of their mission failing.
• The flames destroyed his old eyes, and the Hongmeng Creation Pill’s dormant potency flowed into a new seed.
• Sun Wukong’s body blazed with pure golden light that enveloped everyone.

After reforging his Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils, Sun Wukong saw karmic chains linking the Vermilion Lacquer Cabinet, the three royal preceptors, and the imprisoned monks. He accused the preceptors of cheating by using the monks as living locks, but the king and crowd demanded proof and rejected his claim.

• Sun Wukong emerged from the golden light with greatly enhanced Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils.
• Sun Wukong saw karmic chains connecting the Vermilion Lacquer Cabinet to Tiger Strength Immortal, Deer Strength Immortal, Goat Strength Immortal, and the monks imprisoned throughout Chechi Kingdom.
• Sun Wukong declared that the contest was not over and questioned the king about who had prepared the cabinet before it was placed.
• Sun Wukong told the people that the royal preceptors had turned the monks into locks and used their suffering to cheat in the contest.
• The king demanded proof, while the people cursed Sun Wukong and accused him of making excuses for losing.

Sun Wukong struck the void with the Golden-Hooped Staff to prove that the three national masters had bound the Chechi Kingdom with hidden chains. His sixth blow tore the chains into view, exposing their links to the Vermilion Lacquer Cabinet, the national preceptors, the city, and the imprisoned monks.

• Sun Wukong raised the Golden-Hooped Staff and struck the void, making the crowd and king hear metallic crashes from invisible chains.
• Tiger Strength Immortal and Deer Strength Immortal called the sounds an illusion, while Goat Strength Immortal watched the staff with growing anxiety.
• Sun Wukong struck the same spot repeatedly as the chains' clanging grew louder, and he challenged the national masters to keep calling it a trick.
• On his sixth strike, Sun Wukong tore open the invisible bindings, revealing black rune-covered chains connected to the Vermilion Lacquer Cabinet, the three national preceptors, the city, and monks imprisoned in Taoist temples.
• Zhou Qingqing praised Sun Wukong in her thoughts for using his reforged Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils to reveal the chains.

The king of the Chechi Kingdom saw the chains linking the royal preceptors, the Vermilion Lacquer Cabinet, and the imprisoned monks, and realized he had been deceived. He voided the three state preceptors’ past contest results and confronted them, leaving their scheme exposed and their position ruined.

• The chains appeared above the Golden Throne Hall, revealing the connection between the three royal preceptors, the Vermilion Lacquer Cabinet, and the imprisoned monks.
• The king reflected on his role in oppressing the monks and, after a long silence, acknowledged that he had seen the evidence.
• The king questioned the royal preceptors about the chains, while the crowd fell silent rather than defend them.
• The king declared that the three state preceptors had cheated and voided all their previous contest results.
• The king apologized to the Preaching Squad, and Tang Sanzang told him he was not at fault for what he had not known.
• Tiger Strength Immortal realized the royal preceptors could not recover their standing after the king and the people saw the truth.

After Sun Wukong exposed the imperial preceptors’ cheating, Tiger Strength Immortal demanded a new contest with lives at stake, arguing that the earlier contests had not proved who represented the Daoist Orthodoxy. Tang Sanzang accepted the challenge but insisted the preceptors retract their declaration that the Preaching Squad had lost and apologize first.

• Tiger Strength Immortal dismissed the earlier contests as invalid and proposed a life-and-death contest against the Preaching Squad.
• The king of Chechi Kingdom objected, but Tiger Strength Immortal argued that refusing to wager their lives would show a lack of confidence in their Daoist arts.
• Tiger Strength Immortal challenged Little White Dragon, Zhu Bajie, and Tang Sanzang to prove themselves, accusing them of not representing the Daoist Orthodoxy.
• Tang Sanzang accepted the wager on behalf of the three but demanded that the preceptors retract their declaration of defeat and apologize before the contests began.

Tiger Strength Immortal, Deer Strength Immortal, and Goat Strength Immortal apologized to the Preaching Squad, but realized Tang Sanzang had used the apology to win the Chechi Kingdom’s people to their side. Both parties then prepared for three life-or-death contests, beginning with an oil cauldron trial.

• Tiger Strength Immortal, Deer Strength Immortal, and Goat Strength Immortal bowed to the Preaching Squad and apologized for cheating in the earlier contests.
• Tang Sanzang accepted the apology and wager of lives, declaring that the Preaching Squad would prove itself the Daoist Orthodoxy.
• The people of the Chechi Kingdom admired the Preaching Squad, while the three state preceptors resolved to kill the three members competing that day.
• The sides set three one-on-one contests: Tang Sanzang against Tiger Strength Immortal, Zhu Bajie against Deer Strength Immortal, and Little White Dragon against Goat Strength Immortal.
• The first contest was to endure an oil cauldron, and Zhou Qingqing recognized the enormous bronze vessel’s beast-face design as a taotie motif.

Little White Dragon and Goat Strength Immortal entered the Taotie Cauldron, where Little White Dragon discovered that its harmless-looking oil was digesting them. He recognized the cauldron as a living Taotie stomach, leaving both contestants trapped inside the ancient fiend’s gastric fluid.

• The King of the Chechi Kingdom announced that Little White Dragon and Goat Strength Immortal would enter the cauldron together and that the loser would die, body and soul destroyed.
• Little White Dragon entered the oil and found that it felt mild, but he sensed it flowing like blood and used the Ice Dragon Pearl to shield himself with frost.
• Little White Dragon saw Goat Strength Immortal floating calmly without any defenses and realized a hidden digestive force was weakening his frost barrier.
• Little White Dragon reinforced his protection with ice armor, then searched his Dragon Clan inherited memories for an explanation.
• Little White Dragon recognized the cauldron’s patterns as those of Taotie and realized they were inside the ancient fiend’s stomach, surrounded by its digestive fluid.

Goat Strength Immortal used three dangerous methods to resist the Taotie Cauldron and carve out a place to survive inside it. The cauldron redirected all its devouring power toward Little White Dragon, who prepared to face the concentrated attack.

• Goat Strength Immortal manifested his True-Origin Goat Head, causing the Taotie Cauldron to mistake him for an offering and slow its erosion of him.
• Goat Strength Immortal connected the patterns on his horns to the cauldron walls and invoked a Countermanding Sacrificial Contract to seize the chief officiant's authority.
• Goat Strength Immortal accepted Taotie's greed Dao rhyme into his Ram-Headed Dharma Form, combining his three methods to establish a pocket of safety inside the cauldron.
• The Taotie Cauldron redirected its devouring power toward Little White Dragon, rapidly thinning his ice armor.
• Little White Dragon accepted the challenge and prepared for a real contest with Goat Strength Immortal.

Little White Dragon used his bloodline to learn Taotie’s Dao Runes and forge the seven-star Devouring Ancestor Dragon Pearl, becoming immune to the cauldron’s digestion. He opened his eyes and met Goat Strength Immortal’s gaze, leaving the contest’s outcome poised to change.

• Little White Dragon recognized the patterns on the Taotie Cauldron as living Dao Runes and realized he could learn them through his bloodline.
• Little White Dragon withdrew his ice armor and poured his remaining power into his dragon blood to bear Taotie’s Dao Runes.
• Goat Strength Immortal believed Little White Dragon was close to defeat and waited for him to fall.
• Little White Dragon fused the Dragon Clan’s Dao with Taotie’s greed to form a new Dragon Pearl.
• The system confirmed Little White Dragon’s seven-star Devouring Ancestor Dragon Pearl, which let him devour and refine things into bloodline power.
• Little White Dragon realized the cauldron no longer treated him as food, then opened his eyes and met Goat Strength Immortal’s gaze.

Little White Dragon absorbed the Taotie Dao Patterns into his Seven-Star Dragon Pearl and summoned the Yinglong God to make Taotie a Dragon Son. The Goat Strength Immortal was destroyed by the transformed cauldron, which Ying Long declared a Dragon Artifact to protect Chechi Kingdom.

• Little White Dragon used Swallow Heaven to absorb the Taotie Dao Patterns from the cauldron, strengthening his Devouring Ancestor Dragon Pearl.
• Little White Dragon summoned the Yinglong God and wished for Taotie to join the Dragon Clan.
• Ying Long transformed the Taotie markings into Dragon Son markings, and the cauldron's power became Dragon Son Power.
• The transformed cauldron's power turned against the Goat Strength Immortal and disintegrated him.
• Ying Long declared the Taotie Cauldron a Dragon Artifact that Chechi Kingdom could worship for the kingdom's protection.

After Goat Strength Immortal died in the Taotie Cauldron, Deer Strength Immortal called for the second life-or-death contest against Zhu Bajie. As the Yinglong God departed and the people of the Chechi Kingdom urged the surviving state preceptors to retreat, Deer Strength Immortal and Zhu Bajie prepared to slit their bellies and gouge out their hearts.

• Deer Strength Immortal acknowledged Little White Dragon's victory and challenged Zhu Bajie to a simultaneous belly-slitting and heart-gouging contest, with the first to die losing.
• Zhu Bajie accepted the challenge without objection as the Yinglong God left after Taotie's entry into the Dragon Clan was settled.
• The king and the people of the Chechi Kingdom recognized the Preaching Squad as the true Daoist Orthodoxy and murmured that Tiger Strength Immortal and Deer Strength Immortal should retreat.
• Deer Strength Immortal formed his life-bound blade and announced that the contest could begin.
• Zhu Bajie planted his Nine-Toothed Rake in the ground, prepared to face the contest, and said he could not disgrace himself after Little White Dragon's victory.

Zhu Bajie matched Deer Strength Immortal in a brutal contest of self-mutilation before realizing that the other immortal’s strange endurance concealed an abnormal Dao foundation. The chapter ended with Zhu Bajie stopping as cracks spread through his own foundation, while Deer Strength Immortal continued unfazed.

• Deer Strength Immortal cut open his abdomen, removed his heart and then his other vital organs, and laid them on the ground.
• Zhu Bajie imitated Deer Strength Immortal, removing his own heart and matching his later acts as the horrified people of Chechi Kingdom watched.
• The king realized that the Preaching Squad and the state preceptors were far beyond ordinary mortals, while the Preaching Squad and Tiger Strength Immortal remained calm.
• Deer Strength Immortal began destroying his meridians, qi and blood, and bones, and Zhu Bajie followed each step.
• Zhu Bajie felt cracks forming in his Dao foundation and realized Deer Strength Immortal might not have a normal foundation, then stopped while Deer Strength Immortal continued.

Zhu Bajie comprehended the growth-type divine ability Eight-Realm Illusion Slayer and used its lingering force to destroy Deer Strength Immortal’s obsession, Dao foundation, and body. As Deer Strength Immortal vanished, the people of Chechi Kingdom and the Preaching Squad witnessed Zhu Bajie’s victory and realized he had grown stronger.

• Deer Strength Immortal’s Taowu Fierce Technique made him grow more stubborn and powerful as he destroyed his own body, leaving Zhu Bajie struggling against his relentless obsession.
• Zhu Bajie understood that his path was to slay the eight attachments and comprehended the divine ability Eight-Realm Illusion Slayer.
• Zhu Bajie directed the new divine ability at his own Dao foundation, shattering his eight attachments and sending its residual power toward Deer Strength Immortal.
• The lingering force of Zhu Bajie’s ability destroyed Deer Strength Immortal’s obsession, causing his Dao foundation to collapse and his body to disintegrate.
• The people of Chechi Kingdom watched Deer Strength Immortal perish as Zhu Bajie stood bloodied, while Sun Wukong praised him and Sha Wujin and Little White Dragon recognized his breakthrough.

Tang Sanzang confronted Tiger Strength Immortal after the deaths of Goat Strength Immortal and Deer Strength Immortal, and exposed Tiger Strength Immortal’s Qiongqi’s Method. They began a deadly contest to see whether the Funeral Great Dao or Qiongqi’s Method was faster, leaving both of their heads severed on the ground.

• Tiger Strength Immortal rejected the court’s pleas to stop and demanded one last life-or-death wager against Tang Sanzang.
• Tang Sanzang agreed to face Tiger Strength Immortal and revealed that he cultivated Qiongqi’s Method, one of the Four Ancient Evils.
• Tang Sanzang explained that the contest would pit the speed of his Funeral Great Dao against Tiger Strength Immortal’s Qiongqi’s Method.
• Tang Sanzang and Tiger Strength Immortal severed their heads at the same time, and their heads struck the ground as the crowd watched.

Tang Sanzang awakened a new realm of his Dao of Burial and manifested the Law Coffin against Tiger Strength Immortal. The coffin overwhelmed Qiongqi's Method and began to bury Tiger Strength Immortal, leaving his fate unclear.

• Tang Sanzang reflected on his earlier failure and resolved to make his Burial Dao stronger within its own rules.
• Tang Sanzang realized that the ultimate form of Burial was a coffin that sealed the dead away completely.
• A phantom Law Coffin emerged from Tang Sanzang's Dao foundation and descended over Tiger Strength Immortal's tiger head.
• The Law Coffin's burial law nullified Qiongqi's Method and left Tiger Strength Immortal with no chance to resist.

Tang Sanzang used the Law Coffin to bury Tiger Strength Immortal, then reunited his severed head with his body. The king recognized the Preaching Squad as the true heirs of the Daoist Orthodoxy, and Tang Sanzang gathered the auras of Deer Strength Immortal and Goat Strength Immortal to send the three brothers on their way together.

• Tang Sanzang’s Law Coffin sealed Tiger Strength Immortal’s head and body, making them vanish without a trace.
• Tang Sanzang’s severed head floated back to his neck, and he declared, “Burial complete.”
• The king announced that the three state preceptors had lost their wager and recognized the Preaching Squad as the true heirs of the Daoist Orthodoxy and benefactors of the Chechi Kingdom.
• Tang Sanzang used the power of Burial to draw together the auras of Deer Strength Immortal and Goat Strength Immortal.
• Tang Sanzang said the three brothers should journey together in death and offered to see them on their way.

Chaos, the fourth of the Four Ancient Evils, descended on the Chechi Kingdom after Tang Sanzang buried the three state preceptors, dissolving everything around the Preaching Squad. Sun Wukong and the others found their powers ineffective, leaving the kingdom in immediate danger.

• Tang Sanzang finished burying the three brothers, but Chaos abruptly engulfed the Chechi Kingdom and began dissolving its people and surroundings.
• Sun Wukong recognized Chaos as the fourth ancient evil and realized the enemy had waited until the Preaching Squad lowered their guard.
• Tang Sanzang understood that burying the three state preceptors had redirected Chaos onto the kingdom instead of letting it consume their auras and disperse.
• Sun Wukong struck Chaos with his Golden-Hooped Staff, but the opening closed and he realized Chaos had no core or weakness to attack.
• Zhu Bajie's Eight-Realm Illusion Slayer and Little White Dragon's Dragon Clan power also failed to affect Chaos.

As Chaos dissolved the Chechi Kingdom and its people, Tang Sanzang realized the Taotie Cauldron could serve as an altar because its Taotie aura shared an origin with Chaos. The Preaching Squad and the kingdom’s people offered their destiny and fortune to the Three Pure Ones, sending golden incense to the Three Pure Ones Temple as the Heavenly Venerates prepared to restore the stalled River Cart.

• As the palace and its inhabitants began disappearing into Chaos, Little White Dragon noticed that the Taotie Cauldron remained solid.
• Tang Sanzang determined that the cauldron could serve as an altar and proposed offering the Chechi Kingdom’s destiny and fortune to the Dao before the Three Pure Ones.
• The king called on his subjects to contribute their destiny and fortune, which gathered into golden sticks of offering incense inside the Taotie Cauldron.
• Tang Sanzang led the Preaching Squad in a prayer asking the Three Pure Ones to suppress Chaos and protect Chechi Kingdom and its people.
• The offering incense ignited and sent golden smoke toward the Three Pure Ones Temple, where Supreme Pure Laozi and the other Heavenly Venerates agreed that the stalled River Cart should be set moving again.

The Preaching Squad used the Taotie Cauldron, ten thousand sticks of golden Offering Incense, and the Three Pure Ones statues to summon the Heaven-and-Earth Great Cart, which restored order to the Chechi Kingdom. The king understood that the kingdom’s River Cart had been obstructed for three hundred years and began issuing a decree to change Chechi’s name.

• The incense awakened the clay statues, whose Dao Resonance formed the Heaven-and-Earth Great Cart above the Chechi Kingdom.
• The cart turned Chaos into an ordered world, then dissolved into threads of light that spread through the kingdom and set its circulation moving again.
• Sun Wukong praised the plan and recognized how the Taotie Cauldron, the temple, and the statues had joined to break the deadlock.
• The people saw the kingdom restored, and the king realized that the River Cart had been jammed for three hundred years.
• The king bowed toward the Three Pure Ones Temple and began a decree: “From this day forth, the name of the kingdom, Chechi.”

The king renamed Chechi Kingdom to Chejing after rejecting the State Preceptors’ influence and affirming that the River Cart must never stop. The Preaching Squad departed as the kingdom began reforms in education, irrigation, currency, records, and its temple, and the first days of Chejing began.

• The king explained that the kingdom had ceased to exist during the State Preceptors’ pause and declared that its name could no longer include “delay.”
• The Grand Historian accepted the king’s decision, and the king renamed the kingdom Chejing; officials and commoners echoed the new name.
• The king ordered the old plaque sent to the Three Pure Ones Temple, new seals carved in regular script, and the calendar kept without restarting.
• After the Preaching Squad departed, Chejing replaced official records and currency, established schools, dug irrigation channels, and rebuilt the Three Pure Ones Temple.
• A child asked his teacher what Tranquil Stillness meant, and the teacher pointed to the flowing irrigation water as Chejing’s new era began.

The Preaching Squad reached the Heaven-Reaching River, a vast expanse of Tongtian’s sword intent, and tested ways to cross it. Their attempts failed, leaving Tang Sanzang wounded and unable to bury a path through the river.

• Sun Wukong sent a hair-created monkey onto the river, where the sword intent sliced it apart instantly.
• Zhu Bajie identified the river as sword qi, while Sha Wujin recognized its pure intent to sever everything.
• Little White Dragon tried to fly across, but the sword intent rose into a wall reaching the sky.
• Tang Sanzang used the Dao of Burial to try to bury a path through the river, but the sword intent shattered his coffin silhouette and wounded his palm.
• Tang Sanzang admitted that he could not bury the river imbued with Tongtian’s sword intent.

At the Heaven-Reaching River, the Preaching Squad left Sha Wujin to solve the trial’s challenge, and he chose to face it without using Endless Extraction on the river. The chapter ended with Sha Wujin gathering his strength and leaping into the water.

• Zhou Qingqing recalled that the original river trial involved the goldfish spirit Great King Linggan and imagined seeing chibi versions of the masters.
• The Preaching Squad realized the trial had become more difficult and turned to Sha Wujin to devise a solution.
• Sha Wujin accepted responsibility, and Sun Wukong led the others away so he could think without distraction.
• Sha Wujin chose not to use Endless Extraction on the Heaven-Reaching River because it belonged to Master Tongtian.
• Sha Wujin drew on his power, took up his Moonlight Shovel, and leaped into the Heaven-Reaching River.

Sha Wujin used the Nine-Bend Yellow River Formation and the Primordial Chaos Return-to-One Art to weaken the Heaven-Reaching River, then swung the Moonlight Shovel to sever its supply line. His attempt succeeded.

• Sha Wujin shaped his Eight Hundred Quicksand Domain into nine bends and eighteen turns to grind away the Heaven-Reaching River’s sword qi.
• Sha Wujin anchored the formation himself with the Primordial Chaos Return-to-One Art, sacrificing his body as the missing Primordial Golden Dipper.
• Sha Wujin drew the river’s sword qi into the formation and watched the river gradually sink as its power diminished.
• Sha Wujin realized a thread still connected the river to its disintegrating main body, allowing it to keep replenishing itself.
• Sha Wujin channeled his accumulated power into the Moonlight Shovel and severed the thread, succeeding in his attempt.