Solution: The Three Disciples
Answer: THEY GOT DEMONETISED
Written by Adib Surani, Eunice Wong, Sim Hong Jhun, and Tan Chor Kiang
This meta is split into three sections. In addition, if solvers return to the pages of earlier puzzles (“spread out across the land to investigate”), they will find that background images have appeared.
Wukong
The Wukong section has 6 redacted clues in alphabetical order. Each clue is the same length as a component in an earlier puzzle -- with the latter thus providing the redacted letters
| Given clue | Puzzle | Original sentence | Reconstructed clue |
|---|---|---|---|
| ██ng peri█d ██████ ███ ██ ██████ ███ Unit█d (3) | Fortune Cookies | Love symbol moving top to bottom for planet (5) | Long period moving top to bottom for United (3) |
| █ULTIPL█, █LU█T██, AER███, IN███P, VO███Y | To-Do List | MITIGATE, FARTHER, SOCIAL, EASTER, TILLER | MULTIPLE, FLUTTER, AERIAL, INSTEP, VOLLEY |
| Be██ ██ c██m████ | Science Diagrams | Mint or original | Bent or criminal |
| Cl█se to ███ gr██nd, register for ███s | Earphones | Looks in the clouds, scorning the base | Close to the ground, register for bass |
| Nough█ ██ ██████ | The Beast’s Lair | Expert in tennis | Nought in tennis |
| S█ab█rd or c█ea█ | Identification | Tending to shift | Seabird or cheat |
Solve the six new clues to get six words. You’re in China*, and Sanzang has said to listen to the local people. The aha here is to realise that each word translates to a single Chinese character that sounds like an English letter.
*In Journey to the West, they’re actually travelling along the Silk Road towards India, but we took some liberties.
| Clue | Solves to | Chinese character | English letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Long period moving top to bottom for United (3) | ONE | 一 yī | E |
| MULTIPLE, FLUTTER, AERIAL, INSTEP, VOLLEY | KICKS | 踢 tī | T |
| Bent or criminal | CROOKED | 歪 wāi | Y |
| Close to the ground, register for bass | LOW | 低 dī | D |
| Nought in tennis | LOVE | 爱 ài | I |
| Seabird or cheat | GULL | 鸥 ōu | O |
Bajie
The Bajie section has six descriptive clues in alphabetical order. Each one corresponds to a part of a previous puzzle; the corresponding parts of the puzzle can be interpreted as diagrams. Each diagram is -- thematically for porcine Bajie -- a pigpen letter.
| Clue | Puzzle | Shape | Pigpen letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1345672897362814568973124 | Skydoku |  (corresponding three sides of solved Skydoku grid) |
D |
| At end of dragon well shaken | Substitute | > (at the end of the LONGJING clue) | T |
| Distinctly Average, Opposites Attract, Size Matters | House of Games | > (games 2.3, 3.4, and 4.4 in the game wall) | T |
| N panel with a dot in it | Manga |  (squarish N panel with dot added) |
N |
| NAME BADGE, BALLOON, RED APPLE | Demo Jigsaw | V (positions in the grid) | S |
| Red team's initial wall | Capture the Flagration |  (wall of flames) |
H |
Wujing
The Wujing section has six treasure maps, in alphabetical order by title. Each corresponds to the location of a word in a previous puzzle.
| Map title | Puzzle | Location | Word |
|---|---|---|---|
| Relic of Birdsong | Shopping List | below TELEVISION | TOTS |
| Relic of Dismissive People | Trip Finances | after TOILET PAPER | BEERS |
| Relic of Examination | Gossipers | after RUGBY | SCRUM |
| Relic of Flowing Water | Seaside Holiday | before BELLE | TRES |
| Relic of the Cabinet | Product Placement | above ROCK (which is next to ANTARCTICA) | ESTER |
| Relic of Psychological Manipulation | Health Check-up | below CASTLE | GAGS |
Wujing has the power to make things small, and you have to use this to transform the found words into relics. The aha is that you can replace one letter in each word with a synonym for small, to get another word hinted at by the name of each relic. Extract the replaced letters.
| Map title | Word | Changed (small word) | Extracted letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Relic of Birdsong | TOTS | T(wee)TS | O |
| Relic of Dismissive People | BEERS | BE(little)RS | E |
| Relic of Examination | SCRUM | SCRU(tiny) | M |
| Relic of Flowing Water | TRES | TR(ickle)S | E |
| Relic of the Cabinet | ESTER | (mini)STER | E |
| Relic of Psychological Manipulation | GAG | GA(slight) | G |
Final step
You now have a letter per puzzle, and these new background images. Each image corresponds to one of the 18 levels of Hell in Chinese mythology, providing an ordering for the puzzles and thus for the extracted letters. (We are using the version from Journey to the West.) This gives the final punny answer, THEY GOT DEMONETISED.
| Levels of Hell, 1-18 | Puzzle | Letter |
|---|---|---|
| Hanging Bars | To-Do Lists | T |
| Wrongful Dead | Capture the Flagration | H |
| Pit of Fire | Trip Finances | E |
| Fengdu | Science Diagrams | Y |
| Tongue Ripping | Health Check-up | G |
| Skinning | Identification | O |
| Grinding | House of Games | T |
| Pounding | Earphones | D |
| Dismemberment by Vehicles | Seaside Holiday | E |
| Ice | Gossipers | M |
| Moulting | Shopping List | O |
| Disembowelment | Manga | N |
| Oil Cauldrons | Product Placement | E |
| Darkness | Substitute | T |
| Mountain of Knives | The Beast’s Lair | I |
| Pool of Blood | Demo Jigsaw | S |
| Avici | Fortune Cookies | E |
| Weighing Scales | Skydoku | D |
We had originally used the ordering shown in the English Wikipedia entry on the Eighteen levels of Hell, as mentioned in Journey to the West. It turned out that that ordering was inaccurate, so we updated both the puzzle and the Wiki entry to reflect the correct order. We're very sorry for the error, especially if it affected any teams who were using other resources. Many thanks to team simplicissimus for alerting us to this.