After defeating the Monstrous King of Havoc, Sun Wukong begins transforming the monkeys of Flower-Fruit Mountain into an organized fighting force. Every day he teaches them how to sharpen bamboo into spears, fashion wooden swords, raise banners, march in formation, patrol their territory, and establish military camps.

Wukong soon realizes, however, that wooden weapons will be useless if powerful human rulers or neighboring creatures ever send a real army against them. Flower-Fruit Mountain needs genuine weapons if it is to defend itself.

Four elder monkeys tell him that the nearby country of Aolai possesses cities, soldiers, workshops, and stores of metal weapons. Wukong immediately decides to obtain the arms his growing army requires.

Wukong crosses two hundred miles of water with his cloud-somersault and reaches a prosperous city in the country of Aolai. Rather than purchasing weapons individually, he decides to acquire them through magic.

He summons a tremendous wind that sweeps through the city, driving the inhabitants indoors and emptying the streets. Wukong then enters the royal armory, where he discovers enormous stores of swords, spears, halberds, axes, bows, arrows, and many other weapons.

Unable to carry everything himself, Wukong plucks hairs from his body and transforms them into thousands of little monkeys. The magical copies empty the armory and carry the weapons back toward Flower-Fruit Mountain.

When the spell ends, Wukong stands alone before his subjects with an enormous pile of weapons ready for his army.

Once armed, Wukong gathers his subjects and discovers that his monkey population numbers forty-seven thousand.

The growing strength of Flower-Fruit Mountain attracts the attention of the surrounding creatures and demon rulers. Wolves, tigers, leopards, bears, elephants, deer, apes, and many other beasts gather beneath leaders from seventy-two different caves.

These demon kings come before Wukong and acknowledge his authority. They begin bringing annual tribute, answering seasonal roll calls, participating in military exercises, and supplying provisions.

With weapons, banners, drums, commanders, and thousands of followers, Flower-Fruit Mountain becomes heavily fortified and increasingly powerful. Yet Wukong remains dissatisfied with one thing: the huge scimitar he took from the Monstrous King of Havoc does not suit him. He needs a weapon worthy of his strength.

The elder monkeys tell Wukong that the water beneath the iron bridge of Water-Curtain Cave connects directly with the Dragon Palace of the Eastern Ocean.

Confident in his supernatural abilities, Wukong uses water-restriction magic to pass through the waves and descend to the bottom of the sea. There he introduces himself as the Heaven-born sage Sun Wukong and is received by Aoguang, Dragon King of the Eastern Ocean.

Wukong explains that he has attained an immortal body and now needs a weapon suitable for defending Flower-Fruit Mountain.

The Dragon King first offers him a long-handled scimitar, then a nine-pronged fork weighing 3,600 pounds, and finally an enormous halberd weighing 7,200 pounds.

Wukong rejects them all.

Even the massive halberd feels far too light in his hands.

The dragon mother and her daughter remember an ancient piece of divine iron stored in the ocean treasury. Long ago, Great Yu used it while regulating the waters and measuring the depths of rivers and seas.

Recently, the iron has begun emitting a mysterious golden light.

Wukong is led to the treasure and discovers an enormous iron pillar more than twenty feet long and as thick as a barrel. When he wishes that it were smaller, the weapon immediately obeys him and shrinks.

Examining it closely, Wukong discovers golden hoops around its ends and an inscription identifying it as the Compliant Golden-Hooped Rod, weighing 13,500 pounds.

The weapon responds directly to his wishes. It can grow enormous or shrink until it is as small as an embroidery needle, allowing Wukong to store it inside his ear.

At last, Wukong has found a weapon capable of matching his extraordinary strength.

Possessing the divine rod is not enough for Wukong. He tells Aoguang that such a magnificent weapon deserves equally magnificent battle clothing.

When the Eastern Dragon King insists that he has nothing suitable, Wukong refuses to leave.

Aoguang summons his three brothers: Aoqin of the Southern Ocean, Aoshun of the Northern Ocean, and Aorun of the Western Ocean. The Dragon Kings decide that giving Wukong what he wants is safer than attempting to fight him.

Together they provide him with cloud-treading shoes, a yellow-gold chain-mail cuirass, and a red-gold cap adorned with phoenix plumes.

Fully equipped and carrying the Compliant Golden-Hooped Rod, Wukong leaves the Dragon Palace triumphantly.

The Four Dragon Kings, however, are furious over his behavior. Once he is gone, they decide that the matter should be formally reported to Heaven.

Back at Flower-Fruit Mountain, Wukong demonstrates the extraordinary powers of his new weapon. Before his astonished subjects, he shrinks the rod until it can fit inside his ear and then expands it again at will.

He also uses the magic of cosmic imitation to enlarge his own body to an immense size, while the rod grows with him until it seems to stretch from Heaven toward the depths of Hell. The beasts and demon kings of the mountain bow before his overwhelming power.

Wukong appoints the four elder monkeys as commanders and places military affairs under their control.

Freed from everyday administration, he travels widely through the seas and mountains and befriends other powerful monster rulers.

He eventually forms a sworn brotherhood with six monarchs: the Bull Monster King, Dragon Monster King, Garuda Monster King, Giant Lynx King, Macaque King, and Orangutan King.

Together with Wukong, they become a brotherhood of seven kings.

After a great feast with his sworn brothers, Wukong becomes drunk and falls asleep beneath the pine trees near the iron bridge.

While he sleeps, two figures approach carrying a summons bearing the name Sun Wukong. They bind him and drag his spirit away.

Wukong eventually realizes that he has been taken to the Region of Darkness—the realm governed by the powers of death.

The messengers tell him that his allotted lifespan in the living world has ended.

Wukong is furious. Having cultivated immortality, he believes he has already escaped the ordinary laws of life and death. He draws the Golden-Hooped Rod, destroys the two messengers, breaks free, and violently enters the city of the dead.

Ghost soldiers scatter before him as he fights his way toward the Palace of Darkness and confronts the Ten Kings of the Underworld.

Wukong demands to know why the Underworld has attempted to claim him when he has already attained immortality.

The Ten Kings suggest that perhaps the summons was issued by mistake, but Wukong refuses to accept their explanation. He orders them to produce the registers governing life and death.

After searching through the records of different creatures, they locate a separate monkey ledger. There Wukong finds his own entry: Heaven-born Stone Monkey, with a lifespan of 342 years.

He immediately demands a brush.

Rather than merely removing his own name, Wukong crosses out every monkey name he can find in the register. He declares that the Underworld no longer has authority over them and fights his way back out.

When his spirit returns to his sleeping body, he tells the monkeys what he has done. From then onward, many monkeys of the mountain escape the ordinary aging recorded by the Underworld.

Wukong's actions can no longer remain confined to Flower-Fruit Mountain.

Aoguang, Dragon King of the Eastern Ocean, appears before the Jade Emperor and submits a formal complaint describing how Wukong demanded weapons and armor and intimidated the rulers of the seas.

Soon afterward, King Qinguang of the Underworld submits another complaint. Wukong has invaded the Region of Darkness and altered the Register of Life and Death, disrupting the established order of mortality.

The Jade Emperor considers sending soldiers to capture him, but the Gold Star of Venus proposes another solution. Since Wukong is now an immortal of extraordinary ability, Heaven can summon him instead, give him an official position, and bring him under celestial authority.

The Jade Emperor agrees.

The Gold Star descends to Flower-Fruit Mountain carrying an imperial decree. Wukong is delighted by the invitation. Leaving his commanders in charge of the mountain, he mounts the clouds beside the heavenly messenger and begins his first journey to the celestial realm.