Chapter 1 1. The Past and Present Lives of the Monkey

Just past noon, a black demonic wind swept over the jagged peaks of Ox-Head Mountain. Dull yellow dust swirled in the wind, drifting through the remnants of shattered walls, letting out a mournful wail.

As the entire Ox-Head Mountain drew ever closer to the blazing sun, explosions echoed on all sides—fire erupted with crackling fury, banishing every trace of late autumn’s chill.

“My beloved is a hero without equal. One day he will don golden armor and ride upon a cloud of seven colors to take me as his bride…”

Blood glistened at the corner of Zixia Fairy’s lips. She gazed up at Sun Wukong, who clutched her tightly, and forced out her final words: “I guessed the beginning… but could never have foreseen this ending…”

“Zixia…” Sun Wukong hovered in the air, cradling the now lifeless fairy. His heart was a void of despair and agony.

The golden circlet upon his brow tightened ever more, but Sun Wukong refused to release Zixia’s body, holding her close until the pain nearly split his skull in two. At last, unable to withstand it, he let her go—

Her body was swept away by the howling wind toward the west. Sun Wukong pressed one hand to his throbbing head, the other trying desperately to grasp Zixia’s hand. He groaned, beset by a pain both physical and spiritual, immeasurable in its torment.

At last, her corpse faded from view, lost to the storm. Sun Wukong abandoned the strictures of Buddhist doctrine. His face contorted with rage, fangs bared, he soared high and brought his staff crashing down upon the Ox King’s skull.

“I will have your life—!”

He found the Ruyi Jingu Bang insufficient to vent his grief and hatred. With a wild leap, he sprang upon the Ox King, jaws agape, and tore into his flesh again and again, blood streaming down his fangs.

With a resounding crash, he hurled the staff at the Ox King’s head, expelling the foul air from his chest. Seeing Ox-Head Mountain about to plunge into the sun, he ordered Pigsy and Sandy to protect Tripitaka, and, using the power of the Moonlight Box, they escaped the mountain together.

Then, with a complicated look toward the barely breathing Qingxia Fairy, Wukong pressed his palms together in a Buddhist salute, then, expressionless, strode into the light pouring from the Moonlight Box, transforming into a beam of golden radiance that vanished into the endless sea of flames—

…

At the same moment, on June 26, 2018, Hu Rong, who had died from eating bad crab, suddenly regained consciousness. Before he could react, a dazzling rainbow light flared in the pitch-black void around him, swiftly filling every inch of space.

Instinctively, Hu Rong squeezed his eyes shut against the blinding brightness, yet he felt a stream of golden light pierce into his body. When he opened his eyes again, to his astonishment, he was alive!

But what shocked him even more was that, alongside his own memories and emotions, there now existed a terrifyingly vivid sequence in his mind:

The Eastern Continent, the Kingdom of Aolai… Flower-Fruit Mountain and the Monkey King… the Three Stars Cave on Mount Fangcun… the Great Sage, Equal to Heaven, Keeper of the Heavenly Stables… feats of flight and transformation… demon-slaying and monster-banishing… the pilgrimage to the Western Paradise… eighty-one calamities…

All these things, once confined to the pages of “Journey to the West,” had burst forth from the book itself, forcibly forging some mysterious connection with Hu Rong, regardless of whether he was prepared for it—

In other words, Hu Rong had transmigrated into “Journey to the West,” becoming Sun Wukong! And not just any Sun Wukong—the very one who had already mastered the arts under the Patriarch Bodhi, visited the Dragon Palace, stormed the Underworld, and wreaked havoc in Heaven!

“I am… the Great Sage, Equal to Heaven… Sun Wukong?!” Hu Rong swallowed hard, anxiety churning in his chest. Some say life is like being taken by force; if you can’t resist, you might as well enjoy it. Hu Rong tried to adjust—hmm? To his surprise, shifting his attitude a little, the sensation of leaping through clouds and earth was quite exhilarating—

But damn it all, couldn’t he at least be let out from under Five Elements Mountain first? Yes, the first thing Hu Rong noticed upon regaining his senses was that he was pinned beneath a colossal mountain, utterly unable to move…

What the hell? He could accept transmigrating into Sun Wukong, but the timing was all wrong! The Monkey King had already been crushed by the Buddha’s palm—how was he supposed to defy fate and change his destiny like this?!

And, as bad luck would have it, Hu Rong’s sharp eyes caught sight of an immortal maiden drifting down from the distant east, landing right before him. She intoned a Buddhist mantra and, in no uncertain terms, instructed him to protect a bald monk from the Tang dynasty—no, a holy master—on his journey westward to retrieve the true scriptures, and upon completion, to achieve enlightenment and ascend to immortality—

What?

Was this a joke?

I’m Sun Wukong?

Fine, perhaps I really am Sun Wukong… The very same Great Sage who has been crushed under Five Elements Mountain for five hundred years…

A monkey about to be tamed by Tripitaka, fitted with a golden headband, and sent off on the perilous road to the West. For the sake of the same sky and the same dream, Hu Rong thought it over at length, and at last, faced with Guanyin’s increasingly impatient expression, reluctantly and half-heartedly agreed to join the Tang Monk’s expedition to the West, assuming the role of eldest disciple…

Having subdued Hu Rong, Guanyin smiled in satisfaction, mounted her cloud, and flew eastward. Familiar with “Journey to the West,” Hu Rong knew she was off to “persuade”—or rather, to enlighten—Tripitaka, making him the chosen pilgrim who would save all living things.

No need to consult the original novel—Hu Rong knew that before long, that bald monk would come to fetch him, and together they would embark on the arduous, obstacle-ridden path to the Western Paradise, culminating in his being bestowed the title of “Victorious Fighting Buddha.”

But how could Hu Rong submit so willingly to such a fate? Pondering how this Monkey King might escape the shackles of destiny, he could not help but recall that, perhaps because of the lack of copyright fees, the 21st century was flooded with countless “Journey to the West” spin-offs: “Journey to the West,” “Journey to the West: The Sequel,” “Journey to the West: The Afterword,” “A Chinese Odyssey,” “Conquering Demons,” “The Wukong Chronicles,” and so on.

Yet before long, Hu Rong could only sigh at the futility of it, for he was now firmly trapped beneath Five Elements Mountain, facing nothing but the long pilgrimage ahead—

He sighed again. To think that in his previous life he died of crab poisoning, and in this one, he was imprisoned under a mountain. Truly, “misfortunes never come singly.”

After much deliberation, Hu Rong decided he could only follow the script of “Journey to the West,” dutifully taking the surname Sun, given name Wukong, and accompanying Tripitaka to fetch the scriptures. But before that, he took a moment to review the resume of the Great Sage, Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong, as it existed in his mind:

Name: Sun Wukong.
Gender: Male
Species: Primate
Type: Intelligent Stone Monkey

Date of Birth: Unknown
Age: Approximately 589 years
Alma Mater: Three Stars Cave, Slanting Moon, Mount Fangcun, West Continent
Degree: Supreme Golden Immortal
Major: Seventy-Two Transformations (Eighty-Nine Mysteries, incomplete) + Somersault Cloud
Occupation: Handsome Monkey King, Keeper of the Heavenly Stables, Seventh of the Seven Great Sages of Flower-Fruit Mountain
Registered Residence: Water Curtain Cave, Flower-Fruit Mountain, Kingdom of Aolai, Eastern Continent
Current Address: Five Elements Mountain (Boundary Mountain)
Family Relations:
Grandmother: Nuwa (no longer in contact)
Father: Heaven unresponsive
Mother: Earth unfeeling
Siblings: None
Sworn Brothers: Ox King (Great Sage Who Levels Heaven), Dragon King (Great Sage Who Overturns the Seas), Roc King (Great Sage Who Shakes the Skies), Lion King (Great Sage Who Moves Mountains), Macaque King (Great Sage Who Commands the Winds), Baboon King (Great Sage Who Drives Spirits)
Life Achievements: Apprenticed to the Patriarch Bodhi and mastered the Seventy-Two Transformations and Somersault Cloud, created havoc in the Dragon Palace, the Underworld, Heaven, and even the Western Paradise…
…