After the scriptures were retrieved and the mission accomplished, the Buddhas of Spirit Mountain bestowed titles. Sun Wukong, the Victorious Fighting Buddha, sat upon a lotus throne and received the worship of the Three Realms. This is the ending everyone knows.
But no one knew that after becoming a Buddha, he remained silent for five hundred years.
For five hundred years, his master, Jin Chanzi, was kept under house arrest in the Sutra Repository, and Sun Wukong could not see him even once. Flower-Fruit Mountain was declared off-limits, guarded by a heavenly net with orders to kill on sight. The number of demons in the human world kept growing, and they bore the marks of Buddhist magical artifacts. The Tathagata had withdrawn, the Heavenly Court had grown dominant, and the Three Realms appeared peaceful, yet strangeness lurked everywhere.
Then one day, Wukong opened the true scriptures that had been sealed away for five hundred years.
What was written in them was not Buddhist teaching meant to save people at all.
They were shackles binding the Three Realms. The so-called journey west to seek scriptures had been, from beginning to end, a colossal lie spanning the Three Realms.
The Sea-Calming Divine Needle blazed once more, and the Victorious Fighting Buddha cast off his kasaya.
This time, he would overturn not just the Heavenly Palace, but the entire board.
From Spirit Mountain to the Heavenly Court, from the underworld to the human world, one man and one staff would stand against the gods and Buddhas of the myriad heavens. Five hundred years ago, he lost and became a pawn. Five hundred years later, he would be the one to smash the board.
"The Buddha says all beings are equal."
"Then let's start with you, Buddha. Go to hell, just like everyone else."
