Chapter Summaries

Ao Tu began organizing the construction of the bridge across Black Water River, providing wages, tools, and supernatural assistance for the laborers. The work got underway under the guidance of his water generals, while the woodcutters began felling trees to make carts.

• Ao Tu agreed to begin construction the next day and ordered the imperial commissioner to hire the twenty thousand laborers instead of using unpaid corvée labor.
• At the groundbreaking ceremony, Ao Tu promised the laborers fifty copper coins a day and announced that taxes would be reduced after the bridge was completed.
• Ao Tu divided the laborers into groups for felling trees and digging earth, conjured their tools, and introduced his four water generals as their guides.
• Two Little Wolves led the digging laborers to wasteland, where they began digging and watched the elder wolf smash a buried boulder apart.
• Two Little Tigers led the woodcutters to a forest conjured by Ao Tu and assured them they could make carts from the freshly felled timber.

Ao Tu directed the laborers to build a bridge across the Black Water River with the Black Water River God’s help, then arranged a meal for them through Mingniang. The chapter ended with Wukong and Bajie confronting Ao Tu about his special dishes.

• Tiger Brother made wooden carts while Tiger Younger Brother dried the timber, and the laborers hauled wood and earth to the riverbank.
• Ao Tu turned earth into a stone that floated on the Black Water River God’s back, using him to form a bridge pier.
• Ao Tu used Witchcraft: Myriad Things' Growth to turn the piled timber into a giant tree that began extending toward the opposite bank.
• Ao Tu had Mingniang grow and prepare food for the laborers, secretly using his own magic to make the crops grow.
• After Bajie spotted Ao Tu eating separate dishes, Wukong and Bajie approached him and demanded to know why he was enjoying a special meal.

Wukong, Bajie, and Ao Tu oversaw the Great Bridge construction, which accelerated as the workers settled into their duties. After Wukong learned that the laborers hoped the work would last longer so they could earn money for their families, Tang Sanzang began writing and sending letters for them.

• Ao Tu hosted Wukong and Bajie for a meal, and Wukong brought vegetarian dishes to Tang Sanzang.
• The Great Bridge’s construction sped up, while Two Little Tigers saved a laborer and the little wolves helped free carts stuck in the muddy road.
• Tang Sanzang offered to help build the bridge, but Ao Tu asked Wukong to investigate why the laborers wanted construction to take longer.
• Wukong overheard workers hoping to earn enough to support their families and reported their wishes to Tang Sanzang.
• Ao Tu suggested Tang Sanzang write letters for the laborers, and Wukong and the others delivered them.

As the Great Bridge over the Black Water River neared completion, laborers began fainting from heat and exhaustion. Ao Tu strengthened their meals with fish from the river, hiding the fish’s poison with an illusion, but he eventually stopped removing it and left the story at a dangerous turning point.

• News of the Great Bridge reached the upstream Fadi Kingdom as visitors, artists, and storytellers gathered to witness the construction.
• After laborers fainted from exhaustion and heatstroke, Ao Tu discussed the problem with Tang Sanzang, Bajie, and the Imperial Envoy, who suggested salt and flogging.
• Ao Tu sent Wukong to borrow a thousand jin of snow salt from Dragon King Ao Run, then began feeding laborers fish from the Black Water River.
• Ao Tu used an illusion to make the laborers believe he had removed the fish’s poison, and their energy improved after eating the fish and soup.
• Ao Tu told Wukong about the river’s poison and asked him to keep it secret, then one day served the fish without removing the poison while the laborers remained unaware.

Ao Tu tricked the laborers into believing they had eaten poisoned fish, then revealed that only the Black Water River’s water was poisonous and its fish were safe. After the Great Bridge neared completion, a neighboring kingdom threatened war unless Huoluo Kingdom dismantled it.

• Ao Tu staged a death vigil and night of drinking and dancing to convince the laborers that the poison fish would kill them by morning.
• The laborers woke alive, and Ao Tu told them the river water was poisonous but the fish and shrimp were safe.
• Ao Tu held a fish feast, and the laborers returned to building the Great Bridge.
• Tang Sanzang questioned Ao Tu about the bridge’s slow progress, and Ao Tu offered to finish it with a spell.
• As autumn came and the bridge neared completion, a neighboring kingdom sent six thousand soldiers to the border and threatened war unless Huoluo Kingdom dismantled it.

Ao Tu devised a plan to stop the war between the Huoluo Kingdom and the Fadi Kingdom without killing anyone, and Tang Sanzang agreed to persuade the Fadi King to withdraw. Tang Sanzang reached the Fadi Kingdom, where its King considered having him killed.

• The Fadi Kingdom attacked over the bridge, and the Huoluo King sent five thousand troops to defend the border.
• Ao Tu refused the Huoluo Kingdom’s request to intervene, and Tang Sanzang worried that the bridge had caused the war and might lead to common people dying.
• Ao Tu proposed destroying the Fadi army, but Tang Sanzang rejected violence and agreed to negotiate with the Fadi King while Ao Tu and Wukong worked to halt the fighting.
• The Huoluo King sent Tang Sanzang to the Fadi Kingdom under escort, with Bajie and Sha Wujing accompanying him.
• The Fadi King became angry when he heard Tang Sanzang had come to plead for Huoluo and wanted him killed, but one of his ministers objected.

Tang Sanzang tried to persuade the King of the Fadi Kingdom to end the war, but the King rejected his counsel and planned to challenge him to a debate with the kingdom's monks. Meanwhile, Ao Tu and Wukong approached the Fadi Kingdom's general with a plan to maintain a harmless stalemate, and Ao Tu offered him payment after the general refused.

• The King of the Fadi Kingdom spared Tang Sanzang after his minister warned that Tang Sanzang was King Tang's Imperial Younger Brother.
• The King of the Fadi Kingdom offered Tang Sanzang gifts and tried to keep him from interfering, but Tang Sanzang urged him to end the war over the bridge.
• Bajie accused the King of the Fadi Kingdom of fighting to collect bridge tolls, and Tang Sanzang criticized the King for burdening the people with war.
• A minister advised the King of the Fadi Kingdom to summon the kingdom's monks to debate Tang Sanzang, and the King ordered them to be called.
• Ao Tu and Wukong disguised themselves as Huoluo Kingdom envoys and proposed that the Fadi Kingdom's general maintain a harmless stalemate; when the general rejected the plan, Ao Tu offered to pay him.

Ao Tu helped halt the war between the Fadi Kingdom and the Huoluo Kingdom through bribery and a profitable exchange of weapons, while Tang Sanzang continued winning scripture debates. After seeing Master Ganjia defeated, the King of the Fadi Kingdom used Tang Sanzang’s arrival as an excuse to withdraw his troops and end the war.

• Ao Tu paid the Fadi Kingdom's general, who welcomed him and his companion, and the general and inspector later apologized for mistaking them for enemy spies.
• The Fadi Kingdom and Huoluo Kingdom fought for half a month without casualties, then the Fadi Kingdom sold its damaged weapons' arrows to Huoluo and requested more supplies from its king.
• The King of the Fadi Kingdom repeatedly sent reinforcements as the costly war dragged on, while officials delayed him with claims about Tang Sanzang's scripture debate.
• After the Fadi Kingdom's provisions were raided and burned, its ministers proposed withdrawing, and the King learned Tang Sanzang had won over many monks and onlookers.
• The King watched Master Ganjia lose his debate with Tang Sanzang, then summoned Tang Sanzang to the palace and declared that the Fadi Kingdom would withdraw and end the war.

After returning from the Fadi Kingdom, Tang Sanzang and his disciples crossed the newly completed Black Water River bridge and explored a temple commemorating its construction. On the bridge, the true Black Water River God recovered his seal from Ao Tu, who parted peacefully with the group after his scheme to delay them was no longer needed.

• The Fadi Kingdom and Huoluo Kingdom restored friendly relations, and both kings honored Tang Sanzang before he resumed his journey.
• Tang Sanzang and his disciples reached the completed bridge, where local people welcomed them and shared food.
• Tang Sanzang and his disciples explored a temple whose statues and murals portrayed their deeds and the bridge's construction.
• Halfway across the bridge, the true Black Water River God asked Wukong to uphold justice, but fell silent when Ao Tu appeared.
• Ao Tu returned the Black Water River God's seal and explained that he had borrowed it; the River God leaped back into the river.
• Ao Tu took leave of Tang Sanzang and his disciples without attacking, since the war had already given him enough time to meet his one-year goal.

After the Black Water River crossing, Ao Tu received his rewards and accidentally disturbed the sun and moon while examining the Great Formation of Stars of the Celestial Cycle. He reached Chechi Kingdom to challenge its three Daoist state preceptors, while Wukong and the pilgrims stopped to rest nearby.

• Ao Tu received seven rewards, including Great Demon Essence Blood, an Ancient Buddha Relic, and the Great Formation of Stars of the Celestial Cycle Formation Diagram.
• Ao Tu used his Double Pupils on the Ancient Buddha Relic and witnessed an Ancient Buddha being shattered by a huge hand holding a scripture.
• Ao Tu began opening the Formation Diagram, which drew upon the stars and made the sun shift and the moon rise, so he quickly put it away.
• Wukong noticed the sun behaving strangely as Tang Sanzang and his disciples settled beside a hill, then rode off to beg for food.
• Ao Tu entered the Chechi Kingdom region and saw that his new side quest required keeping the pilgrim there.
• Ao Tu disguised himself as a Daoist priest, entered the capital, and told the gate soldiers he had come to discuss the Dao with the kingdom's three Daoist state preceptors.

Ao Tu visited Chechi Kingdom to meet its three State Preceptors and learned how their rainmaking was credited with ending famine and bringing prosperity. At the temple, he questioned a Buddhist monk forced to serve Daoists and claimed the monks had failed to pray for rain properly, ending by asking how much oil and gold they had offered.

• Ao Tu arrived in Chechi Kingdom and learned that visiting Daoists received a monthly rice allowance from the king.
• A rice shop proprietor told Ao Tu that the three State Preceptors had ended a devastating drought and brought rain each year since.
• Ao Tu went to the Three Pure Ones Temple and found a Buddhist monk serving as its gatekeeper.
• The monk explained that the king had ordered Buddhist monks to work in Daoist temples after they failed to bring rain during the drought.
• Ao Tu told the monk that the Buddhists had prayed incorrectly and asked how much lamp oil and gold they had offered.

Ao Tu visited the three state preceptors of Chechi Kingdom, questioned a monk about the monks’ failed rain prayers, and gained the Taoists’ hospitality. After teaching two young Taoists a basic cultivation technique, he met Great Immortal Huli, Deer Power Immortal, and Great Immortal Yang Li and assessed their true forms and abilities.

• Ao Tu challenged a monk’s claims about sincere prayers for rain, and the monk explained that the king turned against the monks after the three state preceptors ended a drought.
• Two young Taoists welcomed Ao Tu, who introduced himself as Perfected One Taixi and was given a guest room and a meal.
• Ao Tu taught the two young Taoists to gather and circulate their magical power so they could better withstand cold and heat.
• After their ritual ended the next day, Great Immortal Huli, Deer Power Immortal, and Great Immortal Yang Li hurried to meet Ao Tu.
• Ao Tu recognized the three preceptors as a yellow tiger, a white deer, and an antelope, judged their magical power ordinary, and noticed that they had accumulated a small amount of merit.

Ao Tu discussed the Dao with the three royal preceptors of Chechi Kingdom and persuaded them to reconsider their persecution of Buddhist monks. The preceptors agreed to seek the monks’ release and considered teaching them Daoist magic so they could earn a living, while Ao Tu promised to seek the Three Pure Ones’ approval.

• Ao Tu recited verses that revealed the identities of Great Immortal Huli, Deer Power Immortal, and Great Immortal Yang Li, and they bowed to him as a senior cultivator.
• Ao Tu challenged the preceptors’ claim that they sought nothing and helped them recognize that their standing came from protecting Chechi Kingdom, not suppressing monks.
• Great Immortal Huli agreed to petition the ruler to release the monks and provide them with money and grain, though he worried they could not support themselves.
• Ao Tu proposed that the preceptors teach the monks Daoist arts, and he offered to pray to the Three Pure Ones for a decree approving it.
• The preceptors accepted that they would teach the monks if the Three Pure Ones agreed, and Ao Tu suggested the monks could disguise themselves as Daoists when performing rites.

Ao Tu exchanged a Water-Reversing Seal for Great Immortal Yang Li’s white dragon and offered to examine the ailing king. During a temple ceremony, he was summoned to the Grand Patriarch’s Flower Realm, where Golden Horn told him a Divine Official would soon invite him to serve in heaven and asked him to help find herbs.

• Ao Tu discussed Daoist cultivation and magical arts with the three great immortals, then exchanged the Water-Reversing Seal for Great Immortal Yang Li’s white dragon.
• The three immortals described the king’s illnesses, and Ao Tu offered to examine him if they met.
• The next day, Ao Tu led a temple ceremony, but the invocation brought him to the Heaven of Parting Hatred.
• Golden Horn told Ao Tu the Grand Patriarch expected a Divine Official to invite him to take office in heaven and proposed that he become a steward there.
• Golden Horn explained that the Flower Realm had become overgrown and asked Ao Tu to help find the remaining spiritual herbs; Ao Tu agreed.

Ao Tu and Golden Horn gathered herbs in the Flower Realm, then Ao Tu returned to Chechi Kingdom after the Three Pure Ones approved the monks’ release. He examined the ailing King and promised to refine an elixir, leaving the palace preparing a furnace and chamber for him.

• Ao Tu and Golden Horn gathered 102 immortal herbs and more than 3,000 spiritual herbs in the Flower Realm before Golden Horn gave Ao Tu a Taiji Talisman Seal.
• Ao Tu learned that the Three Pure Ones had granted the State Preceptors’ request, and he urged them to release the monks.
• Ao Tu and the three State Preceptors went to the palace, where the King sent for Ao Tu after hearing he could examine his illness.
• Ao Tu examined the King and said his illness came from old age and declining vital energy, but he could refine pills to relieve his suffering.
• The King agreed to prepare an Elixir Chamber and furnace according to Ao Tu’s instructions, and offered him the title of Great Perfected Master of Chechi Kingdom.

Chechi Kingdom built an alchemy compound, where Ao Tu forged an Alchemy Furnace and sought eight disciples to help refine pills. Meanwhile, the released monks of Zhiyuan Monastery returned after more than twenty years and began restoring their monastery and recovering its assets.

• Chechi Kingdom completed the three-hall alchemy compound, and Ao Tu forged an Alchemy Furnace from copper, silver, and gold, then announced he would take eight disciples.
• Great Immortal Huli and his two companions released the surviving monks who had been forced to labor at the Three Pure Ones Temple, giving each ten taels of silver.
• The monks returned to Zhiyuan Monastery, elected a new abbot, and found the monastery in disrepair after more than twenty years away.
• The new abbot discovered Zhiyuan Monastery's land deeds and promissory notes hidden beneath the statue of Chechi Kingdom's Great Ancestor.
• The new abbot directed the monks to use their compensation to repair the monastery, collect traceable debts, and inspect the monastery's fields before deciding what rent to collect.

The new abbot of Zhiyuan Monastery tried to restore the monastery, but the monks failed to collect its debts or recover its properties. He led more than five hundred monks to petition the authorities, where an official accepted their complaint and told them to wait.

• The new abbot hired craftsmen to repair Zhiyuan Monastery and paid a deposit after negotiating the price down to thirteen thousand five hundred taels.
• A monk demanding repayment from a poor family was thrown out after the family’s sons tore up the promissory note and kicked him away.
• Another monk returned beaten after a landlord refused to repay a loan and ordered his guards to destroy the promissory note.
• The monks returned with almost no money, while the people occupying Zhiyuan Monastery’s properties refused to recognize its deeds.
• The new abbot led more than five hundred monks to the government office, where an official accepted their petition and told them to wait.

Zhiyuan Monastery’s monks tried to recover their debts and land through the county government, but officials obstructed them and dismissed their evidence. The new abbot left court without justice after learning the monastery’s property had been reclaimed by imperial decree.

• The monks waited days for their petition to be heard, then the new abbot led five hundred monks to block the government office.
• His Honor agreed to hear the case, and the clerk demanded two hundred taels from the new abbot before arranging a hearing.
• At court, His Honor rejected the promissory notes because their guarantors and the abbot’s master were dead, while a clerk falsely claimed the fingerprints could not be compared.
• The new abbot appealed over Zhiyuan Monastery’s seized lands, but His Honor said an imperial decree had reclaimed them and awarded them to others.

After Zhiyuan Monastery lost its lawsuit, the new abbot struggled with debts and dwindling food as the monks failed to earn money. Alu secretly found work by learning Daoist rites at Three Pure Ones Monastery, and he began teaching other monks the same approach.

• The new abbot discovered that monastery repairs had left Zhiyuan Monastery owing over nine thousand taels, and the monks could not earn enough by performing rites or begging.
• Alu returned with flatbreads and silver from a household celebration, then continued bringing money to the monastery while the other monks went hungry.
• A junior monk asked Alu how he found work, and Alu took him to Three Pure Ones Monastery to learn Daoist rites and scriptures.
• Alu's junior monk began earning money, and more monks came to Alu to learn what they called Buddhist sutras.
• Alu expanded his teaching to monks under fifty, while the chapter ended with the secret becoming harder to conceal.

Alu and the monks who secretly practiced Daoist arts were exposed, but they overthrew Zhiyuan Monastery’s leadership and made Alu abbot. Alu then openly joined the Daoist school and was deliberately selected by Ao Tu to learn alchemy.

• The new abbot caught Alu and several disciples wearing Daoist robes and carrying Daoist items, then ordered them expelled for apostasy.
• The monks defended Alu, and one secretly burned the talisman papers with Daoist arts, prompting the abbot to accuse the group of apostasy.
• Alu condemned the elderly monks for exploiting the disciples and losing monastery property, and hundreds of monks backed him as abbot.
• Alu’s supporters defeated the elderly monks, acclaimed Alu as abbot, and locked the former abbot and stubborn elders in meditation chambers.
• Alu led the monks to become disciples of the State Preceptors and openly practice Daoism at Zhiyuan Monastery.
• Ao Tu selected Alu among eight disciples to learn alchemy, choosing him deliberately.