Volume 2: The Path That Can Be Told, Chapter 116: Matters Behind Me

Mom had been waiting for me in the Tushita Palace. I could faintly see the tear marks on her face. I asked her why she was crying, and she said it was because she missed me.
Mom led me away from the heavenly realm and down to the mortal world. We headed west until we arrived at a place called Cuiyun Mountain. The scenery there was truly beautiful. Mom said she was worried that she couldn’t contain Dad’s ambition, so she chose a place that resembled a fairyland.
I entered the Banana Leaf Cave but didn’t see Dad there. Mom said he still couldn’t hold Dad’s heart captive—Dad spent his days traveling among various mountains and making friends, never returning home even once in years.
I comforted Mom by saying Dad was out to achieve great things, but she didn’t agree this time.
I lived here with Mom, and she became much happier. But after a long time, I could no longer stay. I studied hard and acquired great skills, but my ambitions lay elsewhere.
Mom didn’t keep me there. Perhaps she also understood that men must have ambition to truly be called men.
I traveled thousands of miles to find a desolate place called Kusong Gorge, where I built a cave called Huoyun Cave. I gathered a group of minor demons from the mountains, and from then on, all the mountain gods and earth spirits under my control. I lived a carefree life. Of course, some foolish priests went to report this to the Heavenly Emperor, but even he knew my grandfather was the Supreme Lord Laozi—what could he do to me?
I took a name for myself: the Great King Holy Infant. The character “Holy” was one I had long chosen—it meant transcending the ordinary. The Heavenly Emperor ruled heaven and earth, but he couldn’t rule over me.
But… that monkey, Sun Wukong, seemed unafraid of him either. At that moment, the idea of competing with Sun Wukong arose in my mind.
I waited patiently for many years, and finally, the opportunity came.
That monkey must have been possessed by some evil force—he wanted to protect a mortal monk on his journey to the West to obtain Buddhist scriptures. It was extremely strange. There were countless paths in the East, yet he insisted on going west. I wondered why.
My Kusong Gorge was on the necessary route to the West. I really wanted to see how he would get through!
My second master was right—the monkey really couldn’t defeat me. My Triple True Fire almost burned him to death. But I wouldn’t really kill him. I just wanted to defeat him to prove I was stronger than him. Dad, can you see? I’ve defeated this monkey.
That monkey is truly detestable. He even pretended to be Dad to deceive me. Fortunately, I was sharp enough to see through his trick. What angered me the most was that he even had the audacity to claim to be my father’s sworn brother. My father is a true hero and a true heroic figure. How could such a traitor be considered his brother?
I cursed him, saying, “You, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, are actually working as a thug for others. Aren’t you ashamed?”

I never expected that after more than five hundred years of trials, the monkey’s skin had become incredibly thick. Unable to defeat me, he even summoned a female bodhisattva who was ten times more cunning than him. She chanted some unknown spells and used golden shackles to bind me.
I was filled with hatred and pain. I, the great Holy Infant King, had become someone else’s servant. Grandpa, master, please save me! But there, among those bodhisattvas, I saw a black bear who shared my plight. The black bear was also very powerful. After learning about his history, he became one of the few people I admired. He practiced alone and eventually achieved the rank of Taiyi Golden Immortal. Isn’t that amazing?
I couldn’t defeat Guanyin—mainly because I couldn’t withstand the power of those golden shackles. I had no choice but to pretend to cooperate and wait for an opportunity to escape. Later, I heard that my parents were captured by Buddha because of my fight with the monkey. My father was taken to the Western Heaven by Buddha, and my mother was heartbroken; she eventually converted to Buddhism as well.
That bodhisattva could be considered part of the Buddhist community, I suppose. I hate Buddhism even more than I hate the monkey.
Eventually, Grandpa intervened and rescued my father, but my mother refused to return. She had truly embraced Buddhism. From then on, I never saw her again…
Grandpa and the master ultimately failed to save me. Seeing the golden shackles on me, they were helpless. I could understand their helplessness—the sadness in their eyes showed they were outmatched. Fine, let it be.
Later, the monkey succeeded in his quest and became a Buddha too.
He became a Buddha? A monkey who only knew how to rebel, a monkey who caused chaos in heaven, a monkey who dared to challenge Buddha—yet he became a Buddha. Is there anything more absurd in the world?
On the day I heard this news, I felt like laughing, but I didn’t dare in front of Guanyin. I held back until tears welled up. Guanyin said, “Well done, well done! Good Fortune Child finally has a compassionate heart.”
Looking at Guanyin’s eternal smile, I suddenly felt they were so pitiful…
Wukong woke up, stunned, confused, dazed, and bewildered…
Was that… just a dream? Or was someone whispering in my ear?
It was Red Boy! The son of the Bull Demon King! That little boy who could spit out three kinds of true fire!
How did his murmurs reach my ears?
The little boy who fought me just now was Red Boy. And this world was created by the Second Senior Brother of Laojun—naturally, it was the Celestial Venerable Lingbao.

This sudden strange dream scattered Wukong’s thoughts in all directions. The story within the dream clearly depicted the life of Red Boy—precisely the life of Red Boy as portrayed in “Journey to the West”! If this dream had occurred in his past life, it might still have been somewhat explainable, but how could he, in the world of Journey to the West, gain insight into the fates of characters from his past life? Wukong tried hard to recall what had happened earlier—he saw his appearance from his past life on the lake’s surface, which stirred his emotions greatly, causing chaos in his inner essence. Later, he used the “Entering the Realm” technique from the “Mysteries of the Void Art” to calm himself slightly. After that… he pretended to be normal, using memories of the events in “Journey to the West” to bring his wandering mind back under control, before eventually falling asleep unconsciously. What exactly went wrong that caused Red Boy’s entire life to be transferred into my dream? This life wasn’t from the past but was a reality that took place within the story of “Journey to the West”. In terms of sequence, all of this surely hadn’t happened yet, and because of Wukong’s arrival, many people’s fates had already begun to change. As for space… these were clearly matters of two different worlds. What could be the reason? Wukong’s head was pounding from trying to figure it out, but he couldn’t come up with any explanation. Helplessly, he consoled himself by thinking it might be some sage sending him a dream. Yet even this explanation was far-fetched—even the Three Pure Ones of Taoism and the Buddhas of the West didn’t possess the ability to foresee the future; at most, they could guess roughly where things might go or leave riddles. Who could accurately describe someone else’s fate from start to finish without error? While Wukong was utterly confused, there was someone else in the Red Sun and Fire Cloud Palace who was even more shocked than Wukong himself—this person was Red Boy’s second master, the ruler of this realm, known as the Supreme Pure Realm’s Lingbao Tianzun!