一日三遭 Three Times A Day
行者道：「占了此泉何幹？」土地道：「這怪占了浴池，一日三遭，出來洗澡。如今巳時已過，午時將來呀。」行者道：「占了此泉何干？」土地道：「这怪占了浴池，一日三遭，出来洗澡。如今巳时已过，午时将来呀。」
逐句解 Line by line
Pilgrim said, "And what do they want with the spring?"
占 is zhàn, to occupy or seize — not zhān, to divine by casting lots. 何幹 is what for, what business. He is still gathering, and this is the question that gets him his plan.
The local god said, "Having taken over the bathing pool, the creatures come out to wash three times a day."
遭 is a measure word for occasions — three times round. Seventeen characters, and they contain the entire second half of the chapter: a schedule, which is the one thing an enemy can be caught by.
"The hour of the Snake is past now, and the hour of the Horse is nearly on us."
將 is jiāng, about to. The old day ran in twelve double hours named for the animals: the Snake is roughly nine to eleven in the morning, the Horse eleven to one. He is telling Pilgrim it is nearly midday — and therefore nearly bath time.
The plan arrives disguised as a routine. They bathe three times a day, and it is almost the middle hour. Pilgrim did not have to do anything clever to get this; he asked a local official what the neighbours were like.
The hours are named for animals, twelve of them across a day and each one double the length of ours. The hour of the Horse runs from about eleven to one, so the old god is saying it is nearly noon. He offers it as a fact about the calendar. It is a window.
This is the chapter's turn. Everything before it has happened to Tripitaka; everything after it happens because somebody asked a question and got a timetable.