Between Beast And Buddha: A Drunken Monkey's Journey to Immortality

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Orange-crest is a monkey with simple desires. He likes warm summer days lazing about with his brothers and sisters, sampling the variety of fruit and grubs Mount Yuelu provides its simian inhabitants. He does not like tigers, or that one green fruit that makes one's shits white and runny. Unlike his brothers though, orange-crest is endlessly curious. And no subject arouses that curiosity more than the many mysteries of fermentation. One fateful night, he finds himself enjoying an experimental brew a little more potent than his usual work. Daoist Scouring Medicine is a man disgraced. Caught between the pressures of a vision for pill refining he will not compromise, and the politics of a world that discards its ideals the moment they stand in the way of profit; his once rising star has long since stagnated. After a disciple from a prestigious and wealthy family cripples himself by misusing the daoist's work, he finds himself wandering the slopes of an unfamiliar mountain, hitting the gourd a little harder than any self-respecting daoist should, cursing the Heavens and the Zhang family alike. From a pair of poorly considered drunken decisions, a sequence of events are set into motion that will one day shake the very heavens. Updates once a week on Wednesdays.

Information

Status: Ongoing
Year: 2025
Author: Turniper

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.8/ 5.0
Followers: 1,829
Views: 456,299

What readers say about Between Beast And Buddha: A Drunken Monkey's Journey to Immortality

“Orange-Crest is a very likable character and through his simplistic and childlike mindset it's easy to be engrossed in his progress. That and his relationship with Daoist Scouring Medicine is a nice thing to witness change into a true brotherhood. The detai…”
LuciusCantWriteRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“Good grammer, good story, worldbuilding has a lot of potential. No complains here. Characters feel like they are unique and not copy paste versions of each other like some stories higher on rr are. I liked the foreshadowing about sun wukong, and this mc is…”
B00kwyrm709Royal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

LuciusCantWriteRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Orange-Crest is a very likable character and through his simplistic and childlike mindset it's easy to be engrossed in his progress. That and his relationship with Daoist Scouring Medicine is a nice thing to witness change into a true brotherhood. The detail for the cultivation in this story is well done. Then there is also the growth. The loss and success make sense and overall this is a light hearted story with drama because of human hierarchy.
B00kwyrm709Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Good grammer, good story, worldbuilding has a lot of potential. No complains here. Characters feel like they are unique and not copy paste versions of each other like some stories higher on rr are. I liked the foreshadowing about sun wukong, and this mc is really unique. Only thing bad about this series is that it updates only once a week
Carlos54Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This book knocked my socks off! The writing is incredible, the world building is satisfying and the cultivation methods and techniques make sense. I highly recommend that you check this story out and I look forward to seeing where orange-crest goes. I hope he surpasses even the patriarch someday soon.
Blorgh the muppetRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
the story is very much a coming of age story, just that a monkey explores the new novel ways his mind thinks in, much like a child, learning to survive from day to day and growing.
Its a story about a bitter and possibly blinded man who saw that potential in said monkey and well he thought he know what he was in for but now monkey in charge.
it also upends the master dynamic, the monkeys master isnt a honoured master, just another brother. a brother hed give his life for without hesitation. that kinda brotherhood. its a meeting of equals between one old mind and a reborn one.
tldr: monkey gains sapience, steps on young master and doesnt shrink from arrogant elders. except the young master isnt arrogant for the sake of it, but because he has so few equals. the arrogant elder is arrogant because he has the skill and knowledge to back it up. The characters arent cut outs. the generic everything is there, just executed masterfully. author saw the tropes and was like, me likey lemme just do it way better
FeatherweightRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Picked up this story just as book one was wrapping up and couldn’t put it down till I was done. The book is fun, lively, and clever. I particularly enjoy the natural flow in the way the character relationships evolve. Chapters are going to be my Sunday treat for the foreseeable future.
BrutalDayRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A great story so far. Hits all the xianxia notes, being both engaging and also having some quiet and introspective moments. Our main monkey is just a delight to read, a real strength of the book. A likable character who manages to pull of being both refreshingly upbeat yet not come off as naive or stupid. This story has really excellent potential, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops. Absolutely give it a read.
GremictRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This story revolves around the conflict between man and beast. Man sees themselves as fundamentally superior to beasts to the point of treating them as objects rather than entities while beasts are caught in the wake of humanity and struggle to maintain an identity that doesnt revolve around humans. How human should one be? Is the category of beast something that should be reclaimed, or is it merely a fabrication invented by humans that fails to describe animals in their natural state? Does rejecting being defined by humanity also involve rejecting all the good ideas you've gained in association with humanity? This is a powerful theme, and the story delivers it in a very fun way with one of the most precocious protagonists I've seen in a cultivation novel. Highly reccommend.
Grim ThoughtsRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
More people need to read this one. There’s basically nothing negative to say. It follows a monkey that becomes super drunk and then has its mind expanded, eventually becoming smart enough to speak the human tongue fluently as well as overcome existential dread. But he always stays a monkey, and true to himself. There’s a lot of nuance in his master/brother as well, and the world is well-realized as a whole. This writer also wrote another pretty popular and well-liked Xianxia original, This Venerable Demon is Grossly Unqualified, and the writing quality is up to par with it. Read this
Dman1123Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Orange-crest good fake-monkey-man. Much-good story-words. Many-dreams of tomorrow-story-words.
Translation: Li Hou is a wonderful character, truly capturing what it means to be a monkey man. I look forward to the next chapters!
Honestly, one of my favorite stories so far and I'm excited to see where this story goes, thank you for the chapter!
MichaelisFollyRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I LOVE this story. The characters have depth to them, even the antagonists, something you dont see often in Chinese cultivation novels for wuxia/xianxia/etc. The humor, story-telling, action, and even the analogies are so on point. Literally my only gripe about this story is there isnt enough chapters for me to binge through yet, HAHA
The relationships between the main character and his master, along with their relationships with the sect and other cultiavtors is just so...it's so impactful. I don't know how else to phrase it other than the author does a really great job of getting you invested in the goals, lives, and outcomes of each character's story thread. The world itself as well is being unearthed to us as it is to the main character, which I'm a sucker for. Author isn't afraid to get into the less than savory details about a lot of things. The puzzle you'd have to solve around in your head/the ethics of bringing a monkey into a more "civilized" society being one of them, I love the way Author wrote MC's grapple with his sense of self.
It doesn't get boring either as most web novel cultivation novels tend to be. It doesn't suffer from the repitition, chapter pacing, or "flowery paragraphs" that fill the chapter just for space or word requirements, if you know what I mean. I'm really looking forward to seeing where Author takes this story, just because I wish well the characters I've already grown to love. They're all my sons, now. I expect to see them on holidays.