After Zhu Bajie joined the team, the group walked on for a while and arrived at a place called Yellow Wind Ridge.

This mountain ridge was packed with monsters, making it a perfect place to practice combat.

The mobs at Yellow Wind Ridge were all ranged enemies, and they used wind-element magic attacks. Tang Seng had the weakest defense, so if they killed him, the player had to start over.

After suffering a wipe out of nowhere, Liu-ge summarized the lesson and analyzed the situation:

“This stage is all about making good use of Zhu Bajie’s aggro skill. At the start, just let old pig use skill 3 to charge in and force enemies to attack him, protecting Master so he doesn’t die.”

On the second attempt, Zhu Bajie’s skill really worked.

He already had a round, pot-bellied figure, and after using skill 3, Belly Divine Art, his defense doubled and his belly looked even fatter. When the mobs hit him, it was almost like tickling him — he barely lost any HP at all.

With old pig tanking up front, Monkey could attack freely. Master Tang Seng stayed safely in the back and occasionally gave Sun Wukong mana and Zhu Bajie healing…

The team’s skill synergy was extremely smooth.

Liu-ge said, “Right now, the team has one tank, one healer, and one brutal DPS — that’s a very strong iron triangle. And with Little White Dragon adding speed, with all these teammates supporting him, our Monkey is really having the time of his life!”

While quickly switching characters, Liu-ge continued, “But Challenge Mode battles are very fast-paced, so we have to keep an eye on the team panel at all times. If any portrait shows a debuff, immediately switch to Tang Seng to cleanse it. If someone’s HP drops, switch to Tang Seng to heal them.”

After the main party fully formed, the fights along the way became very easy.

But halfway up the mountain, Tang Seng was suddenly kidnapped by monsters. After a cutscene, Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie decided to rescue their master.

This boss fight was very difficult.

By this point, the whole team was level 25. Zhu Bajie’s HP had reached 200,000, and the boss’s attack was extremely high. One ultimate could deal 100,000 damage, instantly killing both Sun Wukong and Tang Seng.

Zhu Bajie had to tank in front, and Tang Seng had to keep healing him continuously just to keep him alive.

Liu-ge fumbled around in a panic. “Damn, I can’t keep up! If I switch to Tang Seng to heal Bajie, I have no time to let Monkey attack. But if I switch to Monkey to deal damage, one mistake and Bajie dies, which means a wipe.”

Liu-ge said, “This kind of ranged enemy is hard to deal with. We’ll have to learn the rhythm slowly. If we figure out when the boss uses its ultimate, switch to Bajie to grab aggro, and at the same time have Tang Seng heal — then we should be able to clear it…”

After trying repeatedly, Liu-ge finally figured out the boss’s skill pattern. Every time its HP dropped by 10%, it would unleash one wind-element ultimate.

Letting Bajie tank that key ultimate, while Tang Seng healed him in time, was the key. During the other moments, Little White Dragon could safely speed up Monkey, and Liu-ge could switch to Monkey and go full damage.

At 1:30 a.m., Liu-ge finally beat the boss.

From downloading the game around 7 p.m. to now, he had already cleared four stages and recruited two teammates. Yet he didn’t feel bored or tired at all — instead, he was getting more and more excited.

The stage design was hardly repetitive. Every stage was made with care, and every boss had a different fighting style.

Not to mention, once Zhu Bajie joined the team, the difficulty of controlling the party immediately went up a notch — switching characters quickly, using different skills, and coordinating the team to clear stages felt incredibly satisfying.

Liu-ge paused the game to use the bathroom, then came back and sat down in front of the camera, smiling. “Family, let’s play one more stage and then go to sleep!”

The monsters in Yellow Wind Ridge were actually a mouse spirit under the Buddha’s command, and had been taken away by Guanyin.

After a cutscene, the players moved on.

Soon the group reached the Flowing-Sand River.

The river was very wide, and there were no boats nearby. After glancing around, Sun Wukong said, “Bajie, didn’t you say you can ride the clouds? Carry Master across the river!”

Zhu Bajie rubbed his ears and muttered, “Master’s mortal body is heavy as a thousand jin. My cloud can’t carry him. Senior Brother, aren’t you able to somersault 108,000 li in one leap? You should carry Master across!”

Sun Wukong scratched his head and said, “Old Sun’s Somersault Cloud is still a cloud. Master is too heavy, I can’t carry him either! If I could, I’d have taken him to the Western Heaven long ago with one leap!”

Tang Seng: “…Amitabha.”

The viewers in the livestream were dying of laughter when they saw the cutscene.

【Tang Seng: So… should I just leave?】
【You’re openly saying Master is heavy — is that polite?】
【Little White Dragon: Guys, who understands? I’m the one who carries him every day. I’m the real exhausted one!】
【Is Journey to the West also called “The mortal master and his powerful disciples who keep complaining about him”?】
【Please tell me the size of Tang Seng’s psychological shadow~】

Then, suddenly, a demonic wind rose from the Flowing-Sand River, and a monster appeared by the riverbank, ready to snatch Tang Seng away.

Sun Wukong reacted instantly and pulled Master to safety.

When they looked back, they saw a pair of copper-bell-sized eyes, a jeweled staff in his hand, and a string of beads around his neck.

Zhu Bajie shouted, “You monster! How dare you ambush old pig!”

The battle began without warning.

Liu-ge was surprised to find that this stage was a one-on-one fight between Zhu Bajie and the boss. While dodging skills, he complained, “Damn, Monkey and Tang Seng are out of the fight. But Bajie can still tank, just with lower damage… let’s test it first!”

The monster was a ranged enemy. His staff could launch water-element attacks, striking Zhu Bajie from a distance and slowing him down.

Zhu Bajie was a melee fighter, and his movements were clumsy, so he couldn’t reach the enemy.

Liu-ge had no choice but to activate Bajie’s second skill, Wind-Calling Ears, enlarging his ears until they looked like wings, allowing him to fly up to the boss and attack with the Nine-Toothed Rake.

【Hahaha, a flying pig!】
【Bajie looks clumsy, but he’s actually pretty cute when he flies】

Zhu Bajie’s basic attack damage was decent. A rake strike that triggered a critical hit could deal nearly 60% of Sun Wukong’s Golden Cudgel damage.

However, Bajie was awkward and slow, and unlike Monkey, he wasn’t smooth to control — he could only attack once every three to five seconds.

After fighting for a while, Liu-ge concluded, “This boss has low defense. We should make use of skill 2 and chase him down. But he runs pretty fast and can slow us from range, so we have to be careful.”

Just then, the boss suddenly vanished. Since the surroundings were all sand, he had burrowed underground…

Liu-ge quickly looked around.

Before long, the boss appeared behind Zhu Bajie. Liu-ge reacted instantly and activated Backhand Strike to block the enemy’s key damage with the rake.

Once his rage meter filled, Zhu Bajie roared and reflected all the damage back.

The boss’s HP dropped rapidly.

Bajie walked over to Sun Wukong and said, “Senior Brother, that demon ran back into the river!”

Tang Seng said, “This demon has lived here for many years, so he must know the depths of the Flowing-Sand River. Let him lead the way and take us across.”

Sun Wukong had a sudden idea and smiled. “Bajie, old Sun isn’t familiar with water combat. Unlike you, as Marshal Tianpeng, who once commanded 80,000 water soldiers in Heaven. Since that demon ran into the river, this is exactly your chance to prove yourself.”

“Go on, lure him out, and then we’ll work together to capture him!”

Puffed up with pride from the praise, Zhu Bajie once again carried his weapon and went to the riverbank to challenge the monster.

【Report the Great Sage for deliberately slacking off!】
【Ever since Bajie joined, the Great Sage has been making him carry the luggage while he himself does nothing, hahaha】
【As Senior Brother, of course he should make the junior brothers do the work】
【Bajie is actually pretty easy to coax, hahaha】

Zhu Bajie went into the water and fought the monster for a while.

Following Sun Wukong’s advice, he lured the monster to the shore, and Monkey immediately joined the battle.

2v1 should have been a guaranteed win.

Liu-ge controlled Sun Wukong to attack the boss, who was already at half HP, planning to finish him off with a full combo. But the monster, seeing Monkey join in, suddenly used a skill and fled again.

No one knew what skill it was, but Monkey was instantly turned into a sand statue.

Zhu Bajie stared in shock. “Senior Brother, how did you turn into a statue?!”

Tang Seng saw that Wukong had been petrified and hurried over to brush the sand off him with his bare hands.

Zhu Bajie also helped, and the two of them scrambled to clean the sand off Monkey. Only then did Sun Wukong jump up and angrily say, “That demon used a trick and buried old Sun with sand!”

Bajie sighed, troubled. “Senior Brother, that demon can’t beat us, so he keeps fleeing back into the river. What are we supposed to do?”

Sun Wukong scratched his head and thought for a moment. “The journey west was ordained by Guanyin. If we can’t cross this river, then it must be Guanyin’s doing. I’ll go to the Southern Sea and ask her!”

With that, he leaped away on a somersault cloud to find Guanyin.

Guanyin sent her disciple Muzha to the Flowing-Sand River, where Muzha called out over the water, “Wujing, the pilgrim has arrived. Why have you not yet submitted?”

Hearing this, the monster in the river immediately jumped out and bowed toward the sky.

The audience immediately got excited.

【Another teammate has joined!】
【Main party member +1】

It turned out that this monster was actually Kuijian Great General, a celestial official from Heaven. During Sun Wukong’s Havoc in Heaven, he accidentally dropped and broke the Jade Emperor’s glazed cup, was punished, and sent down to the mortal world to suffer in the Flowing-Sand River.

Guanyin pleaded on his behalf and spared him from further punishment, telling him to follow Tang Seng to the Western Heaven and fetch scriptures.

Muzha performed a spell and transformed the skull necklace around his neck into nine black Buddhist beads, shaped like a wooden boat, helping Tang Seng’s party cross the river.

The monster came over and bowed to Tang Seng, calling him “Master.”

Tang Seng asked, “Are you sincerely submitting?”

The monster folded his hands and said, “This disciple was instructed by the Bodhisattva. The Bodhisattva gave me a dharma name, Sha Wujing, and told me to wait here for the scripture-seeking monk. I didn’t know it was Master just now, so I offended you. Please forgive me.”

Tang Seng looked at his messy curly hair and said, “Wukong, bring the knife.”

Sun Wukong handed Master a knife, and Tang Seng personally gave the new disciple a haircut on the spot.

In a moment, all the hair on Sha Wujing’s head was shaved off, leaving only a ring of short hair below the ears. Seeing that he now looked like a proper monk, Tang Seng gave him another name: Sha Seng.

【Tang Seng’s barbering skills aren’t great — why did he leave him with such a weird bald cut?】
【That was suddenly very bald!】
【The junior brother’s hairstyle looks so goofy】
【Sha Seng… that name was way too casual, wasn’t it?】
【He named Sun Wukong “Sun Walker,” Zhu Wuneng “Zhu Bajie,” and Sha Wujing just became Sha Seng… hahaha, the names are getting more random】
【Tang Seng is basically saying: I have too many disciples, naming is too hard, let’s keep it simple】
【Master is starting to slack off too~】

After Sha Seng joined, the team list showed five portraits.

At the top was Master Tang Seng, then the eldest disciple Sun Wukong, second disciple Zhu Bajie, youngest disciple Sha Seng, and the mount, the White Dragon Horse.

Liu-ge guessed, “I think the team should be fully assembled now?”

“This Journey to the West squad is really weird! A nagging master, a rebellious monkey who answers to no one, a clumsy, thick-skinned pig who’s also kind of lustful, a monk carrying a staff and running around, and a horse transformed from the Dragon King’s third prince?”

“…What a diverse group of species!”

This pilgrimage team really was the game industry’s strangest main party.

It kind of didn’t seem very reliable.

---

The next day at noon, a large number of streamers woke up and eagerly opened Journey to the West.

Chapter Two had already passed five stages, with only two left before the end.

Liu-ge sat back in front of the camera, rubbed his hands together, and said, “Family, let’s continue Journey to the West. Our squad already has five members now.”

“Even though I really want to keep playing, I also kind of can’t bear to. Because once these last two stages are done, Chapter Two ends, and we have to wait for the next update again!”

“Ah, who understands the feeling of chasing updates inside a game?”

“Yafan Studio really has us wrapped around its finger!”

Liu-ge’s complaint resonated strongly with the players.

Chasing updates in a game? For the players of this other world, it was a brand-new experience.

It was more thrilling than following a TV series, and more nerve-racking than following a novel.

After all, when you follow a show or a novel, you only watch the screen or read text. But when you follow a game, you not only get to enjoy the animation, you also have to play it yourself.

The game’s design was very rich. Many challenge-mode stages required real thought to clear. Finishing a stage gave players a huge sense of accomplishment, and while their hands got a break, they could still enjoy an exciting cutscene. The combination of gameplay and story was becoming more and more addictive.

Someone in the chat was excitedly spamming:

【I grinded all night and cleared Easy Mode. The later story is pretty exciting】
【Spoiler alert: the final stage is insanely hard!】
【Streamer just woke up? I played all night and still couldn’t beat the final stage】
【It really is insanely hard! Let’s see how Liu-ge clears it】

Seeing the warnings in chat, Liu-ge got even more excited — just how hard was “insanely hard,” exactly?

After Sha Seng joined, players could freely switch the “leader” character while traveling. Switching to that character would change the viewpoint and use that character’s skills.

Most players chose Sun Wukong as the leader, since they could play with his Seventy-Two Transformations while moving forward. Or they could let Tang Seng lead; when Tang Seng rode the horse, he would automatically move forward, freeing the player’s hands.

If Zhu Bajie led, the whole team would move extremely slowly, but he could fly and lure mobs — except he would stop moving when he saw female demons.

Sha Seng carrying the luggage made the camera shake while walking… Each character’s leading effect was designed very cleverly.

As the disciples traveled, they also bickered with each other.

Zhu Bajie grumbled, huffing in dissatisfaction: “Senior Brother, there’s so much luggage, and old pig is the one carrying it? You, on the other hand, have your hands empty and stroll around so leisurely!”

Sun Wukong scolded him, “Idiot! Old Sun is protecting Master. You and Sha Junior Brother each have your own tasks — one handles the luggage, the other handles the horse. What’s wrong with that?”

Bajie kept muttering, “This luggage is too heavy. Can’t the horse help carry it?”

Sun Wukong said, “That’s no ordinary horse — he’s the Dragon King’s Third Prince. He only carries Master. With him here, Master won’t fall off the horse. You idiot, and you’re still complaining after being asked to carry a little luggage!”

Bajie couldn’t argue with Monkey, so he turned around to find Sha Seng. He dumped the heavy luggage on Sha Seng and went to lead the horse instead.

Sun Wukong still kept his hands empty, walking ahead leisurely.

【My Monkey is at the top of the food chain — how could he possibly carry luggage?】
【Senior Brother bullies the second brother, and the second brother bullies the junior brother — very reasonable】
【Such a harmonious, loving brotherhood~】

Before long, the main party arrived at a luxurious manor.

With his fiery eyes, Sun Wukong immediately sensed that the manor was surrounded by clouds and mist, full of immortal energy… Could this be another trick by Guanyin?

He didn’t say anything, and took Master along to ask for lodging.

The manor was run by a middle-aged woman, about forty years old.

Knowing that these monks were traveling west to fetch scriptures, she happily said, “My husband passed away two years ago and left behind thousands of acres of farmland and a huge fortune. My three daughters and I had wanted to remarry, but we couldn’t bear to give up the family property. You monks arriving here is truly fate.”

She said sincerely, “Our four women are looking for husbands. I wonder if the Master would be willing to stay here and be my husband? Your three disciples can each marry one of my three daughters.”

【Hahaha, wow, she’s really not picky about choosing husbands】
【She wants to take the whole group in one go!】
【Are these four women monsters?】

Tang Seng looked embarrassed and pretended not to hear.

The woman continued, “My eldest daughter is called Zhenzhen, the second is Aiai, and the youngest is Lianlian. They’re skilled in sewing and embroidery, know everything there is to know, and can even compose poems and paint. They’re quite beautiful.”

Right after she spoke, three young women stepped forward and bowed. They were indeed lovely.

Sun Wukong looked again with his fiery eyes — and saw clouds swirling above their heads. Their origins were clearly not ordinary.

When Zhu Bajie saw the beauties, his eyes immediately lit up. He twisted around on the spot and whispered to Tang Seng, “Master, the lady is speaking to you. Why aren’t you answering?”

Tang Seng frowned. “We are monks. How can we let ourselves be tempted by money and beauty?”

The woman said, “What’s so great about being a monk?”

Tang Seng argued with her, and the woman got angry and drove them out.

The disciples spent the night outside hungry and freezing. Sun Wukong teased Zhu Bajie and told him to go be the son-in-law. Bajie said he wouldn’t, but secretly slipped back into the manor, pretending he was bringing the horse to graze.

When the woman saw him, she asked, “Where are you going?”

Zhu Bajie cheerfully shouted, “Mother! I’m here to tend the horse!”

【Hahaha, he’s already calling her mother that fast?】
【That’s so you, old pig!】
【Lust has blinded him — hopeless】
【No wonder he has that passive skill, “Lustful One”; he can’t walk when he sees a beauty】
【This pig is killing me】

Zhu Bajie said, “My master was ordered by the Tang Emperor in the East to travel west to fetch scriptures. I’m different. Mother, if you don’t mind that I’m clumsy and in the way, I’m willing to stay here and be your son-in-law!”

The woman chuckled softly. “I have three daughters, so that puts me in a difficult position. If I marry you to the eldest, the second may be unhappy. If I marry you to the second, the youngest may blame me.”

She said, “How about this — I’ll have the three daughters come out, and you can put a handkerchief over your head. We’ll do a blind heavenly marriage. Whoever you catch, you marry.”

Zhu Bajie said, “Alright, I’ll listen to you, Mother!”

System: Main quest updated — [Zhu Bajie’s Heavenly Marriage]

Please try to catch one of the girls while blindfolded.

The game began.

Liu-ge said helplessly, “I can’t believe this pig — he still hasn’t realized this is a trap? Either monsters want to eat him, or the Bodhisattva is messing with him!”

Despite the complaints, the heavenly-marriage mini-game was actually pretty fun.

The player’s vision was blocked, and the screen turned black, with three shadows moving around them.

For the heavenly marriage, you had to bump into one bride within the time limit, or you would fail.

Zhu Bajie was clumsy and kept bumping around blindly, unable to catch anyone.

Liu-ge said, “Damn, this is impossible. Old pig is too slow and clumsy, and the girls are too slippery. How are you supposed to do this?”

This mini-game was probably designed to be a “guaranteed failure” stage.

After three consecutive failures, a cutscene triggered.

The woman gave Zhu Bajie several pieces of clothing and said that whoever’s clothes he could wear would be the one he married.

Bajie obediently put them on.

The moment he did, he cried out in pain. The clothing tightened more and more, constricting his round belly until it was deformed.

Zhu Bajie wailed, “Help! Senior Brother, help me!”

It seemed to be a barrier of some sort. No matter how loudly he shouted, Sun Wukong couldn’t hear him.

Outside, Tang Seng and the others slept through the night.

When they woke up, the splendid manor from last night had vanished completely. Zhu Bajie was tied up, twisted out of shape, and hanging upside down from a tree.

【…Old pig is so miserable!】
【Serves you right for being lustful!】

Several golden lines flashed across the sky. It turned out those women were all transformed Bodhisattvas invited by Guanyin — a test of whether their hearts remained steadfast in the quest for scriptures.

Tang Seng, Wukong, and Sha Seng all passed the test. Only Zhu Bajie’s lustful heart remained unchanged. He was toyed with by the Bodhisattvas all night, punished until his belly was covered in injuries, and was nearly crying from the torment.

Tang Seng asked sternly, “Bajie, after suffering all night, do you now understand your mistake?”

Zhu Bajie hurriedly said, “Master, Senior Brother, save me, save me! I was wrong, I’ll never dare again!”

The disciples worked together to rescue him.

System: Zhu Bajie completed the [Heavenly Marriage] storyline.
Skill 4, [Lustful One], has been modified as follows — although Zhu Bajie still feels a strong attraction when he sees women, after the Bodhisattva’s warning he can now move normally and freely use all skills. Defense remains reduced by 50%.

Liu-ge couldn’t help but say, “Nice! Skills actually change with the story? Old pig went through that, and although he’s still lustful, he’s not nearly as outrageous now.”

He said, “Let’s take a look at the team’s setup.”

Although the main party looked pretty strange, the skill design was actually quite interesting.

Liu-ge opened the team panel and studied it carefully.

Tang Seng’s skills were: the kasaya blocks damage, the staff restores mana and refreshes teammates’ skill cooldowns, chanting removes negative effects, and food obtained through alms can heal teammates. His role was support plus healer.

Sun Wukong was unquestionably the main DPS.

His skill Ruyi Golden Cudgel had two forms, single-target and AoE, which could be switched freely. If he landed five consecutive hits, critical damage was guaranteed. His ultimate doubled his damage, allowing him to kill a mob with one strike. But its cooldown was long, so Master could help refresh it and let him chain two ultimates to instantly kill enemies.

Seventy-Two Transformations gave him flexibility and more combat options; the Somersault Cloud was his movement skill; and he had three Life-Saving Hairs that could forcibly avoid fatal attacks.

Zhu Bajie was the tank. He could block, reflect damage, and pull aggro. Once his ears expanded, he could fly around in the wild and pull a pack of monsters back for Monkey to kill.

Little White Dragon was the party’s speed buffer, and could carry Master in emergencies to help the group escape.

The new member, Sha Seng, was a ranged control specialist. Skill 1, Monster-Subduing Staff, dealt group water-element damage and applied a slow debuff to all targets hit. Skill 2, Sandification, could turn a target into a statue for three seconds.

In theory, Zhu Bajie + Sha Seng + Sun Wukong would be extremely strong for grinding in the wild — Bajie could pull a pack of monsters, Sha Seng could control them, and Monkey could wipe the field clean.

Now that the main party was fully assembled, the team really was much more complete.

There was a tank, a DPS, a healer, and crowd control.

That was exactly how Xie Yunfan had designed the game — as a true “main party.”

When he was a child watching Journey to the West, he always felt that Monkey was incredibly powerful, while Bajie and Sha Seng were basically just along for the ride. The most common line they had was: “Senior Brother, Master has been captured by demons!”

Neither of them seemed to have much real ability, and whenever something happened, they just went to Sun Wukong for help. Later, Monkey got smarter too — whenever trouble came up, he just ran to the Southern Sea to ask Guanyin for help…

That might work fine in a cartoon. But in a game, it would make the gameplay far too one-dimensional.

If Zhu Bajie and Sha Seng just stayed as background characters, unable to do anything, and the whole game was completed only through “Sun Wukong asks Guanyin for help,” players would get bored very quickly.

So when designing the main party, Xie Yunfan gave Zhu Bajie, Sha Seng, and even Tang Seng and Little White Dragon a lot of presence.

That way, the “pilgrimage squad” really felt like a main party.

In combat, everyone could contribute. Players switching among four or five characters would increase the difficulty and make the gameplay much richer.

Xie Yunfan always understood that animation and story were only support. Gameplay was the core of a game.

Even though a game with good story but terrible gameplay could still go viral, players would still say of such a game: “It was made with heart for the animation, and with feet for the gameplay.”

It still wouldn’t be a truly good game.

Xie Yunfan’s goal was for the animation to look great and the game itself to be fun. Do both well, with no weak spot.

And Journey to the West had now achieved that.

He believed that once Sha Seng joined and the main party truly took shape, the stages that followed would become even more fun.