Journey to the West is a manhua written by Zheng Jian He, creator of Feng Shen Ji.
In the same universe as the classic Chinese novel, a young wolf is saved by the dragon princess Xiao Yu after receiving a fatal injury. Sixteen years later, the young wolf — now known as Bai Lang — has been given a human form and intelligence by the dragons and works as their servant, catching fish and bringing them to the mountain the dragons live on. Unfortunately, the Deva army goes to the dragon palace to take back the sutra Gautama Buddha had stolen from them after the events of the original Journey to the West 16 years ago. The Deva army manages to defeat the dragons and wound Xiao Yu, who reverts to her original form and is revealed to be the sutra itself, but Bai Lang manages to escape with Xiao Yu in her true form.
Along the way, he finds Warrior Monk Tang Sanzang, who takes Bai Lang as one of his disciples so that he can work to undo the damage he caused when he retrieved the sutra for the Devas in the first place, by undertaking a new Journey to the West — this time to return the sutra to nirvana.
Tropes:
- Adaptation Expansion: Ao Xue gets a much more fleshed out backstory and is put in the spotlight as a main character
- Adaptational Badass: Sanzang is fairly strong here, managing to easily defeat minor gods, demons, and a dragon king. He even manages to briefly go toe to toe with the heavenly general, one of the strongest characters in the entire series.
- A Dog Named "Dog": Bai Lang, whose name translates to "white wolf". Guess what he was before the dragons turned him human.
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: The Heavenly General, mostly because he hasn't lost a fight in his entire life.
- The Atoner: Tang Sanzang for giving the sutra to the deva and restraining Wukong when he attempted to keep the sutra from them
- Blood Knight: The three eyed Deva General, who seemingly only understands war, and hasn't lost a battle in the 300 years he's been alive.
- Curbstomp Battle: Gautama's battle with Sha Xin Guanyin.
- Sha Xin Guanyin's fight with the Sanzang party also counts as this.
- Freudian Excuse: The reason Ao Xue is implied to be so cruel. He was bullied by all of the other dragons except lord Shou and has an abusive relationship with his family.
- Forever War: The war between the Asura and the Deva
- Jerkass Gods: Surprisingly averted; the Devas tend to be forgiving towards their disciples, respect Tang Sanzang, and are mostly fulfilling the mission their leader sent to them
- Played straight with Di Shi Tian and the rest of the fallen gods
- The Quiet One: Sha Wujing, who Tangzang describes as "surprisingly introverted".
- Token Evil Teammate: Ao Xue, who killed Tanzang's wife and kids in this version of the story
- World's Best Warrior: The Heavenly General is this for the devas.
- You Have Failed Me: Averted with the deva, who actually care about their disciples and treat failure as a part of life.
