Chapter Summaries

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.

Miaole returned and thanked those who had rescued him, giving Xuanzang protective five-spirit fortune virtue true qi. The Old Lord rewarded Wukong with newly forged battle gear, while Yuanshi Tianzun promised to restore Wukong's title of Great Sage Equal to Heaven.

• The Old Lord welcomed Miaole back, and Miaole thanked Yuanshi Tianzun and Xuanzang for their help.
• Miaole gave Xuanzang five-spirit fortune virtue true qi to protect his mortal body from evil.
• Miaole thanked Wukong and promised to aid him if he ever needed help.
• The Old Lord opened a Purple-Gold Casket and gave Wukong a newly forged set of battle gear that could change form and repair itself.
• Yuanshi Tianzun promised to ask the Great Heavenly Venerable to reinstate Wukong's title of Great Sage Equal to Heaven, allowing him direct entry to Tongming Hall.

Miaole repaid Bajie, Sha Wujing, and Little White Dragon for helping him by giving each a fitting treasure or aid. After restoring harmony to Little White Dragon’s water and fire, Miaole turned to A-Hu, who introduced herself as You Ren.

• Miaole gave Bajie Ren Water, which would gradually heal his injuries and replenish his strength, and Bajie thanked him.
• Miaole gave Sha Wujing’s Demon-Subduing Treasure Staff Wu Earth Essence, allowing it to preserve peace and purity wherever it stood.
• Little White Dragon explained that breaking his horn had freed him from the influence of his dragon nature, and Miaole warned him against repeating the dangerous method.
• Miaole used Bing Fire to restore an invisible horn for Little White Dragon, balancing his water and fire while warning him to control his temper.
• Miaole turned toward A-Hu, hesitated over how to address her, and heard her introduce herself as You Ren.

Miaole warned A-Hu about the Seven Emotions Tribulation and offered her his Seven-Petaled Golden Lotus, then asked her to acknowledge him as family. A-Hu refused his treasure and his request to be her elder brother, but accepted him as her little brother.

• Miaole explained that the Ding Fire within A-Hu could lead to a dangerous Seven Emotions Tribulation, and A-Hu calmly said she would face it as part of her cultivation.
• Miaole offered A-Hu his Seven-Petaled Golden Lotus, which could guide her emotional fire and protect her Spiritual Terrace, but she refused it.
• Miaole asked A-Hu to accept him as her elder brother and promised to defend her whether she was right or wrong.
• After considering Xuanzang's calm response, A-Hu said she did not want another elder brother or Miaole's treasure.
• A-Hu patted Miaole's shoulder and accepted him as her little brother, telling him to call her Sister Tiger.

After the Old Lord took Miaole back to the Heaven of Parting Hatred, Wukong realized he had forgotten to collect Nezha’s reward and had to call him Martial Uncle instead. The chapter ended with the Old Lord in high spirits while Miaole remained puzzled by his cryptic advice.

• Miaole accepted A-Hu as his older sister, and the Old Lord took him back to his palace.
• Wukong realized he had forgotten to ask the Old Lord for Nezha’s reward, but Yuanshi Tianzun left before he could help.
• Nezha demanded his reward from Wukong, who admitted he had forgotten and promised to ask next time.
• Nezha made Wukong call him Martial Uncle before leaving with Li Jing for Heaven.
• The Old Lord returned to the Alchemy Room with Miaole and told him he still had much to learn.

After the group finished their business at Jindou Mountain, A-Hu asked Xuanzang for a Dharma name and received the formal name Yu Wuyuan while choosing to keep being called A-Hu. When Bajie suggested Little White Dragon and he take turns carrying Xuanzang because A-Hu was a woman, A-Hu angrily challenged them for deciding what was best for her without asking.

• Wukong chased Bajie for teasing him about calling Nezha martial uncle, while Sha Wujing agreed that Nezha seemed to be their martial uncle.
• Xuanzang said the group should retrieve their luggage and continue their journey, and A-Hu asked him to give her a Dharma name and surname.
• Xuanzang named her Yu Wuyuan and explained that the name meant understanding conditions and emotional attachments, but agreed to keep calling her A-Hu.
• When Xuanzang prepared to ride A-Hu, Bajie proposed that Little White Dragon and he take turns carrying him, and Little White Dragon agreed.
• A-Hu roared at Bajie and Little White Dragon, demanding to know why they had decided what was best for her without asking.