The Horse Keeper's Promotion Diary

The modern Heavenly Court is a highly bureaucratic theocratic system. The Imperial Stables, responsible for gathering, managing, and training the heavenly horses, is a logistics department that looks prestigious on the surface but is actually on the sidelines. Sun Wukong is recruited after “disrupting order in the lower world” and appointed Protector of the Imperial Horses, a fifth-rank official. Li Changeng is appointed deputy manager, a sixth-rank official, to assist him. I, Li Changeng, deputy manager of the Imperial Stables, am a mid-level official who has spent years navigating the Heavenly Court’s bureaucracy. By chance, I become the direct deputy to the newly appointed Protector of the Imperial Horses, Sun Wukong. I had only wanted to get by in peace, but instead I’m swept into a massive storm involving the very core of the Heavenly Court’s power. As I assist Sun Wukong, I witness how this “demon immortal from the lower world” shakes up the Heavenly Court bureaucracy single-handedly, ultimately rising to become the “Great Sage Equal to Heaven.” Later, Sun Wukong is imprisoned for five hundred years after “causing havoc in Heaven,” then travels west with Tang Sanzang, cultivates virtue, and becomes the Victorious Fighting Buddha. I, too, am demoted to the mortal realm, where I become a scholar at the Hanlin Academy of the Great Tang before eventually being promoted back to Heaven. Since returning, I have pushed for reform in the Heavenly Court and cracked down on corruption, with the Jade Emperor’s support and help from the Buddhist realm in the West, securing my position as Protector of the Imperial Horses. In the end, I choose to descend to the lower world and recuperate.