How Strong Is Monkey King?
Sun Wukong, a God with great infatuation with life and wisdom, vows he will never lose it. No matter how many ascend upon the Monkey King, he will not die. His story is actually the inspiration for Sun Goku, with Goku having a tail, power pole, and Nimbus Cloud to match some of Kong’s abilities. On his journey to the West, Sun Wukong gains multiple layers of immortality by consuming pills of Longevity, practicing Tao, and eating an entire garden of Heaven Peaches. Each one of these Heaven Peaches grants another layer of immortality. He even crossed his name out of the Book of Death.
He has the ability to shape-shift into anything he wants, and with his ability called the 72 Transformations, he has 72 lives, meaning you have to kill an immortal God 72 times, and every time someone tries to kill him, it only makes him stronger.
This is seen when Heaven tried every method in existence to kill Sun Wukong, even the De-Immortalizing Furnace, but it only made the Monkey King more powerful. So that’s where Zenkai’s come from.
Copying Abilities and Weapons
Sun Wukong also has the ability to copy his opponent’s strength, as shown in his battle with deity Prince Nocha. Nocha turned into a more powerful state, having three more heads and six more arms. Sun Wukong laughed, did the same, and defeated him like it was nothing. This ability of copying opponents’ strength is only limited to Sun Wukong’s imagination. Sun Wukong felt that no weapon on Earth suited him, so he decided to storm into the Dragon King’s palace and take the Rui Jingu Bang, a pillar that was originally designed to measure the depths of the ocean. This weapon can change size just like Wukong. It can shrink to the size of a needle and grow to pierce the clouds of heaven.
The Power of 84,000 Hairs
Each hair on Sun Wukong’s body, 84,000 to be exact, can be turned into literally anything he wants. He can literally make anything. He can make weapons, copies of himself, and even copies of his opponents.
Fighting against Sun Wukong is basically fighting a nearly infinite number of opponents that can match your power in an instant, each one having multiple layers of immortality, growing exponentially stronger throughout the battle, and you have to kill all of them 72 times to finally win. Yeah, he’s broken.
Battles with Gods and Buddha
Sun Wukong becomes increasingly more powerful with each battle, defeating 600 gods, 28 of which are constellation gods. He was able to lift the entire Milky Way Galaxy, which was stated to be infinite in size, over his head. After defeating every warrior in heaven, he decided to fight the Buddha himself. Buddha made a deal with Sun Wukong. If he could jump out of his hand, he could take the Jade Emperor’s throne for himself. Sun Wukong, loving a good challenge, agreed to Buddha’s deal. Wukong jumped to the other end of heaven. However, he already lost. Sun Wukong never left the Buddha’s hand.
Journey to Nirvana
Buddha has achieved true Nirvana, meaning he holds all of existence in his hand and Sun Wukong was not able to jump beyond existence. Buddha sealed Wukong for 500 years and released him to continue his journey. During this, he grew stronger and stronger, defeating entities that could destroy all of existence. With a whistle, he was able to hold up Mount Subaru on one shoulder, which is described in Buddhism as a mountain that holds up the Infinite Cosmic Sky. During his journey, Sun Wukong was able to reach perfection, reaching the remainder stage or incomplete stage of Nirvana.
Transcending Realms
This stage of Nirvana is described as being beyond all concepts and limitations and existing as a boundless entity beyond everything. This stage transcends the God Realms and Formless realms, with the Formless realms being stated to have no direction and no physical form, putting them above dimensionality itself.
Making this realm Outer Versaline the God realms transcending the Formless Realms. With there being 28 realms in total and Nirvana is above this. Reaching this grant him strength 3 layers into our reversal.
The Fighting Buddha
But then he did it. At the end of the journey to the West, Sun Wukong was the most powerful he has ever been, solidifying him as the strongest God in the pantheon. He was brought before the Buddha himself and transcended to the complete stage of Nirvana, becoming the sage over heaven, The Fighting Buddha, Buddha, Wukong, Wukong. Reaching this final stage puts him above everything in existence, making him more powerful than Bodhisattvas, beings that have achieved this incomplete stage of Nirvana, and they state that Buddhas are incomprehensible to them, with Bodhisattvas being part of the transcendent.
Sun Wukong's Ultimate Power
The transcendent is being above all worlds, never returning to anything lower, meaning an infinite hierarchy of outer versal beings.
With Buddha Wukong looking down at all of this, Wukong now having high outer versal strength, becoming all-knowing, all-powerful, and omnipresent meaning he’s everywhere and nowhere, all at once. Fighting against Sun Wu Kong is a fight you’re not going to win. With his immeasurable layers of immortality and the fact that he’s literally above life and death itself, Sun Wukong is truly one of the most powerful characters in all of fiction. It’s almost ridiculous how broken Sun Wukong is because any opponent that he faces, he can simply make 84,000 copies of them and sit back as you fight 84,000 versions of yourself. The Great Savior, equal to Heaven, The Monkey King. The Fighting Buddha. Son Wukong.
