幹過大事 I Was A Demon Once
當年也曾做過妖精，幹過大事。曾因會眾魔，多飲了幾杯酒睡著，夢中見二人將批勾我去到陰司。当年也曾做过妖精，干过大事。曾因会众魔，多饮了几杯酒睡着，梦中见二人将批勾我去到阴司。
逐句解 Line by line
In my time I too was a demon, and did great things.
Twelve characters, and they reframe the entire conversation. 曾 is céng, the marker of a completed past — I have been one. Pilgrim is not claiming to be the demon's superior on the strength of holiness. He is claiming it on the strength of having been in the same trade and better at it. 幹過大事 is deliberately vague, the way a man is vague about a career he half regrets and half misses.
Once, when I had gathered the demons together and drunk a few cups too many, I fell asleep, and dreamed that two men came with a warrant and hauled me off to the underworld.
著 is zháo here, the band of a thing achieved — 睡著 is not sleeping but succeeding in getting to sleep, which is a different verb in English too. That is the third of this character's four readings to appear in the chapter. 批勾 is a written warrant with a name ticked off on it, the underworld run as a records office, and 陰司 is that office's name: the Shadow Bureau.
This is the chapter turning a corner. Up to now Pilgrim has been performing a small monk asking questions; from here he is telling the story of his own life, and the disguise stops mattering.
The detail he chooses to lead with is worth noticing. Not the rebellion, not the peaches, not the fight with heaven — a party, too much wine and falling asleep. He is establishing that he was once exactly the sort of creature the old man has just spent a passage being frightened of.
And the underworld arrives as paperwork. Two men with a warrant, a name on a list, an office to be taken to. Chinese hell has always been organised like a government department, which is precisely what makes the next passage funny.