One fine day, Sun Wukong was busy in his mountain cave, organizing a grand feast. He ordered his four top generals to butcher oxen and pigs, offer sacrifices to heaven and earth, and invite his six sworn brother monsters to sing and dance.

The wine flowed. The drums pounded. The whole place buzzed with noise and laughter. After the brothers staggered home, Wukong handed out a few treasure gifts to his loyal captains, then leaned against a pine tree near the Iron Plate Bridge and dozed off, belly full and heart content. The four generals stood guard nearby, keeping everything quiet.

Suddenly—bam! Two shadowy figures appeared in his dream, holding a scroll with the name “Sun Wukong” on it. Without a word, they threw a net over his soul and dragged him away, bumping and stumbling all the way to a big, gloomy city gate.

Still half-drunk, Wukong squinted up and read the sign: Hell.

“What the hell? This is Yama’s place! Why am I here?” he muttered and sobered up really quick.

One of the two figures said, “Your time’s up. We’re just following orders.”

Wukong’s temper flared. “Time’s up? I’m beyond your jurisdiction! I’ve already cultivated immortality. I don’t belong to the Heaven, the Earth, or the Hell!”

With that, he yanked his golden cudgel from his ear and gave it a flick. Boom!, It grew thick as a tree trunk. In one swipe, he slapped the two soul-catchers into puddles of ghost jelly. Then he broke free from their ropes, roared like a storm, and charged into the city.

Inside, demons with ox heads and horse faces ran for their lives. The Ten Kings of Hell scrambled to throw on robes and come out to greet him, bowing and saying, “Welcome, Great Immortal!”

Wukong scowled. “Since you all know who I am, why’d you dare send people to grab my soul?”

The kings bowed and scraped. “Must’ve been a clerical error, Your Excellency.”

“Clerical error? My name was right there on the summons!” Wukong growled. “Bring me the Book of Life and Death!”

The scribes rushed out with stacks of dusty books. Wukong flipped through them page by page. The monkey names were a mess. They were classified neither as humans, nor beasts, nor mythical creatures. Finally, on page 1,350 under the ‘Souls’ section, he spotted his own entry: Born of stone. Lifespan: 342 years. Peaceful death.

Wukong’s eyes blazed. “Well, if it’s there, I’m taking it out!”

He grabbed a brush, dipped it in ink, and scratched out every single monkey name he could find.

“Done!” he shouted, laughing. “From now on, the Hell can’t touch a single monkey!”

Then he swung his golden cudgel around like a wrecking ball, tearing through the ghostly halls of the Hell. The Ten Kings of Hell didn’t dare stop him. Bruised and terrified, they decided to report the mess to Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva and maybe even escalate it to Jade Emperor.

Meanwhile, Wukong stormed out the gates, then tripped.

With a jolt, he woke up under the tree. Just a dream.

Stretching with a yawn, he heard the four generals whispering nearby, “Great King, you slept the whole night. How much did you drink?”

Wukong chuckled. “Not the drinking, that was fine. But I just dreamt I was dragged into the Hell, fought off the soul-catchers, tore up the Book of Life and Death, and erased all monkey names. So from now on, we monkeys are free!”

The monkeys’ eyes welled up. They dropped to their knees, grateful beyond words. And strangely enough, many of the monkeys in the mountain really did start living much longer lives because their names were no longer in the Book of Life and Death.

When Wukong told the tale to the others, the four generals spread the news far and wide. Demon kings from neighboring caves came over to celebrate.

A few days later, the six sworn brothers showed up again. When they heard their names had been scratched from the death list, they were overjoyed. From that day on, they partied without a care in the world.

End of this chapter. Thank you for reading!

This is just the serialized version of Journey to the West (modern retelling). If you want to read the full book faster, check out the complete, easy-to-read English and Chinese (Simplified & Traditional) version on Amazon.

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