Chen Xuan, a graduate student in sociology, unexpectedly transmigrates into the world of Journey to the West and becomes the expendable woodcutter on Shuangcha Ridge, fated to be devoured by a tiger demon. As he lies dying, he binds to the [Myriad Realms Observation and Intervention System], only to discover that the System has granted him no world-shattering power, just a “pen” that records the truth.
Through the System’s cold analysis, he sees the truth behind the precise timing of the gods’ and Buddhas’ rescues, the telltale signs of demons putting on an act, and the fact that formations are drawing upon mortals’ fear. The grand narrative of the pilgrimage to the West peels away layer by layer before his eyes, revealing itself as a scheme to harvest karmic fortune. He realizes that he has not transmigrated into a myth. He has stumbled into a meticulously staged murder mystery, scripted by the Celestial Court and Spirit Mountain.
From then on, Chen Xuan refuses to be a pawn. He becomes a cool-headed “observer,” moving among the gods’ and Buddhas’ schemes. At Black Wind Mountain, he debates the seekers of the Way and sows the seeds of doubt. At White Tiger Ridge, he speaks for the wronged spirits and shakes the pilgrims’ faith. He infiltrates the Celestial Court to dissect the control mechanisms behind the Peaches of Immortality and golden elixirs. He enters the Kingdom of the Lion and Camel and records the naked plunder behind its mountains of corpses and rivers of blood.
He tells Sun Wukong, “The best time to expose a performance is when the curtain falls.”
He challenges Tang Sanzang, “Are the scriptures you seek a boat to ferry the world across, or chains that bind people’s hearts?”
As the pilgrimage edges toward its predetermined “perfect conclusion,” the truths Chen Xuan has recorded gather into a force capable of overturning everything. The observation points burn; the threads of cause and effect converge. He joins forces with awakened demons, immortals who have turned against the Way, and indomitable human souls, and on the final stage, he declares to all the gods and Buddhas in the heavens:
“If the world is the board and the gods and Buddhas are its pieces, then I shall stand for humanity!”
