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：「你两个拿着这宝贝，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 puts 將 back to work as a stand-in for 把: took the treasures and brought them out. In 差那兩個 (chāi nǎ liǎng gè) the 那 is the question-word nǎ, "which two," and 差 is chāi, to send someone off on an errand -- the word behind a runner, a courier, an official posting -- rather than the chà of something being wrong or short.
The second fiend said: "Send the two, Fine-and-Keen and Clever-Bug."
The two imps are named for exactly what they will fail to be. 精細鬼 (jīng xì guǐ) is the Fine-and-Keen Imp -- 精細 is still the ordinary word for meticulous -- and 伶俐蟲 (líng lì chóng) is Clever-Bug, from 伶俐, quick-witted. 差 is again chāi, dispatching a pair of subordinates. Handing the two sharpest names in the cave to the two demons about to be comprehensively swindled is the storyteller setting up his own punchline eleven passages in advance.
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." The working instructions are precise, and worth holding on to, because every step will matter: 底兒 and 口兒 (dǐ er / kǒu er), the bottom and the mouth, each with the toneless 兒. Vessel inverted, mouth to the ground, and then the victim's name called out.
"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 a trice he'll melt to pus."
Everything hangs on 他若應了 (tā ruò yìng le), "if he answers" -- 應 read yìng, "to respond." The gourd cannot take you; you have to say yes to it. Then the seal: 急急如律令奉敕 was the closing line of a Han imperial edict, meaning roughly "execute this with the urgency of a statute, by command," and Daoist ritual lifted it wholesale, which is why it is still the phrase every film exorcist shouts. 化為膿 (huà wéi nóng), "melt into pus," 為 read wéi, "to become." The span given for it is 一時三刻, which reads like a measurement -- one 時辰 and three quarter-hours -- but is a set phrase meaning no time at all, and the boast is about speed, not schedule.
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 knock the forehead on the ground, is the source of the English word kowtow. 不題 (bù tí), "no more of this for now" -- the storyteller drops the thread here and picks up the one he left under three mountains.
The scene sets out the mechanism of the gourds with almost recipe-like care: turn the vessel over, call the name, and if he answers he is drawn in and sealed with a Daoist command-slip to dissolve. All that precision is dramatic groundwork. Every step named here will come back when Pilgrim, in disguise, has to play the same game by the same rules.
The two imps sent out are called Fine-and-Keen and Clever-Bug, names that boast of exactly the quality the story intends to strip from them. And the sealing formula is worth pausing on: 急急如律令 began life as bureaucratic boilerplate at the foot of a Han imperial order, was borrowed by Daoist ritual, and has ended up as the line every exorcist shouts in every ghost film since. The storyteller then closes the thread with his usual 不題 and turns back to the mountain.