Three Rebellious Rogues Fight for the Scriptures: Journey to the West Saves No One

Sun Wukong, pinned beneath the Five Elements Mountain, now has the soul of Liang Yunsen, an overworked office drone. With no magical powers and a run-in with an underworld messenger, he thinks he’s about to become the most miserable transmigrator in Journey to the West. Instead, he gets the “Rebel Scripture Snatching System” and Yuan Zhen, an undercover agent sent by Patriarch Bodhi.

The mission is absurd: recruit Nezha and Yang Jian, two Heavenly Court rebels, and seize the Western scriptures before Tang Sanzang does.

He helps Nezha steal Li Jing’s pagoda and resolve his anguish over “returning his bones to his father.” He accompanies Yang Jian in search of his reincarnated mother, breaking the deadlock of their “uncle and nephew turned enemies” relationship. The trio snatches monsters, mouths off to the Heavenly Court, and completes the Eighty-One Tribulations before Tang Sanzang. They go from troublemakers each harboring their own schemes to one another’s salvation.

Only when the Buddha hands Liang Yunsen a scripture with no words does he understand: the point of the pilgrimage isn’t to seek Buddha’s help in saving yourself. It’s to find a place where “someone will go wild with you, and someone will shoulder the burden with you,” alongside a bunch of rebels, in the madcap world of Journey to the West.

After all, even the wildest rebel needs the warmest bonds.