The Mending Heaven Stone fragment suddenly melted into liquid, enveloping Little Monkey as it plummeted into a vortex of space-time. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself amidst a vast sea of stars. An afterimage of Nuwa was engaged in a game of chess against a dark shadow; the stars upon the board were all living things—the Sirius star roared as a white piece, while the Ziwei star hummed in a low whisper as a black piece. As the shadow placed a piece, the golden body of Rulai suddenly cracked, and thousands of Buddha puppets crawled from the fissures, each holding a fragment of rock from Flower-Fruit Mountain in its palm.
"It is your turn to move, little stone." The afterimage of Nuwa tapped the void, and the Ruyi Jingu Bang fragment in Little Monkey’s hand suddenly flew toward the board. The fragment transformed into a crimson chess piece, pressing down exactly upon the nexus of the "Heavenly Net" array that the shadow had been preparing to complete. Instantly, a sound of earth-shattering collapse erupted from the direction of Lingshan, and the spirit of the Six-Eared Macaque burst forth from the ruins of Wuzhi Mountain—each of the monster monkey’s six ears was hung with fragments of the Tight-Fillet Spell!
Six-Eared suddenly shrieked, the sound waves shattering three star-pieces. Nuwa’s serpent tail swept across the chessboard, and the shattered stars reorganized into a phantom image of the Hetu and Luoshu. The dark shadow sneered and waved its sleeve, causing the board to shift: the golden piece representing Rulai suddenly turned demonic, with the tentacles of Hongjun extending from beneath its kasaya; meanwhile, the surface of the crimson piece symbolizing Sun Wukong revealed the outline of a third eye on Little Monkey’s forehead!
The Hetu and Luoshu suddenly materialized, dragging Little Monkey into a triple illusion. The first layer was a scene from before the division of chaos, where he had to step according to the positions of the Luoshu to find the gate of life amidst the boiling primal vapor. In the second illusion, Nuwa was mending heaven, and every Five-Colored Stone was engraved with a future calamity—Little Monkey saw himself wielding the Ruyi Jingu Bang to pierce the Thirty-Three Heavens, while the Green Lotus Roots of the Chaos Green Lotus were coiled around his own heart!
The third illusion was the most treacherous: the dark shadow took on the form of Yang Jian, brandishing a forged Heavenly Law ruler and demanding, "If saving the world requires the destruction of Flower-Fruit Mountain, what would you do?" Little Monkey’s Mending Heaven Stone suddenly grew scalding hot, reflecting the choice Empress Nüwa had made while mending the heavens—the image of her severing her own ties of emotion to fill the cracks caused the shadow’s fake ruler to fissure.
Just as Little Monkey was about to break free, the spirit of the Six-Eared Macaque intruded into the illusion. The monster monkey’s six ears chanted the Tight-Fillet Spell in unison, the sound waves congealing into a golden band aimed at Little Monkey’s brow. The afterimage of Nuwa suddenly picked up the Ziwei star from the board and fired it like an arrow, piercing the throat of the Six-Eared Macaque. It was not blood that sprayed out, but the light-dust of memories that Rulai had extracted from Sun Wukong five hundred years ago when he was suppressed under the Five-Element Mountain!
In reality, Lingshan was crumbling; Rulai’s golden body was covered in Green Lotus Roots. With every step Little Monkey took in the illusion, a bodhi tree in Lingshan withered. As the Hetu and Luoshu completely merged into his consciousness, the dark shadow finally revealed its true face—it was half of Hongjun’s face, corrupted by inner demons!
"Do you think Nuwa won?" The shadow’s tentacles pointed to the chessboard. "This game has been played since the dawn of creation..." The board suddenly flipped, and all the pieces transformed into meteorites raining down upon the four great continents. The tail of Nuwa’s afterimage suddenly snapped, and the essence of the Five-Colored Stones flew from the break; one of the stones embedded itself into Little Monkey’s third eye.
The remains of the Six-Eared Macaque suddenly exploded, the fragments coalescing into a brand-new piece—it was a fusion of Rulai and Sun Wukong! The monster wielded a combination of a demon-subduing pestle and the Ruyi Jingu Bang, shattering the phantom of Nuwa’s afterimage with a single strike. Little Monkey roared and raised the Ruyi Jingu Bang fragment, upon which suddenly appeared the blood-curse secret script carved by Yu the Great on his deathbed: "With my essence and blood, I summon Gonggong!"
The Guixu of the East Sea suddenly boiled, and the lingering soul of Gonggong surged toward the heavens, guided by the resonance of the Sea-Pacifying Divine Needle. The phantom of the ancient water god crashed into Lingshan, shattering Rulai’s golden body completely. Amidst the filling sky of gold dust, Little Monkey saw the truth of five hundred years ago: when Sun Wukong wreaked havoc in Heaven, the Six-Eared Macaque was a puppet cultivated by Rulai using fragments of the Tight-Fillet Spell!
The dark shadow’s chessboard disintegrated completely at this moment. The last of Nuwa’s divine power transformed into starlight, condensing into half a volume of the "Book of Creation" in Little Monkey’s palm. As the pages turned, the Chaos Green Lotus in the depths of Guixu suddenly bloomed, and upon its Lotus Platform appeared the phantom of a youth with a face similar to Little Monkey’s—in his hands, he held the complete, perfect Ruyi Jingu Bang.