After Holy Mother Wudang left with Bai Suzhen, Sun Wukong stood where he was for a long while. He shook his head, composed himself, and hurried after the party to continue the mission the great Black Bear Buddha Lord had entrusted to him: protecting the Scripture-Seeking Pilgrim on the journey to the Western Heaven to obtain the true sutras.
Day after day, year after year, more than a decade passed before they knew it. They overcame all eighty-one tribulations arranged for them, and the grandmaster and his three granddisciples arrived safely at the Great Hero Hall in the Western Heaven. (There doesn't seem to be much worth writing about the pilgrimage anymore, so let's just skim over it.)
Inside the Great Hero Hall.
A Bei, Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Ao Lie stood in a row with their palms pressed together. Apart from A Bei, all three wore intensely excited smiles.
At last, they had completed the entire journey. The day had come to reap its fruits. It had not been easy!
Above them, the stout Black Bear Buddha Lord sat on the Merit Golden Lotus, looking down upon them from on high. On either side, the many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas also watched them with smiles.
Once the Mahayana Buddhist Sutras had been successfully delivered to the Eastern Land, the fortune of all Buddhism would surge, and these Buddhas and Bodhisattvas would benefit.
"Wukong!" Black Bear called in a vast, resonant voice, holding a string of prayer beads.
Hearing him, Sun Wukong hurried two steps forward and bowed. "Your disciple is here."
"You protected A Bei through all eighty-one tribulations and have safely reached the Western Heaven today. Your merits are considerable. I now invest you as the Victorious Fighting Buddha, a Dharma Protector of our Buddhist School, ranked one