#72 transformations

Not every legend grows in sunlight—some are forged in hunger, discipline, and a quiet fear that won’t let you sleep. Wukong has a name and a home on Flower-Fruit Mountain, but the thought of death has already poisoned the joy. So he leaves everything behind and follows a single obsession: to find the secret that makes life last.

His road ends at a place hidden from ordinary eyes: the Mountain of the Mind and Heart, where Patriarch Subhodi teaches without ever advertising what matters most. Days become training. Training becomes riddles. And when a door is struck three times in the night, Wukong learns the real lessons aren’t meant for witnesses.

What comes next changes the entire story: a forbidden method to lengthen life, the warning of the Three Calamities, and the first taste of power—the 72 Transformations and the Somersault Cloud—that can bend the world around him. But every gift arrives with a rule… and Wukong’s trouble begins the moment he thinks he’s mastered it.

Because the moment he returns home, power attracts a challenge: the Demon King of Chaos. One brutal clash, one test of what he truly learned—and one victory that makes his name echo louder than ever.

Below is the Chapter 2 video: the training, the danger, and the fight that proves he’s no longer just a curious stone-born monkey. Press play.

The gay birds and their gay son

We need to see more transformations

...Huntsman isn't here with them. Did he

Some JTTW fans believe Sun Wukong's 72 changes and Zhu Bajie's 36 changes are actually lists of individual magic abilities. One fan in particular linked me to The Comprehensive Mirror of Successive Divine Immortals (Lidai shenxian tongjian, 歷代神仙通鑑, c. 1700), a book of Taoist hagiography, which includes lists of 72 and 36 Taoist skills. But within the context of JTTW, the narrative firmly establishes that 72 and 36 are symbolic of the myriad ways that Monkey and Pigsy can change their shape. However, for the sake of posterity, I have translated the aforementioned lists, as well as archived a section of the book in PDF form. The skills range from creating earthquakes to resurrecting the dead.

The 36 Taoist skills