天羅地網 A Net Spread Over Heaven
那牛王拚命捐軀，鬥經五十餘合，抵敵不住，敗了陣，往北就走。早有五臺山秘魔巖神通廣大潑法金剛阻住，喝道：「牛魔，你往那裡去？我蒙釋迦牟尼佛祖差來，佈列天羅地網，至此擒汝也。」那牛王拚命捐躯，斗经五十余合，抵敌不住，败了阵，往北就走。早有五台山秘魔岩神通广大泼法金刚阻住，喝道：「牛魔，你往那里去？我蒙释迦牟尼佛祖差来，布列天罗地网，至此擒汝也。」
逐句解 Line by line
The Bull King staked his life and threw his body in, fought upward of fifty bouts, could not hold against them, broke, and made off northward.
拚 is pàn, to cast away or disregard, so 拚命捐軀 is to throw down life and body together rather than the modern sense of trying hard. 往北就走 begins the pattern that governs the rest of the passage: he will try all four directions in turn.
But there already stood the Vajra of Vast Power and Sprinkled Law from Secret Demon Crag on Mount Wutai, barring the way and shouting: "Bull Demon, where do you think you are going?
那裡去 is the question word, nǎ, the seventh such site in the chapter and the same formula the local god used at 那裡走 when he blocked the cave mouth. 喝 is hè, to shout, correctly reached inside the frame 喝道.
"I was dispatched by the Buddha Śākyamuni to spread a net over heaven and earth, and to take you here."
This is the first indication in the whole sequence that the Buddha has been paying attention. 差 is chāi, to dispatch on a commission, against the chà of error and the chā of difference. 天羅地網 — a net over heaven and a mesh over earth — is the standard phrase for an inescapable cordon, and it answers the 水泄不通 of the previous passage by widening it from a mountain to the cosmos.
Fifty bouts against the celestial host, and then north. What meets him there changes the nature of the chapter: not another fighter but a Vajra with a commission, posted in advance, who has been waiting.
我蒙釋迦牟尼佛祖差來 is the first indication in this whole sequence that the Buddha has been paying attention. The fan has been contested as private property for three chapters — a wife's grievance, a husband's grudge, a pilgrim's need — and the cordon turns out to have been drawn from Vulture Peak before any of the principals knew it was there.
天羅地網 answers the 水泄不通 of the previous passage by enlarging it from a mountain to the cosmos. The Bull King is not being pursued any more. He is inside something.