Endings

Six Roots are six animation shorts for each chapter ending. They tell a backstory from each of the chapters.

Chapter 1: Black Cloud, Red Fire

“I See” Black Myth Wukong chapter 1 ending animation original version

The "Chapter 1: Black Cloud, Red Fire" backstory animation is titled "I See". In it, a young Elder Jinchi chases a frog in a forest. He ends up encountering Black Bear Guai, however instead of attacking it, Black Bear Guai offers him some treasures. Sometime later, Jinchi goes to study Buddhism and is fascinated by the elder's kasayas. As years pass, Jinchi is unable to shake off his greed as it remains as a Black Bear Guai shadow. After many years, Elder Jinchi becomes the monk with the highest position, and keeps on collecting lavish kasayas. One day, Sun Wukong's group arrive at Elder Jinchi's temple and Sanzang shows his kasaya. Fascinated by it, Elder Jinchi wishes to admire it for the night. While admiring it, his greed overwhelms him. Wishing to keep it, he burns the temple wanting to kill Wukong's group and keep the kasaya.

Later, Black Bear Guai expressed how he couldn’t understand why Elder Jinchi was still clinging to a kasaya, as his greed should be quelled. His master, Bodhisattva Guanyin, tells him that without it, how can they show the world that his greed is quelled.

Characters

• Elder Jinchi
• Black Bear Guai
• Sun Wukong
• Tang Sanzang
• Bodhisattva Guanyin

Staff Credits

• Animation Work: FLiiiP Design
• Director: Lin Zhe
• Script/Director: Yang Qi
• Story: Feng Ji
• Producer: Herbie Han, Bella
• Art Director: Lin Zhe
• Character Design: Ruitao She, Lin Zhe, JanelleFeng, Yaunhua Luo

Chapter 2: Yellow Sand, Desolate Dusk

“Deaf Ear” Black Myth Wukong chapter 2 ending animation original version

The "Chapter 2: Yellow Sand, Desolate Dusk" backstory animation is titled "Deaf Ear". In it, in a snowy mountain, a young man finds a white fox in a trap. He decides to help the fox and frees her. However as the fox is injured, he also decides to take her back home and treat her wounds. In the morning, he finds that the fox has turned into a beautiful young woman. The two start spending time together and eventually fall in love. In time, they have kids and later grandkids. One day, the man returns home and finds a bloody scene. His family has been slaughtered by the fox as she had turned into her demon form. The man then wakes up and realizes that this was just a dream. However, unable to shake off the fear of this becoming a reality, he kills the fox and keeps its pelt as a scarf.

Characters

• Non-Void
• The Fox

Staff Credits

• Animation Work: Realwood Studio
• Director: Jie Weng
• Script/Director: Yang Qi
• Story: Feng Ji
• Producer: Zhao Jingyan
• Art Department: Huang Danyang, Chen Zhiwei
• Prop Maker: Huang Danyang, Chen Zhiwei, Lei Min, Zhou Zhe, Sun Qi

Chapter 3: White Snow, Ice Cold

“Nosense！”Black Myth Wukong chapter 3 ending animation original version

The "Chapter 3: White Snow, Ice Cold" backstory animation is titled "Nonsense!". In it, Jin Chanzi and the turtle (Yellowbrow) were Dharma brothers practicing Buddhism under the same lineage. That's why the Jin Chanzi called him Shi Xiong (师兄/Senior Brother) in the Chinese dub.

They had differing views over human nature, and the turtle believed that humans were inherently evil (humans are evil by nature, therefore they will turn greedy and commit a bad deed eventually), and Yellowbrow had a very twisted obsession with winning the debate.

To prove his viewpoint, he descended into the mortal realm and appeared as a giant turtle guai, purposely letting the fisherman of an impoverished village capture him. Then he started showing off his supernatural powers to them, including secreting pearls by tearing his flesh, healing a sick boy with one of his nails, granting youth and beauty from his mucus, repairing damaged homes with magic, and supplying vast amounts of fish from the sea via a large tornado.

Being plagued with poverty for so long, the impoverished villagers started to worship him to an insane degree as the Buddha's avatar. Their insatiable desires grew as much as the lives of the villagers were bettered. Instead of offering guidance and teaching people to grow wiser and be self-resilient, the giant turtle intentionally gave them the easy way out and cultivated their reliance on it, making them heavily dependent on him. At the end, the giant turtle seemingly seduced one of the villagers into attacking him, spilling vast amounts of pearls on the ground and setting off a chain reaction, with the villagers tearing apart the giant turtle, having intercourse with one another, alongside urinating on and burning the corpse of the turtle.

Because the villagers had succumbed to mindless greed, the source of their prosperity was now gone. Eventually, the village was left abandoned and reduced to ruins, its inhabitants having either left or perished to famine or disease, with the turtle’s corpse laying on the shoreline. Some time later, Jin Chanzi came upon the village and began speaking with the turtle, revealing that, despite his condition, he was in fact still alive. The turtle proudly said to his junior brother that he had won the debate and proved that humans were simply evil. However, Jin Chanzi countered that the turtle had chosen "a means to an end, not to a proof", and criticized him for "inverting the consequence and cause", i.e. creating a desired consequence and to prove his own belief of the existence of an evil nature within humanity, treating the tragic outcome as if it were the cause. Jin Chanzi called his senior’s actions absurd and pathetic, while the turtle retorted that, if not for winning, there was no point to debating means and ends.

Characters

• Jin Chanzi (金蝉子/Golden Chicada) - a monk who is the previous incarnation of Tang Sanzang (唐三藏/Tripitaka Tang A.K.A. the monk from the Great Tang who masters the Tripitaka)
• Turtle spirit - the previous incarnation of Yellowbrow, who took the form of a turtle

Staff Credits

• Animation Work: BigFirebird Animation
• Director: Hiromatsu Shu
• Script/Director: Yang Qi
• Story: Feng Ji
• Animation Directors: Hiromatsu Shu, Gong Ziyu

Chapter 4: Rosy Cheeks, Gray Hair

“Listen Not” Black Myth Wukong chapter 4 ending animation original version

The "Chapter 4: Rosy Cheeks, Gray Hair" backstory animation is titled "Listen Not”. In it, Zhu Bajie and the Violet Spider were originally immortals of the Celestial Court assigned to their own jobs under the same lineage. He originally held the title of Tiānpéng Yuánshuài (天蓬元帅; lit. Marshal Canopy), which is a job in the Celestial Court assigned to Zhu Bajie to be a commander in-chief or Admiral of 80,000 celestial sailors in the lineage.

One day in the court, he met a heavenly maiden, the maiden at first sight fell in love with him. However, he was later exiled from heaven for misbehavior. During the party organized for all the significant figures in heaven, the admiral saw Chang’e (the Chinese goddess of the moon) already with a lover. And as a drunken attempt to spy or seduce her, he was banished to earth to a thousand years of suffering. After the admiral’s fallen grace due to his misbehavior, the Violet Maiden, either due to his desire and love for the admiral or for other reasons, followed him to the mortal realm.

The admiral, now a mortal, slowly turned into a pig Guai as he continued on to find the maiden, but she was terrified by his appearance. Now realizing that he is a pig guai, he ran away, never to be seen again for quite a while.

Until, he saw a lot of women’s clothes and persistently inquired and learnt that the seven guais were bathing. Overjoyed, he dived into the water and transformed into a catfish guai. The spiders tried to catch him, and none succeeded. Recognizing her face as one of his old acquaintances, Bajie swam to her. She turned back and recognized his face too, realizing it was the admiral she met and fell in love in the celestial court. They had an affair in the water, and transformed into their true forms.

Together, they ended up making love and had a child of their own. It then shows how Violet Spider had changed over the years without Bajie. In the end, Bajie, realizing he has no choice but to join the journey to protect his daughter and Violet Spider, joined Sun Wukong and Tang Sanzang on their journey to the west to collect the Buddhist scriptures.

Characters

• Zhu Bajie
• Violet Spider
• Chang’e (嫦娥）— the Chinese goddess of the moon and the wife of Hou Yi, the great archer in Chinese mythology and folklore
• The Sixth Sister
• Sun Wukong
• Tang Sanzang

Staff Credits

• Animation Work: BigFirebird Animation
• Directors: Fei Si
• Script/Director: Yang Qi
• Story: Feng Ji
• Animation Directors: Xiang Guanghui, Li Hanlin
• Art Director: Shen Guanmin
• Director of Photography: Liang Bowen

Chapter 5: Golden Child, Crimson Blood

“Destiny” Black Myth Wukong chapter 5 ending animation original version

The "Chapter 5: Golden Child, Crimson Blood" ending animation is titled “Destiny”. It begins with Erlang dividing Sun Wukong’s relics among the Yaoguai kings, with Bull King receiving Wukong’s body due to being the closest to him, along with the burden of betraying his sworn brother. Following the Monkey King’s battle with Erlang, the Bull King stumbles forward, pushing past several soldiers before seeing Wukong, bloodied and beaten, as he begins to collapse from exhaustion. Bull King catches Wukong, who jokingly tells his former brother in arms that he had never made a good choice in his life. The Bull King recalls when he joined Wukong in his rebellion against Heaven, fighting against the forces of the Court alongside him and witnessing his clash with Erlang, being blinded by the impact of their weapons.

He then recalls when Lady Rakshasi spoke with him following the failure of their rebellion, stating that Bull King’s reluctance was plain to see, just like hers. She reveals that the Court forced her to drink from the River of Childbearing, and curses Wukong, saying that they could have lived peaceful, separate lives if not for him. Time moves ahead, and Red Boy admonishes his father for hiding his Yaksha heritage from him and serving under Heaven. He tells the Bull King that he never wanted to sever their ties, and that if he valued their kinship, he should give him Wukong’s relic to avenge his people. Rakshasi appears once again, pleading for her husband to just give Wukong her Iron Fan in order to avoid further hardship. The Bull King falls to his knees, before being transported to the site of his defeat at the hands of Sun Wukong, now serving as the disciple of Tang Sanzang.

Wukong tells Bull King that he had disciplined his brother and given Red Boy away to serve as Guanyin’s disciple, as well as taking Lady Rakshasi’s Iron Fan with him. He tells his old brother in arms to find a master of his own and serve the right, as that is the only path for those like them. Zhu Bajie then arrives and reports that he had finished killing the Bull King’s mistress, laughing while he revealed her nature as a fox guai. Enraged by the destruction of his family and his home, the Bull King transforms into his massive Bull form and goes on a rampage against the armies of the Court. Nezha enters the fray while his father, Li Jing, puts up a barrier around the Bull King. As the Four Heavenly Kings bind him with magic rope, Nezha draws his sword and severs the Bull King’s head. Wukong then closes his former comrade’s eyes, and when he opens them again, he finds Wukong’s mangled body in his arms once again.

Surrounded by Erlang, the Yaoguai Kings, and the forces of Heaven, Wukong confesses that, by achieving enough merit and a position as the Victorious Fighting Buddha, he believed that the Court would leave him and the other Yaoguai alone, but understands now that his mere existence was enough to be seen as a transgression. As he begins succumbing to his injuries, he asks that the Bull King looks after his wife and children, and warns his former comrade to steer clear of his remains as he finally dies. The Bull King attempts to catch Wukong’s hand, but it slips through his grasp, and he watches as the Monkey King’s body begins to disintegrate. As a bright light appears in the sky, the Bull King attempts to shield Wukong’s corpse with his body.

Characters

• Sun Wukong
• Erlang, the Sacred Divinity
• Bull King
• Black Bear Guai
• Yellow Wind Sage
• Yellowbrow
• Hundred-Eyed Daoist Master
• Rakshasi
• Red Boy
• Zhu Bajie
• Nezha
• Li Jing
• The Four Heavenly Kings

Staff Credits

• Animation Work: BigFirebird Animation
• Director: Chengxi Huang
• Script/Director: Yang Qi
• Story: Feng Ji
• Animation Directors: Lu Qiang
• Director of Photography: He Lewei

Chapter 6: Unfinished

• Chapter 6 is the final chapter of the main story in Black Myth: Wukong.
• Throughout the chapter, the Destined One returns to Mount Huaguo, reclaims Sun Wukong’s armor pieces, obtains the Jingubang (the cosmic staff), and battles through several bosses to reach the summit.
• The climax is a two-stage boss fight:
  1. First, you fight Stone Monkey.
  2. Then, you battle the Great Sage’s Broken Shell (the remnant/shell of Wukong).
• When you defeat the remnant, it dissipates and transforms into a golden circlet / headband.
• The Old Monkey (the surviving Wukong remnant or spiritual entity) attempts to place the circlet on the Destined One’s head, symbolizing the passing of Wukong’s mantle.
• Depending on whether the player has unlocked the hidden/secret content (see below), one of two endings plays out:
  • Normal Ending (“bad ending” / default): If you haven’t completed all secret areas or reclaimed the sixth relic (Wukong’s memory), the Old Monkey says the mind is lost, and the Destined One puts on the golden circlet, essentially becoming bound like Wukong, trapped in the stone.
  • True (Secret) Ending: If you have fulfilled all the hidden content (secret maps, quests, and defeated Erlang Shen to reclaim Wukong’s final relic: his memory), the Old Monkey does not place the circlet on the Destined One. Instead, the Destined One remains free. The ending shows that Wukong’s mind was never lost and reveals deeper elements of Wukong’s intentions and identity.
• After the credits, you’re given the choice to either “Continue Journey” (which lets you return and complete things you missed) or start a New Game+ run.