“Perhaps the sheer despair had killed his heart completely or, perhaps, he simply had no interest in answering Yan Wushi’s question….Sang Jingxing watched their exchange, smiling….”
(The True Lord) laughed and said, “This must be that macaque! He is trying to fool me again. I’ve seen temples before, but none of them would stick their flag pole at the back! This must be that beast in disguise! If he fooled me into entering, he would take hold of me with a bite. How could I go in then? Maybe I should pull a few punches to break the windows first, and then kick the doors open!”
The Great Sage heard it and thought in horror,
“How cruel! How very cruel! The doors are my teeth and windows my eyes. If he really hit my teeth and gouged my eyes, what should I even do?”
Journey to the West, Chapter 6
This poem appears in Chapter 6, Part 2 of the audio drama.
Also featured on our Patreon page.
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Hi, this is Zhuang. I made all the art for this series.
Here are some doodles I made almost 10 years ago when I could kind of draw but not really. Not sure if I'm entirely out of that state now but hopefully I have improved.
Each one corresponds to a specific passage in the original text, as written on the doodle itself in traditional Chinese. And I will also put the English translation from the audio drama down below for your reference. Not every chapter has a doodle, so I will post the ones we've already covered in the drama, and the rest as we eventually get there.
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Why I chose this scene:
Er Lang Shen will forever be special in Wu Kong's heart for being the first opponent he truly feared(and respected, as we will later learn). In the JttW universe, Er Lang Shen also stands out in his very own way, which probably resonated with Wu Kong's situation too.
Er Lang Shen's mother was an immortal goddess, and his father was a mortal man. In a sense, he was born a crime, and was the center of conflict between gods and humans in a deeply personal way. This would explain why despite his immense powers (something that could allow him to take very high office in Heaven), he preferred to keep his own military force and be, quite literally, a down-to-earth sort of god.
He finds kinship in the human world, in the low ranking gods who'd never get to meet His Majesty up high, staying as far away from his emperor uncle as possible. Mundane prayers from the common people probably brings him more joy than the formality and bureaucracy in the Heavenly Palace. And ironically, at the end of the day, it was up to him, someone who quite obviously despised the way of life up high, to save heaven from destruction. Heaven could pretend he wasn't one of them, but only until the day when they desperately needed his powers.
His pride had a good day that day.
This could also explain why he and Wu Kong had no hard feelings against each other. Er Lang Shen is about as cool and gracious a person as you can imagine. He will only appear once more in future chapters, and you'd love to see how Wu Kong deals with this reunion.
Match 4 is between Xi Ping from Tai Sui (shizun/mentor: Zhi Xiu) and Chen Pi Ah Si from DMBJ / The Mystic Nine (shizun/mentor: Er Yuehong)
Propaganda under the cut! (Warning: Propaganda may include spoilers about the characters and their media)
Xi Ping:
They are certainly one of the most important people in each other's lives. Zhi Xiu gives Xi Ping a piece of his sword spirit. Xi Ping saves Zhi Xiu. Xi Ping convinces Zhi Xiu to cultivate his own spiritual plant in rebellion of the spiritual mountains while he's trying to break through to being a shed skin cultivator.
Chen Pi Ah Si:
Listen. We know canonically Chen Pi is unhinged over his shifu's wife, but he's just as unhinged and Normal(tm) about Er Ye as he is about Ya Tou. He ripped a dude's face off for saying that Chen Pi might overtake Er Ye one day. He is the yandere flavour of a shizunfucker and you know it, and they deserve representation in this tournament as well
Macaque/Wukong fusion?? Do they have an actual name yet? No. I've just been calling them Sun Mihou in my head cause it sounds nice plus I still need to research if it's a valid name, so THATS probably gonna change.