After completing the pilgrimage, Sun Wukong was named Victorious Fighting Buddha, while Zhu Bajie became the Altar-Cleansing Envoy.
But the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, who once wreaked havoc in the Heavenly Court, was gone for good.
He was no longer the monkey who dared to challenge the Jade Emperor, nor the demon king who could sweep away a hundred thousand celestial soldiers with a single swing of his staff. Robed in Buddhist vestments and wearing the golden headband, he stood with downcast eyes on Spirit Mountain, like a dog that had been tamed.
Chen Jueyuan, the grandson of a cowherd, spent seven years cultivating at Mount Lingtai Fangcun before descending to search for his family. He found Sun Wukong after the pilgrimage, only to discover that the spirited old Monkey King had been stripped of every edge and turned into a Buddha who did nothing but chant sutras.
Zhu Pengyun, the son of Zhu Bajie, left Mount Fuling alone at the age of eight, with just one question for his father: “Why haven’t you come to see me in eight years?” But when they met, he found a slovenly Altar-Cleansing Envoy who didn’t even recognize his own son.
These were not the elders they remembered.
These were not the people they had risked everything to catch up with.
They gathered a group of forgotten friends in the Heavenly Court, vowing to bring back the Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie they had once known.
They would shatter Spirit Mountain, not to rebel, but to save the true Great Sage Equal to Heaven from the shell of a Buddha.
The thing they would break was not a golden body, but a shackle.
