A thousand years later, the Three Realms have crumbled, Buddha has entered nirvana, and the gods have fallen. The Great Sage Equal to Heaven, who once shattered the Celestial Palace beneath his feet, awakens in an apocalypse where machinery and flesh intertwine, with only a wisp of his soul remaining. Here, base cities rise from nuclear-contaminated ruins, demon beasts devour cybernetic Buddhist scriptures, and his Golden Cudgel has turned to dust, scattered amid neon lights and blood and fire.
The pilgrims of old set out west once more: a gluttonous Demon King hides the fangs of the Messenger of the Pure Altar; the scales of an aggrieved sea dragon are carved with the regrets of the Eight Classes of Devas and Nagas; and the chest of a mecha god beats with the spark of the alchemical furnace. When a cloned Tang Sanzang recites the Heart Sutra in a laboratory, the Six-Eared Macaque steps out of a rift in time with a cold laugh... Only then do they realize that these twenty-seven tribulations were no more than an unawakened dream on the Crossing of the Soaring Clouds.
There are no true scriptures at the end of this journey to Spirit Mountain, only white bones reflecting the heart of Zen.
