In the Cave of the Slanting Moon and Three Stars, he had been in seclusion for five thousand years.
The Patriarch Bodhi rested a book titled The Ledger of Karma on his knees. As its pages turned, they revealed the brutal truth of eighty cycles of reincarnation: every time his disciple Sun Wukong wreaked havoc in Heaven, it was part of a script; every journey west to seek the scriptures was a harvest. In the end, he was always refined into nourishment for the golden body of Lingshan.
“Eighty times.”
Bodhi closed the book, his fingertips stained with blood. It was the grievance his disciple had accumulated over eighty lives.
“This machine called the Heavenly Dao has been running for too long, so long it no longer even knows it's rusted.”
On this day, the Patriarch emerged from seclusion.
With one step, he shattered the void. A moment before the spirit stone split apart, he planted a strand of “defiance against Heaven” into the stone monkey.
“Wukong, this time, your master won't teach you to become a Buddha.”
“Your master will teach you... to slay gods.”
And so, in this life, Sun Wukong opened his eyes with the memories and resentment of eighty lifetimes. Bodhi stood behind him, using Heaven and Earth as his chessboard and all beings as his pieces, launching the most reckless declaration of war against the lofty Tathagata and the Jade Emperor.
