Beyond Wukong - A Cultural and Narrative Guide to Plots and Characters

If you only finish <Black Myth: Wukong> (even with all achievements done) without understanding the characters and storylines, you would only get ~70% out of the whole game experience.

This guide focuses on telling the background and stories within / beyond Wukong's and yours journey. Yet we know you are here to enjoy a game instead of learning a lesson, so we will put simplest terms and explanations necessary to get the most out of the game.

All statements and explanations are backed by sources online or from literature.

IF YOU FIND THIS NOT USEFUL, PLEASE DO TELL US SO WE CAN UPDATE TOWARDS WHAT YOU REALLY ARE INTERESTED IN

Hiring Editor for Chapter 3~6 (Paid)

因笔者学业繁忙，现在有偿招募具备知识背景和编辑技能的共同作者。长期有效。

Call for Co-Authors (Paid Collaboration)

Due to academic commitments, I am seeking knowledgeable co-authors with strong editorial skills to collaborate on this guide. Most importantly, the applicant should love the game and transferring knowledge in the community.

You will be paid based on workload. Please contact me by the end of summer.

README

2025: will come back in summer.

Kind of hectic during graduating season, will come back in summer - I am still in college sorry about that!

Update ①: Chapter 1, 08/27/2024

This guide reached 50 likes by the end of August - this is a huge motivation to me (us), thanks for your interest!

In the comments, please feel free to let us know whatever other stuff you would love to see, so that we can update accordingly.

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Main Reading Starts from Here

I was not gonna make this guide until I saw this video:
Black Myth Wukong - Streamers Reaction To Chapter 4 Ending Cutscene

I have seen that, depending on whether players know the background story or not, this story can be perceived in completely different ways.

The girl who knew the story was moved to tears, while others might just find it strange or confusing, or even think that the devoted male piggy and female spidy are merely attracted to each other at first sight.

Therefore, I hope this guide can minimize as much bias from background knowledge and cultural differences as possible. It’s challenging, but I believe it’s achievable.

Basic Backgrounds : 《JOURNEY to the WEST》and Wukong

As you probably have heard about - <Black Myth: Wukong> is inspired, and made from the famous Chinese classic novel 《JOURNEY to the WEST》(西游记, Xīyóu jì; 西遊記, Saiyūki) .

This fantastical adventure story was written in 1500s. It symbolizes the pursuit and dissemination of traditional eastern philosophy and Buddism - One of the Four Major World Religions (along with Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism).

《Journey to the West》also is considered one of the pioneers to propose modern feminism: in chapter 53, it depicts a 'woman kingdom'[www.jstor.org], where woman reigns and men come across would be slaved. This is 300 years earlier than Sacagawea‘s expedition [www.history.com]!

In fact, the kingdom of woman was going to be one of the game chapters, but removed due to time limitations GameScience had when making the game:(

The series is so popular and rooted in Asian's culture that over 2 billion people have read it - more than the number of readers of《Bible》.

If you are interested, the full book chapters is online for free:
Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en [archive.org]

There are also great short and fun videos that summarizes the book:
Legends Summarized: The Journey To The West

Or the timeless classic 1986 Chinese television adaptation
Journey to the West ep. 01 The Monkey King is born

What happens in 'Journey to the West,' and how is it related to this game?

In the early 7th century, the monk Tang Seng[en.wikipedia.org] (唐僧, lit. the "Tang Monk")（second left in the pic above) traveled to the Western Regions (around India now) to retrieve Buddhist scriptures.
He is accompanied by three supernatural protectors, especially the two showed up in game: Sun Wukong [worldhistoryedu.com] (孙悟空, lit. "Monkey King"), Zhu Bajie [mythicalencyclopedia.com] (猪八戒, lit.'Pigsy').
--- Basically, if they reach the West, they achieve Buddhahood and attain immortality.
The 'Journey to the West' is half fictional and half based on realitty. Tang Seng is in history textbook.



The whole story consists of 100 chapters in total. The 4-squad overcame "eighty-one trials" or "eighty-one difficulties" (where the 81 steam achievements come from) and made it to the west.

Each of the 81 trails are at a new map with new monsters. That being told, in the game we are just going through 5 out of 81 total challenges in the real story (Chpt. 6 excluded)

However, was everything so great as promised, after Wukong joined the 'Western Heaven' (the government on the sky) and became a buddha?

The answer is no. After all the dramas, fights and all, the unsatisfied Wukong died. His "spiritual existence" was even separated into 6 pieces and granted to the YaoGuai Kings who beated him. His physical body was locked in a rock (just like he was born from a rock).

The six roots (relics) include: eye base; ear base; nose base; tongue base; body base; and the most important - mind base. These "root organs" represent Wukong's 5 desires and core self-consciousness in this game. Buddhism has a concept of 'six roots'[encyclopediaofbuddhism.org], which classifies one's sense of the world and the resulting sense of self into 6 parts.

---And our story of <Black Myth>, happened hundreds of years later after Wukong died after the 《Journey to the West》. We, as a derived part of his soul, are chosen as the 'destined ones' to retrieve the 6 body parts (so called relic) and revive the great Wukong. Only by combining these 6 spiritual elements can he be rezzed into a personality/spirit.
(Understanding 'six root' is not necessary but is essential to understand what the game's main story key - the 6 relics. )

Who exactly is Wukong anyway?

Before <Black Myth: Wukong>, the most famous Wukong worldwide perhaps was this one designed by Japanese in 1990: Also, many video games have modified Wukong into local characters. For example:
(League of Legends even made a skin 'General Wukong' to depict the appearance after Wukong become a buddha.)

---Yes, they are all good Wukongs. But the original Wukong is the one in our game story.
<Black Myth> faithfully restores details in the novel, presenting a fantastical yet authentic and stunningly beautiful depiction of the afterstory of Wukong's, while retaining the original settings to the greatest extent possible.

In the novel and TV shows, Wukong has these well-known abilties[journey-to-the-west-xiyouji.fandom.com], includes but not limited to:

• Seventy-Two Transformations (七十二变), we have 54 in total in game
  
• Cloud Somersault (筋斗云), we will have it in one of the late chapters
  
• Golden-Banded Staff (如意金箍棒) that can grow or shrink, we will have it in one of the late chapters
  
• Immortality and Invulnerability
  
• Cloning Technique (分身术), we could only clone 5 in game but it could be as many as possible for Wukong himself

Now we knows the fundamentals about Wukong. Without Further adue, let's dive into the game chapters itself, witness what's the story about us, the 'destined ones'.

Basic Backgrounds 2: characters

I‘m putting characters in the new session because of steam word limit per session.

Wukong (the great sage)

In the very beginning, after given birth from a stone, Wukong wass a troublemaker who defies the heavens and creates chaos.

Wukong earned his full title "Great Sage Equal to Heaven" (齊天大聖), which reflects his immense strength and magical abilities. He was not satisfied of the position that the government (the court)- 'western heaven' granted him. He solo fought 100k heaven soilders, but finally subdued by the 'Tathagata Buddha'[encyclopediaofbuddhism.org]. He was eventually freed under the condition that he will help protect the monk (Tang Seng).

During the journey to the west, he was the superhero (consider him as superman+ironman) who defeated most monsters in every single trial (81 trial in total btw.) Bajie is already a good fighter but Wukong overpowers him in literally all aspects .

In game, your maximum level is 342 - exactly the same number as the recorded age for Wukong in the 《Journey to the West》.

Bajie

(Above two are the same person btw!)

Bajie was previously a Marshal of the Heavenly Forces who was banished to Earth due to his misconduct.
He joins Tang Seng’s journey after being subdued by the Buddha.

In the Chinese metaphor, the 'Western Heaven' (the court) is like the government who controls life, treasure and mortal's belief.

Some other characters you may also want to know to better understand the game:

ErLang Shen [oldworldgods.com]/ Yang Jian （二郎神，"Second Son of the God"）

'Shen‘ means god.
In the novel, Er Lang Shen is a celestial being who is summoned to capture Wukong during the latter's rebellion against the heavens.

If the Western heaven is a country, then Er Lang Shen = boss of FBI.

In the very beginning of the game (the opening CG), Er Lang Shen leads 100k heaven soilders and the Four Heavenly Kings (will explain in later chapter) to catch the repelling Wukong.
He also has a magical dog (哮天犬，'the dog who barks against the horizon') to help him rules.

The fight between ErLang Shen and Wukong was made into an anime movie in 2007. Not as good as the one you watched in game though.

Guanyin -0- to be added

Chapter One Storyline: the greed turns into fire

This chapter is based on 《Journey to the West》 Chapter 17: Pilgrim Sun greatly disturbs the Black Wind Mountain; Guanshiyin brings to submission the bear monster. [journeytothewestdaily.substack.com]
(孙行者大闹黑风山，观世音收伏熊精怪)

More of a tutorial chapter, the Chapter 1: Black Cloud Red Fire has relatively shorter plots and they are more straightforward to understand. Yet still, most players didn't capture most of the stories and relationships at their first play. Let's see what you might’ve missed:

'YaoGuai' [en.wikipedia.org](妖怪,yōkai) or 'Guai' (怪) means 'Monster'.

The figure below is updated on 08/31 - centered the black bear, added relationships and corrected the identity of LingXuzi. - Thank you @Occulta and @ZinGer for your kind advice!

The relationship between major characters (NPC not included):

The real-world sceneries in game

<Black Myth: Wukong> reproduces 36 locations from the real world.
The game developers personally visited, filmed, and recreated 36 sites across mainland China (7 provinces), including ancient buildings, temples, Buddha statues, and more. One of the example:

Source: bilibili[www.bilibili.com]










Source: bilibili2[www.bilibili.com]














Source: bilibili2[www.bilibili.com]

The Yao Guais (Ch.1)

Elder Jinchi

Elder Jinchi is the former abbot of Guanyin Monastery. He never really died until the age of 270, when he met us the 'destined ones' in the Ancient Guanyin Temple.

Jinchi was talented in Buddism and finally became the leader monk of temple at his 40s. However, Elder Jinchi did not abandon his desire for wealth, which is a big taboo for a monk.

Driven by a moment of greed, he attempted to kill Tang Seng (when he stopped by the temple on his journey to the west) and seize the golden kasaya[screenplaysmag.com] (袈裟，the symbol /clothes of a great monk).


In the book, he was unable to escape his own misdeeds.

Overcome with shame, he ended up burning down the temple and, in his remorse, committed suicide by crashing into a wall.

Black Wind King / Black Bear Guai

When Jinchi met the black bear before he turned into a monk, he did not realize the bear was actually the servant of the great Guanyin[mythicalencyclopedia.com] (觀音).

Guanyin is short for Guanshiyin, which means "[the one who] Perceives the Sounds of the World". If the Western heaven is the USA, then Guanyin is sort of like Hilary Clinton (lmao fr)

The game made major modifications for Black Bear's deeds to better unveil the harm of 'greed'. In the book, he was a good YaoGuai. He was going to save Guanyin Temple when seeing the fire.


In the game, if you think about it deeply, he did nothing bad except for occupying Wukong's eyes (first relic). He rebuilt the temple in 300 years and led other lesser Yaoguais to a better life.

After beaten by the 'destined ones', he turned miserable, begging for mercy on his knees, swearing he would go back to his master Guanyin. In the end, he did not die.

(Pic right: the Black Bear Guai in 1986 TV series CN)

GuangMou and GuangZhi

You might've fell in love with Guangzhi because he saved your ass for countless times. But him, along with his partner Guangmou, are both bad guys in Wukong's story.

Guangzhi[blackmythwukong.fandom.com]（广智，'the broad wisdom'）was the one initiated the idea of Killing Tang Seng and rob the golden kasaya -even more greedy than Jinchi.

He as a wolf tried to fit in human's society for his whole life by transforming into human shape. But his smell exposed him. It was Jinchi who accepted and raised him.


Guangmou[blackmythwukong.fandom.com]（广谋，'the broad strategy') is the first boss who starts to attack us before his CG ends (eww!).

He was an evil and poor guy - forced to be a monk when young. He agreed to set fire at temple just to escape the place, and his unwanted life.

Ironically, the fire was the first fake suggestion from him to Jinchi (to benefit himself), but that was also the first time that Jinchi positively commented and agreed with his plan.
--- greed!

Whiteclad Noble

In the novel, Black Wind Mountain has 3 YaoGuais (妖怪，monsters) — Bear the black Beast, Snake the White Spirit, and Wolf the Gray Shadow (LingXuZi). In the game, they share a common trait: greed. Each of them covers a big bell, which are the keys to time-travel and kill Jinchi the Elder.

The whiteclad Noble is disguised as a refined scholar in white clothing, his greed is for social status, reputation, and power.
He was said to be very weak in Kungfu (fighting), exactly the opposite to who we met in the lake. That is because the whiteclad we met in game is a fake one revived by blackbear using relic power.

He is a spy working for Erlang Shen to stalk black bear. Just like he was struck dead by Wukong in the original story, he (the fake new one) also died from us, the 'destined ones' in game.

Lingxuzi

Personally I think Lingxuzi is the most complicated character in Chapter 1. The Lingxuzi(靈虚子) we killed in Guanyin Temple is much weaker than the original Lingxuzi(凌虚子).

In the novel and TV show, The old Lingxuzi over 300 years ago was a very good friend of black bear. Him(wolf), bear and the whiteclad(snake) were the three animals that have attained spiritual enlightenment and are practicing Buddhism in the mountain.

Old lingxuzi was quite a friendly and positive character.
👇In the game, you can find wolf-shaped statues in the temples dedicated to Lingxuzi. See pic below.



In the novel story, due to a major misunderstanding on stealing kasaya, Wukong one-shot killed old Lingxuzi with Smash Stance.


(Pic at bottom and right: from 1986 TV series CN)



Then in the game, the black bear revived old Lingxuzi using the forbidden power of relic. However, after coming back to live, old Lingxuzi realized the bear was spamming relic power and controlling the mountain. He refused to either bow down to the bear or fight his old friend. Instead, he chose to end his life beside his other friend, Whiteclad—unaware that the snake was actually also a revived impostor by the black bear... What a kind but poor soul!

So, in conclusion, the old Lingxuzi died twice. Once by Wukong and the other by himself.
The black bear needed Lingxuzi to help him rule the black wind mountain, so he again...spammed the relic power and transformed a foreign wolf to the new Lingxuzi we fought and killed.

(fun fact is, Guangzhi 300 years ago was also transformed from a wolf (to a monk) with help from black bear, but not with relic power - so there is a debate here that if new Lingxuzi is a product of relic or just black bear's magic)


In our game, the new Lingxuzi, unlike the old one who never kill but only pursue Buddhims, loves supreme physical strength. It gradually lost its mind and became insane. The black bear had to ask Guangzhi to defeat and control the new Lingxuzi.

Why Guangzhi btw? Lingxuzi has lots of hair, and is designed to be weak to fire attack. Thus if you defeat Guangzhi and get the first transform ability, you could counter Lingxuzi.

After you knocked the 3 huge bells and killed the elder Jinchi, the corpse of old Lingxuzi (hang on the tree) would fade away.



We are skipping characters such as the frog and the Thunder Loong (dragon) because they migh have much more complicated background stories, or more literature needed to be reivewed from other chapters.
Anyways, if you are interested in them, do let us know and we will update their fun stories for sure!

The NPCs (Ch.1)

Shen Monkey

Ayy! It‘s our gourd monkey guy!
Thanks for all cheap sellings and upgrades bro!

Back to the story, Shen Monkey stands for one of the Twelve Zodiac Animals[en.wikipedia.org] （十二生肖）in Chinese culture.
For example, 2024 is the year of dragon; the years of monkey would be 2016, 2028 etc. ,twelve years per round.

In the story, Shen Monkey was once also ascend to Buddhahood after Wukong made it to the west hundred of years ago.

But after Wukong died unexpectedly, Shen Monkey as one of Wukong's old relatives, was also demoted to mortal monkey and could not even win a small YaoGuai in fight in the game.

You could see his little egoism because he was once a god in the western heaven.
But he is still nice and kind. He comes from the same hometown (Chapter 6 map) as Wukong's.

Keeper (Tudi)

Based on Chinese folks, 'every land, every community has a keeper'. For example, the ocean's keeper can be an elder fish.

In Chapter One, the Tudi (keeper) [blackmythwukong.fandom.com]（土地） is basically a little god with fewer yet strong casts and skills. He is the first teacher we've met in game. (Tell me who can finish game without Immobilize???)

During an 2024 summer interview, the game developer Feng, talked about Tudi: we were not able to find the exact translation of this existence, thus we just kept the Chinese term 'Tudi', or keeper as it humbly means.

This keeper is especially ugly (compared to keeper in Chapter 5...) because he was once an elder ginseng (the plant he looks like) in local Black Wind Mountain.



We are skipping these three guys below:

Because they literally appears every single chapter with a kind of iterative task.
For example, the Horse Guai (Ma TianBa) tried to find Black Bear Guai for help but realized the bear was not reliable. Then he would travel to the next destination, just like us.

Thus, we will get back to them and review once their stories are all done.

By the way, did you know:
at the end of chapter, you can zoom in and click to listen to all details of each part on the drawings.

Ending Cutscene and Insights (Ch.1)

All the chapter cutscenes, yet has amazing artwork and music, can be still confusing and abstract if you have no idea about the background settings.

The cutscene for chapter one is closely tied to its respective chapter story, making it the easiest to understand. Still let's talk about what the little anime video told us:

1.
The 'golden' frog symbolizes wealth.
Young Jinchi was already attracted by these shiny beings.
He tried to catch the frog, but failed.
This hints his future: chasing fortune, but loses.

2.
The golden frog jumped onto a dead body
--- This hints what Jinchi's greed would take him to.




3.Jinchi met the black bear, who surprisingly did not hurt him. Firstly, it shows this bear is special. It has the spark to be a 'buddha'. Another way to put it is, the bear sees the future and merely wants to use him to control the temple. He gifted even more golden coins to help Jinchi enter the temple. This fosters Jinchi's greed.

4.
Young Jinchi stared at other elders' kasayas.
He was so jealous.





5.
Jinchi grew up to his youth.
Without kasaya, he still looked down and pretended to be humble.
The shadow of huge bear symbolizes Jinchi's ambition and non-stop desire of greed.


6.
Finally, after tens of years, Jinchi got what he wanted.
Leaving all other monks behind. A bright red kasaya.
He even got himself a wand when all else didn't.


7.
The black bear Guai rests on his back, did not even bother to hide anymore.
With Jinchi's help, his plan of controlling the human temple was almost there.
(Which normal monk would have a fierce bear and lotus together on the back? Very Punk)

8.
Pay attention to the detail:
there is 0.5 second that Elder Jinchi's eye turned red,
just like the Black Bear Guai.
Greed has already taken root within him.

9.
He uses (black) wind to gather all kasayas--- golden ones pretty ones big ones
even if he does not need any,
he just enjoys the fake wealth,
because he believes better kasaya is only for better monks.

10.
One day, Tang Seng and Wukong, on their journey to the west, passed by the temple.
Tang Seng as always showed (not giving!) the golden kasaya to the leader monk.
That one Kasaya was an invaluable treasure from Tang Dynasty (the eastern China).

11. Different opinions here. It could be:
A. The golden kasaya was magical - when it detected Jinchi's greed, it released fire
B. The black bear preyed Jinchi and whole temple using fire when Jinchi was lost in kasaya.
C. Jinchi planned to burn and kill TangSeng to own the kasaya, however, burned himself.

12.
Detail: The soul of Jinchi floated out with black wind,
and became the wandering wight.


13.
In the end, the conversation between bear and master Guanyin raises the philosophos level:

On the path to achieving a pure heart in Buddhism, material possessions such as kasaya are means, or an ultimate goal / reward?

Chapter Two Storyline: What you hear is not necessarily true

The chapter 2 Yellow Sand, Desolate Dusk has 6 Yaoguai Kings and 12 Yaoguai Chiefs.
It is based on 《Journey to the West》book ch.20 At Yellow Wind Ridge the Tang Monk meets adversity; In mid-mountain, Eight Rules strives to be first[ia803101.us.archive.org]. (shorter summary here[www.enotes.com])

Chapter 2 of <Black Myth: Wukong> has the most complicated character relationships. Basically, there are two main stories:
① Yellow Sand Sage, Lingji Bodhisattva and the Flowing Sands Country
② Tiger Vanguads and the child in the well .

We made and proudly present the two pictures below which highly summarize all connections of characters.

Unlike Chapter 1, most of the stories in Chapter 2 can be pieced together from the Journal pages in the game, if you take the time to read them thoroughly. They are quite engaging and offer an interesting look at how the same events are presented from different perspectives through the views of various Yaoguais.

What defines kindness and evil? Who is telling the truth, and who is not—perhaps neither is lying at all? Why is a hero to the local people considered a criminal by the court? Are the Yaoguai kings, and even we, the 'destined ones,' merely pawns in the grand game orchestrated by Western Heaven?

Why the final boss - Yellow Wind Sage yells "I cannot escape, and nor can you?"
Half-guai, half budda, who can decide? Or both make sense?


If you focus solely on killing every monster you encounter on your path, you might later regret having killed some that were actually quite benevolent. In Chapter 2 game, while pursuing the second relic, the Ear, the central theme of stories converges on one idea: what you hear is not necessarily true.

In the next two sessions, let's break down the two main stories and understand everything from scratch.

Chapter 2: First Main Story - how the Yellow Wind Sage rised

Now, let me tell you the whole story from the very beginning, hundreds of years before we enter the Yellow Wind Ridge:

I. Long time ago, there was an ancient country called Flowing Sand[www.discoverchinatours.com] (Quicksand, 流沙国) (around Xinjiang, China, southwest to the Mongolia). It is said that this country is covered in gold (thus aka. Golden Land). In the land of sands, during sunset, people could often hear the sound of the sea boiling, which caused people's organs to vibrate and die.

II. The Buddha granted the king of Flowing Sand a gigantic Sunset Drum. By striking it, the boiling sound can be countered, allowing the people to return to peace. As a result, the people deeply believe in Buddhism and have created many golden Buddha statues. Therefore, this country is also known as the 'Golden Buddha Land'.

III. However, as the temples proliferated and the people’s devotion to the Buddha grew, the king’s authority weakened. Feeling threatened, the king betrayed his principles and began to dismantle temples and expel monks. The country changed its name to the Kingdom Of Sahālī[blackmythwukong.fandom.com] (斯哈哩国), same name as a secret shrine in game.

IV. This action enraged the Buddha. Soon after, Flowing Sand suffered the disaster of Fuban. Whenever the Sunset Drum was struck, this giant beetle creature carrying a Buddha’s head would emerge and kill the villagers. This is the punishment imposed by Bodhisattva Lingji[blackmythwukong.fandom.com]. Despite the nation's sacrifice of countless soldiers, the Fuban has yet to be eradicated.


V. A century later, the Yellow Wind Sage (a powerful rat Yaoguai, 黄风大圣) arrived in this land. Seeing the suffering of the people, he could not bear it and subdued the Fuban. The king greatly revered him and appointed him as the Royal Sage. From then on, the Yellow Wind Sage gradually invited his rat-Guai kin to settle in the country and had the king issue the 'Rat Respect Decree'.

VI. The Bodhisattva Lingji (灵吉菩萨), displeased by the loss of prominence, cast a curse that transformed the ordinary citizens into rat yaoguais, including the king and his 3 sons. This gave rise to the Kingdom of Rats. Recognizing that he had caused this trouble, the Yellow Wind Sage led his rat yaoguai kin to settle in the nearby Yellow Wind Ridge.

VII. On this journey, the Yellow Wind Sage happened upon Father and Mother of Stones along with a group of stone yaoguais battling a Buddha Head Stone Monster (Shigandang). The Yellow Wind Sage led his followers into battle, subdued Shigandang, and bestowed its essence upon the two mountain deities, Stone Father and Stone Mother. Hence, the denizens of the mountain honored the Yellow Wind Sage as their local god and protector . In fact, it was only at this point that the title 'the Yellow Wind Sage' was bestowed upon him.

VIII. Having decided to settle down, the Yellow Wind Sage went to pay his respects to Bodhisattva Lingji, who governed the area, and subsequently engaged in spiritual (spark) practice. This continued for nearly another century, until the events of Journey to the West, when Tang Seng and his 3 desciples passed through Yellow Wind Ridge.

IX. Tiger Vanguard caught Tang Seng, thinking him to be an ordinary monk, and presented him to the Yellow Wind Sage. Wukong then fought to save Tangseng. After a fierce battle lasting thirty rounds, they remained evenly matched. You can tell how good he used to be. In the end, Wukong had to seek the help of Bodhisattva Lingji, who subdued the Yellow Wind Sage.

(pic left: Lingji in the 1986 TV show, sucking Yellow Wind Sage using his gourd)

X. Long later, the Yellow Wind Sage also participated in efforts to capture Wukong with other 5 Yaoguai Kings. In the storyline of our game, which occurs at the end, the Yellow Wind Sage stole the ear relic and even the head of Bodhisattva Lingji. He then returns to Yellow Wind Ridge, where he unleashes a sand tornado around himself and conducts secret evolution (practice for sparks).

Chapter 2: Second Main Story - Tiger Vanguards, Windrest Village and three Princes of Flowing Sands

Again, if you are interested in more content about chapter 2, I highly recommend you go over the Journal pages of tiger vanguards and princes of flowing sands, where important plot pieces are hidden in.

I. (Book) Once upon a time in the land of flowing sand, there was a Central Asian tiger yaoguai named Tiger Vanguard. He was a leading general under the Yellow Wind Sage, who rules over the Yellow Wind Ridge. He wields two red copper knives and is skilled in the Rock Solid spell and wind control. (Game) Back to when Yellow Wind Sage was fighting Fuban the gigantic beetle, tiger vanguard was responsible for protecting civilians from the battlefield and selecting suitable warriors to participate in combat with the Sage.

II. Hundred of years later, during journey to the west, tiger vanguard arrested Tang Seng and locked the monk in his cave. Then Wukong and Bajie attacked the cave to rescue him.

Tiger Vanguard led his yaoguai troops into battle but was no match for Wukong, who defeated him in just a few exchanges. As Tiger Vanguard tried to escape, he is struck and killed by Bajie's rake. Yellow Wind Sage was also defeated with help from Bodhisattva Lingji. Tang Seng was saved.

All below content are based on game-extended stories, not in the novel book.
III. After Tiger Vanguard's death, his sons—known as the Tiger Brothers—remained in the Yellow Wind Ridge. The elder Tiger Brother followed in his father's footsteps by protecting the creatures of the mountains, and the villagers established the Crouching Tiger Temple (卧虎寺) to worship the Tiger Deity.

IV. A hundred years later, Yellow Wind Sage (YWS) returns with the Lingji's head and a relic. The tiger younger brother believed that YWS was a bystander when their father was killed and incited the elder brother to attack him. However, during the battle, the younger Tiger Brother was quickly injured and fell unconscious. To protect his brother, the elder Tiger Brother decided to surrender. Upon learning their background, YWS appointed the elder Tiger Brother as the new Tiger Vanguard, continuing his father's legacy.

V. After the younger tiger brother woke up, he was furious with his elder brother for bowing to their enemy and left in anger, jumping into a well to recover and re-prepare himself for future fight. The (new) Tiger Vanguard (elder bro) is enraged by the fact that the rat (YWS) has sort of caused his family’s destruction twice but feels powerless to do anything about it. As a result, he can only vent his frustration by continuously eating rats. When the King of the Flowing Sand comes to submit, it falls upon him to find rat meat for the (new) Tiger Vanguard to eat.

VI. Speaking of the King of the Flowing Sand, at this time he and his people have been turned into rats. His great country vanished in sands, and he had to come to again seek help from YWS to merely earn a living. He is accompanied only by his second prince (son). The eldest and third sons, who had differing opinions when the ‘Rat Respect Decree’ was issued, faced different fates: one was imprisoned, and the younger prince left home to practice asceticism, becoming the Pagoda Realm Prisoner encountered later in chapter 3.

VII. Around 10 years prior to the game’s timeline, a human swordsman came to the village seeking a Bodhisattva that he heard of to cure his child’s 'wind-cold' (illness). By chance, he heard sound and entered the well, and encountered the younger tiger brother hiding there.

The younger tiger, pretending to be his elder brother, the Tiger Vanguard, convinced the swordsman of his identity and used his gourd water and successfully saved the human child. In return, he demanded that the swordsman lure the villagers into the well so he could eat them to heal tiger's wounds.

VIII. Although the swordsman was reluctant, seeing his child’s condition improved, he still led the villagers into the well as instructed. After repeated occurrences, the villagers discovered the truth and killed the swordman's child together with sticks and knifes. Upon returning to the village, the swordsman saw his son's scattered corpse and turned desperate. He slaughtered all the villagers and then became the Tiger Acolyte. The Mad Tiger (younger bro in the well) later carried the child’s coffin to the bottom of the well, continued practicing his skills, hoping to one day bring peace to the wind and sand.

The real-world arts, musics and sceneries

① The headless singer - 'Shanbei Storytelling' [www.globaltimes.cn]

("陕北说书" (Shǎnběi shuōshū) - a traditional form of storytelling from the Shaanxi Province in northern China.)

Quite catchy innit? If you want to revisit all songs of headless singer, for your convenience:
All Headless Singer Cutscenes (4K)
and the real artist performance(Xiong Zhuying, 熊竹英) of recorded music in game:

Music Instrument and Style:
The traditional performance style of Shaanbei storytelling involves artists using the Shanbei dialect, while playing a sanxian (a three-stringed lute) or pipa [blogs.transparent.com](a pear-shaped lute) and alternating between singing and reciting to tell stories.

The music style is usually melodious and appealing, with rich up-and-down variations. The lyrics are simple and easy to understand, imbued with a strong sense of everyday life. Typically using five- or seven-character lines.
This art form has been firstly documented since over 2,000 years ago. There are no dedicated schools for it and it relies solely on oral transmission by folk artists, it is now facing the risk of becoming lost.

In the game, the song is originally made. The true identity of the performer is the LIngji Bodhisattva, who appears at crucial junctures in Chapter Two. Through a form of song and kind of rapping, Lingji provides hints about the next objective for the 'destined ones'.

② Head of Lingji

It is proven a fake news that Lingji's head is in the British Museum. But the museum does indeed house over 23,000 Chinese ancient artifacts including some showed up in game. Most of these were taken during the Boxer Rebellion when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China[en.wikipedia.org], an important lost war in modern Chinese history.
(source: youtube)

China.org news Headless Buddha in China's hit video game renews debate on art repatriation[www.china.org.cn]
2023 BBC News China state media calls on British Museum to return artefacts[www.bbc.com]

③ Real-World Sceneries

Not as many as we will see in chapter 3, but still quite amazing - chapter 2 mostly reflects the northwest region of China, which is characterized by a landscape rich of deserts and mountains.

(About Nan'an Temple Pagoda - Wiki CN [zh.wikipedia.org] )

If you are an archaeology enthusiast and really enjoy this part, I promise chapter 3 will absolutely satisfy you.

④ an Easter Egg: Wukong's first master

The Yao Guais (Ch.2)

TBD

Chapter Three Storyline: the egoist buried in ice TBA

Chapter Four Storyline: the love between 'PIG' and 'KNOWS PIG' TBA

Chapter Five Storyline: the family like bros, and the bros like family. TBA

Chapter Six Storyline: TBA

Basic Q&As about Terms in Game

Why the money is called 'Will'?

'Will' was simple but not a proper translation from its real meanings. 'Spiritual Essence' or 'Spiritual Resonance' makes more sense for ‘灵蕴’.

In ancient eastern Asia, (on the way of Wukong's journey from east to west) there were over 15 countries and over 25 different languages and cultures. At that time, the currency system was not aligned among diff places.

On the other hand, In the Buddhist core of saving all sentient beings from suffering, which differs from Islam and Christianity, every carbon being possesses a spiritual essence (the greater essence is the purple or blue one you can suck with a gourd).

Thus, when you defeat a YaoGuai, its spiritual essence becomes exposed for you to collect.

The more enlightened and powerful a being is, the more spiritual essence it can release.

Actually when you are defeated by a boss, the boss could potentially absorb your vast amount of 'will' ...but they are just nice to not do so:)

Why the level is called 'Spark'?

'Sparks' is a correct translation for skill points in Wukong's world. The talent of a being to attain Buddhahood is its spark. For example, the Black Bear Guai in chapter one has lots of inherent sparks, because as a prey he could calm himself from eating Jinchi.

Sparks can also be acquired through practice. The whole 'journey to the west' itself was to get enough sparks.

You as the 'destined one' can also get as many sparks as you wish, if you have the patience.
(saw someone have 300+ sparks at his 3rd iteration.)

Why keeper's shrine?

Interestingly, Wukong, though has countless great abilities, has never proven himself to be able to do transportation in any case. So this is a secret add-on from game to make our life easier.

No need to research why we can always revive at a shrine (just like the lost grace in Elden Rings...just don't ask). But actually it makes sense:

At our first time of offering incense, we pluck a single hair, turn it into a piece of incense for ritual offerings. So the shrine keeps a tiny physical part of our body, so we can always go back and reborn our new body.

Matter of fact, there has been an argument that if each of us the 'destined ones' are actually transformed from one hair of Wukong's.

Why we never lose our weapon, even when caught in jail in chapter 3?

Again, Wukong (and us) have ability to shrink or grow our weapon into any size as our wish. That is why you can see we always summon a long staff out of our right ears XD

Why these 3 stances to learn?

Not sure. --- as an ARPG, I believe every single move is well designed and balanced by developer.


But historically, I think the game highly reflects and respects Wukong's habits and stances in the novel and TV show:

These three stances are indeed quite common to see on Wukong's spectacular combat scenes.

Meanwhile, we do have a fourth stance: the mobile spin :) if you get what I mean here.

Some Tech Support to Optimize your PC Wukong Exp

References and Some Last Words

Again, I am still updating at my fastest.

Thanks for your amazing patience to read until here, and I apologize for confusions or any typos - I‘m not a native English speaker, but just an international student trynna do what I think worth doing.

Please feel free to leave your suggestions here.

Have a great day as either monkey or human! XD

[Chie]

Hi guys I am sorry to replying this late.
I've read every single comment below. Please also see the top for a quick update.
I will keep updating, even not at the moment！Thanks for all the amazing words and support.
中文的建议我都看了，家人们我一定都传达给老外，谢谢你

[DaliaNee]

I'd like an update with the Loong background, please! This was a great read, thank you <3

[villagehero]

Awesome backgrounds and details - especially for the "western" player. Please, please, please fill the chapters 3-6 to make this the best explanation I could found!

[LeslieD]

Wonderful introduction of the game and the story!

[firec]

哈哈我也写了一些背景介绍，就是我英文太差估计没人看。不过我觉得有些东西可以跟作者商量一下：
1、是不是提一下西游宇宙或者说整个中国神话宇宙并不等于佛教和道教，更接近于世俗社会对宗教的二次创作。我自己的形容是类似漫威宇宙。
2、是不是还是解释一下东天和西天的分别。东天是道教神系，西天是佛教神系。因为游戏中的文本自己也在使用类似的描述。而且游戏剧情后面会隐晦地提到东天和西天之间的斗争。
3、是不是提一句中国神话演变了很多代和西游记在中国神话演变中的地位。今天这个版本的中国神话体系差不多可以说是以西游记为原点的。

最后，催更。

[Druyde]

👍

[Velvet]

写的详细而又准确，膜拜作者大大，期待后面的部分。

[Sweetroll]

TLDR

[zantomun]

Is there context for why Chapter 2 begins with the Destined One seemingly dead from arrow fire?

[soundbbg]

Thanks for posting this!