The Gold Star said, "Have Li the Heavenly King muster troops and go down with you to subdue the fiend, and I shall go and report the edict answered."

降 is xiáng, to subdue, not the jiàng of coming down — and the line has both ideas in it, since the troops do also go down. 點兵 is to muster, to call the roll of a force. Venus's settlement gives Pilgrim everything he actually wanted and nothing he asked for.

Pilgrim said, "And how will you report it?"

The right question. Pilgrim has grasped that the settlement has to survive contact with the record.

The Gold Star said, "I shall simply say the plaintiff absconded and the defendant was excused attendance."

原告脫逃 and 被告免提 are both real court formulas — plaintiff fled, defendant not produced — and putting them together produces a case that has quietly ceased to exist. It is a beautiful piece of administrative lying, and Venus offers it without a flicker.

Pilgrim laughed. "Very fine. I let you off for the sake of your face, and you turn round and say I absconded.

Both 倒 are dào, contrariwise — the reading for a thing turned about, not the dǎo of falling over. The character appears twice in one sentence doing the same work: I did that, and you do this instead. 罷了 takes bà, closing the clause.