In this episode, the Destined One encounters four bosses: Mother of Stones, Man-in-Stone, Stone Vanguard, and Shigandang.
The first encounter is with Mother of Stones, a cliff rock from the old days at Yellow Wind Ridge. After absorbing the Spiritual Energy of heaven and earth, and the essence of the sun and moon, she transformed into a stone spirit. Besides Mother of Stones, another cliff rock also cultivated into a spirit, later known as Father of Stones.
One day, for unknown reasons, several Buddha heads suddenly appeared on the mountain, growing out of the soil in a very peculiar manner. Upon seeing living creatures, these fleshy Buddha heads would scream and, if anyone came close, they would swallow them whole. One stone spirit found these fleshy Buddha heads strange and decided to eliminate them to protect the mountain creatures. It smashed into one of the Buddha heads, grinding it into a pulp. This pulp stuck to its body and soon, using its stone body as a base, another stone Buddha head grew out. From then on, the stone spirit’s nature completely changed; it began preying on the mountain creatures for its cultivation. This creature is Shigandang, whom we meet later. Shigandang appears as a stone giant carrying a massive rock, usually crouching and looking just like a huge boulder with a Buddha head carved into it. Also known as “Mount Tai Shigandang,” in Chinese culture, it is a type of stele used to ward off disasters and evil spirits, often placed at road intersections, typically featuring a beast’s head in relief on its arch.
The stone spirits were no match for Shigandang and were often shattered into pieces, their souls utterly destroyed. The quartz that Mother of Stones, made of the spiritual energy absorbed from heaven and earth, was also broken, causing her to lose her cultivation. At this time, the Yellow Wind Sage passed through with a group of Guai at Yellow Wind Ridge and joined the battle. Together with the stone spirits, they defeated Shigandang and eradicated all the meat Buddha statues in the mountains, digging out the eyes from the Buddha heads and burying them in the valley. Afterwards, when rewards were given for their deeds, the Yellow Wind Sage compensated Mother of Stones and Father of Stones with the essence of the stone creatures from the Buddha heads, which they consumed. They then developed human hearts and forms, and later gave birth to the Son of Stones.
From then on, the Yellow Wind Sage settled in the mountains. Later, when the pilgrims from “Journey to the West” passed through Yellow Wind Ridge, the Yellow Wind Sage captured Tang Seng. Sun Wukong then requested Bodhisattva Lingji to capture the sage and bring him back to Vulture Peak.The Father of Stones left the mountains for reasons unknown, and Son of Stones went in search of his father, leaving only Mother of Stones alone and isolated. When the Yellow Wind Sage returned to Yellow Wind Ridge, he discovered many new stone spirits had emerged, among them a particularly robust and formidable one. Upon inquiry, he learned that it was born from Mother of Stones exerting all her power to protect the land; this was Stone Vanguard.
At that time, there was a Keeper of the mountain in the mountains who, when called upon to fight Shigandang, merely observed from the sidelines. Later, when rewards were distributed for their efforts, he was not included and grew extremely envious of Mother of Stones and Father of Stones, who had been endowed with essence and spirit. In “Journey to the West,” when the scripture seekers passed through Yellow Wind Ridge, the Yellow Wind Sage captured Tang Seng but was subsequently subdued by Sun Wukong with the help of Bodhisattva Lingji, who brought him back to Vulture Peak. Taking advantage of the absence of Father of Stones, the Yellow Wind Sage subdued, the Keeper of the mountain transformed into a stone spirit and appeared before Mother of Stones. He then seized the opportunity to absorb her magical power. By the time the other stone spirits realized, he had already drained much of her power. The Keeper of the mountain attempted to flee but found that having absorbed the essence of the stone, he too had turned into stone. This is the origin of the Man-in-Stone in the game.
The Man-in-Stone wondered if absorbing the remaining essence of Mother of Stones could restore him to his original form. One day, the Man-in-Stone encountered the Destined One and deceived him into killing Mother of Stones in the mountains. When the Destined One attempted to kill her, she did not resist; instead, many stone spirits spontaneously protected her. It was only after the Destined One shattered her quartz stone, killed her, and took her essence to give to Man-in-Stone, that he realized he had been deceived. But by then, Mother of Stones was already dead.
Where were Father of Stones and Son of Stones then? It turns out that one day, a tattered human woman arrived at the cave on Yellow Wind Ridge. Feeling pity for her, Father of Stones allowed her to rest there temporarily. Unexpectedly, the woman proved to be an excellent cook, which delighted Father of Stones, and he made her the cave’s cook. Two years later, the woman’s family came to the cave to find her. It turned out that she had been abused at home and was later forced to marry a fool in exchange for Betrothal Gifts money. She had run away from home because she refused to comply. When her family came to take her back and she refused, they began to curse loudly, and Father of Stones intervened, scaring off her family. Her family threatened to call a Taoist Priest to kill the kind-hearted stone spirits of the mountains if she did not agree to return home. Fearing she would bring harm to the benevolent stone spirits, the woman secretly left at night but tragically fell off a cliff and died.
By the time Father of Stones and the mountain’s stone spirits found the woman, her body was already cold. Overwhelmed with grief, Father of Stones sought the help of Princess Iron Fan to revive her. Upon reaching the Flaming Mountains, Princess Iron Fan, after seeing the corpse, declared that reviving her would be as difficult as reaching the heavens, and if forced, she would only be a shell without a soul, better left undone. Undeterred, Father of Stones held the girl’s corpse day after day on the mountain path of the Flaming Mountains, hoping to earn Princess Iron Fan’s pity, even though the girl’s body had turned to white bones, he never gave up.
What about the Son of Stones? The Father of Stones was a mountain god and could not leave his post at will. Thus, the Mother of Stones sent the Son of Stones to find his father and receive a great portion of his essence.the Son of Stones, a simpleton and not very clever, set out and walked in the opposite direction of his father. His father went west, but he went east, eventually reaching Mount Huaguo. There were many fun and beautiful things in Mount Huaguo, which made him stay on the mountain. As time passed, he completely forgot about his quest to find his father.
In the game, the Destined One encounters the Stones family, who are not evil people, yet they meet a very tragic end. And the real villain? The meaty Buddha head on the mountain must be connected to Bodhisattva Lingji. The Keeper of the mountain, who schemed to kill Mother of Stones and was also a stone figure, was ultimately not killed by the player. These characters all escaped justice, while the minions who were killed by the players included some kind-hearted yaoguai, a truly sad and lamentable situation.
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