[Journey to the West Spin-Off + Historical Xuanzang's Soul Transmigration + No Clichés + System + A New Journey to the West]
Xuanzang, who truly made the pilgrimage west to seek the scriptures, enters Journey to the West and becomes Tang Sanzang.
In the thirteenth year of the Zhenguan era, at the grand water-and-land assembly in Chang'an.
Guanyin appears in person and bestows a Brocade Kasaya and a Nine-Ringed Monk's Staff.
The entire court waits for Xuanzang to bow and thank the Buddha for his grace, but he takes just one look and pushes the kasaya back.
“Bodhisattva, if wearing a kasaya can keep one from falling into reincarnation, then what use is my painstaking practice of Buddhist teachings?”
Guanyin looks at him, unable to answer for the first time.
In his previous life, he had no Great Sage Equal to Heaven to escort him, no gods or Buddhas watching over him along the way, and none of the so-called Eighty-One Tribulations. Yet he dared to cross deserts and climb snowy mountains alone, risking death at every turn to seek the Dharma in India.
In this life, instead, he sees a journey west that has already been arranged.
Who sets each trial, who arrives to save the day, who earns the merit, who attains Buddhahood, which monster is supposed to die and which will ultimately be taken back by its master... It all seems to have been written into a script long ago.
But the true search for the Dharma has never been about following a script.
His System awakens, and he wields the Mahayana Immortal Arts.
He won't wear the kasaya or accept Buddhist treasures, but he will still go to the Western Heaven.
If monsters harm people, he will kill them. If gods and Buddhas want to reason with him, he will reason with them. If anyone tries to silence him with the words “the will of Heaven,” Xuanzang has only one question:
“Why?”
Beneath Five Elements Mountain, he looks at Sun Wukong, imprisoned there for five hundred years.
“Wukong, do you want to be the scripture guardian they've arranged for you, or come with me and take a journey to the West that no one has ever planned?”
From that day on, the Eighty-One Tribulations begin to change.
Only later do the gods and Buddhas across the heavens realize:
The greatest variable in this Journey to the West was never the monkey.
It was Xuanzang.
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