Chapter Summaries

Bodhisattva Guanyin subdued Red Boy with a blade-studded lotus throne and golden hoops, then prepared to take him away. Sun Wukong went into Red Boy's cave to rescue his master and told Sha Wujing that Guanyin had already captured the demon.

• Bodhisattva Guanyin used dew to extinguish Red Boy's Samadhi True Fire, then tricked him onto a lotus throne made from Heavenly Gang Blades.
• Bodhisattva Guanyin had Muzha throw golden hooks onto Red Boy, and Red Boy begged to join the Buddhist Order before breaking his promise and attacking her.
• Bodhisattva Guanyin placed five golden hoops on Red Boy and used the Tightening Incantation to subdue him, then bound his hands together with sweet dew.
• Bodhisattva Guanyin told Sun Wukong to rescue his master while she took Red Boy away.
• Sun Wukong entered Red Boy's cave and told Sha Wujing that Bodhisattva Guanyin had already captured the demon.

Sun Wukong rescued Tang Xuanzang from the cave after Bodhisattva Guanyin subdued the monster, and the group resumed their journey. At the Black Water River, a ferryman lured Tang Xuanzang and Zhu Bajie away; Sha Wujing discovered they had been captured by a monster who planned to cook them.

• Sun Wukong freed Zhu Bajie and reunited with Tang Xuanzang, then explained how Bodhisattva Guanyin had subdued the monster.
• Sun Wukong prepared food, and Tang Xuanzang and his disciples continued their journey until they reached the Black Water River.
• Tang Xuanzang used the Great Might Heavenly Dragon on the river, and a ferryman appeared and offered to carry the travelers across.
• Sun Wukong and Sha Wujing waited on the bank while Tang Xuanzang and Zhu Bajie crossed, but the ferryman stirred up a storm and vanished with them.
• Sun Wukong suspected the ferryman was a monster, and Sha Wujing plunged into the river to search for Tang Xuanzang and Zhu Bajie.
• Sha Wujing found the monster ordering his minions to steam both monks and invite his second maternal uncle to feast.

Sha Wujing confronted the Black Water River monster, who admitted capturing Tang Sanzang and Zhu Bajie and planned to eat them. After the river god revealed the monster’s ties to the Dragon King of the West Sea, Sun Wukong went to seize the Dragon King, leaving the captives’ rescue unresolved.

• Sha Wujing fought the Black Water River monster but withdrew after realizing neither could easily defeat the other.
• Sha Wujing told Sun Wukong that the monster had captured Tang Sanzang and Zhu Bajie and planned to steam them for a birthday feast with his maternal uncle.
• The river god explained that the monster had driven him from his home and that the Dragon King of the West Sea was the monster’s maternal uncle.
• Sun Wukong set out to seize the Dragon King and killed a Black Fish Spirit carrying a glittering box on the way.
• The Dragon King led his subordinates out to greet Sun Wukong, who felt angry at the sight of them.

Sun Wukong learned that the Black Fish Spirit was the Dragon King of the West Sea’s nephew and went with the Dragon Crown Prince to capture him. After the prince defeated and bound the monster, Sun Wukong confronted him but hesitated to strike him.

• The Dragon King of the West Sea explained that the Black Fish Spirit was his nephew and sent the Dragon Crown Prince with Sun Wukong to capture him.
• The Black Fish Spirit welcomed the Dragon Crown Prince and admitted he had captured Tang Xuanzang, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujing to eat them.
• The Dragon Crown Prince warned the Black Fish Spirit about Sun Wukong, but the monster refused to release Tang Xuanzang and challenged them to fight.
• The Dragon Crown Prince wounded the Black Fish Spirit, and his subordinates bound him and brought him ashore to Sun Wukong.
• Sun Wukong rebuked the Black Fish Spirit for taking someone else’s home and deceiving his master, then reconsidered striking him with the Ruyi Jingu Bang.

Sun Wukong’s group rescued Tang Xuanzang from the Black Fish Spirit, crossed the Black Water River, and continued westward. After investigating a city where monks were forced to haul carts, Sun Wukong disguised himself as a Daoist and questioned two young Daoist priests.

• Sha Wujing and the river god rescued Tang Xuanzang and Zhu Bajie from the Black Fish Spirit’s underwater residence.
• Sun Wukong spared the Black Fish Spirit, and the dragon prince took him to the West Sea to face his father.
• The river god revealed that Bodhisattva Guanyin had asked him to help Tang Xuanzang cross the Black Water River, and the group continued on their journey.
• Sun Wukong investigated a loud commotion near a city and discovered monks hauling carts under the watch of two young Daoist priests.
• Sun Wukong transformed into a Daoist priest and questioned the two priests, who invited him to the palace, but he asked instead where he could beg for food.

Sun Wukong learned why Chechi Kingdom favored Daoists and met monks enslaved by the Daoist masters. After hearing how the three masters had won the king’s favor, he told the monks to leave.

• Sun Wukong learned from two Daoists that the kingdom’s king favored Daoism and that their master was the imperial preceptor.
• The Daoists said three immortal masters had ended a long drought by summoning wind and rain, winning the king’s favor.
• Sun Wukong claimed he was searching for his missing monk master, and the Daoists took him to the beach to look among the monks.
• The monks told Sun Wukong that the three masters had destroyed their temples and forced them into slavery.
• Sun Wukong learned the masters had further impressed the king with their magic and prayers, then told the monks to leave.

Sun Wukong learned that the monks of Chechi Kingdom were trapped in forced labor and could not escape, so he killed two Daoist supervisors and gave the monks monkey hairs to protect them. He and Tang Xuanzang entered the city with the monks, where Sun Wukong planned to confront the king and Daoists at court the next morning.

• The monks told Sun Wukong that the kingdom’s search orders made escape impossible and that they could not even kill themselves because their attempts always failed.
• The monks explained that Buddha had told them to wait for Tang Xuanzang and his disciple, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, to rescue them, delighting Sun Wukong.
• Sun Wukong killed two Daoists who refused to release the monks without permission, then revealed his identity after the monks feared the consequences.
• Sun Wukong smashed the monks’ cart, gave them monkey hairs for protection, and promised to defeat the Daoists after seeing the emperor.
• Tang Xuanzang and Zhu Bajie found Sun Wukong with the monks, and the group entered the city together.

Sun Wukong and his disciples secretly entered the Three Purities Temple while the Daoists were away, where Zhu Bajie ate the offerings and the group was mistaken for the Three Purities. Sun Wukong promised the Daoist masters holy water, leaving them scrambling to bring containers.

• The monks welcomed Sun Wukong and his disciples to Vajra Hall, believing Sun Wukong was the savior foretold in a dream.
• Sun Wukong found the Daoists holding a nighttime ritual and took Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing to the Three Purities Temple to eat the offerings.
• Zhu Bajie threw the three statues into a latrine, transformed into Taishang Laojun, and ate the food offerings.
• A young Daoist heard laughter in the hall, and Great Immortal Tiger Power, Great Immortal Luli, and Great Immortal Goat Power found the offerings gone and believed the Three Purities had visited.
• Sun Wukong promised the Daoist masters holy water, and they hurried to fetch containers for him.

Sun Wukong and his companions tricked the three great immortals with urine disguised as holy water, then faced the imperial preceptor’s accusations when Tang Xuanzang sought to exchange the group’s travel permit. The king hesitated after hearing Sun Wukong’s defense, just as a crowd arrived to request an audience.

• Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujing filled the vase, basin, and vat with urine and passed it off as holy water to the Daoists.
• Great Immortal Goat Power noticed the pig stink, and the angry Daoists attacked Sun Wukong and his companions, who escaped.
• The next morning, Tang Xuanzang and his companions went to court to have their travel permit exchanged, where the imperial preceptor accused them of killing disciples, freeing monks, and desecrating his temple.
• Sun Wukong challenged the imperial preceptor’s claims and denied breaking into the temple, making the king hesitate.
• A subordinate told the king that a crowd outside was asking for an audience, possibly to pray for rain.

The king challenged Tang Xuanzang and the three royal preceptors to compete in praying for rain, with the travelers’ lives at stake. As Great Immortal Tiger Power began the ritual, Sun Wukong secretly stopped the Daoist’s weather effects and arranged for the heavenly beings to follow his own commands.

• The king offered to pardon Tang Xuanzang and his companions if they could make rain, but threatened to behead them if they failed.
• Sun Wukong persuaded Great Immortal Tiger Power to pray for rain alongside Tang Xuanzang, and the Daoist announced the effects of each strike of his command token.
• Great Immortal Tiger Power summoned wind, but Sun Wukong flew into the sky and ordered Wind Granny to stop it.
• The Daoist summoned clouds, thunder, and lightning, while Sun Wukong directed the Dark Cloud Boy, the Duke of Thunder, and Mother of Lightning to interfere.
• Sun Wukong instructed the Dragon Kings of the Four Seas to produce the weather at his staff’s signals, then returned to the platform unnoticed.

Sun Wukong helped Tang Xuanzang pray for rain, then summoned the Dragon Kings to prove the Daoists had not earned the credit. The king stamped the travelers’ documents, but the State Preceptor persuaded him to take them back and agree to another contest.

• Sun Wukong had Tang Xuanzang chant scriptures while he summoned wind, clouds, thunder, and rain, then cleared the sky at the king’s request.
• The Daoists disputed Tang Xuanzang’s credit for the rain, so Sun Wukong summoned the Dragon Kings of the Four Seas, who appeared in the sky before returning to the sea.
• The king stamped the travel documents and handed them to Tang Xuanzang, but the State Preceptor asked to wager again, and the king took the documents back.
• The State Preceptor proposed competing with Sun Wukong in seated meditation on platforms built from stacked tables.

Tang Xuanzang and Sun Wukong faced Great Immortal Luli in contests of seated meditation and guessing objects. After Sun Wukong secretly sabotaged the guessing contest’s contents, Tang Xuanzang won, leaving the king and his court astonished.

• Tang Xuanzang offered to compete in seated meditation, and Sun Wukong flew him to the high platform after he admitted he could not climb it.
• Great Immortal Luli sent a bug to bite Tang Xuanzang, but Sun Wukong transformed into a centipede and bit Luli, winning the contest for Tang Xuanzang.
• Great Immortal Luli challenged Tang Xuanzang to guess what was inside a cabinet, and Sun Wukong secretly destroyed the clothes and painting within it.
• Tang Xuanzang called the cabinet’s contents rubbish, and the king opened it to find only rubbish inside.
• After a servant placed a peach in the cabinet, Sun Wukong ate it and left the pit; Tang Xuanzang guessed what remained, astonishing the king and court.

Sun Wukong defeated the imperial preceptors by surviving beheading and having his organs removed, while secretly preventing them from doing the same. Great Immortal Tiger Power died as a headless tiger, and Great Immortal Nuli transformed into a white-haired deer after Sun Wukong carried away his organs.

• Sun Wukong volunteered to be beheaded, grew a new head after Great Immortal Luli used the Land God to keep his original one from returning, and reassured Tang Xuanzang.
• Great Immortal Tiger Power had his head cut off, but Sun Wukong sent a dog made from a monkey hair to carry it away, leaving Great Immortal Tiger Power to die as a headless yellow-haired tiger.
• Sun Wukong cut open his belly and showed that he could replace his intestines, prompting the king to offer him his travel permit.
• Great Immortal Nuli cut open his abdomen to imitate Sun Wukong, who transformed into an eagle and carried away his internal organs.
• Great Immortal Nuli collapsed and transformed into a white-haired deer.

Sun Wukong survived Great Immortal Goat Power’s boiling-oil trial, exposed the cold dragon aiding him, and helped the pilgrims leave the kingdom with their travel document. Later, the journey brought Tang Xuanzang and his disciples to a vast expanse of water with no visible shore.

• Great Immortal Goat Power challenged Sun Wukong to bathe in a cauldron of oil, and Sun Wukong hid as a nail while the king thought he had died.
• Tang Xuanzang used Great Might Heavenly Dragon to stop the king’s men and asked the king for yellow paper to burn for Sun Wukong.
• Sun Wukong revealed himself, forced Great Immortal Goat Power into the cauldron, and discovered that the Dragon King of the North Sea had used a cold dragon to chill the oil.
• The Dragon King of the North Sea removed the cold dragon, and Great Immortal Goat Power was burned; Tang Xuanzang obtained the travel document and the pilgrims departed.
• As autumn came, Tang Xuanzang and his disciples traveled late into the night and heard rushing water ahead.
• Sun Wukong flew above the water and saw that it stretched as far as he could see, with no shore in sight.

Tang Xuanzang and his disciples reached the Tongtian River and sought shelter in a nearby village. After the old man who lived there agreed to host them, Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie frightened the monks in his hall, and Tang Xuanzang scolded them.

• Ancestor Hongjun reassured Ao Changsheng that the group could handle the tribulation he had arranged for them.
• Sun Wukong found a stone marker identifying the river as the Tongtian River, which stretched for eight hundred li and was difficult to cross.
• Tang Xuanzang followed the sound of cooking to a row of homes and approached one alone, asking its old resident for a place to stay.
• The old man doubted Tang Xuanzang's account until Tang called over Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujing, whom the old man then invited inside.
• Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie startled the monks chanting in the hall, and Tang Xuanzang reprimanded them for frightening their host's friends.

Tang Xuanzang and his disciples ate at an old man’s home and learned that a temple upriver demanded young boys and girls as sacrifices. Sun Wukong discovered the old man’s son was among the children marked for sacrifice and demonstrated that he could perfectly imitate him, leaving the old man amazed and asking why.

• Tang Xuanzang’s disciples settled in at the old man’s home, where Zhu Bajie asked for enough food for more than thirty people.
• Tang Xuanzang asked why the old man had held a ritual, and the old man explained that the Numinous Touch Temple brought rain but demanded young boys and girls.
• Sun Wukong suspected a monster was behind the temple’s demands and realized the old man’s family had to sacrifice a child that year.
• The old man brought out his son, and Sun Wukong transformed himself to match the child’s appearance, voice, clothes, and weight.
• The old man praised Sun Wukong’s transformation and asked what he intended to do in his son’s form.

Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie disguised themselves as the offerings meant for a monster that demanded a boy and a girl each year. They confronted the monster, but began to lose ground in the fight.

• Sun Wukong offered to take the boy’s place, then had Zhu Bajie transform into the old man’s daughter so they could both serve as offerings.
• The old men carried Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie to the offering place, where Zhu Bajie tried to leave after the crowd departed, but Sun Wukong insisted they wait for the monster.
• When the monster arrived, Sun Wukong gave him invented names for the children, and the monster unexpectedly chose to eat the girl first.
• Zhu Bajie revealed himself and struck the monster with his Nine-Toothed Rake, while Sun Wukong also transformed and joined the fight.
• Sun Wukong challenged the monster over the children he had eaten, and he and Zhu Bajie attacked, but the monster gained the upper hand and moved to kill them.

Ao Changsheng endured a Lightning Tribulation after widening the Tongtian River, while Ancestor Hongjun watched and briefly intervened. When the tribulation ended, Ao Changsheng had absorbed it and gained the presence of a Lightning Principle.

• Ao Changsheng told Ancestor Hongjun that he was unsure how Heaven would react to what he had made, and a Lightning Tribulation gathered over him.
• Ao Changsheng warned Ancestor Hongjun to stay back as bolts of lightning struck him, explaining that he had widened the Tongtian River.
• The lightning formed dragons that charged Ao Changsheng, but he erased them with a gesture; Ancestor Hongjun worried at how powerful he had become.
• Ao Changsheng said he would continue the Journey to the West Immeasurable Tribulation until the scripture mission was complete.
• Ancestor Hongjun used a Law Artifact to scatter a bolt of lightning, and Ao Changsheng's roar dispersed the surrounding clouds.
• The Lightning Tribulation ended, and Ancestor Hongjun learned that Ao Changsheng had absorbed it and gained the presence of a Lightning Principle.

Ao Changsheng absorbed a heavenly lightning tribulation, and a diverted bolt gravely injured the Great King of Numinous Touch. After a ragged old man devised a plan to trap Tang Xuanzang on frozen river ice, the monster caused snow to fall over the region, leaving Tang Xuanzang and his disciples stranded at the Chen Household.

• Ancestor Hongjun explained that the lightning tribulation had struck Ao Changsheng because he had grown powerful, and Ao Changsheng asked where Hongjun had diverted another bolt.
• The diverted heavenly lightning struck the Great King of Numinous Touch, who fled to his underwater lair gravely injured.
• Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie returned to the Chen Household, where Sun Wukong told Tang Xuanzang and the elders that heaven had struck the monster with lightning.
• A ragged old man advised the Great King of Numinous Touch to freeze the Tongtian River and lure Tang Xuanzang onto the ice so they could capture him.
• The Great King of Numinous Touch caused heavy snow to fall, and Tang Xuanzang and his disciples awoke at the Chen Household to find the land covered in snow.

Tang Xuanzang and his disciples attempted to cross the frozen Tongtian River, but demons broke the ice and captured him. Sun Wukong sent Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing into the river to search for their master, while a hair-made double disappeared after Zhu Bajie fell.

• Tang Xuanzang crossed the ice on the White Dragon Horse after Zhu Bajie tested the ice, tied straw to the horse's hooves, and gave Tang Xuanzang a staff.
• Demons chiseled through the ice beneath Tang Xuanzang, captured him, and took him to the Great King of Numinous Touch, who agreed to capture the disciples before eating him.
• Sun Wukong demanded that Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing enter the Tongtian River to rescue Tang Xuanzang, then used a hair to create a fake version of himself that went with them.
• Sun Wukong struck Zhu Bajie in the river, causing the fake Sun Wukong to tumble away and vanish, and Sha Wujing scolded Zhu Bajie for the fall.