Niu Mowang- Chinese DemonDemon"Great Sage Who Pacifies Heaven"

Sworn Brothers

Before Sun Wukong's rebellion against heaven, seven demon kings swore an oath of brotherhood. The Bull Demon King was the eldest and claimed the title "Great Sage Who Pacifies Heaven" to match Sun Wukong's "Great Sage Equal to Heaven." They feasted and caroused together.

When Sun Wukong was captured and imprisoned beneath Five Elements Mountain for five hundred years, none of his sworn brothers came. The Bull Demon King went on with his life. He took a concubine, the Jade-Faced Fox, and installed himself at her estate on Thunder-Heap Mountain while his wife Princess Iron Fan waited at Banana Leaf Cave on Emerald Cloud Mountain.

Iron Fan had her own grievance. Their son Red Boy had wielded the True Fire of Samadhi against the pilgrims, and Guanyin subdued him by taking him as an attendant. Iron Fan blamed Sun Wukong for the loss of her child. By the time the Monkey King arrived at her door asking for help, the household was a ruin of neglect, resentment, and rage.

The Banana Leaf Fan

Eight hundred li of unquenchable fire blocked the pilgrims' path. The flames had fallen from heaven when Sun Wukong kicked over Laozi's brazier during his rampage centuries before. Only Princess Iron Fan's Banana Leaf Fan could extinguish them.

Sun Wukong invoked the old brotherhood. He called Iron Fan his sister-in-law. She refused. He tried force. She waved the fan and blew him eighty thousand li through the sky.

On his second attempt, he shrank himself small enough to enter her belly through a tea cup. The agony was enough to make her surrender a fan, but it was a decoy. When Sun Wukong waved it at the flames, the fire burned fiercer.

For his third attempt, he disguised himself as the Bull Demon King. He adopted her husband's voice and mannerisms, claimed to have heard about the Monkey King's harassment, and offered comfort. Iron Fan, deceived, handed over the true fan and taught him the secret incantation to shrink and enlarge it.

The White Ox

The real Bull Demon King had been feasting at Turquoise Cloud Lake when Sun Wukong stole his mount, the Water-Repelling Golden-Eyed Beast. He returned to find his wife duped and his animal gone. He retaliated with the same trick: he transformed himself into Zhu Bajie and intercepted Sun Wukong on the road, claiming he had come to help carry the fan. Sun Wukong handed it over. The Bull Demon King revealed himself and took it back.

With deception exhausted on both sides, the fight turned to open combat. They fought across earth and sky, transformation matching transformation. When pressed, the Bull Demon King revealed his true form: a colossal white ox, thousands of feet tall, with hide like iron and horns capable of goring mountains. Sun Wukong grew to enormous size to meet him.

The battle drew the attention of heaven. Prince Nezha arrived with his Wind-Fire Wheels and fire-tipped spear. The Heavenly King Li Jing deployed the demon-revealing mirror to fix the Bull Demon King in his true form, stripping away his power to transform and escape. Surrounded by celestial forces, Sun Wukong, and Zhu Bajie, the great ox demon yielded.

Princess Iron Fan surrendered the fan. Sun Wukong waved it and the Flaming Mountains went out, the desolate firescape turning to fertile land. Iron Fan shaved her head, entered a monastery, and through devoted practice eventually attained arhatship.