斷絕火根 To Cut The Fire At Its Root
行者道：「我當時問著鄉人說：這山搧息火，只收得一年五穀，便又火發。如何治得除根？」羅剎道：「要是斷絕火根，只消連搧四十九扇，永遠再不發了。」行者道：「我当时问着乡人说：这山搧息火，只收得一年五谷，便又火发。如何治得除根？」罗刹道：「要是断绝火根，只消连搧四十九扇，永远再不发了。」
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim said: "At the time I asked the country people, and they said that when this mountain's fire is fanned out you get one year's harvest and then it breaks out again. How is it to be cured at the root?"
The Great Sage raises the objection the reader has been carrying since the start of the sequence: fanning buys one harvest, and then the fire comes back. Both readings of 得 stand in this one line. 只收得一年五穀 takes dé, the verb of obtaining with its object actually got; 如何治得除根 takes the light linking de, because 如何 is one of the "can/cannot" frames this edition names for that reading. 問著 takes the zhe that keeps the asking going.
The Rākṣasī said: "If you would cut the fire off at its root, you need only fan forty-nine strokes together, and it will never break out again."
Four characters of number, and she gives them away for nothing. 四十九 is seven times seven, a number of completion in both the Buddhist and the alchemical schemes, and it is the answer nobody has had in three chapters. She volunteers it before the fan has been returned to her and with no guarantee that it will be.
The Great Sage raises the real objection, and it is one the reader has been carrying since the first chapter of this sequence: the country people said that fanning buys a single harvest and then the fire returns. Putting it out is not the same as ending it.
The answer is four characters of number and it is given away for nothing. 連搧四十九扇 — forty-nine strokes together, seven times seven, a number of completion in both the Buddhist and the alchemical reckonings. She has had this information throughout, nobody thought to ask her for it, and she volunteers it before the fan has been promised back.