With Roc Hang’s people added to the animation team, production sped up a lot, and after the planning team had gone through the initial adjustment period, development also became smoother.

By the end of July, Chapter Four was finished. After several rounds of testing, it officially launched on August 10.

Players who had been eagerly waiting rushed straight to the site.

Liu-ge naturally didn’t fall behind and downloaded the game immediately.

He first looked at the world map, where four new locations had appeared: Fire Cloud Cave, Black Water River, Chechi Kingdom, and Spider Cave, which seemed to correspond to Chapter Four’s story stages.

The system menu let players jump directly to the main story. Liu-ge chose “Continue Story,” and the player was automatically teleported into the new stage.

Right at the start, the master and disciples arrived at a barren mountain.

A demon spotted them from the air and said that Tang Seng’s flesh could grant immortality. It transformed into a child, tied itself up, and hung from a tree to trick Tang Seng.

Sun Wukong saw through the disguise with his fiery eyes, carried him down the mountain, and tried to kill him. But the demon escaped with a trick and, in the process, swept Tang Seng away.

After the cutscene, the player arrived at Fire Cloud Cave.

This boss battle was different from the usual ones.

The mini-boss was called Red Boy, and he used Samadhi Fire. His flames were special: once touched, they applied a Burning debuff that drained HP over time. At the same time, smoke would rise across the map, obscuring the player’s vision, and Sun Wukong’s light-footed movement was disabled.

Liu-ge thought for a moment and said, “A fire-type stage map? That really tests your positioning.”

He tried twice, but each time he accidentally touched the flames and the team wiped from the damage.

Tang Seng wasn’t in the party, so there was no group healing. The coral grass they had picked up from the Dragon Palace couldn’t keep up with the damage, and the player had to manually dodge the Samadhi Fire.

The kid was strong too. He kept spitting out fire, and the battlefield was covered in flames with almost nowhere to step. The spear in his hand also did high damage in single-target attacks. Nobody even knew what kind of monster he really was.

After several failed attempts, Liu-ge finally figured out the pattern:

“During the moments when he’s not breathing fire, let Bajie pull aggro, and have Wukong use his Seventy-Two Transformations to jump behind him and attack!”

With rhythm-based play and fewer mistakes, the stage could be cleared.

It took Liu-ge more than half an hour to beat Red Boy. Just when he thought the fight was over, the little guy actually ran back into the cave and refused to come out.

A cutscene played. Sun Wukong asked the mountain spirit about it, and only then did they learn the truth — the child was actually Bull Demon King’s son.

Liu-ge laughed. “So this is basically my monkey’s nephew? If I remember right, Monkey and Bull Demon King are sworn brothers. Hey, kid, why not call me uncle?”

Because Red Boy’s Samadhi Fire was so hard to deal with, Sun Wukong went to the sea to ask the Dragon Kings to put out the fire.

Liu-ge got excited. “Great, we’ve got backup now. With the Dragon Kings helping, shouldn’t the fight be much easier?”

The game proved him wrong.

When the battle started, four Dragon Kings gathered clouds and rain in the sky while Red Boy spewed fire. The Dragon Kings rushed to extinguish it, but instead… the blaze grew even bigger, nearly singeing the Great Sage’s monkey fur.

That wasn’t putting out the fire. That was pouring oil on it.

Liu-ge was speechless. “Are these four Dragon Kings helping me or hurting me? I told them to put the fire out, and somehow they made it worse?”

The chat exploded with laughter.

【Hahaha, I suspect the Dragon Kings are settling a private grudge】
【This kind of fire probably can’t be put out with normal water; the more you pour, the stronger it gets】
【Stop raining! Tell them to quit!】

The four Dragon Kings did not stop. In fact, they kept “helping” — though it was really more like sabotaging. The flames spread wildly, and the player’s Burning stacks piled up to ten layers in seconds, causing HP to drop like crazy.

After another wipe, Liu-ge couldn’t help laughing. “These idiot reinforcements failed to put out the fire and ended up burning my Monkey instead. The worst enemy isn’t the one who’s too strong — it’s the teammate who’s like a pig.”

【Pigsy: Are you talking about me?】
【The pig-like teammate is right next to Monkey, lol】
【Why did I suddenly get insulted】

The bullet chat was in chaos.

Liu-ge restarted the stage and now had to dodge not just the flames on the ground but also the rain from the Dragon Kings. He had to watch both the sky and the floor, and his eyes could barely keep up.

If he survived ten minutes without wiping, the next cutscene would trigger.

After three tries, he finally got through the Samadhi Fire phase.

The cutscene played. Red Boy went back to the cave and secretly listened to Sun Wukong and the others talking. He heard Wukong tell Pigsy to go to the South Sea and ask Guanyin to put out the fire, so Red Boy got clever: he transformed into Guanyin and blocked Pigsy on the road.

Pigsy didn’t recognize him and got captured.

Red Boy then ordered his underlings to go fetch his father and began his plan by turning into Bull Demon King, pretending to be his own father and meeting with the cave crew.

Red Boy played along obediently.

Sun Wukong turned away and secretly laughed. “My child, why did you summon your father?”

Red Boy explained everything.

Sun Wukong acted shocked and said, “You captured Tang Seng? Wukong, back when I made havoc in Heaven, I was truly unstoppable…”

Wukong bragged about himself without the slightest politeness. Especially when praising himself, the sheer amount of nonsense about divine powers, shape-shifting, fighting Dragon Palaces and kicking through the underworld completely stunned Red Boy.

Red Boy was left blinking in confusion.

【Monkey is being mischievous again】
【Hahaha, I love watching Wukong mess with demons】
【No one boosts Monkey better than Monkey himself】
【This is basically a comedy, right?】
【Great Sage, stop messing around】

The boss fight was hard, but the story was hilarious.

In the end, Sun Wukong went to the South Sea to invite Guanyin, used the water from the Jade Pure Bottle to extinguish the fire, and took Red Boy in as a disciple, finally rescuing his master.

Liu-ge summed it up: “The answer is simple — if there’s a problem, just go find Guanyin.”

“I feel like Guanyin Bodhisattva is basically the top GM in Journey to the West. Whatever problem the player has, they can just go file a complaint with her.”

“Monkey’s biggest backstage supporter is definitely Guanyin Bodhisattva, right?”

The players happily followed the streamer into the next part of the story.

After Fire Cloud Cave, the team arrived at Black Water River, where the monster could control water.

They had just fought a fire-stage boss, and now they were fighting in water. Everyone was slowed, and Monkey King’s staff attacks were incredibly sluggish, so the player needed a lot of patience.

Liu-ge said, “I’ve noticed that this update introduced stage buffs. Fire stages and water stages are definitely harder than before…”

Chapter Four was very entertaining, and the story-focused players were having a blast.

Besides Red Boy and the Dragon Palace relatives, the three demon brothers impersonating Daoist priests in Chechi Kingdom also had players laughing with a guessing-game style challenge, which Sun Wukong solved through strategy.

Players who skipped the story and just focused on gameplay also found the bosses more challenging and more fun.

Besides fire fields and water stages, the Tiger, Deer, and Goat Immortals in Chechi Kingdom were also extremely hard to beat. And the final boss, Spirit Sense Great King, turned out to be the goldfish from Guanyin Bodhisattva’s lotus pond.

Everyone was enthusiastically clearing bosses and discussing strategies on the forums and on Weibo.

The weekend passed quickly, and players cleared the chapter.

By then, the player level had reached 45, and the world map had opened more than 20 regions. During the break between updates, players could freely travel to previously unlocked areas.

On the Weibo game topic page, #JourneyToTheWest remained on the “hot discussion” list. Veteran players wandered the map when they were bored, while new players kept joining from Chapter One and falling in love with the Great Sage.

Then came August 15.

Mobile game platform revenue was settled monthly, with the full profit from the previous month calculated in the middle of each month.

Qin Fang called Xie Yunfan personally.

“Yunfan, the combined revenue from the two paid chapters released in July has exceeded 500 million. Congratulations — you’ve made another hit game.”

Xie Yunfan smiled. “Thank you, Mr. Qin.”

Qin Fang said, “Keep the later content moving too. I’ll have finance transfer the profit straight to your company account. I’m not handling the tax filing — your company can report it all together at year-end.”

“Got it, no problem.”

Qin Fang hung up in a very good mood. Even though the split rate had only been 5%, 5% of 500 million was still 25 million. Money that comes in while you’re lying down is truly the best.

Besides Mobile Game House, many players also downloaded the game from Yafan Studio’s official website.

In July alone, paid revenue from the official site exceeded 200 million.

The network team’s Yu Baichuan was thrilled. “Boss, our website’s operating costs are only a few million. The rest is pure profit!”

He had once started his own website business, and every project he touched seemed to fail.

He hadn’t expected that after boarding this “little sailboat,” the website’s earnings would become this terrifying — monthly revenue in the tens of millions, more than many small companies make in a whole year.

In the future, all of Yafan Studio’s new games would be placed on the official website, and the site’s reputation would only grow, along with the profit.

Xie Yunfan wasn’t surprised and asked, “How’s the merchandise store going?”

Yu Baichuan hurriedly answered, “The first version is ready and is currently in internal testing.”

Xie Yunfan said, “Starting in September, the marketing team needs to roll out the first wave of merchandise. I’ll also hire some online customer service staff. Make the store as simple as possible, and keep running stress tests. Don’t let issues like payment failures, broken links, or site crashes happen when players buy merchandise.”

Yu Baichuan nodded hard. “Understood, boss!”

Xie Yunfan continued, “Also, the game’s worldbuilding and each demon’s background info — the copywriting team will send that to you soon. Format it and post it on the website.”

“Got it!”

---

The players were pleasantly surprised that the official Journey to the West website had updated with a huge amount of lore.

For example, the backgrounds of the gods in the game were now posted, and among them, the profiles of Erlang Shen and Nezha were especially fascinating.

“So the Heaven trio of rebels is Wukong, Nezha, and Yang Jian?”

“So Nezha and Yang Jian actually have pretty interesting stories too!”

“I can’t wait for this to finish.”

“Little Sailboat, update faster. The players who like to wait until everything’s done are sharpening their knives already!”

On August 17, Journey to the West Chapter Five suddenly dropped.

Since Chapter Four had just finished on the 10th, most players thought they’d have to wait at least half a month. They didn’t expect an update after just one week.

Yafan Studio explained:

“Considering that many student players won’t have much time to experience the game once school starts, Chapter Five has been released early. This chapter includes many fresh mechanics and exciting story content. We hope everyone enjoys it~”

August 17 was indeed very friendly to student players.

Countless players rushed to download the game.

Many children who had just discovered the game over summer vacation also begged their parents to pay for it.

“Mom, I want to play Journey to the West. All my classmates are playing it!”

“Dad, please pay for me. This game is really popular. If I haven’t played it, I won’t be able to join the class conversation after school starts.”

Parents were surprised by how popular the game was among children.

After checking online, they found the reviews were overwhelmingly positive.

Since everyone else was playing it, of course their child shouldn’t be left behind.

So parents entered their payment passwords and bought the game for their children. And honestly, it was quite conscientious — each expansion cost only 5 yuan.

During the summer vacation, Journey to the West’s download numbers grew rapidly. On the day Chapter Five opened, paid users even reached an astonishing 50 million.

The new maps in this chapter included Jindou Mountain, Jieyang Mountain, Western Liang Women’s Kingdom, and Scorpion Cave.

The opening cutscene had the master and disciples arriving at Jindou Mountain. Tang Seng got hungry and sent Sun Wukong to find food. Wukong drew a circle on the ground and told them, “Master, there are demons here. Stay inside the circle and don’t leave. Wait for old Sun to return!”

Watching this, the streamers all mocked, “Tang Seng is definitely going to step outside, right?”

As it turned out, everyone understood this teammate — the one who always causes trouble for Monkey — very well.

Sure enough, after being egged on by Pigsy, and because it was too cold, Tang Seng stepped out to find lodging at a nearby household. In the end, he, Pigsy, and Sha Seng were all captured.

When Sun Wukong came back with food, the master was gone again.

He had no choice but to challenge the demon at its gate. Shortly after, a one-horned king appeared. After fighting for a while, the demon suddenly pulled out a golden bracelet and sucked away Sun Wukong’s staff.

Liu-ge gasped, “Wait, my Monkey doesn’t even have his weapon anymore?”

Without his weapon, he lost his attack skills and couldn’t beat the boss. So Sun Wukong had to go ask Heaven for help, and the Jade Emperor sent Li Jing and Nezha.

System: [Nezha, Third Lotus Prince] joined the party, Assist Mode unlocked.
System: The player can control Nezha in battle against enemies.

When players saw this prompt, they were thrilled.

“There’s temporary party members who join in to help?”

“Oh my god, this chapter actually has assist mode?”

“I can control Nezha? Nice!”

“I just looked at his profile on the website a few days ago — I really like this kid!”

The new assist gameplay in Chapter Five was very well received.

Always controlling Sun Wukong and Pigsy could get repetitive after a while. Having a temporary helper brought a fresh feel.

Nezha’s skill design was rich: his single-target attack was the Demon-Slaying Sword, his control skill was the Demon-binding Rope, his AoE skill was the Demon-Subduing Pestle, and he rode Wind Fire Wheels, so his movement speed was extremely fast. He also had a Three-Headed Six-Armed transformation that increased crit rate and was quite powerful.

The first time players used Nezha, they were unfamiliar with him and died several times.

Liu-ge complained, “These wheels are unstable. If you don’t control them well, you’ll crash. Let me practice first!”

After players controlled Nezha and got the boss down to 10% HP, a cutscene triggered and his weapon was also sucked away, causing him to lose. Li Jing then asked the Great Sage to bring in the Fire Deity and Water Deity to help.

One by one, more characters joined the party, and the player-controlled roster kept growing.

But the demon’s magical bracelet was strangely powerful — it could absorb all weapons. The heavenly helpers Monkey invited all ended up empty-handed.

“So the weapons of everyone who came to help got absorbed?”

“This stage is really fun. You can control different characters and fight the boss in waves.”

“I want to take Nezha on the pilgrimage! His three heads and six arms are kind of adorable.”

“Too bad Nezha only joins temporarily, so you can only control him in this stage.”

Players practiced different character controls while grinding the boss and eventually triggered the story.

Sun Wukong went to the Western Heaven to ask Buddha about the monster’s background. It turned out that the one-horned king was Taishang Laojun’s mount, who had stolen the magical bracelet and come down to become a demon.

“Again with Taishang Laojun?”

“Remember when the Gold Horn and Silver Horn boys stole a pile of his magical treasures and opened a chemical plant down below?”

“Doesn’t anyone notice when people keep running away from his palace?”

“Back when the Great Sage ate all his elixirs, I suspect he was doing it on purpose~”

The viewers enthusiastically analyzed the story in the chat.

After this stage, Nezha and Li Jing left the party, and Pigsy, Sha Seng, and Tang Seng rejoined.

Players looked at the familiar lineup and felt a little unsatisfied. They wished the assist system could stay permanently so they could keep controlling characters like Nezha and Li Jing to fight bosses.

Unfortunately, they only helped Sun Wukong this one time. For later stages, Monkey would have to rely on himself again.

Not long after, the master and disciples arrived at a place called Western Liang Women’s Kingdom.

When the four crossed the river by boat, they found the water clear. Tang Seng and Pigsy were thirsty and drank a few mouthfuls of it. Then…

They actually got pregnant?

Seeing the pregnant Tang Seng, the players were completely stunned.

【What’s going on? Can men get pregnant now?】
【Spread the word — Tang Seng is pregnant!】
【Hahaha I’m dying, that belly is hilarious】
【Tang Seng: I was terrified at the time】
【Pigsy over there yelling that he can’t give birth — oh my god】
【Hahaha, could Pigsy have a whole litter of piglets? Kinda cute】
【Please calculate the psychological damage done to Tang Seng and Pigsy】

This story made countless players laugh out loud.

There was even a #TangSengIsPregnant trending topic created by the players’ laughter.

Nothing could be weirder than weird, and this “drinking water and getting pregnant” plot was absolutely wild.

What should they do if the master and Pigsy were both pregnant? Sun Wukong had no choice but to go to a place called Jieyang Mountain to get a potion to end the pregnancy. Unexpectedly, he ran into a demon there — and it turned out to be Bull Demon King’s younger brother.

That led into another fierce fight, with Sun Wukong handling the boss solo.

After finally getting the water and helping the master and Pigsy terminate the pregnancy, the master and disciples at last entered the Western Liang Women’s Kingdom.

An animation played, and a young, beautiful woman appeared on screen.

The subtitle read: Queen of Western Liang Women’s Kingdom.

【The queen is so pretty!】
【Best-looking NPC so far】
【Her Majesty is really gorgeous — visual fans are in love】

Her model was different from the other monsters. She didn’t wear gaudy decorations, nor did she have the heavy smoky makeup that some female demons did.

Her makeup was light and elegant. She wore a pale gold dragon robe, her appearance bright and dignified, with a pair of eyes that were also soft and moving. Just the entrance animation alone made the players exclaim that she was a stunning beauty.

The queen had a lucky dream and heard that Tang Seng was passing through the kingdom, so she believed this was fate and wanted to keep him as her husband.

She sent her prime minister to propose, and a group of women surrounded Tang Seng’s lodging, clearly ready to use force if he refused.

Tang Seng did not want to stay, but Sun Wukong came up with a plan: Tang Seng should temporarily agree to marry the queen, get the seal on the travel document, and then they’d sneak away.

【Reporting Wukong for selling out the master~】
【For the visa, the master should just endure it】
【The queen is so beautiful — Tang Seng staying to be king wouldn’t be such a bad deal!】

At first, Tang Seng’s agreement was only part of Wukong’s temporary strategy. But unexpectedly, the queen was sincere and genuinely wanted to marry him. After welcoming him into the palace, she treated him with proper courtesy every day.

Tang Seng saw how earnest she was and could only close his eyes and chant scriptures to steady his mind.

A few days later, Sun Wukong and the others came to leave with the stamped travel document. Tang Seng used the excuse of seeing them off, and the queen came to see them off with him.

Tang Seng folded his hands and bowed. “Thank you for your kindness, Your Majesty. This humble monk has long since taken refuge in Buddhism and cannot stay to enjoy wealth and glory. I must leave with my disciples and continue west to seek the scriptures. Please forgive me.”

Tears welled in the queen’s eyes as she asked sadly, “Weren’t we supposed to get married? The feast is already prepared — how can you suddenly go back on your word?”

Tang Seng felt deeply ashamed for having lied to her before.

Just then, a fierce wind came rushing in, and a female demon abruptly snatched Tang Seng off his horse.

“Royal Brother, come be my husband, hahaha!”

Everyone was shocked, and Sun Wukong hurried after her to rescue the master.

This demon had extremely high damage. Her upper body was human, but her lower body was a huge scorpion. She moved around extremely quickly, and her tail could sting with poisonous barbs. After being stung on the head, Sun Wukong suffered intense pain.

Monkey had already trained his body to be invulnerable. In theory, no weapon should have been able to hurt him, but this demon actually pierced his head.

Puzzled, Sun Wukong went to Guanyin, who explained that this was a scorpion spirit.

The scorpion had once listened to Buddha’s teachings at the Great Thunderclap Temple, and in the past it had even stung Buddha. A venomous scorpion strong enough to injure Buddha was naturally extremely powerful.

Guanyin gave advice: ask Mao Ri Xing Guan, the scorpion’s natural enemy — the great rooster — to capture her.

Sun Wukong rescued the master and then returned to the Western Liang Women’s Kingdom to say goodbye to the queen.

The queen looked at Tang Seng reluctantly, and when she saw that he insisted on leaving, she could only endure the pain and let him go.

Tang Seng rode a little way, looked back at her once, and then turned away.

The background music played, and Chapter Five ended.

The players’ feelings were complicated.

Mengtu guessed, “The queen wanted to keep Tang Seng because she really loved him. Did Tang Seng actually have feelings too? I think he might have. If not for his identity as a monk, maybe he would have stayed.”

Liu-ge analyzed, “I think the Women’s Kingdom was one of the hardest trials for Tang Seng. Demons can be dealt with by Wukong, but here he met a real woman who sincerely wanted to marry him. The queen was beautiful, gentle, and sincere. If Tang Seng’s will wasn’t strong enough, he really wouldn’t have gotten through this stage.”

The Women’s Kingdom storyline sparked heated discussion.

Some players thought Tang Seng truly felt something and left in a hurry because of it. Others thought he had not fallen for her at all — the queen forcibly kept him, so he felt pressured to leave.

Xie Yunfan made the game based mainly on the original novel and did not use the logic of fan adaptations. For example, he did not directly use the famous line from the TV drama about “if you look at me, I don’t believe your eyes are empty.” That was not the meaning of the original author; it was the TV director’s reinterpretation.

He avoided using that kind of adapted meaning because he did not want players to automatically assume that Tang Seng had definitely fallen for the queen.

He preferred to restore Journey to the West as closely as possible and let players interpret it themselves. He thought that was more reasonable — like leaving blank space in a painting. Some things are better left to the audience’s imagination rather than forced onto them by the creator.

After the Women’s Kingdom storyline, the debate over Tang Seng and the queen kept appearing on the hot discussion boards.

Players with different views even began arguing online with detailed reasoning.

That debate, in turn, attracted a lot of new players.

Some advanced players also made strategy collections, compiling all the boss-clearing methods so far and posting them on the forums, where likes and saves quickly exceeded 100,000.

Putting the story aside, the boss design was also very creative.

Classic bosses like the Zhenyuanzi of Wuzhuang Temple, Red Boy of Fire Cloud Cave, and the Scorpion Demon of Spider Cave were all repeatedly studied by players for strategies.

Yafan Studio’s “serial game” format had never been seen before.

But it had to be said: Xie Yunfan’s decision was absolutely the right one.

There were many parts of this game that were worth discussing. If everything had been released at once, players would have swallowed it all in one go and likely wouldn’t have felt it as deeply. Serialized release let players discuss things during the gaps, which helped the heat keep fermenting.

And since there were so many bosses, dumping dozens of them at once would have overwhelmed players. Releasing four to five at a time kept the feeling fresh and made the boss-clearing process much more fun.

As the chief planner, Xie Yunfan had always controlled the pacing.

When school started in September, student groups recommended the game to one another, and its popularity surged again.

The competitors still had no way to deal with him.

By now, Journey to the West had gained extremely high approval among players and had entered a stable growth stage. Every update would trend on Weibo and attract huge numbers of players waiting to download it.

It was just waiting for the final serialization to end, so it could finish in perfect form.