怪言居住 What The Creature Said
及問比丘王，他說三年前進美女時，曾問其由，怪言居住城南七十里柳林坡清華莊。適尋到此，只見林坡，不見清華莊，是以問你。」及问比丘王，他说三年前进美女时，曾问其由，怪言居住城南七十里柳林坡清华庄。适寻到此，只见林坡，不见清华庄，是以问你。」
逐句解 Line by line
When I asked the king of Bhikṣu, he said that three years ago, when the beautiful girl was presented, he had asked how it came about, and the creature said it lived at the Clear Splendour Manor on Willow Grove Slope, seventy lǐ south of the city.
怪言 — "the creature said" — is doing something small and sharp. Wukong is quoting the demon's own words back through two intermediaries, and by calling the speaker 怪 rather than by his court title he strips the man of the disguise retrospectively, in the middle of a sentence.
I have just tracked it as far as here, and I see the grove and the slope but no Clear Splendour Manor, which is why I am asking you."
The reasoning is laid out plainly, step by step, the way you would explain yourself to someone whose help you need. It is a noticeably more patient Wukong than the one who was shouting at a king an hour ago.
The chain of testimony is worth following: the demon told the king, the king told Wukong, Wukong tells the god, and only now does anyone check it against the ground. Three years of a lie surviving because nobody walked forty kilometres south.
The detail that the king asked at all is the sad part. He did the right thing once, got a plausible answer, and stopped. The novel is quietly severe about this sort of half-diligence, and it never says so out loud.