Recaps

Xuanzang met the gods who had helped contain the heavenly fire, and Nezha returned Bajie and Sha Wujing’s weapons. After Nezha revealed his Buddhist ties and tried to claim Wukong as his martial nephew, Xuanzang called for the demon hiding in Jindou Cave to come out.

• Li Jing, the Fire Virtue Star Lord, the Yellow River Water Earl, Deng Hua, and Zhang Fan greeted Xuanzang and apologized for the fire and flood.
• Nezha arrived and returned Bajie’s Nine-Toothed Rake and Sha Wujing’s Demon-Subduing Treasure Staff.
• Wukong introduced Nezha to Xuanzang, and Nezha explained that the Buddha had saved him and given him a new body.
• Bajie recounted Nezha’s history, and Li Jing confirmed that the Buddha had bestowed his Exquisitely Translucent Sarira Wish-Fulfilling Golden Treasure Pagoda.
• Nezha asked Wukong to call him Martial Uncle, but Wukong refused and urged Xuanzang to resume their search for the demon.
• Xuanzang faced Jindou Cave and called for its demon to come out.

Xuanzang led his disciples into Jindou Cave to speak with the motionless figure inside, while Li Jing and Nezha stayed outside to guard the entrance. Wukong and Bajie discovered that the cave’s ash carried the fragrance of elixirs from the Old Lord’s Doushuai Palace, and Xuanzang said the answers would come when they met their benefactor.

• Wukong saw a lone figure standing motionless inside the empty cave and confirmed that Nezha had not entered it.
• Xuanzang decided to enter with his disciples, while Wukong persuaded Li Jing and Nezha to remain outside and guard the entrance.
• Li Jing sent the other gods and heavenly soldiers away, leaving himself and Nezha to watch Jindou Cave.
• Wukong created a ball of golden light to illuminate the cave, and Bajie noticed that the ash smelled like elixirs.
• Wukong recognized the fragrance as the same one found in the Old Lord’s Doushuai Palace and asked Xuanzang why they had all been brought there.
• Xuanzang told Wukong to wait until they met their benefactor, when the answers would come.

Xuanzang and the pilgrims reached Jindou Cave’s Front Hall and found Great King Si standing motionless with the Diamond Ring. Xuanzang struck him with the Bitter Bamboo Ruler, broke off his horn, and awakened him, then told him his master had given him a name.

• Wukong inferred that the strange changes involving A-Hu, Little White Dragon, and the old bull were connected to mounts and pill refining, while Bajie complained that the others were keeping him in the dark.
• The group entered Jindou Cave’s Front Hall, where they found Great King Si standing motionless with the Diamond Ring in his hand.
• Wukong discovered that Great King Si’s body had become rigid like a tree, and Bajie suspected the power came from the cave’s dome and the ring.
• Xuanzang struck Great King Si’s head and horn with the Bitter Bamboo Ruler, breaking off the horn and stirring life in his empty eyes.
• Xuanzang asked Great King Si his name and told him that his master had given it to him.

Xuanzang began telling Great King Si a long story using the broken horn, conjuring a vision of the world's creation. As heaven and earth faced a catastrophic calamity, Xuanzang revealed that nearly every living thing in Jambudvipa was doomed to perish.

• Great King Si reacted to the word "master," denied having a master or a name, and declared that he was a tree.
• Xuanzang picked up Great King Si's broken horn and offered to tell him a long story, while Wukong and the others gathered around to listen.
• Xuanzang used the Unimpeded Luminous Buddha Wheel to burn the horn, and its smoke transported the group into a vision of primordial chaos.
• Xuanzang narrated how the Dao Ancestor opened heaven and cleaved earth, then created Nuwa, who molded humanity from clay.
• Xuanzang described a catastrophe in which heaven and earth began collapsing together, heavenly fire rained down, and earthly waters surged upward, killing nearly all life in Jambudvipa.

Xuanzang recounted how Nuwa mended the sky, Yu subdued the floods, and the Dao Ancestor later split open the ancient tree. The tree became Green Ox, who recognized the young Dao Ancestor’s call and stood bewildered before him.

• Xuanzang showed how Nuwa sacrificed herself to mend the heavens, ending the heavenly fire and allowing the floodwaters to recede.
• The Dao Ancestor taught the human ancestors, and Yu measured and dredged rivers until the floods were guided into the sea and people began to prosper.
• Xuanzang described the Dao Ancestor finding the ancient tree after it had lost its branches and leaves, then splitting it open with a touch.
• Green Ox emerged from the fallen tree, looked around in confusion, and heard the Dao Ancestor call him over.

Xuanzang recounted a creation story to Great King Si, who briefly stirred but remained unawakened. Wukong challenged the tale’s purpose, its portrayal of the Dao Ancestor, and its chronology, ending by asking who the Heavenly Dao was.

• Xuanzang urged Great King Si to think again, but Great King Si lowered his head without waking.
• Bajie praised Great King Si’s extraordinary origins, and Little White Dragon asked Xuanzang why he had forgotten everything.
• Wukong questioned why the story had been told and why it described the Dao Ancestor as tirelessly creating and repairing the world.
• Wukong calculated that a cosmic cycle lasted 129,600 years and compared that span with the Jade Emperor’s kalpas and the lifespans of immortals and dragons.
• Little White Dragon agreed that ancient records described spans far longer than a single cycle, while Sha Wujing and A-Hu struggled to grasp the numbers.
• Wukong declared that Xuanzang’s account did not add up and asked who the Heavenly Dao was if the Old Lord had created heaven and earth.

Xuanzang explained kalpas and great kalpas to Wukong and the others, showing how worlds form, endure, are destroyed, and return to emptiness. He clarified that the Dao Ancestor endured countless kalpas, but Pangu cleaved open Primordial Chaos and was later revered as Yuanshi Tianzun.

• Xuanzang explained that a small kalpa was one rise and fall in human lifespans, while formation, abiding, destruction, and emptiness together made a great kalpa.
• Xuanzang showed how the abiding kalpa brought three minor disasters—war, plague, and famine—and how fire, water, and wind destroyed worlds during the destruction kalpa.
• Bajie connected the emptiness kalpa to Wukong’s name, and Wukong kicked at him and dismissed the idea.
• Xuanzang explained that the Three Thousand Worlds formed and perished on different timescales, so kalpas did not all last equally long.
• Xuanzang said the Dao Ancestor endured kalpa after kalpa, but another being cleaved open Primordial Chaos: Pangu, later revered as Yuanshi Tianzun.

Xuanzang and his disciples discussed conflicting accounts of who created heaven and earth, as Bajie, Sha Wujing, and Little White Dragon recalled scriptures and legends depicting different creators. Wukong was left asking Xuanzang which account to believe and who had told him about them.

• Bajie recited scriptures portraying Yuanshi Tianzun as an eternal Heavenly Venerable who opened new epochs and taught the Dao.
• Bajie described Taishang Laojun dwelling in the void as worlds and all things took shape, leaving Wukong to wonder which figure had opened their heavens.
• Bajie said many great deities were credited with creating heaven and earth, and Sha Wujing recalled a legend identifying the Great Heavenly Venerable, also called the Jade Emperor, as Pangu and the creator.
• Little White Dragon shared a Dragon Tribe legend in which a giant dragon's body became the world and its turning separated yin and yang.
• Wukong asked Xuanzang which account he should believe and who had told him all of it.

Xuanzang explained that heaven and earth arose through the shared karma and perceptions of sentient beings, then questioned Great King Si about contradictions in the Dao Ancestor’s account. He left the mystery of Great King Si’s origins unresolved while admitting that he had sought the truth by comparing the Dao Ancestor’s and Yuanshi Tianzun’s stories.

• Xuanzang showed his disciples a vision of Wukong’s life and explained that each being’s world expanded with what they experienced and learned.
• Xuanzang taught that no eternal creator opened the heavens and that heaven and earth arose through collective karma, while true nature and the Great Dao endured.
• The disciples answered Xuanzang’s question about who opened the heavens, and he praised them for receiving his teaching.
• Wukong pointed out that Great King Si’s origins remained unsettled, and Xuanzang named three contradictions in the Dao Ancestor’s account.
• Xuanzang said he had compared the Dao Ancestor’s and Yuanshi Tianzun’s accounts to establish the truth, and Wukong struck Bajie when he mocked that explanation.

Xuanzang used the broken horn to reveal the early history of humankind and tell how Fuxi began recording the world around him. After Fuxi followed Dragon Horse to the Wei River, he met Yuhua Zi, who offered to become his master.

• Xuanzang described early people living in tribes, keeping records with knotted cords, sheltering in caves and nests, and struggling to hunt and eat raw meat.
• Fuxi watched fire and became a leader among humankind, then recorded the sun's shadows, weather, rivers, animals, and other patterns on a mountainside.
• As Fuxi pondered the mysteries of thunder, rain, and day and night, Dragon Horse appeared from a cave, and Little White Dragon recognized him.
• Fuxi followed Dragon Horse along the Wei River until he found Yuhua Zi resting on a bluestone.
• Yuhua Zi introduced himself, and Xuanzang revealed that he was the Supreme Dao Ancestor in disguise; Yuhua Zi offered to be Fuxi's master and invited him to ask questions.

Yuhua Zi introduced Fuxi to yin and yang by drawing two circles and guiding him to see how opposite qualities coexist within things. After thinking through the night, Fuxi watched the river split and rejoin around a bluestone and suddenly understood, startling Yuhua Zi awake.

• Fuxi poured out questions about the world, and Yuhua Zi said they would answer them for today.
• Yuhua Zi drew an empty circle and a filled circle on the bluestone and explained that they represented yang and yin.
• Fuxi reasoned that water and mountains each contained yin and yang, and Yuhua Zi explained that opposites depended on one another.
• Fuxi enclosed the two circles in a larger circle, but Yuhua Zi asked whether his idea was right and fell asleep before answering.
• Fuxi stayed beside the bluestone through the night and watched the circles' appearances change with the shifting light.
• Fuxi saw the river split into an outer current and an inner eddy before merging again, declared that he understood, and woke Yuhua Zi.

Fuxi studied the changing light, shadows, and river currents with Yuhua Zi and formed a symbol of yin and yang within a circle, which Yuhua Zi named Taiji. Fuxi concluded that all things moved and changed according to patterns, and Yuhua Zi called this Change.

• Fuxi spread black river mud across a circle on the stone, then traced a winding boundary and cleared one side to show yin and yang advancing and retreating.
• Yuhua Zi questioned whether yin or yang could disappear completely, and Fuxi recognized that each existed within the other.
• Yuhua Zi placed small solid and hollow circles within the larger circle and explained that their undivided whole was called Taiji.
• As the sun and shadows shifted, Fuxi observed that light turned to darkness and darkness to light, and that all things changed according to their own order.
• Fuxi asked what the spinning fruit represented, and Yuhua Zi named it Change.

Yuhua Zi taught Fuxi the Changes and invited him to leave for the heaven beyond heaven, but Fuxi stayed to help his people. As Fuxi became Emperor Xi and established a thriving nation, Yuhua Zi kept returning, eventually sitting quietly with him while he worked through the trigrams.

• Yuhua Zi taught Fuxi about the Supreme Ultimate and the Two Forms, then accepted Fuxi's decision to call him Master.
• Yuhua Zi guided Fuxi to establish a calendar, determine the cardinal directions, and name the Eight Trigrams.
• Yuhua Zi invited Fuxi to travel with him, but Fuxi stayed to serve his people until they could live well without him.
• Fuxi developed fishing nets, taught animal husbandry, established marriage customs, and devised picture marks to record lending and returns, repeatedly postponing his departure.
• Fuxi's tribe grew into a nation, and as Emperor Xi he divided its regions, appointed officials, and established systems for livestock, marriage, records, and music.
• Yuhua Zi visited less often and stopped pressing Fuxi to leave, instead sitting beside him as Fuxi studied the trigrams and shared mandarin oranges.

Fuxi continued divining despite his failing health, then discovered a path to survival amid an unknown Great Kalpa. He died beside the river after sending Nuwa away, and Yuhua Zi carried him back before mourning him in secret.

• Yuhua Zi reminded Fuxi that his master would take him away once his work was done, and Fuxi promised to find him.
• Years of divinations weakened Fuxi, and on his hundred and tenth birthday he foretold a Great Kalpa and saw a path to survival.
• Fuxi gave Nuwa his Divination Board and ordered her to leave him alone beside the river.
• Yuhua Zi arrived as Fuxi was dying, but Fuxi refused to leave because others still needed him, and he died in his master's arms.
• Yuhua Zi carried Fuxi back, then secretly mourned at his grave and tossed a partly eaten mandarin orange onto it.
• A crack opened in the grave, and a tender green seedling emerged.

Xuanzang continued recounting how Nuwa succeeded Fuxi, preserved his institutions, and created the sheng. When the Great Kalpa devastated the world, Fuxi’s transformed tree sheltered living creatures, but Nuwa wondered whether it offered a true path to survival.

• After Fuxi died, the Yellow Dragon official and the tribal leaders chose Nuwa to succeed him, and she accepted the throne.
• Nuwa kept Fuxi’s institutions in place, refusing to change rules without a reason.
• Nuwa invented the sheng reed pipe to bring people joy, then played it for Fuxi at his grave.
• The Great Kalpa struck without warning, bringing earthquakes, floods, and fires that devastated the land.
• Fuxi’s tree grew into the heavens, and Nuwa urged people and animals to climb onto its branches for safety.
• Nuwa saw Fuxi’s hexagrams glow and asked whether the tree was the path to survival.

Nuwa endured a dangerous climb up the growing tree, guided by the divination board and aided by its branches, until she reached a heavenly palace. She pleaded with a white-haired old man to save her people, trusting that her arrival proved he could.

• Nuwa left the Yellow Dragon Official in charge of the people and climbed the tree toward the rift in the sky.
• When Nuwa lost her grip and fell, the branches caught and supported her, and she found the broken sheng she had made for Fuxi.
• Nuwa tied the sheng’s remaining gourd to her waist and continued climbing, with branches helping her until they ran out.
• Nuwa strained upward with her hands and tail until a force pulled her through the tree’s crown and into a palace.
• Nuwa met a white-haired old man and begged him to save her people, presenting Fuxi’s divination board as proof that he could.

Nuwa traded her broken sheng to the old man, who made 36,500 Five-Colored Stones and took on her appearance to mend the sky in her place. As the people hailed him as Empress Wa, the repaired heavens filled with stars.

• The old man rejected Nuwa’s offer of her life, but agreed to trade for her half-burned sheng.
• The old man used the five masses of qi and Nuwa’s divination board to calculate and create 36,500 Five-Colored Stones.
• After making himself look like Nuwa, the old man claimed that she would receive the credit for mending the sky because he had accepted her belonging.
• The old man flew toward the fractured heavens with the Five-Colored Stones, while Nuwa watched from the palace.
• The old man’s stones plugged the sky’s rifts, stopping the Heavenly Fire and causing the people below to cheer for Empress Wa.
• The repaired rifts became points and lines of light that joined into a radiant river, and stars appeared in the sky.

Nuwa returned after mending the heavens, lived on to old age, and died beneath the great tree. Ages later, a Daoist master brought Jiang Shinian to the tree, where his senior brother had become Jianmu, and Jiang Shinian received a fruit from him.

• Nuwa returned to the people beneath the great tree and announced that the Great Kalpa was over.
• Nuwa spent many years helping humankind rebuild, then died beneath the tree and was buried beside it.
• As generations passed, people remembered Fuxi and Nuwa while the great tree was gradually forgotten.
• A middle-aged Daoist master brought Jiang Shinian to Jianmu and warned him that the tree was his senior brother, who had ignored his master and turned into a tree.
• Jiang Shinian climbed Jianmu, then jumped down with a yellow fruit and said his senior brother had given it to him.

The Old Lord and Yuanshi Tianzun returned to Jindou Cave as Xuanzang’s account of Jiang Shinian’s past came to an end. The Old Lord then revealed how Jiang Shinian chose to remain beneath Jianmu, where he became a red vine beside his senior brother.

• The illusion faded, and the Old Lord appeared in Jindou Cave, reprimanding Wukong and accusing Xuanzang of publicly exposing his failings.
• Yuanshi Tianzun arrived and told Wukong he could speak, so Wukong pressed the Old Lord to explain what happened to Jiang Shinian.
• The Old Lord showed Jiang Shinian testing unknown herbs with the Red Whip and eating poisonous plants to learn their effects and remedies.
• After Jiang Shinian grew old, the Old Lord came to Jianmu and asked whether he had made up his mind to stay.
• Jiang Shinian gave the Red Whip back, said he was tired and wanted to keep his senior brother company, then vanished as a red vine climbed Jianmu.

The Old Lord explained that Great King Si was born from Jianmu with the Three Sovereigns’ inheritance but lacked a soul, spirit, and apertures, leaving him at risk of becoming wood again. He asked Wukong and the others to help refine a pill that could open Great King Si’s primordial aperture without destroying him.

• The Old Lord said Ox Lord had emerged from Jianmu as his disciple, and Wukong joked that several disciples had pooled together to make one ox.
• The Old Lord explained that Great King Si had no soul, spirit, heart, or apertures, and that his strong wood energy would eventually turn him back into a piece of wood.
• The Old Lord revealed that forcibly opening Great King Si’s apertures would scatter the powers holding him together, while a false aperture and the Diamond Ring could only suppress his wood energy temporarily.
• Wukong realized the Old Lord had brought them to help Great King Si and deciphered his verses as instructions to refine a pill and open the primordial aperture.
• The Old Lord bowed to Xuanzang and the others, asking them to help because Great King Si was his only remaining disciple.

The Old Lord explained how the travelers’ changing roles and the dragon and tiger’s injuries fit the Journey’s fate, arguing that their struggle had brought the group into balance. Wukong remained reluctant to thank him, while the Old Lord insisted they owed him gratitude.

• Wukong confronted the Old Lord over Little White Dragon’s broken horn and A-Hu’s injuries, but the Old Lord called them beneficial.
• The Old Lord described how the Three Powers produced kalpas and explained that the original pilgrimage group had been chosen to occupy specific places.
• The Old Lord said Xuanzang’s arrival had changed the group’s course, leaving Wukong’s metal and fire energies unbalanced and Little White Dragon and A-Hu in altered roles.
• Little White Dragon admitted that his broken horn had eased his dragon nature, and the Old Lord told A-Hu that her fortune and name came from the little girl who had helped her.
• The Old Lord said the dragon and tiger’s struggle had completed the group’s five elements, then demanded that Wukong and the others thank him.

The Old Lord sent Wukong and his companions into the Diamond Ring to help refine Great King Si, where they discovered that the process transformed Little White Dragon and A-Hu. Sha Wujing then recited the five-elements verses, setting each of them into position as the gray vapor began to move.

• The Old Lord sealed Jindou Cave and used the Diamond Ring, heavenly fire, and Yellow River water to begin refining Great King Si.
• Wukong, Bajie, Little White Dragon, A-Hu, and Sha Wujing entered the ring and found themselves suspended in a vast, dim chaos without their magic powers.
• Little White Dragon emerged feeling lighter, while A-Hu appeared as a woman and told Bajie she was his senior sister.
• Sha Wujing descended amid black and white energies, then recited verses assigning water, fire, metal, wood, and earth to their five positions.
• The five companions were pulled into their respective positions, and Sha Wujing stamped down as the gray vapor began to move.

Sha Wujing followed the instructions from the voice in his chest to bring the clear and turbid qi into balance, guiding his companions through the first return of the Immortal Reversal Art. The first cycle ended with the group back in their positions, and the voice told them that six more returns remained.

• Sha Wujing pressed the turbid qi down and spread yellow earth across the four quarters, then assigned Wukong, Bajie, Little White Dragon, and A-Hu their positions.
• The Old Lord seated Xuanzang above the Diamond Ring and supported him while Yuanshi Tianzun helped keep the dangerous Chaos in check.
• Little White Dragon rose through the water as A-Hu descended through the flames, and their crossing separated the clear and turbid qi.
• Sha Wujing sent Wukong north to seek metal and Bajie south to seek wood; Wukong found golden liquid, while Bajie gathered a lotus from the fire seed.
• Wukong, Bajie, Little White Dragon, and A-Hu returned to their places, completing the first return, and the voice announced that six more remained.

Sha Wujing led Wukong, Bajie, Little White Dragon, and A-Hu through seven returns to gather the five elements and refine a golden elixir inside the Diamond Ring. As the elixir formed and Xuanzang’s phantom joined its heart, Sha Wujing sent everyone out of the ring.

• Sha Wujing directed the group through repeated cycles, as Wukong gathered metal from Kan and Bajie gathered wood from Li, combining golden liquid and red lotuses in their assigned positions.
• Little White Dragon transformed into a crimson-tinged white dragon and A-Hu into a black-striped tiger as they carried yin and yang between Kan and Li.
• On the fifth return, Wukong and Bajie brought metal and wood to the central palace, where the golden liquid transformed the red lotus into a golden lotus.
• On the sixth return, the four quarters and surrounding chaos converged around the lotus, forming a layered elixir shell around the dragon-and-tiger qi.
• On the seventh return, Sha Wujing called all five elements to the center, and Xuanzang’s phantom sent colored-glass light into the lotus heart as the elixir gave a muffled thump.
• Sha Wujing obeyed the command to send everyone out, and five surges of qi carried them from the Diamond Ring.

The Old Lord completed the golden liquid return elixir to restore the Ox Lord’s souls, and Wukong carefully pierced the shell to release him. The restored disciple revealed himself as Miaole, who bowed to the Old Lord and announced his return.

• The Old Lord transformed the Diamond Ring into a golden elixir and told Wukong to pierce its mystic origin aperture so the Ox Lord could emerge.
• Wukong studied the moving gap left by the Ox Lord’s broken horn and struck the elixir on his third attempt, splitting it open.
• The golden shell opened into a lotus, revealing a restored young man with long hair and a sun-like mark on his brow.
• The young man’s heartbeat caused auspicious changes inside and outside Jindou Cave, and Li Jing stopped Nezha from rushing in.
• The young man stepped down from the lotus, bowed to the Old Lord, and identified himself as Miaole, his returned disciple.