Pilgrim laughed and said, “No need to say more — his coming to lodge a dream with you is plainly a piece of business thrown old Sun’s way.

Wukong reframes a murdered king's plea as an opportunity, and does it in commercial language: 一場生意, a piece of trade thrown his way. Demon-catching is his line of business and someone has just put work on the table. 託夢 is to send a dream to someone; 分明 is "plainly." (In 一場生意 the 場 is cháng, the measure word for an occasion or a bout — the sealed note gave chǎng, which belongs to 場 as a physical place.)

Surely it is some fiend there, usurping the throne and seizing the state; let me sort out for him the true from the false.

And the job is defined in four characters that could stand as the chapter's title: 辨個真假, sort out the true from the false. 篡位謀國 is to usurp the throne and scheme for the state; 那裡 here is nà lǐ, "there," the pointing use.

I fancy that where old Sun’s cudgel reaches that fiend, the work will be done and the deed accomplished.”

The method, stated with total confidence: apply cudgel, collect merit. 棍到處 is "wherever the cudgel arrives"; 立業成功 is to get the job done; 那 is the pointing nà.

Tripitaka said, “Disciple, he says that fiend’s powers are vast.”

Tripitaka relays the warning he was given. 神通廣大 shén tōng guǎng dà — vast supernatural powers — is said of this fiend four times across the chapter, by the ghost, by Tripitaka twice, and finally by Wukong himself. 那怪 takes the pointing nà.

Pilgrim said, “What do I care how vast his powers?

Wukong is unimpressed, as a matter of principle. 甚麼 has 甚 as shén.

Let him but learn old Sun has come, and I will make him bolt with nowhere to run.”

走無方 — flee with no direction left to flee in. 教他 has 教 as jiào, the causative: make him.

Tripitaka said, “And I recall, too, that he left a treasure behind as a token.”

The detail that will decide the argument, remembered almost as an afterthought. 表記 is the proof-token; 記得 has 得 as dé.

Bajie answered, “Master, do not talk nonsense; it was only a dream and there is an end of it — why keep taking it for real?”

Bajie's contribution is flat scepticism, and on any ordinary night he would be right. 胡纏 is to babble; 當真 has 當 as dàng, to treat as, not dāng.

Sha Seng said, “‘Trust not the straight within the straight; be wary of the kindly-that-is-unkind.’

Sha Seng, who speaks least, quotes a proverb: 不信直中直 / 須防仁不仁 — do not trust the straight within the straight, beware the kindness that is not kind. It is a warning against taking appearances at face value, which in a chapter about a flawless impersonation is almost too apt. The edition sets it inside its own citation brackets 『』, which is how the printer marks a quotation — and why the line carries no verse flag whatever its shape. 直中直 takes the locative zhōng.

Let us strike a light, open the door, and take a look — that will settle it.”

And the sensible proposal that ends the debate: go and look. 打起火 is to strike a light; 開了門 takes the completive le.