Great Demon Sun Wukong

Time traces back to long, long ago, so far back it reaches the Primordial Era when the Ancestral Witch and Fire God Zhurong clashed with the Water Deity Gonggong in a great battle.

In ancient times, there were Twelve Ancestral Witches, also known as the Twelve Demon Gods, naturally endowed with unparalleled physical strength, devouring heaven and earth, manipulating wind, water, thunder, and lightning, moving mountains and filling the seas, and altering the skies and lands.

The Twelve Ancestral Witches were as follows: Di Jiang, whose form was like a yellow sac, red as blazing fire, with six legs and four wings, a faceless being of chaos, the Ancestral Witch of spatial velocity; Ju Mang, with a bird's body and a human face, riding on a Liang dragon, the Ancestral Witch of Eastern wood; Xuan Ming, with a snake in his left ear, riding on two dragons, the Ancestral Witch of Western metal; Gonggong, the Ancestral Witch of Northern water; Zhurong, with a beast's body and a human face, the Ancestral Witch of Southern fire; Zhu Jiuyin, with a human face and a snake's body, yet never eating, sleeping, or resting, the candle dragon, the Ancestral Witch of time; Qiang Liang, with a tiger's head and a human body, four hooves, and long arms, the Ancestral Witch of thunder; Tian Wu, known as the Lord of Waters, the Ancestral Witch of wind; Yue Zi, the Ancestral Witch of lightning; Xuan Ming, the rain master, the Ancestral Witch of rain; and Hou Tu, the Ancestral Witch of central earth.

Among these Twelve Ancestral Witches, for reasons unknown, Fire God Zhurong and Water Deity Gonggong fell into a dispute and waged a great war against each other, with Gonggong defeated and in a rage knocking down the Heavenly Pillar, Mount Buzhou, breaking the support of Heaven and severing Earth's tether.

Fortunately, the progenitor of the Demon Clan, the great goddess Nuwa, mended the heavens with Five-Colored Divine Stones, thus saving the common people. And because of her earlier achievements in creating humanity and mending the sky, Nuwa attained the way of heaven and earth, shed her serpentine form, and transcended the realm of saints to become the manifestation of the Heavenly Dao.

At this time, Nuwa suddenly sensed that the Demon Clan would endure a calamity of extermination, so she left behind one of the Five-Colored Divine Stones, divided it into five, and entrusted them to the guardianship of the five supreme clans of the Demon Clan. This was all in the hope of bringing a ray of hope to the Demon Clan in the future.

The Fire Attribute of the Five-Colored Divine Stones was then entrusted to the Illusion Demon Clan for protection.

However, over the following lengthy years, this Fire Attribute Divine Stone miraculously developed its own spiritual wisdom and grew increasingly mature. Finally, one night, no longer content to remain in solitude, the stone stealthily left the seclusion of the Illusion Demon Clan's homeland, Illusory Demon Island.

Although the Five-Colored Divine Stone had acquired spiritual wisdom, it was inexperienced and found everything about the outside world to be utterly novel. Just then, the stone suddenly sensed a very familiar fire attribute power, as if countless flames were calling out to it.

Thus, following this sensation, the Fire Attribute Five-Colored Divine Stone journeyed southward until, after overcoming myriad perils, it arrived at a deep abyss in the Southern Shan part of the state. Here, the calling felt especially clear.

When the Fire Attribute Five-Colored Divine Stone reached the bottom of the abyss, it saw a huge palace aglow with red fire. The words "Zhu Rong Temple" were inscribed boldly above the main entrance.

Could this be the temple of Fire God Zhurong? That would be incredible. According to ancient legends, Fire God Zhurong and Water Deity Gonggong perished together, would that not leave the Zhu Rong Temple ownerless?

And that lethal calling was growing stronger and stronger. Following its instincts, the Fire Attribute Five-Colored Divine Stone flashed into the temple interior.

Upon entering the temple, the Fire Attribute stone was utterly awestruck. This place was a veritable gathering ground of strange fires from across the world.

Aside from seventy-two tall stone columns, there was nothing else in the grand hall, and atop each column, a wisp of strange fire burned quietly. Seeing this, the Fire Attribute Divine Stone was nearly overwhelmed with happiness. For the supreme ruler of all fires, the Fire Attribute Five-Colored Divine Stone, what could be more joyful than encountering countless strange fires?

Thus, for an entire hundred thousand years, the Fire Attribute Five-Colored Divine Stone remained in the Zhu Rong Temple, absorbing all seventy-two wisps of strange fire from the columns into its body over that time.

Having acquired this incredibly potent fire power, the Fire Attribute Divine Stone finally broke the memory seal left by the great goddess Nuwa. Therefore, the Fire Attribute stone knew exactly who it was, where it came from, and what kind of destiny lay before it.

Though recalling all this felt uncomfortable, it couldn't forget that its life was a gift from the great goddess Nuwa. Besides, who knew how long it would be before that so-called destiny would return? Therefore, the Fire Attribute Divine Stone soon cast aside all these thoughts and left the Zhu Rong Temple to wander the Three Realms.

Another thousand years passed, and the Fire Attribute Divine Stone grew tired of its stone body, capable of nothing but flight. In these thousand years, it had nearly roamed the entire Three Realms, and its boredom intensified.

At that time, the Fire Attribute came up with an idea, which was to enter into a deep slumber and to fuse the seventy-two Strange Fires within its body. Initially, at the Zhu Rong Temple, it had only absorbed them without fusion, so by fusing these flames, it might be able to break through space-time and visit another world.

Thus, the Fire Attribute Divine Stone returned to Illusory Demon Island and fell into deep slumber. It's worth mentioning that not long after the Fire Attribute Divine Stone had sneaked away, it had been discovered by the Illusion Demon Clan.

However, after the clan spent a full three thousand years searching for it to no avail, they gradually gave up, for they had no idea how the Five-Colored Divine Stone had disappeared.

Yet, ten thousand years after the Divine Stone vanished, it returned of its own accord, lying honestly within the Illusory Demon Temple. This truly brought immense surprise to the Illusion Demon Clan. It was at that time that the Clan Leader of the Illusion Demon Clan found out that the Fire Attribute Divine Stone had already developed its own Spiritual Wisdom.

And so, countless years passed—tens of thousands, or perhaps hundreds of thousands, or even millions. One day, the Fire Attribute Divine Stone awoke once again. Moreover, the first thing it did after awakening was to fly straight to the Netherworld and, with a reckless rush, threw itself into the Six Paths of Reincarnation.

By this time, the Clan Leader of the Illusion Demon Clan had passed away, replaced by Meng Gui. Heeding the teachings of his ancestors, Meng Gui did not place too many restrictions on that peculiar stone but allowed it to act freely.

What happened afterward is probably known to all. The Fire Attribute Five-Colored Divine Stone was reborn within the belly of the Bull Demon King's wife, Princess Iron Fan, and after ten months she gave birth to a son named Hong Hai'er.

In fact, at that time, Hong Hai'er already knew that his ultimate destiny was to be absorbed and fused by the child of hope of the Demon Clan.

Therefore, after he was born, he used the seventy-two Strange Fires along with the power of the Fire Attribute Divine Stone to predict the future and eventually learned that this child of hope was none other than Sun Wukong, the Beautiful Monkey King, the Great Sage Equalling Heaven.

That's why Hong Hai'er kidnapped Tang Sanzang on Sun Wukong's journey to the Western Paradise to seek the scriptures, causing Sun Wukong considerable trouble. It was unexpected that after testing Sun Wukong once, he would not take action again but instead sought the help of Bodhisattva Guanyin.

Having undergone reincarnation, Hong Hai'er's strength had significantly decreased. Although he could utilize the power of the Strange Fires, only the Samadhi True Fire was usable for combatting enemies. The rest of the flames were either too powerful or too weak, serving only to protect and defend himself.

Seeing that he also caused trouble for Sun Wukong, his sense of injustice faded quite a bit, after all, this was his fate. Therefore, Hong Hai'er pretended to be defeated by Bodhisattva Guanyin and became her follower, the Child of Good Fortune, for several years.

Furthermore, Hong Hai'er had another concern: he feared that if he revealed his strength, he might be discovered by Heaven or Buddhism, which could provoke the greed of the Jade Emperor and Mahavairocana Tathagata. After all, his original form was the Five-Colored Divine Stone, containing profound elements of the Heavenly Dao.

So, Hong Hai'er continued to conceal himself until Sun Wukong led the Demon Clan in their counterattack against Heaven. Initially jubilant, he thought that if Sun Wukong succeeded, maybe he wouldn't have to be sacrificed. Unfortunately, they were foiled by Mahavairocana Tathagata in a strategic deception, leading to a significant defeat for the Heavenly Court Demon Race.

Fate is fate, after all. But Hong Hai'er was aware of Sun Wukong's affection for his father, the Bull Demon King. If Sun Wukong discovered that he was the Fire Attribute Divine Stone, he might give up on absorbing and fusing with the stone. Without the complete Five Elements, Nuwa's grand plan would fail.

In the end, Hong Hai'er returned to Illusory Demon Island and, together with Meng Gui, went to the Hidden Wood Forest in the far east. After much contemplation, it was Hong Hai'er who conceived this self-sacrificial strategy.

Only then could Sun Wukong smoothly absorb the Fire Attribute Divine Stone.

And now, this was all understood by Sun Wukong.

Thus, upon stepping out of that space, Sun Wukong immediately knelt towards the north with three resounding kowtows, expressing the debt and gratitude he owed to the Bull Demon King.

Actually, the space that Sun Wukong and the Six-Eared Macaque were swept into was a separate temporal dimension created by the Fire Attribute Divine Stone. Inside, time flowed ten times faster than outside; that is to say, three days in the outside world equated to an entire month inside.