摸痕無疤 Feeling for the Scar
說不了，行者走來，叫聲：「師父。」三藏大喜道：「徒弟，辛苦麼？」行者道：「不辛苦，倒好耍子。」八戒道：「哥哥，可用刀瘡藥麼？」行者道：「你是摸摸看，可有刀痕？」那獃子伸手一摸，就笑得呆呆睜睜道：「妙哉，妙哉！卻也長得完全，截疤兒也沒些兒。」说不了，行者走来，叫声：「师父。」三藏大喜道：「徒弟，辛苦么？」行者道：「不辛苦，倒好耍子。」八戒道：「哥哥，可用刀疮药么？」行者道：「你是摸摸看，可有刀痕？」那呆子伸手一摸，就笑得呆呆睁睁道：「妙哉，妙哉！却也长得完全，截疤儿也没些儿。」
逐句解 Line by line
Before the words were done, the Pilgrim came walking up and called: "Master."
說不了 — before the words were out. The 了 here is liǎo, the full verb "to finish," not the light le that marks something done; the chapter uses liǎo only twice, and this is the first. Sha Monk is still counting heads when the owner of them walks up.
Tripitaka, overjoyed, said: "Disciple — was it hard?"
辛苦麼 — was it hard work? It is what you ask somebody back from a long shift, and Tripitaka asks it of a man who has just been beheaded. 三藏: 藏 = zàng.
The Pilgrim said: "No trouble at all — rather good sport."
And here the promise made at the chapter's opening comes due. 倒 is dào in 倒好耍子 — "on the contrary, rather" — where in 拜倒 and 倒山 earlier it was dǎo, to topple. Same character, and only the sound tells you whether something is falling over or turning out the opposite way. 耍子 is a lark, a bit of fun, with the light 子 = zi. No trouble at all, he says; rather good sport.
Eight Rules said: "Brother, will you want some salve for the sword-wound?"
刀瘡藥 is salve for a sword-wound — the standard field dressing, and Bajie offers it in complete seriousness. He has watched the whole thing and still expects there to be a wound.
The Pilgrim said: "You feel and see — is there any scar of the blade?"
刀痕 is the scar a blade leaves. 摸摸看 — have a feel and see; doubling the verb before 看 (kàn) is the ordinary way of inviting somebody to try something for themselves.
That blockhead stretched out his hand and felt, then laughed with round, staring eyes: "Marvellous, marvellous!
笑得呆呆睜睜 — laughing with his eyes round and blank, 得 = de joining the laugh to the look on his face. 那獃子: 那 = nà, 子 = zi.
It has grown back whole, and there's not the least mark of a seam."
長得完全: 長 = zhǎng, grown whole, 得 = de. 截疤兒也沒些兒 — not so much as a seam-mark, with both 兒 the small unstressed er and 沒 = méi. Bajie has now verified the miracle by hand, which is the only way he ever verifies anything.
After the block, the chapter lets its breath out. Wukong strolls back whole, is asked whether it was hard work — the question you put to somebody back from a long shift — and answers 倒好耍子, no trouble at all, rather good sport. Bajie, ever the literalist, offers him wound salve, then gropes along his neck for the seam and finds nothing, and stands there laughing with his eyes gone round and blank. It is a breathing-space, and the novel builds them deliberately: the disciples' banter is what makes the danger bearable.
The passage also pays off a small promise made in the chapter's first paragraph. 倒 is dào here, "on the contrary, rather" — where the three Daoists 拜倒, fell prostrate, and the realm had strength 倒山, to topple mountains, it was dǎo. Nothing on the page distinguishes them; only the sound does. And Wukong's unmarked neck is the visible proof of the boast, which sets up the reversal coming: the same ordeal, handed to Tiger-Power, will not end this lightly.