比前又甚 Not Like The Last One
他兩個在洞前，這場好殺，比前又甚不同：他两个在洞前，这场好杀，比前又甚不同：
逐句解 Line by line
The two of them fought a fine fight in front of the cave, and this one was very different from the last:
這場好殺 again — the same four characters that introduced the sky battle, with 場 as cháng, the measure for a whole bout. 比前又甚不同 is the storyteller promising his audience that the second battle poem will not be a repeat of the first. It is a fair warning: this one is built out of dialogue.
The rod goes up and spits gold light, / the crutch swings round and lets its fury out.
Two weapons, two verbs, and the fight is open. The poem starts the way the first one did, which makes the departure in the very next line land harder.
The fiend said, "You know nothing, and you dare come in at my door."
And now the poem does something the first battle poem never did: it hands the verse over to the fighters. From here to the end of the exchange, the combatants argue in couplets while they fight.
Pilgrim said, "I mean to subdue a fiend."
降妖怪, with 降 as xiáng — subduing, not descending. Nine characters, and it is the whole of Wukong's case.
Verse dialogue is unusual and this is one of the novel's better uses of it. The two of them are trading blows and arguments at once, in matched seven-character lines, and the form makes the disagreement feel like a duel in its own right.
The opening exchange sets the terms exactly. The fiend's complaint is about trespass — you came in at my door. Wukong's answer is about purpose. Neither addresses the other's point, which is what makes it an argument rather than a conversation.