Eight Rules said: ‘What instructions have you? Let me go and ask her.’

Bajie volunteers, without being asked and without hedging. It is worth crediting: this is the brother who ran across a torrent to save himself twenty passages ago, and he is now putting his hand up for the errand.

The Pilgrim laughed: ‘Well enough — you can go.

也罷 is a small phrase of resigned assent -- well, all right then. The 罷 here is the light sentence-ending ba, not the full bà that means to cease. 你是去得, you can go, with the potential-marking light sound. Wukong is agreeing without enthusiasm.

If you see the Bodhisattva, on no account look up; only bow your head in reverence.

The protocol, and it is oddly touching that Wukong bothers. Do not look up at her. Keep your head down and bow. He is coaching a peasant-turned-pig on how to behave in front of a Bodhisattva, and he clearly does not trust him to work it out.

When she asks, then tell her the place-name and the demon's name, and beg her to rescue the master.

Then the content of the petition, in order: wait until she asks, then give the place-name and the demon's name, then request the rescue. Wukong has broken the errand into steps because he knows exactly who he is sending.

If she is willing to come, she will surely take the monster.’

And the confidence: if she comes, the demon is taken. No hedging in that at all. Wukong's relationship with Guanyin across the novel is complicated -- she is also the one who put the headband on him -- but he has never doubted her power.

Eight Rules, hearing this, at once mounted the mist and clouds and went off toward the south.

South, on the clouds. South is Potalaka, the island in the sea where Guanyin lives, and it is the fixed direction for this errand throughout the book. That predictability is about to be a serious problem.