Now that the Great Sage has come, only go to the ninth fork on the south bank, to the root of the willow there, turn three times to the left and three times to the right, strike the tree with both hands together and call 'Open the door' three times over, and the Clear Splendour cave-dwelling will appear."

This is a proper set of ritual instructions and every element in it is conventional: a marked tree, a threefold turn each way, a two-handed blow, a spoken formula repeated three times. Three and its multiples run through Chinese ritual the way sevens run through European folklore. 九叉, nine forks, marks the tree out from ten thousand identical willows — the one landmark in a landscape that had none, and the chapter names it once more, when Bajie knocks it down. 洞府, cave-dwelling, is the standard term for an immortal's or a monster's residence, and it confirms what the god said a moment ago: cave, not manor.