The Monkey King led the monkeys to play in the mountains and waters every day, and soon three or five hundred years passed. One day, while he was having fun, he thought of his inevitable death in the future, and he couldn’t help but shed tears of sadness. At this time, a gibbon jumped out of the monkey crowd and said: “Your Majesty, if you want to live forever, you have to learn the arts of Buddhism, Taoism, and divinity.”
The Monkey King decided to travel across the world and find immortals to learn the skill of immortality. The next day, the monkeys made him a raft and prepared some wild fruits. Then the Monkey King bid farewell to the monkeys and paddled the raft alone towards the vast sea.
Perhaps it was the Monkey King’s good luck that the southeast wind for several days sent him to the northwest shore. He got off the raft and landed on the shore. He saw many people working on the shore. Some were fishing, some were shooting geese in the sky, some were digging clams, some were making salt. He quietly walked over, but unexpectedly scared those people into throwing their things away and running for their lives.
One day, he reached the foot of a tall mountain. Suddenly, from the midst of the mountain's forest, a melodious song echoed, its lyrics speaking of ascension to immortality. The Monkey King thought, "The singer must be an immortal." Following the voice, he searched for its source.
