Tao Zhi transmigrated and crashed beneath Five Elements Mountain, landing right beside the hand Sun Wukong had stuck out from under it.
The monkey glanced at him. "You trapped under here too?"
Tao Zhi: "Just passing through."
Sun Wukong: "Well, perfect. Help me take down that notice on the mountaintop..."
Tao Zhi: "I can't take it down. But I can make sure you don't have to wear that headband after you get out."
As a modern office worker who had Journey to the West's plot etched into his DNA, Tao Zhi knew the script inside out: Tang Sanzang takes down the notice, the Great Sage gets out, puts on the tightening headband, travels eighty-one thousand li, and eventually becomes a Buddha. He gets a job, but has to bow his head for the rest of his life.
Tao Zhi's answer: "I'm not taking that deal."
With nothing but his silver tongue, he became the Great Sage's chief strategist.
A cup of instant noodles bought over the local Earth God, whose intelligence traveled faster than the heavenly court's official documents.
A few kind words raised the peach spirit Xiao Tian, who could smell the official airs of an immortal from ten li away.
He recruited the Bull Demon King, and the Seventy-Two Cave Demon Kings followed him into battle against the heavenly soldiers.
Guanyin personally descended with the tightening spell, but when she opened the box, all that lay inside was a fresh peach branch.
In Lingxiao Palace, he slapped the table and argued with the Jade Emperor, and even won.
But gradually, he discovered that every time he revealed a plot point, the cracks in fate deepened.
His transmigration itself was a pawn placed on someone else's chessboard, a tribulation piece.
Sun Wukong: "Scared?"
Tao Zhi: "Yes. But I'm changing things anyway."
**Peaches can't hold me down, and fate can't hold me down either.**
**This time, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven decides his own fate.**
