學語學話 He Learns Their Speech
行者聽了一會言談，卻就學語學話，問道：「駙馬爺爺拿來的那長嘴和尚，這會死了不曾？」眾精道：「不曾死，縛在那西廊下哼的不是？」行者听了一会言谈，却就学语学话，问道：「驸马爷爷拿来的那长嘴和尚，这会死了不曾？」众精道：「不曾死，缚在那西廊下哼的不是？」
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim listened to their talk a while, then took up their speech and their turns of phrase, and asked, "That long-snouted monk his lordship the son-in-law brought in — is he dead by now or not?"
長 at 長嘴 is cháng, long, where pypinyin gives zhǎng at nearly every site. 一會 takes 一 at yí before the falling 會 huì; 這會 is the same word used of the present moment, by now. 爺爺 is set by the registered kinship reading, with a neutral second syllable.
The sprites said, "Not dead. Isn't that him groaning, tied up under the western gallery there?"
不 takes bù before the rising 曾 céng and bú before the falling 是 shì — two occurrences in one short segment, taking different values by the mechanical rule. 那 is deictic and 的 is de. The answer is given as a question, which is the vernacular way of pointing at something.
學語學話 — to learn the speech and learn the talk — is a small phrase doing a specific job. It is not enough to be shaped like a crab; he listens first, picks up how these creatures talk, and only then opens his mouth. The disguise is behavioural as well as physical, and the text is precise about the order of operations.
The question he asks is the one a member of the household would ask, and it is also exactly what he needs to know. He calls the fiend 駙馬爺爺, his lordship the son-in-law — the same grandfather-word he has been applying to himself all chapter, here handed to his enemy as a courtesy, in a voice that is not his.
The answer comes back as a question, which is how the vernacular points: isn't that him groaning over there? Eight Rules is alive, located, and audible. Everything Pilgrim came in for is settled in sixteen graphs.