Five hundred years after becoming a Buddha, Zhu Bajie had grown tired of the rigid rules of the Celestial Court. When he discovered that Gao Cuilan had never married, he repeatedly slipped away to the mortal realm to watch over her, until at last he violated the heavenly laws. After fighting the celestial soldiers and failing to get help from Wukong and Sha Seng, he flew into a rage and overturned the Hall of Miraculous Mist. The Jade Emperor banished him to the mortal world as a common pig.
Thanks to the lingering effects of Supreme Lord Laozi's elixir, he assumed the name Zhu Gang and returned to Gao Village. He braved a mountain flood and outsmarted unscrupulous merchants, becoming a respected local leader and rekindling his relationship with Gao Cuilan. From village chief to deputy county magistrate, he brought in solar-powered agriculture and built a cultural tourism brand, only to face one plot after another from his rival, Jia Shiren: turning the villagers against him, kidnapping his young son, and framing him for water pollution...
When the Jade Emperor sent celestial soldiers to arrest him, the people raised thousands of parasols in his defense and pounded on Heaven's Gate. The Celestial Court was stunned by the transformation of the mortal realm, and invested Bajie as the Envoy of Inspection for Heaven and Earth, ushering in a new era of joint rule by immortals and mortals. After stepping down as deputy county magistrate, Zhu Gang put up a sign beside the rice paddies in Gao Village: "Pure Altar Office: We Handle the Problems the Immortals Won't."
