再打屍魔 The Fiend Struck Again
行者認得他是妖精，更不理論，舉棒照頭便打。那怪見棍子起時，依然抖擻，又出化了元神，脫真兒去了，把個假屍首又打死在山路傍之下。行者认得他是妖精，更不理论，举棒照头便打。那怪见棍子起时，依然抖擞，又出化了元神，脱真儿去了，把个假尸首又打死在山路傍之下。
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim knew her for a fiend, and without a word of argument raised his cudgel and struck straight at her head.
更不理論 — not another word of argument. No warning this time and no attempt to persuade anybody: he has taken the wrong lesson from the last round, which is that explaining does not work. And in swinging he breaks, of necessity, the promise he made two passages ago. That is the trap the chapter has been building. To act on the truth, he has to appear to break his word. (認得 takes the toneless de; 更 is gèng.)
The monster, seeing the cudgel rise, braced itself as before, sent its spirit forth once again, and slipped its true form away — leaving another false corpse struck dead beside the mountain road.
Same trick, same result. 出化了元神, sent the primal spirit out; 脫真兒, slipped the true self away — and another body is left lying in the road. The repetition is mechanical, and it is meant to be. The demon has found a move that cannot lose, and she will keep playing it. (那 points, nà; the 子 of 棍子 and the 兒 of 脫真兒 are both small toneless tags.)
The second strike compresses the first into two swift clauses. No warning, no plea: certain of his sight, Wukong strikes 更不理論, without further debate — and in doing so necessarily breaks the promise he had made only pages earlier. The chapter tightens its trap. To act on the truth, he must appear to break his word.
The escape repeats exactly — the same trick, the same decoy corpse left in the road. The mechanical sameness is the point. Because each blow kills only a shell, the cycle can run indefinitely, taking a little more of the master's trust each time round. The reader, who knows the corpse is false, watches the elder being set up to condemn Wukong a second time on precisely the same illusion.
With the second false corpse the chapter turns toward its climax. Twice now the disciple has seen truly and struck; twice the demon has walked away; and twice the master stands ready to mistake a rescue for a slaughter. What remains is the third disguise, and a dismissal that will not be taken back.