Alright, last background detail and a note for Asamav

Note: In my novel, when he does come into the picture, I split off two separate concepts about the monkey King. In "Journey to the West", it is mentioned that he attained an immortal body due to his consumption of immortal fruits, immortal pills, and other things in heaven. I took that idea and thought about its implications to ascension in both the Buddhist concept and how I want the concept to work in my novel. The monkey king would never be able to ascend with an immortal body; thus, his soul was given Buddhahood. In that way, he was able to ascend beyond the three realms and six cycles of reincarnation, but his body remains on the human realm.

In my novel, his body is preserved by Taoists as a relic and a highly important example of the apex of evolutionary genetic enhancements. His birth can be considered an accident and fluke of nature, events, and circumstance, but the results have been something that Taoist of the Wood Elemental group have tried to replicate for centuries. The cells in his body repair itself without need of food or nutrients, it does not age, and continues to live despite the lack of an active consciousness. The Buddha soul of the monkey king has to return to his immortal body though due to an incident.

That's not going to be in my first part/case, it will probably be the second or later as I introduce this universe to you all.

Now as for the last detail: Leadership

Despite the fact that one protagonist is the holder of the Book of Fate, he cannot assume leadership of the Taoists groups, because he is not "perfected" enough. He also committed a prior indiscretion against the rules of the society. Instead he must serve as Chief adviser to the leader.

I take this concept from Classic Chinese stories about the Chu-Han Contention and Three Kingdoms, especially. While minister like Xiao hao and Zhuge Liang were far better in strategy, ability, and even magic in the latter's case than their future emperors, they served them as advisers. In Chinese culture, people of the greatest knowledge are ranked 2nd to people who can manage knowledge.

In this way, I am adding the influence of Confucian principles, which are important to Asian culture, since Confucian ideals have been passed from China to every other nation in Asia for at least a thousand years.

In my novel, there is a big issue later due to Confucian doctrine, which you will get to see.

Outside of the secret Taoist society, my two main characters are both working for law enforcement, under temporary assignment.

The Taoist main character is a Forensic expert, who analyzes crime scenes for clues and uses his own special advanced knowledge of sciences to pursue the most dangerous criminals. He is a 1st generation Chinese American.

*Note: I know some of you might say "haha a plot hole", why not just use the book to find out "Who did it?" The Book of Fate will tell you "Past, Present, and Future" as I said, but it will not know more than what the subject of the inquiry. If a person is killed by his butler in the kitchen, the Book of Fate will read "The butler killed him in the Kitchen with 5 inch knife". However, if the person does not know his killer, the book of Fate will real "He killed him with a 5 inch knife in the kitchen". The Book of Fate is very specific to its subject. Even if you possess all the knowledge in the world in the form of a universal Encyclopedia, without a table of content or index to direct its query, you will search for all eternity without answers.

As for the other main character, he's another law enforcement specialist. He deals with Criminal profiling and has a gift, he's an empath. Everyone has heard enough about telepaths reading minds and solving mysteries from the last 50 years of Science fiction, but empaths seem to play 2nd fiddle. Having the gift of empathy allows the person to feel what others feel or felt. Using this gift, the character can identify a suspect and create a profile based on strong emotions, even partial memories due to the strength of emotions left behind at crime scenes. From this information, he can draw a profile os suspects and attempt to capture them. The 2nd main character is a Buddhist, 3rd generation Chinese American.

There's a third main character/supporting main character, who is with the Taoist character all the time, but I would not consider him present. There's a lot of complications due to his presence and it creates a fun little menage de trois, since of course, all three are gay. What are the cosmic odds? (Especially, since their creator is deep thinking gay Chinese guy )

That's the last bit of stuff you will get before I write up this story in its full version.