After travelling peacefully for two months, Tripitaka and Wukong reach a monastery known as Guanyin Chan Hall and ask to stay for the night.

Tripitaka is especially pleased because Guanyin has repeatedly aided the pilgrimage. He enters the main hall, bows before her image, and offers thanks. Wukong accompanies him, though his energetic bell-ringing quickly alarms the resident monks.

The travellers are welcomed and given tea and vegetarian food. Soon they meet the monastery’s extraordinarily old patriarch, who is already 270 years old.

The old monk takes great pride in the wealth he has accumulated during his long religious life. His attendants bring out beautifully crafted cups and other treasures, and he eventually asks whether the visitors from the Great Tang possess anything equally remarkable.

Tripitaka modestly says that he carries no treasure.

Wukong, however, remembers the magnificent embroidered cassock given to Tripitaka before the pilgrimage.

Despite Tripitaka warning him that precious objects should never be displayed before covetous people, Wukong insists on showing it.

That decision immediately places the sacred cassock—and their lives—in danger.

The monks boast that their patriarch possesses more than seven hundred cassocks collected over roughly two and a half centuries.

Chests are opened and hundreds of richly embroidered garments are displayed throughout the courtyard.

Wukong responds by unveiling Tripitaka’s own cassock.

The divine garment immediately fills the monastery with brilliant crimson light and an extraordinary aura. Compared with it, the old monk’s vast collection suddenly seems ordinary.

The patriarch is overwhelmed by envy.

Pretending that his failing eyesight prevents him from examining the treasure properly, he asks permission to take the cassock to his private chamber overnight.

Tripitaka immediately suspects danger and blames Wukong for showing it. Wukong nevertheless assures him that nothing can go wrong.

Once alone with the cassock, the old monk becomes consumed by the desire to possess it permanently.

He begins weeping because merely borrowing it for one night—or even one year—will never satisfy him.

His disciples begin suggesting ways to ensure that Tripitaka never asks for the garment back.

Greed has transformed a Buddhist monastery into a place of conspiracy.

One monk named Great Wisdom suggests murdering Tripitaka and Wukong with knives and spears.

Another, called Big Plan, considers Wukong too dangerous for a direct attack and proposes something more secretive.

The monks will surround the travellers’ sleeping quarters with firewood and burn the entire building during the night. Afterwards they can claim that the travellers accidentally caused the fire themselves.

The plan is accepted.

More than two hundred monks begin carrying bundles of wood around the Chan hall.

Wukong, however, is not truly asleep.

Hearing suspicious activity outside, he transforms into a tiny bee and slips through the building to investigate.

He discovers the plot.

Rather than immediately killing the monks—and risking another argument with Tripitaka over violence—Wukong devises a different response.

He flies to Heaven and borrows the Fire-Repelling Cover from the Broad-Eyed Devarāja.

Returning to the monastery, he uses it to protect Tripitaka, the White Dragon Horse, the luggage, and their sleeping quarters.

Then, instead of extinguishing the monks’ fire, Wukong summons a mighty wind.

The flames explode across Guanyin Chan Hall.

The wind drives the fire through nearly the entire monastery.

Buildings collapse, monks flee in panic, and Guanyin Chan Hall burns through the night.

Only the part protected by Wukong’s Fire-Repelling Cover survives untouched.

About twenty miles away stands Black Wind Mountain, home of the Black Wind Cave.

The monster living there notices the distant glow and initially travels toward the monastery intending to investigate the fire.

Once inside, however, he discovers the divine cassock shining within the old patriarch’s room.

The treasure immediately changes his intentions.

Instead of helping extinguish the flames, the monster steals the cassock and returns to Black Wind Mountain.

The following morning, Tripitaka awakens to find the monastery largely reduced to ruins.

Wukong admits that he deliberately strengthened the flames after discovering the monks’ murder plot.

Tripitaka immediately asks about the cassock.

When they confront the monks, nobody can find it.

Overwhelmed by the destruction of his monastery and the disappearance of the treasure he coveted, the old patriarch kills himself by smashing his head against a wall.

The surviving monks reveal that their master had frequently associated with a mysterious Black Great King living nearby.

Wukong immediately suspects him.

Wukong leaves Tripitaka under the monks’ care and flies to Black Wind Mountain.

There he secretly observes three supernatural beings sitting together on a grassy meadow: a dark-skinned monster, a white-robed scholar, and a Daoist.

Their conversation confirms Wukong’s suspicions.

The dark monster announces that he has recently acquired a magnificent Buddha robe and plans to display it during celebrations surrounding his birthday.

He intends to invite neighbouring supernatural beings to a special Festival of the Buddha Robe.

Enraged, Wukong attacks.

The dark monster escapes on the wind and the Daoist flees on a cloud, but Wukong kills the white-robed scholar, who reverts to his true form—a white-spotted snake spirit.

Wukong then follows the thief to Black Wind Cave.

The monster finally admits taking the cassock during the monastery fire but refuses to return it.

He reveals himself as the powerful Black Wind King and fights Wukong with a black-tasseled lance.

Their abilities are remarkably evenly matched.

After fighting until around noon, the Black Wind King retreats into his cave for food and closes the stone gates, leaving Wukong unable to recover the cassock.

Returning briefly to Tripitaka, Wukong reports that he has found the thief but has not yet defeated him.

Soon afterward, Wukong encounters a small demon carrying an invitation.

After killing him, Wukong reads the message and discovers that the Black Bear has formally invited the Elder of the Golden Pool—the dead patriarch—to attend the Festival of the Buddha Robe.

This confirms that the patriarch and the monster had been friends.

Wukong immediately sees an opportunity.

He transforms himself into the exact appearance of the dead old monk and enters Black Wind Cave.

The Black Bear receives his supposed friend warmly and serves him tea.

Wukong tries to persuade the monster to show him the stolen cassock.

The deception almost works, but a patrol demon arrives and reveals that Wukong killed the messenger and must therefore be impersonating the Elder.

Wukong resumes his true form.

Another enormous battle erupts.

They fight from the cave entrance to the mountain peak and eventually into the clouds, continuing until sunset without either gaining a clear advantage.

Once again, the Black Bear retreats into his cave.

Wukong now accepts that brute force alone may not recover the cassock.

Tripitaka becomes increasingly anxious when Wukong returns without the cassock.

Wukong admits that the Black Bear’s fighting ability is approximately equal to his own.

The monks explain that the monster really had maintained a friendship with their late patriarch, discussing religious teachings and even teaching him methods that contributed to his extraordinary longevity.

Wukong decides that the matter should now involve Guanyin herself.

He argues that a monster powerful enough to steal sacred property should not be living so close to a monastery dedicated to her.

The next morning he travels to Potalaka Mountain in the South Sea.

Standing before Guanyin, Wukong complains that the Black Bear stole Tripitaka’s cassock and asks her to retrieve it.

Guanyin immediately rebukes him.

She points out that Wukong started the entire problem by arrogantly displaying the treasure and worsened the disaster when he summoned the wind that destroyed the monastery.

Wukong humbly admits his fault but explains that Tripitaka will continue using the Tight-Fillet Spell if the cassock remains lost.

For the sake of the scripture pilgrimage, Guanyin agrees to accompany him to Black Wind Mountain.

On Black Wind Mountain, Guanyin and Wukong encounter the Daoist who had earlier been speaking with the Black Bear.

Wukong kills him with one blow.

His corpse reveals that he was actually a gray wolf spirit known as Master Transcending Void.

The Daoist had been carrying two magic pills as birthday gifts for the Black Bear.

Wukong devises a plan.

Guanyin transforms herself into the appearance of Master Transcending Void, while Wukong transforms himself into one of the pills.

Carrying the two pills on the Daoist’s tray, Guanyin enters Black Wind Cave.

The Black Bear welcomes his supposed friend.

Guanyin presents the larger pill as a birthday gift.

The monster swallows it.

But the pill is Wukong.

Inside the Black Bear’s body, Wukong returns to his true form and begins violently tormenting him from within.

The monster collapses in agony.

Guanyin then reveals her true identity and takes possession of Tripitaka’s stolen cassock.

The Black Bear has finally been defeated—not through another prolonged battle, but through Wukong and Guanyin combining transformation, deception, and supernatural power.

Wukong emerges from the Black Bear’s body, but the monster still tries to attack.

Guanyin throws a magical fillet onto his head and begins reciting its spell.

The Black Bear immediately falls to the ground in unbearable pain.

Unable to resist, he surrenders and begs for mercy.

Wukong wants to kill him, but Guanyin refuses.

She explains that the monster can still serve a useful purpose. Potalaka Mountain needs someone to guard its rear slopes, so she intends to convert him and make him the Great Mountain-Guardian God.

The Black Bear kneels and agrees to submit to the Buddhist path.

Guanyin gives him the commandments and takes him back toward the South Sea.

Before departing, she reminds Wukong to serve Tripitaka faithfully and avoid creating further trouble through carelessness.

Wukong receives the recovered embroidered cassock, bows in gratitude, and returns to his master.

The treasure that nearly caused Tripitaka’s murder, the destruction of Guanyin Chan Hall, and several battles has finally been recovered.

With the Black Bear converted rather than destroyed, the ordeal of Black Wind Mountain comes to an end.