原文 Original text
繁體 Traditional
Reader's edition
老妖是死 The Old Demon Is Done For
行者暗自喜道：「好了！老妖是死了。聞言就走，怎敢覿面相逢？這進去還似此言方好；行者暗自喜道：「好了！老妖是死了。闻言就走，怎敢觌面相逢？这进去还似此言方好；
逐句解 Line by line
行者暗自喜道：「好了！
行者暗自喜道：「好了！
Pilgrim was privately delighted. "Good!
好了 is a two-character shout of satisfaction. He has emptied the forecourt without drawing the cudgel.
老妖是死了。
老妖是死了。
The old demon is as good as dead.
Five characters of a conclusion drawn far too early, and the chapter is going to end before we find out.
聞言就走，怎敢覿面相逢？
闻言就走，怎敢觌面相逢？
If they run at the mere sound of it, how would they dare meet me face to face?
覿面 is face to face, eye to eye — a formal, slightly archaic word. 相逢 has 相 as xiāng, the mutual band, not the xiàng of appearance the base offers.
這進去還似此言方好；
这进去还似此言方好；
Going in, I had better keep to the same story;
還似此言方好 is it would be as well to stay with these words. Having found something that works, he intends to say it again.
Pilgrim draws exactly the wrong conclusion from a real success. Ten thousand demons ran from a story, therefore the kings are finished — which does not follow at all.
The reasoning is the same one his master keeps making and he keeps mocking: judging the size of a danger by how frightened people are of it.
But the practical decision is sound. Keep to the same story. He has a working instrument and proposes to use it twice.