二寶遣妖 The Two Treasures and the Sent Imps
老魔將寶貝取出道：「差那兩個去？」二魔道：「差精細鬼、伶俐蟲二人去。」吩咐道：「你兩個拿著這寶貝，徑至高山絕頂，將底兒朝天，口兒朝地，叫一聲：『孫行者。』他若應了，就已裝在裡面，隨即貼上『太上老君急急如律令奉敕』的帖兒，他就一時三刻化為膿了。」二小妖叩頭，將寶貝領出去拿行者不題。老魔将宝贝取出道：「差那两个去？」二魔道：「差精细鬼、伶俐虫二人去。」吩咐道：「你两个拿著这宝贝，径至高山绝顶，将底儿朝天，口儿朝地，叫一声：『孙行者。』他若应了，就已装在里面，随即贴上『太上老君急急如律令奉敕』的帖儿，他就一时三刻化为脓了。」二小妖叩头，将宝贝领出去拿行者不题。
逐句解 Line by line
The old fiend took the treasures out and said: “Which two shall we send?”
將寶貝取出 (jiāng bǎo bèi qǔ chū), “took out the treasures,” 將 the disposal coverb. 差那兩個 (chāi nǎ liǎng gè), “send which two?” — here 那 is the interrogative nǎ, “which.”
The second fiend said: “Send the two, Fine-and-Keen and Clever-Bug.”
精細鬼 (jīng xì guǐ), “Fine-and-Keen Imp,” and 伶俐蟲 (líng lì chóng), “Clever-Bug” — the two little demons dispatched with the gourds, their names promising a shrewdness Pilgrim will outdo.
He charged them: “You two take these treasures, go straight to the mountain's highest peak, turn the bottom skyward and the mouth to the ground, and call out once: ‘Sun Pilgrim!’
徑至 (jìng zhì), “go straight to.” 底兒／口兒 (dǐ er / kǒu er), “the bottom / the mouth,” each with the suffix 兒 (er). The vessel must be inverted, mouth down, and the victim's name called.
“If he answers, he's sucked inside at once; then paste on the label reading ‘By command of Lord Lao, quick as the statutes decree,’ and in an hour or so he'll melt to pus.”
他若應了 (tā ruò yìng le), “if he answers,” 應 read yìng, “to respond.” 急急如律令奉敕 (jí jí rú lǜ lìng fèng chì), a Daoist sealing-formula. 化為膿 (huà wéi nóng), “melt into pus,” 為 read wéi, “to become.”
The two little imps kowtowed, took the treasures, and set off to catch Pilgrim — of which no more for now.
叩頭 (kòu tóu), “to kowtow.” 不題 (bù tí), “no more of this [for now]” — the storyteller's formula for setting a thread aside.
The scene lays out, with almost recipe-like precision, the mechanism of the treasure-gourds: invert the vessel, call the victim's name, and if he answers he is drawn in and sealed with a Daoist command-label, to dissolve within the hour. The care of the instructions is dramatic setup — every step named here will matter when Pilgrim, disguised, meets the imps and must play the game by its own rules.
The dispatch of Fine-and-Keen and Clever-Bug, imps whose names boast a cleverness the story means to puncture, sets the next movement going. The storyteller closes the thread with his customary 不題, “no more of this for now,” turning the reader's attention back to the pinned Great Sage — whose rescue, unknown to the confident demons, is already being arranged by the very mountain-gods they compelled.