Now, this Ape Spirit was named Yuan Hua. He had originally been a pet kept by the Green-Haired Immortal, Elder Liu Laogen, during the Han Dynasty. Liu had raised two apes, one black and one Bai. The Bai one was Yuan Hua.
Before Immortal Liu ascended, Zen Master Wuxin of India borrowed the black ape to guard his cave abode. Having violated the precepts against greed, wrath, and killing, she fell back into the Wheel of Rebirth and was reborn several times, finally returning to an ape's body. In the future, she would enter the Daoist fold as Yuan Xing, the great female ape whom Li Yingqiong of the Emei Sect would later take in on Mangcang Mountain.
The Bai Ape was extreme in temperament and impatient for quick success. His cultivation went awry, destroying his precept-bound purity, and he was reborn as a human three times. Liu tried twice to guide him to enlightenment, but both attempts failed because of his wrath and delusions. By his third reincarnation, Liu had already ascended to immortality. The Bai Ape became an ape again, only to die beneath the sword of Suyin, the eldest disciple of Master Youtan of the Buddhist Sect. This time, he did not reincarnate. Instead, he used his primordial spirit to cultivate into a Ghost Immortal, intending eventually to advance from Ghost Immortal to Earth Immortal, then become a Heavenly Immortal and attain the Dao.
He usually cultivated atop Skyscraping Peak on Mount Taimu in Fujian. Though an ape in a ghostly body, he regarded himself as a senior of the immortal path. His greatest pleasure was crossing swords with others. While he did not actively commit evil, his wrath ran deep: anyone who provoked him would face his vengeance, and he would not stop until one of