The Monkey King

"How did you know who I was?"

"That goddamn yoryeok of yours hasn't changed a bit. Though I guess becoming human mellowed you out. Compared to the old days, you're downright tame. Cute, even."

Baekgwiwang let out a hollow laugh. His power — tame? Cute? What of the countless lives he had crushed with these two hands?

But he couldn't argue. There was a sting just walking beside the other man, a vicious yoryeok that radiated from him even at rest. Yoryeok feared yoryeok. More precisely, it feared any yoryeok stronger than itself. It was a gluttony that swallowed everything in its path, moving as if it were alive — like some ravenous hungry ghost. It preyed even on its own kind. Weaker demonic energy was nothing more than a succulent meal. That was why demons instinctively submitted to those stronger than themselves. If they did not bow, if they did not lower their heads, they would be eaten.

Sun Wukong possessed the kind of terrifying power that let him say such things. He had possessed it in the past, and he possessed it now — Baekgwiwang could feel it in every inch of his body. A presence and atmosphere that spilled from him without effort, pressing down like a physical weight. Without meaning to, Baekgwiwang felt his body begin to lock up.

Had he noticed? Sun Wukong suddenly spoke in a familiar, almost wounded tone.

"Come on, big brother. Your little brother shows up and you don't even say hello? You just toss some hidden weapons and run? That hurts, you know."

"How could I not run, seeing the Great Sage, Equal to Heaven? The rumors about what happens to every ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠demon that stands before you are rather well known."

"Aw, come on. Are we really on such bad terms? If we were, your skull would've been split open before you even thought about running."

"……"

It was a joke delivered with a smile, but it was chilling. If he had decided to kill him, he would have done it long before Baekgwiwang could flee.

Baekgwiwang looked into Sun Wukong's eyes. The mouth smiled. The eyes were cold. And they meant every word.

Baekgwiwang let out a long, heavy sigh.

"I suppose we have a great deal to talk about."

"Oh, we do. A whole lot. You'd better choose your words carefully, big brother."

Sun Wukong's eyes flashed with a bleak, killing light. But only for a moment. Then, as if the menace had never been there, he grinned like an old friend.

"Look at the state of you."

"What state? I was reborn as a human, that's all."

"You ought to be rotting in hell. Somehow you managed to come back as a human."

"……"

Baekgwiwang said nothing. Sun Wukong clicked his tongue.

"Has King Yama lost his mind? Seems like he can't even pass a proper judgment these days."

"You seem to think I belong in hell, little brother."

"Eh, not necessarily. I'm just curious."

And he meant it.

"When you reincarnate, you're supposed to lose your memories. That's how it works. But here you are, good as new."

"……"

"Either King Yama screwed up, or something happened that let you remember your past life." Sun Wukong grinned. "Which is it?"

"If I say the first, are you going to storm the Underworld and beat King Yama to a pulp?"

"Hah, I'm not that stone monkey from the old days. I don't do that kind of thing anymore. I'd just quietly snatch King Yama out of there and beat the crap out of him."

"And if it's the latter?"

A strange light kindled in Sun Wukong's eyes.

"Then I'd find whatever caused it, beat the living hell out of it, and wipe it clean."

"Why?"

"Because that's the way of the world."

"Forgetting your past life?"

"Reincarnation is karma. You atone for the sins of a past life in a new one. You have to lose everything and start from nothing. You curse the heavens for the life you were given — and you endure even that. That's what reincarnation means."

"You sound an awful lot like a Buddha."

"Oh, you hadn't heard? I became one. That stone monkey, that maniac, that Monkey King Sun Wukong? They call me the Victorious Fighting Buddha now."

"What a fascinating world. The same bastard who gathered the Seven Great Sages and screamed about fighting Heaven…"

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"That's all ancient history."

"I fell for that speech of yours hook, line, and sinker, and Nezha killed me. And now here you are. A Buddha."

A sticky, clinging envy coated every word. Sun Wukong snorted.

"Enough. Stop changing the subject and answer me."

"The latter."

"So someone woke your past-life memories. That's what you're saying?"

"……"

Silence was confirmation. Sun Wukong pressed him.

"Who?"

"Who do you think?"

"I see."

That kind of power. The power to awaken a past life from the cycle of reincarnation.

"No matter how I think about it, only one name comes to mind."

Sun Wukong let out a sigh. The enemy whose shape he had only dimly sensed, talking with the previous Myodu-eung. He spat the words out as if chewing them.

"Goddamn it. It's U-mawang, isn't it? Big brother Bull Demon King?"

"……"

No answer.

Something clenched tight in Sun Wukong's chest. For the first time since descending to the mortal world, his unstoppable stride faltered. Finding Tang Sanzang had been infuriating, sure. But it had never felt hopeless. Sun Wukong had always found Tang Sanzang. Whether he'd been kidnapped or tricked into vanishing, Wukong always found him somehow. He always found a way and pushed forward. Sun Wukong did not retreat.

But in this moment, he felt the wall of hopelessness rise up in front of him with his entire body. He exhaled a long, deep breath.

"What the hell is he planning, stealing Tang Sanzang's soul?"

"Tang Sanzang's soul?"

"……"

Sun Wukong's eyes sank low. Baekgwiwang's reaction was unexpected. He genuinely didn't know. Sun Wukong swallowed a sigh.

So even his sworn brothers don't know. He's plotting this alone?

Then again, that was why he'd sent his own son, Honghaea.

Sun Wukong bit his lip. When he didn't answer, Baekgwiwang's eyes flew wide, as if something had just clicked. Among the Seven Great Sages, Baekgwiwang was second to none in cunning.

"Don't tell me… the reason you appeared here…"

"Tang Sanzang is gone."

"His Majesty… no, our eldest brother…?"

"That'd be my guess."

"He's insane. He's lost his mind. Why in the world would he touch Tang Sanzang?"

Baekgwiwang's pupils shook violently. Anyone who laid a hand on Tang Sanzang — not a single one of them ever walked away unharmed. Because the Great Sage, Equal to Heaven, would smash their skulls in with the Ruyi Jingu Bang. A rumor that had spread across the entire world. The mortal realm, the Celestial Realm, the Underworld. A tale that had traveled from one end of existence to the other.

Baekgwiwang looked at Sun Wukong.

"I didn't know about this."

"Either way, you're working with our eldest brother, aren't you?"

Baekgwiwang swallowed a groan. Silence hung between them for a long while. For Sun Wukong, confirming U-mawang's involvement had thrown his mind into chaos. Baekgwiwang, too, closed his eyes and sank into thought.

How long did they walk? Then Baekgwiwang spoke, as if the thought had just occurred to him.

"I was just remembering the first time I met you."

"Getting nostalgic? You're getting old, big brother."

"You were already famous back then. You'd just come down after raising hell in Heaven."

"Famous how?"

"You had that very famous… how do I put this… a very… distinctive… uh, son-of-a-bitch kind of reputation."

"Did you just curse me out?"

"It's the highest praise."

Sun Wukong cackled, clearly amused. They were both monkey kings.

"Different species, of course."

"I was the better-looking one, though."

Of all the Seven Great Sages, Baekgwiwang had been the one closest to Sun Wukong. Perhaps because he was as fast as the wind — when Wukong first called them to war against Heaven, Baekgwiwang had been the first to arrive. A faint smile touched Sun Wukong's lips at the hazy memory.

"I thought you were completely insane. What kind of demon proposes fighting the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King and Third Prince Nezha — the ones you always have to hide from and run away from?"

"And yet you brothers actually rallied to my words."

"One monkey king had already turned Heaven into a wasteland. We figured if we banded together, we might actually bring it down. All thanks to you, little brother."

"Back then, there wasn't a thing in the world I was afraid of."

The Seven Great Sages. The seven strongest demons in the world. Every last one of them looked down on Heaven's generals and divine warriors with arrogant contempt. Thousands upon tens of thousands of demons gathered beneath those seven. The war between Heaven and the demon horde was, quite literally, earth-shaking.

"I still remember you riding the Somersault Cloud, swinging the Ruyi Jingu Bang."

"……"

"When the Giant Spirit God — the one who split mountains with his axe — came as the vanguard, a lot of us were afraid. Do you remember?"

"Of course I do."

"That's when you stepped forward. If he split mountains with an axe, you said, then you'd smashed the sky itself with the Ruyi Jingu Bang."

Sun Wukong scratched his chin, looking faintly embarrassed.

"And when you crushed the Giant Spirit God in a single blow and routed the entire vanguard, I was deeply embarrassed that I was supposed to be your elder brother just because I was older."

"Eh, I always preferred being the youngest anyway."

By age, Sun Wukong had been the youngest of the Seven Great Sages. Baekgwiwang smiled faintly. He clapped Sun Wukong on the shoulder.

"Hahahaha. That was you, wasn't it? But let me ask you one thing."

Suddenly, Baekgwiwang's voice dropped low. A cold voice, stripped clean of laughter and excitement as if they'd been erased.

"How did someone like you end up as the Tathagata's lapdog?"

Sunken eyes. A cold voice. An expression drained of feeling. The sudden shift was oppressive all on its own — but Sun Wukong just cackled. He looked at Baekgwiwang, still smiling.

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Baekgwiwang's body flinched.

The mouth laughed more cheerfully than anyone's. But the eyes didn't waver. They didn't smile. They stared, still and sharp, at a single point. These were not empty eyes. They burned. They were the eyes of a beast that looked ready to chew him up and swallow him whole.

"Then let me ask you something too, big brother."

"……"

Sun Wukong's smile deepened. Paradoxically, his eyes sank even further.

"What the hell are you counting on, standing there with your head held high in front of me?"

"……!"

A freezing chill swept through the air. A ferocious fighting spirit poured out of Sun Wukong. Only then did Baekgwiwang understand. They were no longer standing on the same side.

"No, wait. Let me put that more accurately." Sun Wukong sneered. "Just because I called you big brother, you actually thought you stood shoulder to shoulder with me?"

Baekgwiwang let out a groan. The murderous pressure of yoryeok crushed down on his entire body — a viciousness that felt like it would bare its fangs and tear into his flesh at any second. His whole body trembled.

Baekgwiwang surged to his feet and stood facing Sun Wukong, staring him down. Sun Wukong, as if he had never been smiling, stood opposite him with a face of ice, gripping his iron staff tight.

A suffocating silence fell. They were outdoors, in the wide open air. The wind blew without rest, sunlight filtered through the leaves, and in the distance a stream murmured over stone.

But from one instant to the next — everything vanished. As if this patch of ground had been carved away into a space entirely its own. Even the wind, even the sunlight, even the stream — everything seemed to be watching the two of them.

Baekgwiwang's arms began to move, slowly. Sun Wukong's brow twitched. A swift sword that went beyond mere speed — a blade like lightning. And yet he left the sword at his waist and raised both hands.

Twin palms?

Sun Wukong did not take his opponent lightly. He wore a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠human body, but in his past life he had been one of the Seven Great Sages. A demon among demons. Baekgwiwang.

The hands rose, slowly. And then, in a single instant, they came crashing down like a thunderbolt. In the split second Sun Wukong's body was about to launch forward—

BOOM!

A tremendous crash rang out. Sun Wukong's body froze in place.

Baekgwiwang's open palms had struck the ground. Not just his hands. His knees, his belly, his chest — and his forehead. The crash had been the sound of his forehead slamming into the earth.

"……"

Baekgwiwang was prostrate, his entire body flattened against the ground. His voice rang out, fierce and desperate.