未展斯須 I Have Made No Return
行者道：「不敢。向蒙莫大之恩，未展斯須之報。雖然脫難西行，未知功行何如。今因路遇祭賽國，答救僧災，在此擒妖索寶。偶見兄長車駕，大膽請留一助。未審兄長自何而來，肯見愛否？」行者道：「不敢。向蒙莫大之恩，未展斯须之报。虽然脱难西行，未知功行何如。今因路遇祭赛国，答救僧灾，在此擒妖索宝。偶见兄长车驾，大胆请留一助。未审兄长自何而来，肯见爱否？」
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim said, "I dare not take it so. I formerly received a kindness beyond measure from you, and have not yet made the least return for it.
The attribution and its unclosed quotation are folded forward into the speech they open: at five graphs this is the shortest such opener in the chapter, well under the threshold of nine. 不 takes bù before the dipping 敢 gǎn. 斯須 is a classical term for the briefest interval, so the phrase says he has not repaid even a moment's worth.
Though I am clear of calamity and travelling west, I do not yet know how the merit and the practice will come out.
難 at 脫難 is nàn, calamity, the same reading and the same wrong default as 脫大難 in Erlang's greeting two segments earlier — Pilgrim is repeating the other man's phrase back with the confidence taken out of it. 行 at 功行 is xíng.
Now, having come upon the kingdom of Jisai on the road, and to answer for the monks in their affliction, I am here seizing fiends and demanding a treasure.
賽 holds sài by the invariant ruling in the kingdom's name. 答救 is to answer a wrong by relieving it, and 僧災 is the monks' calamity — the whole grievance of the chapter before this one reduced to two graphs.
Chancing to see my elder brother's carriage, I made bold to ask you to stay and lend a hand.
長 at 兄長 is zhǎng, the elder — the reading that goes with seniority, against the cháng of length that this chapter has needed at 長空 and 長嘴. 一助 takes 一 at yí before the falling 助 zhù.
I do not know from where my elder brother comes — will you be so good as to favour me?"
長 is zhǎng again. 未審 is the polite I-have-not-ascertained, and 肯見愛否 is a formula of request in which 見 marks the speaker as the one favoured. The whole speech is in the literary register, which Pilgrim produces here as readily as he produced the vernacular for the fiend at the pool.
Pilgrim's reply is the most formal thing he says in the chapter, and it is built as a classical letter: decline the compliment, acknowledge an old debt, report the present situation, make the request, and ask after the other party. Five clauses, in order, every one of them literary.
The old debt is the interesting part. 莫大之恩 — a kindness beyond measure — is what he says he owes to the god who defeated him and delivered him to be executed. Whether this is politeness, irony, or a real assessment of how the affair turned out for him, the text does not say, and the whole rest of the exchange proceeds as though it were simple truth.
He also takes Erlang's word back. Erlang had said he was clear of a great calamity and would end on the lotus throne; Pilgrim repeats 脫難 and then says he does not know how the merit will come out. The correction is polite, and it is a correction.