神證真形 The Gods Bear Witness
好大聖，念動咒語，叫當坊土地、本處山神道：「這妖精三番來戲弄我師父，這一番卻要打殺他。你與我在半空中作證，不許走了。」眾神聽令，誰敢不從，都在雲端裡照應。那大聖棍起處，打倒妖魔，才斷絕了靈光。好大圣，念动咒语，叫当坊土地、本处山神道：「这妖精三番来戏弄我师父，这一番却要打杀他。你与我在半空中作证，不许走了。」众神听令，谁敢不从，都在云端里照应。那大圣棍起处，打倒妖魔，才断绝了灵光。
逐句解 Line by line
Good Great Sage! He recited a spell and summoned the local earth-god of the ward and the mountain-god of the place: "This fiend has come three times to make sport of my master, and this time I mean to strike her dead.
當坊土地 (dāng fāng tǔ dì) "the earth-god of this ward," 當 (dāng) "this, the present"; 本處山神 (běn chù shān shén) "the mountain-god of this place." 三番 (sān fān) "three times" — the 三戲 of the chapter title, now to be ended. Wukong invokes the local tutelary spirits, whose jurisdiction over the mountain makes them witnesses the demon cannot evade.
"Stand witness for me up in mid-air, and don't let her get away."
作證 (zuò zhèng) "to bear witness." 不許走了 (bù xǔ zǒu le) "do not let [her] escape." This is the crux: by stationing the gods to block the demon's escape, Wukong forecloses the Corpse-Liberation trick that let it survive the first two blows. There will be no decoy this time.
The host of spirits heard the command — who would dare disobey? — and all of them kept watch up in the clouds.
眾神聽令 (zhòng shén tīng lìng) "the spirits heard the order." 誰敢不從 (shéi gǎn bù cóng) "who would dare not obey?" 都在雲端裡照應 (dōu zài yún duān lǐ zhào yìng) "all kept watch in the clouds," 都 (dōu), 應 (yìng) (照應 "to attend, keep watch"). The Great Sage's authority over the local pantheon is absolute — the trap is sealed from above.
The Great Sage's cudgel came down — struck the demon to the ground — and this time cut off its soul-light for good.
那大聖 (nà dà shèng) "the Great Sage," 那 (nà). 打倒妖魔 (dǎ dǎo yāo mó) "struck the demon down," 倒 (dǎo) "to topple." 才斷絕了靈光 (cái duàn jué le líng guāng) "only then cut off its soul-light" — the 靈光 being the demon's animating spirit. With the gods barring escape, the third blow is the true death the first two only seemed to be.
This short passage is the chapter's climax and the key that unlocks its whole mechanism. Twice the demon escaped by the 解屍法, sending its spirit forth and leaving a decoy corpse. Here Wukong forecloses that escape by summoning the local earth-god and mountain-god — spirits whose jurisdiction over the mountain lets them bar the fiend's flight from above. With the exits sealed, the trick fails.
The result is the true death the earlier blows only counterfeited: 才斷絕了靈光, "only then cut off its soul-light." The soul-light (靈光) is the demon's animating essence; severed, it cannot flee to a decoy. The killing that the master will mourn as a third "murder" is, this time, a real and final destruction — and, crucially, one the reader has just watched Wukong undertake with full deliberation and for his master's sake.
The passage thus completes the chapter's cruel symmetry. Wukong has at last done what he came to do — destroyed the fiend outright — but only by the very act that will look, to the deceived elder, like the culminating proof of his murderous nature. The true death of the demon and the final rupture of the pilgrimage are the same stroke of the cudgel; the aftermath, in the next movement, will turn that stroke into Wukong's expulsion.