Eight Rules, seeing it, said: ‘Brother, this monster must be afraid of us — he's rolling out his carts and moving house over that way.’

Bajie reads the scene wrong, which is his usual function. He sees carts being wheeled out and assumes the demon is packing up and running. 那廂 is "over that way," and 那 is nà, simply pointing. The 子 on 車子 is an unstressed second syllable, so the word is chē zi. Wukong is about to tell him what the carts actually are.

The Pilgrim said: ‘Not so — just watch where he sets them.’

且看他, "just watch him" -- Wukong will not explain, only tell Bajie to keep his eyes open. 那裡 here is nà lǐ, "there," pointing at a place, not asking about one. 不是 takes bú, the tone shifting before the falling tone that follows.

They saw the little imps range the carts by metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, and set them down; five were left to keep watch over them, while five went in to report.

The line to slow down on. The imps do not park the carts anywhere convenient; they range them 按金、木、水、火、土 -- by metal, wood, water, fire and earth, the Five Phases in order. This is the machinery that will raise the 三昧真火, and it is the opening song coming true on the page. 將 is jiāng, the little word that puts the object first: took the carts, and set them down. Then a nice double: 著五個看著 has the same character twice, sounded two different ways -- the first zhuó, setting five of them to a job, the second zhe, showing the watching going on.

The demon king asked: ‘All in order?’

停當 tíng dàng means "ready, all settled." The 當 is dàng, the "proper, in order" sound, not the dāng of "at the time." The demon king is running a checklist.

The answer came: ‘All in order.’

The answer comes back word for word. 答應 is dā yìng, "to answer" -- 應 sounded yìng, respond, rather than the yīng of "ought to." 停當 repeats with the same dàng.

He bade them fetch his spear.

One short line to bridge to the arming. 教 is jiào, giving an order through someone else -- he does not fetch the spear, he has it fetched.

Of that band of imps in charge of the weapons, two were set to carry out a fire-tipped spear a full zhàng and eight in length, and it was handed to the demon king.

The spear. 丈八長 is shorthand for one 丈 and eight 尺: ten 寸 make a 尺, ten 尺 make a 丈, so this is eighteen 尺 of weapon, somewhere near five and a half metres. The units stay in Chinese rather than becoming feet and inches, because the Ming foot varied by trade and by century and "eighteen feet" would promise a precision the original never had. 長 is cháng, measuring length, not the zhǎn that means to grow. 著 is zhuó again, two imps set to the task. 火尖槍, the fire-tipped spear, is his signature weapon and will matter more as a channel for the fire than as a blade.

The demon king swung his spear and strode out; he wore neither helmet nor armour of any kind, only a brocade battle-skirt bound at the waist, and barefoot he walked out before the gate.

Look at what he is wearing, because the novel means you to. No helmet, no armour, bare feet -- only a brocade battle-skirt knotted at the waist. 拽步 is to stride out, 拽 sounded zhuài, dragging the step along, not the zhuāi that means to hurl. 赤著腳, barefoot, has 著 at its third sound in this passage, zhe, showing the state he is in. A creature this underdressed is telling you his power is not in his kit.