Extra: What Became of Her After That Day

Chances were, her kingdom had been reduced to a mountain of rubble, ash and bones. It had been sacked by gods—beings whose very existence defied all common sense.

Half a year had passed since that day.

The warrior’s pride within her was still screaming, naturally. Howling even. Despite being honored with the title of “Great General” by her king, she hadn’t been there in her kingdom's final moments. What was more aggravating was that she knew that even if she had been there, the outcome would’ve been the same.

Nonetheless, Sha Wujing had to push ahead. She had a mission.

“Go and find the six heroes of Prophecy."

Just as the Kingdom of Ceprun reached its end, Zhu Bajie had used his great power to transport Wujing.

If all of the realms in this world could be grouped into one world known as “Yggdrasil”, then Zhu Bajie’s constellation had moved her to a random point inside of Yggdrasil. It was a power that couldn’t be pinpointed to any specific destination of his choosing.

So due to the sheer vastness of Yggdrasil, Wujing had a good feeling she was no longer standing on Gaia soil. That fact was evident by her surroundings.

The grass was bright green. The air was pure and clean. Animals—a rarity where she was from—were commonplace here. While the people were slightly smaller on average and vastly weaker and with much smoother skin, they floated about with no care in the world. The looming threat of wicked deities did not seem to weigh on their minds in the slightest.

But most shockingly, the vast red and empty sky Wujing had come to be familiar with was nowhere to be found.

Yes, there was no doubt about it. This was not Gaia. This was a different realm.

…The Human Realm.

At one point in her life, Wujing had embarked on an extensive journey that spanned several of the realms within Yggdrasil at the command of her lord, Buddha. But even during that journey, she had never once traveled to the human realm. In other words, it was a mystery to her. An unknown. She felt as if she were wandering a steep mountain top that was clad in thick fog.

Therefore, doing what any experienced warrior worth their Divine Artifact would, Wujing opted for a disguise.

Using her Saintly power, or constellation, Wujing not only changed the color of her skin to match that of the average human, but the clothes on her back as well. Her usual monk robes transformed into an outfit she’d copy from one teenage girl.

After donning this disguise, Wujing set out on her expedition. The final mission given to her by her late king.

However, Sha Wujing was immediately faced with the cruel reality that if she wanted any hope of finding even 1 hero, she’d need an abundance of both information and patience.

According to the Prophecy, the six heroes would reincarnate every 1000 years. The problem was, there was no clock or timer or any kind of indicator as to when that time would arrive. For all she knew, the heroes could’ve reincarnated that very day, or yesterday, or 40 years ago. Or maybe they still had a century to go before they were reincarnated into the world. There was just no way to know.

One would say that she was merely wondering about—hoping and praying for a miracle.

As time passed, Sha Wujing had found other ways to preoccupy herself in the human realm. She had filled her days with learning as much as she could about the creatures around her. Their language, their customs, their laws, their beliefs. Everything she could.

One fact that intrigued her most related to the matter of how the deities were perceived by humans. Angels were worshipped here. It seemed as if only demons were seen as evil, whereas angels acted as a sort of equalizer for that wickedness.

While there was nothing wrong with worshipping deities—as even Wujing did so with Buddha—deities like angels and demons were far different from the rest. They were corrupt beings who had grown drunk with power. From all the realms Wujing had been to, there was none that held angels in a good light.

Yet, this realm did.

Sha Wujing just had to find out more about these people. Not just because she was curious about their customs, but because she felt as if learning more about them would bring her one step closer to finding one of the six heroes of prophecy. Before she realized it, a few months had passed by.

That’s when she came across a rather curious rumor. Apparently, there was a town some ways off that was rumored to harbor actual demons. Hundreds, thousands, it really just depended on who you asked.

There was one report in particular that caught Wujing’s eye. 3 years ago, a certain accident occurred in that town.

A massive fire had broken out inside one of the town’s middle schools during regular hours. But something was off. The flames did not break out in a specific area of the school. Rather, it had engulfed the school all at once, trapping everyone within its jaws.

It sounded strange, but the flames seemed hungry, in a sense. As if they had been possessed by a supernatural entity…

As if they had been possessed by a demon.

To this day how it began and how it acted in that way is still a mystery. All they knew was that not a single person survived that accident.

Except for one lone 14-year old boy.

Somehow, someway, as if by a miracle, his body was untouched by the flames. According to the reports, he had no burns, nor any major injuries from rubble or debris. He did, however, have minor injuries that suggested he had gotten into a fight before the flames broke out. But the strangest thing by far, was that even though his unconscious body was found in the aftermath of the accident, there weren't any records of the boy having enrolled in that school. In fact, there wasn’t any information about him having gone to any school ever in his life.

Its mystery was comparable to the origin of the flames themselves.

All the same, there was no proof or any lead of any kind that tied the boy to having started those flames. In the first place, it was impossible to even gather that kind of information. Those flames weren’t natural in any way, so treating them as if they were was a helpless cause.

Of course, that could never satisfy the people of that town.

Convinced that the 14-year-old boy had a part to play in it all, the people of that town cursed the boy and isolated him. In their eyes, he was either a demon in human clothing or possessed by the devil himself. That was the only way he could do it.

Sure, there was a slim chance he was innocent. That they were pointing their fingers at a boy who had nothing to do with any of it. Even they could admit that.

But why bother taking that risk?