何處精魔 What Place Bred This Sprite
行者道：「多蒙老爺盛德大恩。敢問那妖是那方怪物，何處精魔？不知他那搭包兒是件甚麼寶貝？煩老爺指示指示。」行者道：「多蒙老爷盛德大恩。敢问那妖是那方怪物，何处精魔？不知他那搭包儿是件甚么宝贝？烦老爷指示指示。」
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim said, "I am much obliged for your lordship's abundant virtue and great kindness.
盛 is shèng, abundant.
May I ask what quarter's monster that fiend is, and what place bred the sprite?
The two 那 take different readings inside one clause: nà for that fiend, pointing, and nǎ for which quarter, asking. The chapter has used both senses of this character throughout, and here they stand four characters apart.
And I do not know what treasure that bundle of his may be.
The question Monkey has needed answered since the bundle first came out, and the first time in the chapter he has been in a position to put it to somebody who knows.
Would your lordship be so good as to instruct me?"
指示指示 — the verb said twice over — softens a request into something nearer a courtesy, the way English might say do please explain.
Monkey asks three questions and they are all about identity: what the fiend is, where he came from, and what the bundle is. Not one of them is about how to win. He has fought this creature twice and lost three companies to it, and what he wants first is to know what it is.
That instinct is sound and the chapter rewards it. The answers, when they come, explain every failure of the preceding thirty passages at a stroke — and they could have been had at any point from somebody who happened to know.