After Sun Wukong killed the tiger, he and Tang Seng continued onward. Before long, they ran into six bandits blocking the road, demanding that the two of them put down their belongings or be smashed to pieces. Without a second word, Sun Wukong attacked, and the game once again entered combat!

This was a six-boss group fight, and it required a lot of skillful control. These six mini-bosses each applied a different negative status to affect Sun Wukong’s damage output.

Liu-ge failed several times before summarizing the pattern:

“The six bosses are named Joy, Anger, Love, Thought, Desire, and Sorrow. The debuffs are really annoying. Joy lowers defense, anger lowers accuracy, love lowers attack, thought roots you in place, sorrow prevents you from using skills, and desire makes Sun Wukong get confused and turn back to attack Tang Seng… Damn, just now my Monkey hit Master in one strike and instantly failed the challenge!”

【Hahaha, he turned around and smashed Master with one stick】
【The Great Sage goes crazy and even kills teammates!】
【Sun Wukong: Sorry, Master, I hit the wrong person】
【Tang Seng: Do you have any manners?】

Liu-ge was speechless. Just now he had been affected by the boss’s “confusion” effect and couldn’t stop in time, so Monkey ended up smashing Master to death…

These six-bosses weren’t actually that strong in terms of attack; they were just extremely annoying because of all their debuffs.

If Tang Seng died, the challenge naturally failed.

Liu-ge analyzed the situation:

“In this stage, we need to switch characters constantly. If Sun Wukong gets a debuff, switch immediately to Tang Seng to cleanse it. Tang Seng’s third skill can remove buffs and debuffs, and his fourth skill can heal the team. Use that well, kill the two hard-control enemies first, and we’ll pass!”

Among the six bosses, three were hard-control types and three were soft-control types. The hard controls were confusion, immobilization, and skill seal; if Sun Wukong got hit by those, it was very dangerous. The soft controls were things like attack reduction and defense reduction, which could be handled more slowly.

After clarifying the strategy, Liu-ge took a deep breath and tried again.

This time, he unleashed the hand speed of a tournament-clutch shooter and switched characters furiously!

As long as Tang Seng could cleanse Sun Wukong’s debuffs in time, keep the damage flowing, and quickly kill the three hard-control bosses before dealing with the others, the fight could be cleared smoothly.

The viewers in the livestream were dazzled watching him switch so quickly.

【A player with slow hands can’t switch that fast at all!】
【Controlling one Great Sage is already hard enough. Controlling two is a nightmare】
【This kind of gameplay is really unfriendly to slow-handed players】
【If your hands are slow, play Normal Mode and let the AI help you cleanse!】
【I just cleared Normal Mode. I love AI Tang Seng — his cleanse timing is insanely good!】

In Challenge Mode, players had to manually switch characters and use skills.

In Normal Mode and Easy Mode, when the player controlled Sun Wukong, the intelligent AI would control Tang Seng and help cleanse debuffs. If the player mainly controlled Tang Seng, the AI would make Sun Wukong attack the boss on his own.

Players who liked support roles could directly control Tang Seng and let Sun Wukong carry them to victory.

Players who liked DPS could go all out with combos, because the system support would handle cleansing, healing, and mana restoration. Very convenient.

The game’s AI was incredibly smooth — sometimes even faster than the player’s own reflexes.

But Liu-ge felt that Challenge Mode was most satisfying when he controlled everything himself.

Although switching back and forth was busy, once he got used to it, alternating between support and DPS felt like having seven or eight skills at once!

Under Liu-ge’s control, Sun Wukong killed all six enemies in one go.

A cutscene began.

Tang Seng looked at the corpses scattered on the ground, closed his eyes, recited “Amitabha,” and rebuked Sun Wukong:

“Wukong, how could you be so reckless? Even if these six bandits were handed over to the authorities, they would not necessarily have been sentenced to death. Yet you killed them all. As a monk, you have no compassion at all. If later, when we reach a city, someone offends you, will you kill them too?”

Sun Wukong refused to accept it. “If I didn’t kill them, they would have killed you! Besides, when old Sun was king in Flower-Fruit Mountain, I didn’t know how many people I had killed.”

Tang Seng said, “That’s because no one disciplined you. Now that you have entered the Buddhist path, how can you still act like you did before and kill recklessly? At this rate, how can you possibly make it to the Western Heaven?”

Sun Wukong snapped impatiently, “If I can’t go, then I won’t go! Old Sun is leaving!”

With that, he somersaulted away on a cloud ten thousand eight thousand li in an instant and disappeared without a trace.

The livestream viewers were stunned.

【Damn, he quit already?】
【Monkey is born rebellious and refuses to be controlled】
【Even the Jade Emperor couldn’t manage him, let alone Tang Seng!】
【Tang Seng really talks too much…】
【But what he said does make sense — in a civilized society, random killing is bad!】
【Wukong is a monkey; not knowing human rules is pretty normal】

In Chapter One, Sun Wukong had already gone on strike twice — he quit midway as the Horse Head Officer, and he also ran away midway while watching the Peach Orchard. Players were already very familiar with the mischievous Monkey King’s “strike history.”

But they hadn’t expected him to quit again!

Sun Wukong went to the Dragon Palace to play. The Dragon King advised him that if he kept acting so recklessly, he would always remain a demon monkey, and pointed him toward the right path, telling him to go back.

Thinking it over, Monkey agreed that it made sense, and returned.

Meanwhile, Guanyin transformed into an ordinary old woman and gave Tang Seng clothing and a hat, while teaching him a spell: “From now on, if he tries to act violently, you can silently recite this incantation, and he will not dare.”

After saying that, she turned into a beam of light and left.

When Sun Wukong returned, Tang Seng made him put on the clothing and hat given by Guanyin.

The moment Tang Seng recited the spell, Sun Wukong’s head split with pain. In the cutscene, he rolled on the ground in agony, crying out. The audience in the livestream were furious and spammed the chat with angry comments.

【The people of Heaven are so despicable!】
【What kind of tightening spell did Guanyin teach Tang Seng? It’s hurting my Monkey!】
【The Great Sage is so powerful that they had to put a hoop on his head just to keep him under control?】
【A bunch of Heaven’s so-called warriors can’t beat Sun Wukong, so they had to use this underhanded trick to control him!】

Sun Wukong was so powerful that without any way to restrain him, he really would have been dangerous.

Just earlier, he had run off in a fit of anger, and Tang Seng had no way to stop him. If later he got upset again and directly smashed Tang Seng to death, then the Buddha’s “Journey to the West” plan would be completely ruined.

That logic, adults could indeed understand.

But while the logic made sense, emotionally everyone still couldn’t stand seeing Sun Wukong being tricked.

Most players loved Sun Wukong, and they were furious at this point.

In other games, people often skipped story because it was boring, but nobody expected Journey to the West to become more and more addictive — it was stirring up endless emotion from the players.

Some were angrily cursing; others were analyzing the situation rationally.

The players split into two camps and started arguing on Weibo.

Liu-ge sighed, “Everyone in the chat is arguing so passionately. That’s fine — everyone has the right to express their opinions. It means they’re really invested in the story!”

Yafan Studio’s cutscenes hadn’t been made in vain. At least most players were watching the story instead of pressing “skip all,” and that was already a huge success.

A character only becomes truly powerful when their image is vivid and lively enough to enter the player’s heart, so that players can feel joy, anger, sorrow, and all the rest along with them.

The Great Sage’s image had clearly already deeply rooted itself in people’s minds.

Liu-ge said, “Alright, stop getting angry. Let’s keep playing!”

Tang Seng and Sun Wukong continued onward and soon arrived at a place called Eagle Sorrow Ravine. A burst of demonic wind blew past, and Tang Seng’s horse was eaten by a monster.

Sun Wukong immediately jumped into the ravine to fight the demon.

The monster turned out to be a white dragon, which could transform into a nimble water snake, appearing and disappearing in the water. Players had to seize the opportunity and chase it down.

Liu-ge said, “This is a water battle, so it’s hard to keep your footing. We need to make good use of light-footed movement. This stage is a one-on-one fight for Monkey; Tang Seng isn’t in the party. Luckily, this boss doesn’t have any debuff skills — it’s just too fast, impossible to catch!”

Once the white dragon dove into the water, it was slippery as a fish.

It had over 60,000 HP, while Sun Wukong’s ultimate could only deal around 10,000 critical damage, and his normal attacks only around 3,000. Liu-ge chased it all over the place, and if he wasn’t careful, he’d lose it.

If combat was broken for more than 10 seconds, the white dragon would fully recover HP.

That meant you had to stay on its tail at all times. If it escaped your attack range for more than 10 seconds, you had to restart!

This battle was very troublesome, but for skilled challenge players it was quite enjoyable. Liu-ge chased the water boss for half an hour before finally reducing its 60,000 HP to zero.

A cutscene triggered, and Sun Wukong learned that the dragon had been released by Guanyin. He then asked the local mountain gods and earth gods to invite Guanyin Bodhisattva over.

When Sun Wukong saw the Bodhisattva, he angrily leapt into the air and shouted, “You Bodhisattva! Old Sun has always been free and unrestrained — why did you trick Tang Seng into putting this tightening hoop on me and make my head hurt?”

Guanyin explained, “You do not obey the rules. If I didn’t think of some way to restrain you, you would go on rampaging and causing trouble in Heaven. Who could control you then?”

Sun Wukong angrily said, “Then why did you release that evil dragon here to eat my master’s horse?”

Guanyin said, “This little white dragon was originally the third prince of the West Sea Dragon King. He set fire to the palace, and his father reported him for rebellion and disrespect. I pleaded on his behalf before the Jade Emperor, and allowed him to wait here for Tang Seng, so he could protect him on his journey west. Why would he eat your master’s horse?”

Guanyin called the little white dragon out.

The Dragon King’s third prince appeared in white robes, handsome and elegant, holding a sword, and bowed to Guanyin.

After clarifying the matter, Guanyin said, “Since you ate Tang Seng’s horse, then transform yourself into a horse and carry him west to fetch scriptures!”

The third prince shook himself and transformed into a strong white dragon horse.

Sun Wukong shouted, “Bodhisattva, this journey west is so long — how long will it take if I have to protect this mortal Tang Seng? Old Sun doesn’t want to go anymore! I’m done!”

Seeing that he was about to strike again, Guanyin smiled and said, “When the time comes and you are truly in danger, I will come save you myself. Also, I’ll give you one more ability.”

She plucked three leaves from the willow branch in her vase and transformed them into three hairs on the back of Sun Wukong’s head: “These three life-saving hairs can adapt to changing circumstances and save you in times of danger.”

Only then did Sun Wukong become happy. “Thank you, Bodhisattva!”

The cutscene ended, and several system prompts flashed on screen.

System: Sun Wukong obtained skill [Life-Saving Hair]
Description: Can be used in critical moments to escape or block damage; at most one can be used per battle

System: [White Dragon Horse] joined the party. Party movement speed +10
[White Dragon Horse] skills can be viewed in the team panel

Liu-ge got excited. “Another teammate! And this time the teammate is… a horse!”

This game’s art style was really strange.

A human, a monkey, and a horse forming a team to go fetch scriptures?

He opened the team panel and checked.

White Dragon Horse’s attack and defense were both very low, but its speed was extremely high. As long as it was in the party, the entire team’s movement speed would increase.

It had three skills:

Skill 1: Swift — increases a chosen target’s attack speed by 10 for three minutes.

Skill 2: Escape — White Dragon Horse is extremely fast at fleeing. After using this skill, it can immediately carry Tang Seng and run away. This is useful in emergencies to protect Tang Seng.

Skill 3: Transformation — a passive skill that only activates in required story stages. White Dragon Horse transforms back into the form of the Dragon King’s third prince to fight. After transforming, he automatically gains a sword as a weapon, and consecutive hits can stack attack speed.

Liu-ge said, “This teammate buffs attack speed and gives Monkey attack speed? That means the Golden Cudgel will feel even better to use! The second skill lets him run away with Master… not sure how that’ll be used yet. The third skill probably only triggers in special story stages.”

So in normal stages, White Dragon Horse remained a horse, but in special stages he could turn into a man?

Liu-ge rubbed his hands together in anticipation. “Family, our squad is growing now. We already have three members, and I’m looking forward to the next one joining!”

---

After receiving one of Guanyin’s three hairs, Sun Wukong gave up on the idea of quitting and obediently followed Tang Seng westward.

The master and disciple passed through a wilderness.

There were many wolves, tigers, and leopards roaming here, and every encounter with such beasts triggered combat.

Liu-ge tried out the effect of White Dragon Horse joining the team.

White Dragon Horse itself didn’t have much attack, but after its attack speed buff was applied to Sun Wukong, the Great Sage’s Golden Cudgel became even faster. In one flurry of hits, he could instantly kill a mob!

It felt amazing.

After killing three mobs in a row, a reward panel popped up.

System: Level increased to 11.
Sun Wukong: Attack +1000, Defense +1000, Critical Rate +1%
Tang Seng: Defense +500, HP +500, Mana +500
White Dragon Horse: Speed +5, Evasion +5

Leveling up was a very common mechanic in single-player games.

If the protagonist’s battle power never changed from the beginning, the game would have no freshness. As the stages progressed, the hero’s level and power would gradually rise. Some skills and equipment would improve as well.

Liu-ge said, “After White Dragon Horse joined, the team list now shows levels. We just jumped from level 10 to 11. Don’t rush, family — we’ll clear all the mobs in this mountain area first, get used to character switching, and also farm some EXP to level up.”

He switched the main character to Sun Wukong and kept pushing forward, killing more than ten mobs.

By the time they reached the next stage, they were already level 15.

The group arrived at a monastery to stay the night.

The monks there looked down on Tang Seng and Sun Wukong because they were poorly dressed. Sun Wukong had a proud temper and couldn’t tolerate the humiliation, so he took out Master’s kasaya and showed it off.

Tang Seng’s kasaya was indeed beautiful. When unfolded, it shimmered brilliantly, and the gems embedded in it sparkled under the sunlight. The monks had never seen such a gorgeous kasaya and became greedy. In the dead of night, one of them lit a fire and tried to burn Tang Seng and Sun Wukong alive so he could steal the kasaya.

Sun Wukong had already seen something was wrong. He borrowed a fireproof shield to protect Master, then caused chaos in the sky, blowing gusts of wind that ended up setting the entire monastery on fire instead.

The next morning, the kasaya was missing. After questioning around, Sun Wukong learned that nearby was Black Wind Cave, home to a black bear spirit, and rushed off to find the monster.

The black bear spirit had very high defense and was not easy to fight.

White Dragon Horse boosted Sun Wukong’s attack speed, and Tang Seng kept giving Monkey mana and refreshing his skills. Sun Wukong fought a war of attrition and only defeated him after nearly half an hour!

With Guanyin’s help, they recovered the kasaya and continued on their journey.

Not long after, they arrived at a place called Gao Village.

There lived a wealthy family surnamed Gao, who said that their daughter had been taken by a demon. Sun Wukong said he could exorcise the monster, but Old Master Gao was frightened by the monkey’s strange appearance. Tang Seng explained that the two of them were traveling west to fetch scriptures, and only then did Gao Master relax and explain what had happened.

It turned out that the Gao family had three daughters. Old Master Gao wanted to find a son-in-law to care for them in old age, so he held a marriage contest for the third daughter, Gao Cuilan, and ended up recruiting a tall, strong, dark-skinned man.

This son-in-law was quick and capable, helping the Gao family till the fields and plant vegetables. The only issue was that his appetite was absurdly large — while ordinary people ate two steamed buns per meal, he could eat dozens. His stomach seemed bottomless.

At first, Old Master Gao didn’t care. After all, the Gao family was rich and could afford to feed a son-in-law with a huge appetite. But one year later, the son-in-law suddenly changed appearance: black bristles grew on the back of his head, his ears became huge and fleshy, his nostrils flared upward… he had actually turned into a pig!

Gao Cuilan was nearly scared to death. The family wanted to drive the demon away, but he directly abducted Gao Cuilan into the back courtyard and locked her up.

Sun Wukong said, “Take me to the back courtyard and let me see!”

The demon was not at home, so Gao Master fearfully led Sun Wukong to the back courtyard. After entering the room, Sun Wukong saw the Gao family’s third daughter — she was indeed a great beauty.

He asked, “Where did the demon go?”

Miss Gao cried, “He comes and goes with the clouds and wind every day. He comes to find me after dark, and disappears at dawn. I don’t know where he lives.”

Sun Wukong said, “Hide first. I’ll deal with him!”

Miss Gao hid away.

Sun Wukong transformed himself into Miss Gao and sat in the room waiting.

Before long, the demon returned.

A huge pig face appeared on the screen.

【Damn, it really is a pig?】
【Hahaha, this pig actually looks pretty cute】
【Big ears, fat belly — wow! The story of Beauty and the Beast, but with a pig, is kind of intense?】
【Marrying a pig-head… please tell me Gao Cuilan’s psychological damage】

The pig demon saw Sun Wukong disguised as Miss Gao and rushed over affectionately.

Sun Wukong dodged with a sidestep, and the pig demon missed, falling by the bed. He said sadly, “Wife, are you upset that I came late? Why are you deliberately hiding from me?”

Sun Wukong smiled and said, “I’m not upset, I’m just not feeling well today.”

【I’m dying of laughter!】
【Monkey: Try to kiss old Sun and you’re dead】
【The Great Sage almost lost his innocence to a pig】

The pig demon sat by the bed, and Sun Wukong kept teasing him, even asking him to carry him back to his cave. The pig was actually very naive, and happily lifted Sun Wukong onto his back.

Perched on his back, with the pig unable to see him, Sun Wukong secretly grinned and scratched his ears in amusement.

【Hahaha, the Great Sage is so mischievous】
【A pig carrying his wife? And the wife is actually Monkey in disguise?】
【This is basically a comedy movie】

Halfway along the road, Sun Wukong suddenly said, “My father says he’s going to invite a master to catch you!”

The pig demon said, “Don’t worry. Old pig has the Nine-Toothed Rake. No matter how great the master is, he wouldn’t dare do anything to me.”

Sun Wukong smiled and said, “My father also said he’s going to invite the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, Sun Wukong, from five hundred years ago to catch you!”

The pig demon froze, quickly set the “wife” down, and said, “I’ll be leaving first. This marriage is off!”

Sun Wukong immediately blocked him. “Why are you leaving?”

The pig demon said, “You don’t know? That Great Sage Equal to Heaven, that unruly monkey, really has some ability. Old pig is afraid I can’t beat him, so I’m leaving!”

With that, he fled.

Monkey had played enough and immediately gave chase in his true form.

“Monster, don’t run! Your Grandpa Sun is here!” He took out the Golden Cudgel and struck down, but the demon actually ran fast and transformed into a cloud, disappearing in an instant.

System: Main quest updated — [Go to Cloud Path Cave and defeat the pig demon]

The map now showed the quest target point.

Liu-ge quickly controlled Monkey to search for the monster.

After following a winding mountain path and killing more mobs, reaching level 20, Sun Wukong finally arrived at Cloud Path Cave and found the pig demon.

The battle began.

Liu-ge was surprised to find that the party list only contained Sun Wukong.

Liu-ge: “Damn, where are Master and White Dragon Horse? This stage is a solo fight?!”

Tang Seng was sitting in Gao Village drinking tea and chatting with Old Master Gao, so naturally he didn’t follow Sun Wukong. This stage required Sun Wukong to fight the demon alone.

Liu-ge sighed helplessly. “Fine, solo it is! Let me see what this pig can do.”

Only when the fight actually started did he realize the pig demon was pretty strong!

His weapon was the Nine-Toothed Rake, and whenever Liu-ge tried to hit him with the Golden Cudgel, the rake always blocked Monkey’s attack. After some time, Sun Wukong’s ultimate came off cooldown, and Liu-ge sent Monkey in with a heavy critical strike to the pig demon’s head.

Unexpectedly, the pig demon used Backhand Strike, instantly killing Sun Wukong with reflected damage!

Liu-ge froze. “…Damn?”

He checked the damage log carefully and was surprised. “So this is a reflect skill? If I use my ultimate, it gets bounced back and kills me?”

【666, it can reflect damage too!】
【This old pig is pretty fierce — his defense is insanely high!】
【He looks clumsy, but he’s definitely not easy to beat】

Liu-ge said, “He has reflect! We have to be careful with our ultimates and not kill ourselves by bouncing damage back.”

“Let me check… this pig is thick-skinned and has absurdly high defense. When we hit him, he builds rage, and once the rage reaches a certain point, he reflects damage?”

“I get it — when his rage bar is full, absolutely do not use an ultimate!”

“Use regular attacks to bait out his reflect, then keep fighting.”

“Whoa! Why are his pig ears suddenly getting bigger? He can fly too?”

“After his ears grow into wings, he can fly around and use his pig head to ram you — that’s wild, 666.”

The boss design was really varied. The pig demon’s reflect skill and the ability to fly and ram with his ears made him very fun, but also very hard to fight.

By then, it was nearly midnight, and many players were stuck at Gao Village.

Liu-ge studied the fight for a long time before figuring out the pattern:

“Once his ears get big and he starts flying around randomly, we should use Seventy-Two Transformations to ride on his back and beat him!”

Liu-ge complained, “This pig’s defense is really ridiculously high. He has 200,000 HP — hitting him feels like scratching an itch. Master and White Dragon Horse aren’t here, so Monkey can’t chain ultimates. We need patience for this boss and just grind him down slowly.”

The reflect skill made players very cautious about using abilities.

If they weren’t careful, they would bounce the damage back and kill themselves, forcing a restart…

Liu-ge fought for a long time. It wasn’t until 12:30 a.m. that he finally got the pig’s HP below 10,000, and the health bar turned red.

Just then, a cutscene suddenly interrupted.

It turned out this pig demon had once been Marshal Tianpeng of Heaven. Because he was lustful and had molested Chang’e, the Jade Emperor banished him to the mortal world. During reincarnation, he was mistakenly reborn into a pig, becoming this half-human, half-pig form.

The pig demon angrily said, “You unruly monkey, I remember that when you caused Havoc in Heaven, you lived in Flower-Fruit Mountain. What are you doing in such a faraway place?”

Sun Wukong explained, “I’m under the order of the Bodhisattva, protecting a monk from the Tang Empire in the East as he travels west to fetch scriptures. I passed by here because Old Master Gao asked me to rescue his daughter, so I came to catch you!”

The pig demon froze, then dropped his weapon immediately. “Where is the scripture-seeking monk? Take me to him at once.”

Sun Wukong was confused. “What do you want with him?”

The pig demon said, “Guanyin Bodhisattva advised me to become good. I’ve been waiting here for the scripture-seeking monk, to protect him on the journey west to seek the Buddha and scriptures. As long as I complete the mission, I can cultivate my true fruit!”

【What? So this is a new teammate?】
【Damn, another party member joins!】
【We’ve been fighting all this time and it was friendly fire~】
【Just how many bodyguards did Guanyin hire for Tang Seng?】

Sun Wukong led the pig demon to Tang Seng, and only then did the pig demon introduce himself. His dharma name was Zhu Wuneng, and he wanted to become Tang Seng’s disciple.

With another cheap disciple recruited, Tang Seng was very happy. Hearing that this disciple observed the precepts and did not eat the five pungent vegetables or the three forbidden meats, Tang Seng gave him another name: Bajie.

System: [Zhu Bajie] joined the party
Team defense +10000

Liu-ge immediately opened the team panel.

Right now, the team members were Tang Seng, White Dragon Horse, Sun Wukong, and Zhu Bajie.

Zhu Bajie’s skills were quite distinctive.

Skill 1, Backhand Strike: use the Nine-Toothed Rake to block damage and build rage. Once the rage meter is full, the skill can be triggered automatically, returning all the absorbed damage to the enemy at once.

Skill 2, Wind-Calling Ears: Zhu Bajie can enlarge his ears several times into wing shapes. After using this skill, he enters flight mode and automatically draws the aggro of nearby enemies.

Skill 3, Belly Divine Art: Because Zhu Bajie is gluttonous and his round belly is covered in fat, his defense is extremely high. After using this skill, his defense increases by 100%, and he forces enemies to target him.

Passive skill, Lustful One: when encountering female demons, his defense automatically drops by 50%, he becomes so distracted that he can’t move, and he cannot use skill 2.

The viewers were speechless.

Liu-ge laughed and said, “Old Pig’s role is probably the main tank. High defense, high HP. In group fights, we can let Zhu Bajie tank in front while Monkey safely outputs from the side. His first three skills are all really useful! As for the passive… no comment.”

【Hahaha, when he sees a female demon, Bajie automatically loses defense】
【The lustful passive is hilarious!】
【He was banished for flirting with Chang’e, and he still hasn’t kicked the habit?】
【If he sees a female demon, can we just let Bajie marry her?】

This main party was really getting more and more bizarre.