Recaps

Jade Flute recounted how Pipa created the Daughter Kingdom and confronted Ruyi True Immortal over the child he had caused her to lose. He revealed that she demanded Ruyi give his life and restore the Abortion Spring, leaving Jade Flute convinced that she was no longer Pipa.

• Jade Flute said Pipa had created the Mother-Child River and a kingdom where women could bear children without men.
• Pipa rejected Ruyi True Immortal's offer to bring her home, said she loved someone else, and demanded his life.
• Pipa led Ruyi and Jade Flute to the ruined Abortion Spring and explained that she had destroyed it and killed women who came seeking its water.
• Pipa blamed Ruyi for the loss of her child and ordered him to pour his pure yang power into the well to make a new Abortion Spring.
• Jade Flute stopped Ruyi and told him that the woman before them was not Pipa.

Jade Flute recounted how Pipa forced Ruyi True Immortal to sustain a spring with his life and poisoned Jade Flute to keep them both on Mount Jieyang. He explained that Pipa made Ruyi sell the spring water under humiliating rules, then repeatedly took away every payment.

• Jade Flute recalled that Pipa told Ruyi she would die unless he dissolved his true yang, and Ruyi agreed after she promised he could save her.
• Jade Flute blamed himself for being unable to protect Ruyi or Pipa, but Sha Wujing comforted him and Wukong asked about the spring.
• Jade Flute explained that Ruyi's true yang became spring water, draining his life as the well and barren mountain were restored.
• Pipa poisoned Jade Flute and threatened that he and she would die unless Ruyi stayed on Mount Jieyang.
• Pipa forced Ruyi to sell water for specified payments, then repeatedly took everything they received, tormenting him.

Jade Flute recounted how Ruyi became obsessed with the spring and how Pipa returned with a letter before the Great Sage arrived. Wukong deduced that the Wind and Moon Demon needed Ruyi to replenish the land’s yang energy, leaving the group to consider why the original Abortion Spring had been destroyed.

• Jade Flute explained that Ruyi grew forgetful and volatile, but insisted that Pipa was still Pipa despite her changed identity.
• Jade Flute said Pipa returned happily with a letter from Eldest Martial Uncle, told Ruyi that her beloved would soon arrive, and left after Ruyi demanded to know where Eldest Martial Aunt and Red Boy were.
• Wukong reasoned that the Wind and Moon Demon had destroyed the original Abortion Spring, then lured Ruyi to create a replacement after something went wrong.
• Wukong concluded that the spring’s Pure Yang Water sustained the Kingdom of Women and that the Wind and Moon Demon needed Ruyi to keep replenishing its yang energy.

Wukong’s guess led Guanyin to explain how Pipa’s longing for a child, her obsession, and the aura of calamity drove her toward becoming the Wind and Moon Demon. The chapter ended with Guanyin revealing that even taking Pipa to Spirit Mountain had not been enough to eradicate her demonic seed.

• Wukong guessed that the Abortion Spring and Fetus-Reflecting Spring complemented each other, then asked Guanyin to explain their origins and Pipa’s transformation.
• Guanyin confirmed Wukong’s guess and said that more than three hundred years earlier, she had arranged for Pingala’s soul to enter Rakshasa Woman’s womb so she could bear Red Boy.
• Guanyin explained that Pipa visited Rakshasa Woman, learned how Red Boy had been conceived, and believed devout prayer might let her have a child with Ruyi.
• Guanyin said she repeatedly tried to guide Pipa, but Pipa rejected her advice and mistook Guanyin’s true form for an impostor.
• Guanyin revealed that the calamity caused Pipa’s false dream of having a daughter and the sinister evil in her womb; after Jade Flute dispelled it, Pipa believed Ruyi had killed her child and her mind collapsed.
• Guanyin said Pipa was nearing the demonic path, attacked her, and was taken to Spirit Mountain, but the Great Kalpa and Pipa’s demonic seed proved difficult to overcome.

Guanyin explained how Pipa’s demonic affliction worsened on Spirit Mountain and why Golden Cicada Child took it upon himself to care for her. As Pipa recovered and began confusing him with someone from her memories, the Ullambana Assembly arrived, and Guanyin revealed that trusting him to look after Pipa had been her second mistake.

• Guanyin said Pipa’s resentment toward her strengthened Pipa’s demonic nature, so Guanyin could not stay beside her.
• Guanyin explained that Pipa’s tribulation aura prevented other Buddhas and Bodhisattvas from intervening without becoming entangled in her karma.
• Guanyin recalled asking Golden Cicada Child, who was already bound to the tribulation, to look after Pipa, and he volunteered.
• Golden Cicada Child patiently recited scriptures for Pipa, helping her calm down and recover, but her memories began to merge with him.
• Guanyin said Golden Cicada Child recognized Pipa’s mistaken feelings but kept his distance, and Wukong realized the Ullambana Assembly had brought his time on Spirit Mountain to an end.

Guanyin explained how Pipa became the Wind and Moon Demon after Golden Cicana Child was banished, and how the World-Honored One’s attempt to save her led him to suffer her karmic poison. The group learned that the demon arose from collective resentment and that even a Buddha could not escape the karma incurred by intervening.

• Guanyin told Wukong that Pipa’s defenses collapsed when Golden Cicana Child was banished, allowing the demon to possess her after she rejected the World-Honored One’s attempt to separate them.
• Guanyin revealed that the demon stung the World-Honored One with Horse-Stopping Poison, causing him pain he could scarcely endure.
• Guanyin explained that the Wind and Moon Demon was a Karmic Demon formed from collective resentment and that it fed on hatred by reopening people’s wounds.
• Bajie questioned why the demon targeted women, and Guanyin clarified that anyone’s suffering could form karma the demon might exploit.
• Guanyin said the World-Honored One accepted Pipa’s strike to release some of her hatred and protect the last fragment of her true spirit, but saving her made him bear the resulting karma.

Guanyin explained how the Wind and Moon Demon escaped capture and revealed that Western Liang stood on the ruins of the Rakshasa Kingdom. She began describing the Rakshasa women’s kingdom and its deadly customs, leaving Wukong and his companions to learn more about the land’s origins.

• Guanyin said the Vajras pursued the Wind and Moon Demon but lost her trail when her Demonic Aura mingled with the Great Kalpa’s energy.
• Guanyin explained that she had found Pipa but could not enter the land, while the demon later opened the gateway to draw in Xuanzang and the other Tribulation-Bound Ones.
• Wukong asked why the demon had targeted Western Liang, and Guanyin revealed that the kingdom was built on the ruins of the Rakshasa Kingdom.
• Guanyin recounted how the male Rakshasas died in battle, leaving the women to establish the Rakshasa Woman Kingdom.
• Guanyin said the Rakshasa women lured men into their city with luxury before eventually eating those they no longer wanted, and Bajie shuddered at the thought.

Guanyin recounted how the demon exploited Lodikalang’s desperation over the Rakshasa Tribe’s extinction and gained control of her. She revealed that the demon returned with Lodikalang to the kingdom and promised the Rakshasa women a way to make their tribe last forever.

• Guanyin explained that the Rakshasa Tribe could no longer produce descendants and that its women’s efforts to save their bloodline had all failed.
• Guanyin revealed that Queen Lodikalang was Princess Iron Fan’s older sister and had sought Iron Fan’s help to save their tribe.
• The demon hid at Iron Fan’s home while recovering from injuries and learned about the Rakshasa women’s plight when Lodikalang arrived.
• The demon exploited Lodikalang’s desperation, took control of her, and followed her back to the kingdom of Rakshasa women.
• Lodikalang summoned the remaining Rakshasa women and claimed she had found a way for their tribe to exist forever by ensuring they would never die.

Guanyin explained how a demon deceived the Rakshasa women into believing their dead would return, using their false hope and repeated despair to grow stronger. The deception left the women trapped in a cycle of death, while Wukong and the others learned the demon’s true motive.

• Bajie guessed that the demon had found a way to keep dead Rakshasa souls in the kingdom and return them through new births, but Wukong questioned how that explained the Abortion Spring.
• Xuanzang and Guanyin revealed that the demon never intended to save the Rakshasa race and sought to feed on their resentment, suffering, and obsession.
• Guanyin explained that Lodikalang claimed the demon’s power could conceal the city from outside cultivators, then told the women to throw their dead into a well and drink river water so their souls could return through childbirth.
• When a dying Rakshasa woman was thrown into the well, Lodikalang gave birth to an illusory baby girl bearing the dead woman’s aura, convincing the others that the plan worked.
• The women kept throwing their dead into the well and drinking the river water, while demonic energy caused false pregnancies and eventual deaths; Lodikalang prolonged their belief by saying the souls needed more time.
• Wukong and Guanyin concluded that the demon fed on the Rakshasa women’s recurring hope and despair, growing stronger as their hopes shattered.

Guanyin explained how a demon’s scheme to intensify the Rakshasa Women’s resentment was disrupted when a woman gave birth to an ordinary child and recovered. She revealed that the trapped dead and the living women’s shared obsessions, transformed by the Great Kalpa’s influence, had turned the well into the Fetus-Reflecting Spring.

• Guanyin explained that the demon planned to make the Rakshasa Women blame Lodikalang and fill her with overwhelming resentment.
• A Rakshasa Woman saw two reflections in the well, then gave birth to an ordinary baby girl with no Rakshasa blood or memories of the dead.
• Guanyin said the woman’s illness was cured and the demonic aura in her abdomen dispersed after the birth.
• Guanyin explained that the dead Rakshasa Women were trapped in the well and gradually came to believe they could return, while the living women hoped to give birth.
• Guanyin revealed that the living and dead women’s entwined obsessions and resentment became extreme yin power under the Great Kalpa, transforming the well into the Fetus-Reflecting Spring.

Guanyin explained how the Fetus-Reflecting Spring connected to the Netherworld and allowed women’s souls to be reborn, while carrying traces of the Rakshasa Women. She revealed that Pipa gave birth to the daughter who became Western Liang’s first Queen, and her gaze settled on the present Queen.

• Guanyin told Bajie and Sha Wujing that the Rakshasa Women's souls had merged with the Fetus-Reflecting Spring and could never reincarnate separately.
• Guanyin explained that the spring called women’s souls from the Netherworld, especially those burdened by injustice, violence, or resentment, and returned them to the world through ghost pregnancies.
• Wukong and Guanyin worked out that souls passing through the spring took on some of the Rakshasa Women's nature, shaping the temperaments of women born in Western Liang.
• Guanyin said the spring’s new births gradually replaced the dwindling Rakshasa Women, while the demon’s scheme unintentionally made their hoped-for births real.
• Guanyin revealed that Pipa gave birth to a daughter after looking into the spring, and that this daughter inherited the Rakshasa Queen’s throne and became Western Liang’s first Queen.

Guanyin explained how the demon became the Wind and Moon Demon by exploiting the Fetus-Reflecting Spring and binding itself to the Western Liang Women's Kingdom. The demon’s growing yin power also brought forth the Abortion Spring, a natural force of yang that could restrain it.

• Guanyin explained that Pipa’s daughter gradually awakened Pipa’s true spirit, so the demon feared killing the child might cause Pipa and itself to perish together.
• Guanyin said the demon was trapped between the Bodhisattva outside the kingdom and Pipa’s resistance within it, then turned the kingdom into its lair.
• Guanyin revealed that the demon spread its demonic method through the Mother-Child River, marking women born through the Fetus-Reflecting Spring and gathering their souls into a demon net.
• The demon used the souls’ resentment to complete the Wind and Moon Method, control the Empty Fetus-Reflecting Spring, and make the kingdom its puppet.
• Guanyin explained that the spring’s growing yin qi gave rise to a supreme-yang spring on Mount Jieyang, which Wukong identified as the Abortion Spring.

Guanyin explained how the Abortion Spring countered the Wind and Moon Demon, why the demon destroyed it, and how its loss destabilized the Fetus-Reflecting Spring. She revealed that the demon had relied on Ruyi True Immortal’s pure yang power to keep the spring stable, leaving Bajie to ask what would happen to the Western Liang Women's Kingdom now that the demon was dead.

• Guanyin explained that the Abortion Spring’s yang energy grew alongside the Fetus-Reflecting Spring’s yin energy and threatened to unravel the Wind and Moon Demon’s method.
• Guanyin said the demon tried to foul the Abortion Spring, then severed Mount Jieyang’s underground waterways until the spring dried up.
• The Grand Tutor recalled that the Fetus-Reflecting Spring weakened about ten years earlier before recovering a few years ago, and Bajie connected its recovery to Jade Flute’s arrival.
• Guanyin explained that destroying the Abortion Spring destabilized the Fetus-Reflecting Spring, which was bound to the demon, so the demon sought controlled pure yang power from Ruyi True Immortal.
• Bajie asked what would happen to the Western Liang Women's Kingdom now that Wukong had destroyed the demon and its Wind and Moon method had broken.

After the Wind and Moon Demon’s destruction, Guanyin explained that Western Liang’s women could no longer have children, and the Queen asked Xuanzang and Guanyin to save the kingdom without surrendering women’s authority. In the bridal chamber, Pipa’s body began to fade, and she asked Ruyi True Immortal to play one more song for her.

• Bajie realized that destroying the demon might have threatened Western Liang’s ability to bear children, and Guanyin explained that the Fetus-Reflecting Spring would remain while the Mother-Child River’s sinister power would fade.
• Guanyin said Western Liang’s women could not conceive through ordinary unions, and the Queen rejected relying on men as the kingdom’s path to survival.
• The Queen and Grand Tutor knelt before Xuanzang and Guanyin and pleaded with them to save Western Liang.
• Pipa showed Ruyi True Immortal that her fingertips were fading and stopped him from leaving to seek Guanyin.
• Pipa asked Ruyi True Immortal to play the zither, and he went to the window and placed his hands on it.

Ruyi True Immortal played and sang as Pipa faded from her human form back into her original pipa shape. He chose to dissolve with her, and their remains merged into a new instrument as dawn approached.

• Ruyi True Immortal played Pipa's favorite melody and sang new lyrics while she listened and began disappearing into shimmering light.
• Pipa's human form dissolved as her original pipa reappeared beneath the Phoenix Shawl.
• White light began consuming Ruyi, and he continued playing and singing as he transformed into a white ox.
• Ruyi stopped playing, told Pipa they would go together, and asked to renew their bond in the next life.
• Pipa vanished, and the white ox merged into her pipa, reshaping it into a ruyi-headed instrument with ox-horn frets and tuning pegs.
• A rooster crowed outside the window.

Pipa and Ruyi True Immortal spent their final night together after the Wind and Moon Demon’s destruction, while Jade Flute learned that Pipa had only one day left. At dawn they were gone, leaving Pipa’s pipa behind, and Jade Flute carried it away, resolved to stay by their side.

• Bajie told Jade Flute that Pipa had been entwined with the Wind and Moon Demon and could remain only one more day.
• Jade Flute heard Ruyi True Immortal declare that he and Pipa would go together, then tried to rush to the bridal chamber, but Wukong restrained him.
• Bajie persuaded Jade Flute not to interrupt the couple’s final moments, explaining that their decision belonged to them.
• At dawn, Wukong released Jade Flute, who rushed into the bridal chamber and found only Pipa’s instrument lying on the Phoenix Shawl.
• Jade Flute mourned, wrapped the pipa in the Phoenix Shawl, and carried it in his arms, believing he could remain by their side forever.

Miaole examined the pipa and explained that Ruyi’s true spirit was keeping Pipa alive, so saving one without harming the other seemed impossible. Guanyin revealed a possible path: strengthening Pipa’s spirit through the Yin-Yang Twin Springs so the two spirits could eventually be separated.

• Miaole arrived at the Main Hall with the Sun-Rising Star Official and explained that the Dao Ancestor had sent him to help with Ruyi’s situation.
• Miaole told Jade Flute that the Dao Ancestor’s Creation Pill had given Pipa life and that Ruyi had fused his essence and true spirit into her to protect her spirit.
• Miaole explained that saving Ruyi immediately would cause Pipa to perish, since the two true spirits were intertwined.
• Miaole proposed preserving their current state until Pipa’s true spirit grew strong enough to separate from Ruyi’s.
• Guanyin explained that Pipa and Ruyi’s spirits had become complementary yin and yang artifact spirits, prompting Wukong and the others to identify the Yin-Yang Twin Springs as a possible solution.

Guanyin explained that the Fetus-Reflecting Spring endangered the souls of the Rakshasa women and Western Liang, but Xuanzang offered to use the Buddha Wheel to free them without destroying the spring. The Sun-Rising Star Official proposed restoring the springs with his solar essence, while Miaole prepared to explain the Dao Ancestor’s arrangements for the Mother-Child River.

• Guanyin told the Queen that the Fetus-Reflecting Spring violated the order of life and death, and that removing it to free the Rakshasa women would destroy its source.
• Xuanzang proposed using the Buddha Wheel to restore the Rakshasa women’s soul forms while preserving the spring, and Guanyin said the spring could then serve the Underworld Bureau.
• Little White Dragon and Wukong pointed out that the springs would still lose their yin and yang power after the Rakshasa women left.
• The Sun-Rising Star Official offered to place a wisp of solar essence in Mount Jieyang, allowing the springs to recover and generate pure yin and yang.
• Bajie asked who would handle the Mother-Child River, and Miaole prepared to reveal the Dao Ancestor’s arrangements after A-Hu told him to get straight to the point.

Miaole explained how he would restore the Mother-Child River’s creation power and make its water support healthier births, with Jade Flute playing the pipa to sustain the process. Jade Flute agreed to stay in Western Liang and guard the instrument, accepting that its spirits might take centuries to recover—or might never regain their fleshly bodies.

• Miaole explained that creation power would replace the river’s demonic aura, allowing women to conceive while strengthening children born from its water.
• Little White Dragon teased Bajie about drinking from the river, and Wukong, Sha Wujing, and A-Hu joined in before Xuanzang quieted them.
• Miaole told the Queen that girls born in Western Liang would have healthier bodies, then explained that Jade Flute alone could play the pipa and monitor its spirits and the river’s creation power.
• Jade Flute agreed to remain in Western Liang and watch over the place for his master and Pipa.
• Miaole warned Jade Flute that the spirits might need centuries to recover and might never reach the stage of Reconstructing the Fleshly Body, but Jade Flute said a chance was enough.

Xuanzang and Guanyin freed the Rakshasa women's souls from the Fetus-Reflecting Spring and stabilized its source. As the spirits gathered above the well, Xuanzang asked the Queen to say goodbye to them.

• Xuanzang sent Miaole, Jade Flute, A-Hu, and Little White Dragon to the Mother-Child River, while Wukong and Bajie escorted the Sun-Rising Star Official toward Mount Jieyang.
• Sha Wujing sealed the area around the Fetus-Reflecting Spring with the Demon-Subduing Treasure Staff as Xuanzang used Buddhist light to draw the Rakshasa women's souls from the water.
• Resentful yin qi surged from the spring, but Sha Wujing held it back and Xuanzang's chant dispersed it.
• Guanyin calmed the spring with nectar after the last soul emerged, preserving its source.
• Xuanzang stepped aside and asked the Queen to say goodbye to the Rakshasa women's souls.

The Queen said farewell to the ancestral souls of the Rakshasa women, and Guanyin took them to the Underworld Bureau for judgment and reincarnation. Wukong and his companions restored the Abortion Spring, while Miaole helped Jade Flute renew the Mother-Child River’s power of creation, leaving the remaining tasks apparently complete.

• The Queen thanked the ancestral souls and urged them to leave Western Liang’s future to its living descendants, and the souls entered Guanyin’s Jade Pure Water Vase.
• Guanyin said she would take the souls to the Underworld Bureau, and Xuanzang told Sha Wujing to put away the Demon-Subduing Treasure Staff.
• At the Immortals-Gathering Convent, the Sun-Rising Star Official used sunlight and his natal star power to replenish the Abortion Spring, explaining that he had a karmic connection to the Rakshasa Kingdom.
• Miaole gave the Little White Dragon yin water to temper his vigorous bing fire, then helped Jade Flute use the pipa to send power of creation into the Mother-Child River.
• Miaole told A-Hu that Jade Flute would only need to replenish the river’s power at intervals, and A-Hu remarked that the work had felt too easy.

After Western Liang’s immediate crisis ended, Jade Flute was offered a divine post and the Queen began preparing her kingdom for a future without the Wind and Moon Demon’s protection. Xuanzang refused the Queen’s romantic hopes plainly, and she accepted that Western Liang must rely on itself, though she asked what people should do when mortal affairs rarely go as wished.

• Bajie hurried to eat after the group returned to the palace, while the Sun-Rising Star Official left to report to the Heavenly Court.
• Guanyin and Miaole recommended Jade Flute for appointment as Western Liang’s earth god, and the Queen promised to build him a temple.
• Miaole, Guanyin, and Jade Flute departed, leaving Xuanzang and his disciples with the Queen and her court.
• Xuanzang warned the Queen that Western Liang remained vulnerable now that the Wind and Moon Demon was gone, and she planned to send an envoy to the Great Tang and establish ties with neighboring kingdoms.
• Xuanzang told the Queen he had no romantic intention toward her, and she accepted his refusal while asking what one should do when mortal affairs rarely go as wished.

Xuanzang and the Queen of Western Liang parted after he counseled her to accept the changing causes and conditions of life and added his disciples’ names to his Travel Pass. He and his companions resumed their journey west, leaving the Queen to lead her kingdom.

• Xuanzang told the Queen that wishes could not all be fulfilled and that accepting change could free her from longing; she asked whether their meeting was fated, and he replied that all was fate.
• The Queen added Sun Wukong, Yu Wuyuan, Zhu Wuneng, Ao WujI, and Sha Wujing to Xuanzang’s Travel Pass and stamped it with Western Liang’s seal.
• The Queen wished Xuanzang and his companions success as they prepared to leave the next morning, and she did not ask him to stay.
• At the city gates, Xuanzang told the Queen that his vow to deliver all living beings from suffering included her; she accepted his answer and watched the travelers depart.
• Xuanzang and his disciples continued westward, and by the Dragon Boat Festival the summer heat had grown as they traveled through rain-washed mountain country.

Xuanzang’s group reached a strangely quiet mountain, where Wukong went ahead to investigate a disturbance. He found bandits holding a six-eared monkey who claimed to be Manjushri Bodhisattva’s disciple, and the chapter ended as the bandits realized the monkey’s hidden protection had struck one of them.

• Bajie talked about missing the Dragon Boat Festival and promised to make rice dumplings when they reached a village.
• Wukong noticed the mountain was unnaturally quiet despite seeing no demonic aura, then left to investigate sounds ahead.
• A group of bandits tied up a six-eared monkey after deciding they could sell him as a rare talking creature.
• The monkey told the bandits he was Manjushri Bodhisattva’s disciple and warned them not to touch something inside his robe.
• The tall, thin man reached into the monkey’s robe, was thrown backward by a flash of blue-green light, and accused the monkey of making fools of them.

Wukong rescued the six-eared monkey from bandits and recognized his familiar voice as belonging to the Stone Bodhisattva from Baolin Temple. The monkey revealed that his name was Six-Eared Macaque, while Wukong called him Little Stone and noticed their resemblance.

• Wukong arrived as a bandit was about to strike the six-eared monkey and offered to take him home.
• Wukong transformed an embroidery needle into the Golden Cudgel, which trapped the bandits when they tried to lift it.
• Wukong freed the six-eared monkey from his ropes and learned that Master had named him Six-Eared Macaque.
• Wukong recognized the monkey's voice as the Stone Bodhisattva's and heard that he had been transformed into his original form.
• Wukong teased Six-Eared Macaque about his ears and remarked that they both came from stone and looked alike as young monkeys.