I Am the Senior Disciple of the Jie Sect

A story of a mastermind pulling the strings, schemes laid across the ages, devotion to one’s sect, the thrill of crushing the opposition, modern thinking colliding with classical mythology, and righting old wrongs by restoring the Ten Thousand Immortals of the Jie Sect.

After the Investiture of the Gods ends, Duobao is converted and taken to the West, while the last of Patriarch Tongtian’s power protects his true spirit. A thousand years pass. On the surface, Duobao, now the Tathagata, is a solemn Buddha. In secret, he quietly studies the Western Religion’s structure and power struggles, while gathering information on former Jie Sect members scattered across the Three Realms, including Our Lady of Wudang and Yunxiao.

At Spirit Mountain, Duobao relies on his “acting skills” to maintain delicate relationships with the Past Buddha, Dipamkara, the Future Buddha, Maitreya, Guanyin, Ksitigarbha, and the others. In secret, he cultivates a group of utterly loyal followers, perhaps junior disciples of the Jie Sect who narrowly escaped in the past, or disciples of the Western Religion won over entirely by his charisma.

At the beginning of the calamity of the Journey to the West, he senses the birth of the Heaven-born Stone Monkey. Through divination, and the “chaos in Heaven’s secrets” brought by that fragment of a modern soul, he confirms the monkey’s identity as a “variable.” At the same time, he begins laying plans for the Journey to the West, volunteering Jin Chanzi for a pivotal role and punishing him with reincarnation, giving him the identity of a scripture pilgrim.

Jin Chanzi’s true spirit descends to the mortal world. Duobao gazes down upon the Primordial World. The first piece has been set on the board...