Journey to the West: The Eighty-One Tribulations of Being Hairless

Zhou Yi never expected his new life to begin in the world of *Journey to the West*, but this is no faithful recreation of the classic pilgrimage. Here, mythologies collide in a spectacular, chaotic maelstrom: the primordial legends of Pangu and Nuwa bleed into the whimsical realms of the Calabash Brothers, the tragic romance of the White Snake intertwines with the eerie hauntings of *Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio*, and every corner of this fractured universe holds a new, terrifying surprise. The Journey to the West itself is no longer a simple quest for scriptures, but a great tribulation that threatens to unravel reality. At its heart is Tang Sanzang, who has cultivated the forbidden *Three Burials Sutra*—a technique that gives him the dread power to bury the heavens, the earth, and all living beings beneath them. Drawn into this escalating cataclysm, Zhou Yi learns that the only currency of survival is Buddhist merit. To earn it, he must participate in the tribulation, and the greater the challenge, the richer the reward. Forced to play a dangerous game of opportunism, he embarks on a shadowy scheme to secretly accumulate as much merit as possible, all while hiding his true intentions from the legendary figures around him. But as he manipulates events from the sidelines, he discovers that his meddling is making the tribulation more perilous with every passing moment. Now, caught between a maddening, mythological free-for-all and his own growing ambition, Zhou Yi must decide how far he is willing to go to profit from the end of the world.