Three Beatings of the White Bone Demon

A monk is walking to India to fetch holy scriptures, and he would not survive the road alone. So he travels with three disciples, and the first of them is a monkey who once wrecked Heaven and spent five hundred years pinned under a mountain for it.

The monkey, Sun Wukong (Sūn Wùkōng), can see what a thing truly is behind any face it puts on. The monk can see nothing of the kind and believes what is in front of him. And because the monkey is dangerous, a goddess gave the monk a golden band that locked itself around the monkey's head, and a few words that make it tighten until he is rolling on the ground screaming.

They have been getting along well enough. Ahead of them lies a stretch of empty hills — no village in front, no inn behind — and something in those hills has already seen them coming.