手不拈兵 No Armour And No Weapon
我師兄已得勝，捉了眾妖，尋到此間救拔吾等也。」說罷，又聽得老妖叫：「小的們，好生在此看守，等我出去拿那兩個和尚進來，一發懲治。」你看他身無披掛，手不拈兵，大踏步走到前邊，只聞得孫行者吆喝哩。他就大開了洞門，不答話，徑奔行者。行者使鐵棒，當頭支住。沙僧掄寶杖就打。那老妖把頭搖一搖，左右八個頭，一齊張開口，把行者、沙僧輕輕的又啣於洞內。我师兄已得胜，捉了众妖，寻到此间救拔吾等也。」说罢，又听得老妖叫：「小的们，好生在此看守，等我出去拿那两个和尚进来，一发惩治。」你看他身无披挂，手不拈兵，大踏步走到前边，只闻得孙行者吆喝哩。他就大开了洞门，不答话，径奔行者。行者使铁棒，当头支住。沙僧抡宝杖就打。那老妖把头摇一摇，左右八个头，一齐张开口，把行者、沙僧轻轻的又啣于洞内。
逐句解 Line by line
"My elder brother has already won the day, taken the whole crowd of fiends, and traced us here to get us out."
Eight Rules has assembled a rescue out of one overheard sentence, and he is not wrong about any of it except the timing. 救拔 is to haul somebody out of trouble, the same word Buddhist texts use for being lifted out of suffering.
When he had finished, he heard the old fiend call again: "Little ones, keep a sharp watch here. I am going out to bring those two monks in, and settle the lot of them at once."
說罷 - the saying done - is the storyteller's cut, and here it cuts straight from Eight Rules celebrating to the reason he should not be. 一發懲治 means to deal with them all in one go, which is exactly what is about to happen.
Look at him: no armour on his body, no weapon in his hand, striding out to the front, where he heard nothing but Sun Pilgrim bawling away.
The detail that should frighten everyone. 身無披掛，手不拈兵 is a matched pair - nothing on the body, nothing in the hand - and this book has spent two chapters cataloguing everybody's weapons. He does not need one. And 喝 is hè inside 吆喝, the shouting reading, not the hē that means to drink.
So he threw the cave door wide, and without a word of talk went straight at Pilgrim.
不答話 - no answering talk - is worth marking. Every fight in this chapter so far has opened with challenge and counter-challenge. This one skips it. 奔 is bèn, the reading for heading somewhere: Pilgrim is what he is going at.
Pilgrim used his iron cudgel and blocked him head on.
Five characters. The novel gives the greatest fighter in the book one short clause to make his stand, and then does not come back to him.
Sha Monk swung his precious staff and struck.
Five characters again, in exactly the same shape. Two heroes, two clauses, both of them over before the sentence ends.
That old fiend gave his head one shake, and the eight heads to left and right opened their mouths all together, and quite lightly took Pilgrim and Sha Monk up in them and carried them into the cave.
輕輕的 - quite lightly, easily - is the word the whole passage turns on. He is not described as strong, or fast, or terrible. He is described as finding it no trouble. And 啣 is to hold something in the mouth the way an animal carries its young, which is a good deal more insulting than being seized.
The fight everyone has been waiting for lasts three segments and the pilgrims do not land a blow. Pilgrim blocks, Sha Monk swings, the fiend shakes his head and eats them both.
The novel prepares this with one detail and then trusts it. He comes out with nothing on his body and nothing in his hand, and in a book that has just spent eleven lines of verse naming everybody's ironmongery, that is the loudest statement available. Weapons are for creatures who need them.
The word to keep is the one attached to the swallowing: lightly. Not savagely, not swiftly - easily, the way you would pick up something that had been left lying about. Two chapters of fighting have established what these pilgrims can do, and the chapter's answer is that it does not signify.