毒魔狠怪 Fell Fiends and Savage Monsters
對長老厲聲高叫道：「那西進的長老，暫停片時，我有一言奉告：此山有一夥毒魔狠怪，專吃你東來西去的人哩。」長老聞言，魂飛魄散，戰兢兢坐不穩雕鞍，急回頭，忙呼徒弟道：「你聽那樵夫報道：『此山有毒魔狠怪。』誰敢去細問他一問？」行者道：「師父放心，等老孫去問他一個端的。」对长老厉声高叫道：「那西进的长老，暂停片时，我有一言奉告：此山有一伙毒魔狠怪，专吃你东来西去的人哩。」长老闻言，魂飞魄散，战兢兢坐不稳雕鞍，急回头，忙呼徒弟道：「你听那樵夫报道：『此山有毒魔狠怪。』谁敢去细问他一问？」行者道：「师父放心，等老孙去问他一个端的。」
逐句解 Line by line
In a stern, loud voice he called to the Elder: "You there, monk journeying west — halt a moment; I have a word to offer you. On this mountain is a pack of venomous fiends and savage monsters that feed on none but you travelers passing east and west."
The warning, shouted down from the rock. 奉告, fèng gào, "I respectfully inform you" — polite, formal, and delivered at the top of his voice. 一夥, yì huǒ, "a gang, a pack," the word for a crew of people who work together, applied here to monsters. 長 is zhǎng, 那 is nà.
Hearing this, the Elder was scared out of his wits; trembling, he could not sit steady in his carved saddle. Quickly he turned his head and hastily called to his disciples: "Did you hear that woodcutter's report — 'On this mountain are venomous fiends and savage monsters'? Who dares go and question him closely?"
The Tang Monk's reaction, in the four characters the language keeps for total panic: 魂飛魄散, hún fēi pò sàn, "the 魂 flies off and the 魄 scatters." Chinese tradition gives a person two kinds of soul, the airy 魂 and the earthy 魄; when both come loose at once you are, in the modern phrase, out of your wits. Still in daily use. 雕鞍 is a carved saddle. 長 zhǎng, 那 nà.
Said Pilgrim: "Set your mind at ease, Master. Let Old Sun go and get the whole truth of it from him."
Pilgrim volunteers. 端的, duān dì, "the straight of it, the whole story" — and note that 的 is read dì here, a full syllable, not the weightless modern de.
The warning delivered, the Tang Monk does what he always does: 魂飛魄散, both souls out the door, unable to keep his seat in the saddle. Pilgrim, unbothered, offers to go and interview the stranger. This contrast is the engine that drives most episodes in the novel — the master's terror creates the situation, and the monkey's complete absence of fear supplies the response.
What the woodcutter actually says is carefully rationed. There is a pack of vicious monsters up here and they eat travellers: enough to establish the stakes, and nothing about the two demon-kings or the five treasures that the next several exchanges will have to prise out of him. The novel routinely announces its dangers in outline before it fills them in.