神兵復失 The Divine Weapons Lost Again
那怪聞言，指著行者道：「你原來是個偷天的大賊。不要走，吃吾一槍。」這大聖使棒來迎。兩個正自相持，這壁廂哪吒太子生嗔，火德星君發狠，即將那六件神兵、火部等物，望妖魔身上拋來。孫大聖更加雄勢。一邊又雷公使㨝，天王舉刀，不分上下，一擁齊來。那魔頭巍巍冷笑，袖子中暗暗將寶貝取出，撒手拋起空中，叫聲：「著！」唿喇的一下，把六件神兵、火部等物、雷公㨝、天王刀、行者棒，盡情又都撈去。眾神靈依然赤手，孫大聖仍是空拳。妖魔得勝回身，叫：「小的們，搬石砌門，動土修造，從新整理房廊。待齊備了，殺唐僧三眾來謝土，大家散福受用。」眾小妖領命維持不題。那怪闻言，指着行者道：「你原来是个偷天的大贼。不要走，吃吾一枪。」这大圣使棒来迎。两个正自相持，这壁厢哪咤太子生嗔，火德星君发狠，即将那六件神兵、火部等物，望妖魔身上抛来。孙大圣更加雄势。一边又雷公使㨝，天王举刀，不分上下，一拥齐来。那魔头巍巍冷笑，袖子中暗暗将宝贝取出，撒手抛起空中，叫声：「着！」唿喇的一下，把六件神兵、火部等物、雷公㨝、天王刀、行者棒，尽情又都捞去。众神灵依然赤手，孙大圣仍是空拳。妖魔得胜回身，叫：「小的们，搬石砌门，动土修造，从新整理房廊。待齐备了，杀唐僧三众来谢土，大家散福受用。」众小妖领命维持不题。
逐句解 Line by line
The monster heard him out, pointed at Pilgrim and said: "So you are that great thief who robbed heaven itself. Don't run — take a spear from me!"
那怪 points, so 那 is nà; 指著: 著 is zhe. 偷天的大賊, "the great thief who robbed heaven", is the demon's summary of thirty-five couplets — and it is not unfair.
The Great Sage brought his rod up to meet him.
使棒來迎 is the formula that closes a speech and opens an engagement. This time the narrative gives the fight no verse at all, which is a signal in its own right: the poem has already been spent.
The two of them were fairly locked together when, on this side, Prince Nezha grew angry and the Fire Virtue Star Lord grew fierce, and they flung the six divine weapons and the gear of the fire departments straight at the fiend's body.
相持: 相 is xiāng; 太子: 子 is zǐ; 即將那六件: 將 is jiāng, 那 is nà. They throw everything at him at once, which is precisely the wrong move.
The Great Sage Sun redoubled his mighty bearing.
更加: 更 is gèng, "the more", not the gēng of a night-watch.
On the other side the Thunder Squire plied his wedge and the Devarāja raised his sabre, and without regard to rank or order they all came on at once.
不分上下: 分 is fēn. The Thunder Squire's implement is a rare character read xiē — the hand-radical version of 楔, a wedge or chisel, which is what he drives into whatever he strikes.
That demon head gave a slow, cold laugh, brought the treasure quietly out of his sleeve, loosed his hand and flung it up into the air, crying: "Have it!"
The cold laugh, the sleeve, the throw. 那魔頭 points, so 那 is nà; 袖子 takes the bare ending zi; both 中 (袖子中, 空中) are zhōng; 將寶貝取出: 將 is jiāng. The shout 著！ is zháo — the reading for something hitting home, roughly "got you" — and it is fixed that way across the edition.
With a whoosh and a rattle it scooped up the whole lot again — the six divine weapons, the fire-department gear, the Thunder Squire's wedge, the Devarāja's sabre and Pilgrim's rod.
都 is dōu; 盡情: 盡 is jìn, here "down to the last one." 唿喇 imitates the sweep of it. 撈 — to dredge up, to scoop — is the same verb the chapter has been using for the ring all along, and it is the verb for fishing something out of water.
The host of gods were bare-handed as before, and the Great Sage Sun empty-fisted again.
依然赤手 and 仍是空拳: a matched pair of four-character phrases, and the refrain of the whole arc. This is the third time the same sentence could have been written.
The fiend turned back in victory and called: "Little ones! Fetch stones and wall up the gate, break ground and build, and put the halls and galleries in order afresh.
得勝: 得 is dé; 搬石: 石 is shí. 動土 is the technical term for breaking ground on a building.
"When all is ready, we will kill the three of the Tang priest's party as our thank-offering to the earth, and share out the blessing among us and enjoy it."
And here is what the repairs are for. 待齊備了: 了 is le. 謝土 is the rite of thanks offered to the god of the soil when a building is finished; 散福: 散 is sàn, the sharing out of the sacrificial meat among everyone present afterwards. The pilgrims are the offering, and the party follows.
The little imps received their orders and set about keeping all in hand — of which no more.
領命維持 is "took the order and kept things in hand"; 不題 drops the thread, and the scene moves back to the ridge.
The third confiscation is the most complete and the most quickly told. There is no battle poem this time — the narrator has already spent one — and the whole reversal takes four sentences: the gods throw everything at once, the demon laughs, the ring goes up, and the sweep takes the six weapons, the fire-gear, the Thunder Squire's wedge, the Devarāja's sabre, and the cudgel Wukong stole back only the previous night. The pattern is now explicit enough to state as a rule: whatever is aimed at the ring is added to it.
The couplet that follows is the arc's refrain — 眾神靈依然赤手，孫大聖仍是空拳, the gods bare-handed as before, Old Monkey empty-fisted again — and the phrase doing the work is 依然, "as before." Nothing has changed since Chapter 51 except the size of the loss. What follows is worse in its way. The demon does not pursue; he orders repairs. Stones for the gate, ground broken, halls put back in order — and when the building is finished, the Tang priest and his disciples will be killed as the thank-offering to the earth god and the meat shared out as blessed food. He has stopped treating the pilgrims as enemies and started treating them as catering for a house-warming.