五色祥雲 Three Hundred Paces Above the Ground
好大聖，唿哨一聲，將觔斗一抖，兩隻腳踏著五色祥雲，起在半空，離地約有三百步高下。把金箍棒丟開個「撒花蓋頂」，「黃龍轉身」，一上一下，左旋右轉，起初時人與棒似錦上添花；好大圣，唿哨一声，将觔斗一抖，两只脚踏着五色祥云，起在半空，离地约有三百步高下。把金箍棒丢开个「撒花盖顶」，「黄龙转身」，一上一下，左旋右转，起初时人与棒似锦上添花；
逐句解 Line by line
Fine Great Sage! With one whistle he shook out his somersault, set both feet on a five-coloured auspicious cloud, and rose into mid-air some three hundred paces above the ground.
好大聖, fine Great Sage, is the storyteller's cue that a set piece is starting — and this is the chapter's only use of the Great Sage title, against twenty-five plain Pilgrims. It is saved for the one moment he does something spectacular. 觔斗 is the cloud-somersault, and both characters take readings that surprise: the second is dǒu, the dipper, not the dòu of fighting. 著 is zhe, marking the feet as planted and staying planted.
He set the gold-banded rod going in "Scattering Flowers Over the Crown" and "Yellow Dragon Turns Its Body", up and down, spinning left and wheeling right. At the start, man and rod together were like flowers added to brocade;
The two named forms are real staff techniques and the novel quotes them the way a match report quotes moves. 撒花蓋頂, scattering flowers over the crown, is the overhead whirl that makes a canopy of the weapon; 黃龍轉身, yellow dragon turning its body, is the whole-body spin. 錦上添花, adding flowers to brocade, is still one of the commonest phrases in Chinese for an improvement on something already fine.
The chapter has been holding the Great Sage title in reserve for eighty-eight lines and spends it here. Everywhere else he is simply Pilgrim.
The named techniques are the mark of a storyteller who expects an audience that knows staff work. They are not invented and they are not explained, and the effect is the same as a commentator naming a shot without stopping to define it.
Note the direction of the compliment in the last clause. Man and weapon are lovely together — and the very next line takes the man away.