[Journey to the West] Why Can't a Taoist Priest Make the Journey to the West?

Li Luo once firmly believed that transmigrating once was enough, and there was no way anyone could do it a second time.

So when she transmigrated for the first time, she was determined to achieve a legendary feat as famous as Jiang Taigong fishing or Nezha wreaking havoc in the sea. She took a master, studied hard, and cultivated diligently for a full eight hundred years.

But man proposes, Heaven disposes. Just as she was about to ascend to immortality...

Well, would you look at that. She transmigrated again.

Expressionless.

Her eight hundred years of cultivation were useless in a mortal body.

Even the natal magic artifact she had spent three hundred years searching for, the Primordial Bitter Bamboo, was inaccessible inside her soul.

Li Luo: ...Here I go again!

She reincarnated again and again, living through King Qin lifting the cauldron, killing three warriors with two peaches, pointing at a deer and calling it a horse, the glory of Han customs, and the chaos of the Five Barbarians. Every time, just as she thought she was about to ascend to immortality and began to hope for the future, it all ended.

Until she transmigrated into Jiang Liuer.

Do you know what these one hundred and one transmigrations were like for her? (Darkness) (Distortion) (Screaming) (Crawling)

--Let’s calculate the area of Li Luo’s psychological scars.

And so the Journey to the West took on this style:

Li Luo: Infinite blessings of the Heavenly Worthy. I am a Daoist from the Great Tang of the East, bound for the Western Heaven to worship Buddha and seek scriptures.

You ask how a Daoist is supposed to make the Journey to the West to seek scriptures?

Good question. I’d like to know, too. Why don’t you go to the Western Heaven first and ask Buddha for me?

[Irreverent Mini-Skit 1]

White Bone Spirit: I hear the Daoist from the Great Tang of the East has a disciple named Sun Wukong.

Yellow-Robed Monster: That Sun Wukong is the Great Sage Equal to Heaven who caused Havoc in Heaven five hundred years ago!

Red Boy: So what if he’s the Great Sage Equal to Heaven? I’m still going to eat his master!

Bull Demon King: Exactly! We’ll eat her!

Li Luo [glancing around uncertainly]: Are... you talking about me?

Sun Wukong: No!

Zhu Bajie: No!

Sha Wujing: No!

The monsters: Who else would we be talking about?

The three disciples shut their eyes in despair.

Ten minutes later, a group of monsters lay sprawled on the ground, staring blankly into space, bereft of the will to live.

The three disciples: ...We told you to say "No!"

[Irreverent Mini-Skit 2]

Before accepting Guanyin Bodhisattva’s invitation, Sun Wukong had once imagined what his master would be like.

Oh... a female Daoist. A particularly handsome female Daoist wearing a white jade lotus crown. Thin arms and legs, riding a slow-moving old yellow ox.

She looked weak as a kitten.

Looks like protecting my master will be a heavy responsibility for me, Old Sun.

After setting out on the Journey to the West:

Sun Wukong [drawing his Golden Cudgel]: Master, don’t be afraid! Let Old Sun deal with this monster! Master? Master?

Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing: Brother Monkey / Eldest Brother, Master somehow pulled out a horsetail whisk and has already charged in!

[Reader’s Guide]

1. The main plot is the Journey to the West, and the protagonist is devoted to seeking the Dao and ascending to immortality.

2. The male lead is always in the background. (Original male lead.)

3. This is a brainless wish-fulfillment story, so please don’t nitpick. If you don’t like it, don’t force yourself to read it.

4. Jin Chanzi simply didn’t transmigrate into Jiang Liuer, he wasn’t killed. [I’ll explain what he’s doing later, though I feel like lots of you can probably guess.]

5. The characters and plot mainly follow the 1986 Journey to the West TV series, with some parts based on the original novel.

6. I don’t know what else to say, so let me do a handstand for you all.

Theme: You ask how a Daoist makes the Journey to the West to seek scriptures?