The stock closing formula of the chaptered novel (章回小說) — a cliff-hanger cue that suspends the pilgrims at the gate of the restored city and hands the reader on to the next installment. Here it also marks a seam in the arc: the Wūjī affair, opened in Chapter 37 and turned on the resurrection and unmasking of Chapters 38–39, is essentially complete — the true king restored, the lion reclaimed by Mañjuśrī — and the departure it promises spills over into Chapter 40, where the road west resumes and a new ordeal (the Red Boy) begins.