The chapter ends on the invariable storyteller's formula, suspending the narrative at the threshold of the road. Chapter 12 has accomplished the novel's essential pivot: it has converted the completed Grand Mass into an unfinished task, established by divine authority that only the Greater Vehicle scriptures of the West can deliver the dead, and sent forth the newly named Tripitaka — sworn brother of the emperor, vowed on pain of hell — to fetch them. What began as the aftermath of Taizong's tour of the underworld has become the commissioning of the great journey; and with the pilgrim across the barrier and the companions of legend still to be met, the stage is set for all that follows.