更不打話 Not A Word Between Them
三個魔頭，各持兵器，趕上城來，見了行者，更不打話，舉兵器一齊亂刺；行者掄鐵棒掣手相迎。鬥經七八回合，行者佯輸而走。三个魔头，各持兵器，赶上城来，见了行者，更不打话，举兵器一齐乱刺；行者抡铁棒掣手相迎。斗经七八回合，行者佯输而走。
逐句解 Line by line
The three fiend chiefs each took his weapon and came up onto the wall; and seeing Pilgrim, without a word between them, they raised their weapons and stabbed at him all together;
更不打話, not so much as exchanging speech, is the formula for a fight that starts without the customary boasting. In this book combatants almost always announce themselves first, so its absence is worth noticing.
and Pilgrim swung up his iron cudgel and met them hand to hand.
相 is xiāng here — mutually, meeting each other — and not the xiàng of an outward form, which is what the machine reaches for and what the other three 相 in this stretch actually are.
When they had fought seven or eight bouts, Pilgrim made a show of losing and ran.
佯輸 is to feign defeat. Twelve characters, and the Buddha's instruction is carried out to the letter.
No boasting, no announcements: three against one, straight in. The absence of the usual formalities tells you the demons have stopped treating this as a duel.
Seven or eight bouts is exactly long enough to be convincing and not long enough to be suspicious, and Wukong judges it perfectly. He has been ordered to lose and he loses at a professional speed.
It is the third time in this chapter he has run from these three, and the first time he has meant to. The book does not remark on it, but the shape is there: the same flight, the same hillside, and this time it is a manoeuvre.