Zhang Dan died suddenly.
When he woke up, he found himself turned into a ball of fire.
A ball of fire inside Taishang Laojun’s Eight Trigrams Furnace.
The very fire meant to roast Sun Wukong.
His boss wanted him to burn the monkey to death, and his coworkers kept telling him to turn up the heat.
But the monkey just wouldn’t burn!
He was still singing, doing somersaults, and chatting with him inside the furnace.
“Little Flame, make it hotter.”
“...Did you come here to serve a prison sentence or take a sauna?”
Zhang Dan decided to save himself: skim pills, sneak spirit stones, cozy up to magical treasures, and stir up trouble behind the scenes.
But what he didn’t know was this:
Taishang Laojun had known all along that he was sentient.
The Azure Bull had already caught him sneaking food.
When the Great Mage Xuandu first came by, he said, “This fire is interesting.”
Everyone knew. He was the only one who didn’t.
Later, Sun Wukong asked him, “What exactly are you hiding?”
Zhang Dan: “...I’d like to know that too.”
