He had, in fact, leapt up into the ninth-heaven clouds, and with wide eyes gazed all around, watching that demon-king.

Pointing 那魔王: 那 = nà. 九霄雲裡, up among the ninth-heaven clouds — the highest layer of the sky, and a good place from which to watch someone run.

He saw that the beast had indeed fled for his life, making off straight to the northeast.

Pointing 那畜: 那 = nà; 畜 = chù, beast. 逃了性命, fled for dear life. Northeast, the text notes — and northeast is where help will shortly come from, though not the fiend's.

Pilgrim chased until he had all but come up on him, and shouted: "That monster — where are you off to?

趕得將近: hinging 得 = de; 將 = jiāng, "about to, nearly." Pointing 那怪物 = nà; but 那裡去, "where are you off to," is a question, so 那 = nǎ.

Old Sun is come!"

老孫來了也 — Wukong announcing himself in mid-pursuit, which he never fails to do.

That demon-king spun his head about, whipped out his precious sword, and cried aloud: "Sun the Pilgrim, you rascal!

Pointing 那魔王: 那 = nà. 掣出寶刀, drew his sword. 憊懶, a rogue, a wretch — and it is the only other time the word appears in this chapter, Lord Lao having used it of Wukong back in the elixir-chamber. The demon and the god agree about him.

I came to seize another man's throne — it's no concern of yours; why come meddling to right a wrong, and leak out my secret?"

占別人的帝位: 占 = zhàn, to seize. 抱不平 is to take up somebody else's grievance; the fuller phrase is still current for stepping in on behalf of the wronged. The fiend's complaint is that Wukong is a busybody, and, on the facts, he is.

Pilgrim laughed aloud: "I'll get you, you great bold vile monster!

我把你這個大膽的潑怪 is a scolding flourish rather than a sentence — roughly "why, you insolent wretch."

Is the throne yours to sit on, then?

皇帝又許你做, "and are you permitted to be emperor?" The whole moral argument of the chapter, compressed into six characters and a sneer.

Since you know I'm old Sun, you should have fled far off — how is it you still harass my master and demand some deposition?

還刁難: 還 = hái; 刁難 takes 難 = nàn. 供狀: 供 = gòng; 甚麼 takes 甚 = shén.

That deposition just now — was it so or not?

Pointing 那供狀: 那 = nà; 供 = gòng. Wukong cannot resist asking the fiend to confirm his own indictment.

Don't run — if you're a stout fellow, take this cudgel of old Sun's."

好漢 is a stout fellow, a man of spirit. 這一棒, this one blow — offered the way one offers a drink.

That fiend dodged aside and, whipping his precious sword, slashed back in his face.

Pointing 那魔: 那 = nà. 劈面相還: 相 = xiāng, 還 = huán, to give back in return — the sword answers the cudgel in kind.

The two of them locked hands, and this was a fine fight indeed. Truly:

這一場好殺, this bout, a splendid killing-match. The tag 真是 and the colon after it are the edition's announcement that a formal battle-verse follows, which is why the next lines are displayed as poetry.

The Monkey King fierce, the demon-king strong: / sword met, cudgel warded, each daring to match the other.

First couplet of the battle-verse. 刀迎棒架, sword advancing, cudgel parrying. 敢相當: 相 = xiāng, 當 = dāng — evenly matched, each daring the other.

One sky of cloud and mist bewildering the Three Realms — / all for the setting-up of a king over the reigning court.

只為當朝立帝王: 為 = wèi, "for the sake of" — not the wéi of "to be," which the chapter uses constantly. 當朝 takes 當 = dāng and 朝 = cháo. 迷三界, bewildering the Three Realms. The line names the stake: all this weather, for the question of who sits on one throne.