The farther west they travel, the less human they become. The journey west is a dream of the old gods, and Spirit Mountain is the body in which one of them curls up. Tang Sanzang touched the notice at Five Elements Mountain, and from that moment, his shadow grew heavier and heavier. The lining of his kasaya is covered in bite marks. Each one marks a skin the god tried on. Sun Wukong has a third eye on the back of his head. Extra organs have sprouted across Bajie's back. Sha Wujing has no weight. At the bottom of the Flowing Sand River lie the corpses of nine past Tang Sanzangs, all waiting for the tenth to reach the end. The god is close to waking.
