Recaps

Ao Tu captured Tang Sanzang’s party and battled Heaven before secretly surviving his apparent death. He then arranged for the pilgrims to help build a bridge across the Black Water River, bringing the Huoluo Kingdom’s people together as a neighboring kingdom threatened war.

• Ao Tu lured Tang Sanzang’s party into Fire Cloud Cave, captured them, and defeated the Heavenly Court’s forces with the Black Lotus and Soul-Scattering Gourd.
• Ao Tu escaped death after a devastating battle with Manjushri Bodhisattva, retrieved his treasures from his grave, and began refining demon emperor essence blood.
• Ao Tu took the Black Water River God’s Seal and told an official that Tang Sanzang would build a bridge, then rescued two children from a sacrificial ceremony.
• Tang Sanzang’s party reached the Black Water River, where Wukong exposed Ao Tu’s scheme and Ao Tu revealed his identity as Ao Jie, the Jing River Dragon King’s ninth son.
• Ao Tu secured funds and twenty thousand paid laborers for the bridge, and Wukong recovered the silver stolen by Huoluo Kingdom’s officials.
• Ao Tu organized construction, used his magic and four water generals to speed the work, and arranged food and letters of encouragement for the laborers.
• Ao Tu reassured the workers that the river’s fish were safe to eat, and they returned to building the bridge.
• As the bridge neared completion, a neighboring kingdom sent six thousand soldiers to the border and threatened war unless Huoluo Kingdom dismantled it.

Ao Tu entered Chechi Kingdom and helped the State Preceptors reconcile with the monks while elevating Alu and establishing Daoist influence at Zhiyuan Monastery. When Tang Sanzang’s group arrived, Wukong challenged Ao Tu over the monks’ treatment, and Ao Tu gained the upper hand in their first contests.

• Tang Sanzang negotiated an end to the Fadi Kingdom’s war with Huoluo Kingdom, while Ao Tu and Wukong helped arrange a harmless stalemate.
• Ao Tu entered Chechi Kingdom, persuaded its three State Preceptors to release the monks and teach them Daoist arts, and secured the Three Pure Ones’ approval.
• Ao Tu healed the King of Chechi Kingdom with an elixir, while the monks of Zhiyuan Monastery struggled with debt and Alu’s supporters made him their abbot.
• Ao Tu chose Alu as one of eight alchemy disciples, and the released monks openly practiced Daoism at Zhiyuan Monastery.
• Tang Sanzang and his disciples arrived in Chechi Kingdom and discovered that monks were disguising themselves as Daoists, while Wukong learned the former abbot and elders had been confined.
• Wukong and his companions impersonated the Three Pure Ones, ate the temple offerings, and tricked the State Preceptors into tasting urine before fleeing.
• The State Preceptors had Tang Sanzang and his disciples arrested, and Wukong challenged Ao Tu’s accusations and oppression of the monks.
• Wukong and Ao Tu competed in magic, transformations, and treasures, with Ao Tu stopping Wukong’s rain and transformation and identifying Wukong’s Golden Cudgel and Bajie’s rake as Daoist treasures.

After arranging a Buddhist contest in Chechi Kingdom, Ao Tu took charge of the Flower Realm while Tang Sanzang’s group reached the Tongtian River and found a village bound to a monster by child sacrifices. Wukong investigated the missing children and confronted Ao Tu, who denied taking their souls and prepared to fight.

• Wukong convinced Ao Tu to cancel Tang Sanzang’s punishment by arranging a contest between Buddhist and Daoist disciples, and Kasyapa later established Buddhism in Chechi Kingdom through Alu.
• Ao Tu settled into his new post as Perfected Lord Taixi and began managing the Flower Realm, while Wukong set out with Tang Sanzang toward the Tongtian River.
• Tang Sanzang’s group found Little Shitou in a ruined temple and learned that Chen Family Village had long sacrificed children to Great King Linggan and now faced demands from Great King Pingyou.
• Wukong and the villagers clashed over the sacrifices, while Tiger Vanguard fought Wukong, Bajie, and Sha Wujing and escaped after the villagers’ deception interrupted the battle.
• Chen Qing’s villagers accused Tang Sanzang’s group of ordering an ancestral hall fire, but Wukong secretly revived the parents who had framed them, and Ao Tu later returned the resurrected Little Guan Bao to the village.
• After villagers stopped Tang Sanzang from leaving and demanded their missing children back, Wukong sought their souls in the Netherworld but learned nothing from Diting.
• Wukong and Bajie investigated the Aquatic Palace, where Wukong recognized Ao Tu as the Blood Sea King and accused him of taking the children’s souls.
• Ao Tu denied holding the souls, refused to reveal his secret art, and summoned his treasure when Wukong threatened to use force.

Ao Tu helped Wukong defeat the Blood Sea King and resolve the children’s lost souls, then joined the journey to face the Single-Horned Rhinoceros and his Diamond Bangle. After the demon resisted their attacks, Wukong and Ao Tu sought help to revive the drowned orange grove that had sparked the capture, and the Queen Mother sent Hong'er with a Jade Bottle.

• Ao Tu led the Heavenly army against the Blood Sea King, but Guanyin ultimately captured the demon with her Golden Alms Bowl and revealed that her goldfish, Great King Linggan, had also eaten the villagers’ children.
• Ao Tu refined Great King Linggan for eighty-one days, allowing Guanyin to restore the children’s souls and bodies, while Linggan received a clay body and a temple to protect.
• The Blood Sea King escaped to Golden Rhinoceros Mountain, where he joined the Single-Horned Rhinoceros, and Bajie’s theft of their oranges led the demons to capture Tang Sanzang and his disciples.
• Wukong challenged the Single-Horned Rhinoceros, but the demon’s Diamond Bangle took Wukong’s Golden Cudgel and later swept away Nezha’s weapons and the Fire Department’s treasures.
• Ao Tu and the Water Virtue Star Lord flooded Golden Rhinoceros Mountain, but the demon dispersed the flood and absorbed Ao Tu’s divine thunder, so Wukong went to Spirit Mountain for help.
• The Eighteen Arhats refused to help, and Wukong realized Bajie’s theft had brought the ordeal, and Ao Tu and Wukong found that the flood had drowned the orange grove and sought help from the Queen Mother of the West.
• The Queen Mother sent Hong'er with a Jade Bottle to help restore the grove, while Ao Tu persuaded her to finish their flower-transplanting work before going to assist Wukong.