The New Tribulation: The 996 Journey to the West

Sha Wujing, General Who Rolls Up the Curtain, was banished to the Flowing Sands River and endured a painful cycle of reincarnation. A thousand years later, reborn as an entrepreneur, he founded Journey to the West Group and secretly funded the “River Child” System. Its original purpose was to collect consciousness data and build a bridge connecting the minds of all living beings. But predatory conglomerates set their sights on the tool: Noah Technologies seeks to imprison consciousness and sell it as a commodity, while Wutian Group plans a new form of enslavement in the name of digital immortality. In the midst of the crisis, the pilgrims of old reunite: the tech idealist Wukong, the pragmatic and profit-minded Bajie, Tang Seng, who knows how to navigate the system, and the hands-on Sha Seng fight side by side. Meanwhile, resistance movements from around the world quietly converge. Community organizer Mary builds a data cooperative in Kenya; activist Rajesh exposes shady deals in India; German scientist Elena fights for the right to define technological ethics; and the digital consciousness left behind by scholar Chen Jingyun develops independent insight and a conscience of its own. This is a war over existence itself. When technology can copy, divide, and trade consciousness, will humanity be headed for heaven or hell? Caught between a capitalist siege, clashing ideals, and the bonds of old friendship, Sha Seng and his companions must find a third way: neither control nor abandon it, but build a “garden” where all consciousness, whether human, animal, AI, or digital life, can flow freely and nourish one another. From the Flowing Sands River to the digital galaxy, a modern pilgrimage across technology, ethics, and spirituality begins. The true scripture they ultimately seek is an answer to how, in an age of technological singularity, we can protect the most precious essence of consciousness: freedom, connection, and ceaseless evolution.