Now the Great Sage, together with Eight Rules and Sha Monk, came out upon the wall of the city to meet them face to face, and saw that the whole band of fiends were lions of mixed coat. The Yellow Lion Spirit led them at the front; the Suanni Lion and the Elephant-Grappler Lion stood on the left, the Baize Lion and the Crouching-Civet Lion on the right, the Gibbon Lion and the Snow Lion behind; and in the very middle of them was a nine-headed lion. That Blue-Faced Fiend held aloft a jewelled standard of brocade worked in medallion flowers, and pressed close beside the nine-headed lion; while Sly-Devil-Odd-Fellow and Odd-Fellow-Sly-Devil carried two red flags. All of them were drawn up in even ranks upon the ground of the Kan quarter.
Eight Rules, blundering forward, came up close and railed at them: “You thieving fiends who stole the treasures! Where did you go to round up this pack of hairy lumps, and what have you fetched them here for?”
The Yellow Lion Spirit ground his teeth and cursed back: “You filthy vicious bald wretch! Yesterday the three of you took on me alone, and I went back beaten and let you off as a fellow creature - and how do you repay it? With this savagery. You burned my cave dwelling, you ruined my mountain domain, you slaughtered my kin. You and I have a grudge between us as deep as the ocean. Do not run - take a blow of your lord's spade!”
Splendid Eight Rules - he raised his rake and met him. The two had only just closed, and neither had yet shown the upper hand, when the Gibbon Lion Spirit swung an iron caltrop-mace and the Snow Lion Spirit wielded a three-ridged truncheon, coming straight on to strike.
Eight Rules let out a shout: “Come and welcome!” Look over on that side: Sha the monk snatched out his demon-quelling staff and pressed up to help.
Then too the Suanni Spirit and the Baize Spirit, with the Elephant-Grappler and Crouching-Civet Spirits, came surging up all together. Over here the Great Sage used his gold-hooped cudgel to hold off the pack of spirits.
Suanni used a bludgeon, Baize a bronze hammer, Elephant-Grappler a steel spear, Crouching-Civet a battle-axe. Those seven lion spirits against these three fierce monks - a splendid battle:
Cudgel, hammer, spear and axe, and the three-ridged truncheon,
caltrop-mace and four-bright shovel-blade;
seven lions with seven arms, keen-edged and bright, ringing in three monks - and all of them roared.
The Great Sage's gold-hooped iron rod was savage; Sha Monk's precious staff has few equals in the mortal world.
Eight Rules whirled like a gale in his swaggering strength; his nine-toothed rake flashed and glared with a ghastly light.
Guarding in front, blocking behind, each did his part; parrying left, meeting right, all of them were bold.
Up on the wall the princes lent them courage; drums pounded and gongs clashed to stiffen every heart. Coming and going, snatching back and forth, they worked their magic arts, till the fighting turned heaven and earth to murk and reversal.
That crowd of spirits fought the Great Sage and his two companions together for half a day, and before they knew it evening had come. Eight Rules was drooling sticky spittle from his mouth, his legs were going soft under him; he made a feint with the rake and fell back out of the line.
At which the Snow Lion and Gibbon Lion spirits shouted after him: “Where do you think you are going? Take this!”
The idiot could not dodge in time, and was struck across the spine with a truncheon. Down he lay on the ground, crying only: “I am finished, I am finished!”
Two of the spirits seized Eight Rules by the mane and hauled him off by the tail, carrying him away to the nine-headed lion, and reported: “Ancestral sire, we have taken one of them!” Before the words were out, Sha Monk and Pilgrim were beaten too, and the whole crowd of spirits came chasing after them. Then Pilgrim plucked a handful of his hairs, chewed them to fragments, blew them out and called: “Change!”
At once they turned into a hundred or so little Pilgrims, who ringed the spirits round and round, wrapping Baize, Suanni, Elephant-Grappler, Crouching-Civet and the Gold-Maned Lion fiend up in the middle of them. Sha Monk and Pilgrim then pressed forward again and closed in to strike. By nightfall they had taken Suanni and Baize; Crouching-Civet and Elephant-Grappler got away. The Gold-Maned one carried word to the old fiend.
The old fiend, seeing that two lions had been lost, gave his orders: “Tie up Zhu Eight Rules, but do not take his life. When they give me back my two lions, then we hand Eight Rules over to them; and if they are fools enough to do my two lions harm, then kill Eight Rules at once to pay for their lives.”
That night the crowd of fiends camped outside the city, and of them we say no more. Now the Great Sage carried the two lion spirits up close to the city wall. The old king, seeing them, gave orders at once to open the gate, and dispatched twenty or thirty officers with ropes, who ran out of the gate, bound the lion spirits and hauled them into the city.
The Great Sage gathered his magic hairs back in and went straight up to the tower on the wall with Sha Monk, where he saw the Tang Monk. The Tang Monk said: “This affair has turned out very badly indeed. Wuneng's life - is there any left in him or not?”
Pilgrim said: “It is nothing. We have taken these two spirits of theirs, so on their side they will certainly not dare to harm him. Just have the two spirits tied fast and bound tight, and tomorrow at dawn we will trade them for Eight Rules.”
The three young princes bowed their heads to Pilgrim and said: “Master, earlier when you fought we saw only one body of you; and afterwards, when you feigned defeat and came back, how did there come to be a hundred-odd bodies of our master? And when it came to seizing the spirits and nearing the city, you were one body again. What power is this?”
Pilgrim laughed and said: “On my body I have eighty-four thousand hairs. By one I make ten, by ten I make a hundred; a hundred thousand ten-thousandfold of transformations - all of it the method of the body outside the body.”
The princes did reverence to him one after another, and at once had the vegetarian meal laid out, which they ate up there on the tower of the wall. On every battlement they wanted lanterns and banners, clappers and bells, gongs and drums, the watches kept and the arrow-signals passed, cannon fired and war-cries shouted. Soon it was daylight again.
The old fiend at once summoned the Yellow Lion Spirit and laid his plan: “Today you are all to put your minds to taking that Pilgrim and Sha Monk; and let me fly up over the wall in secret, take that master of theirs and the old king and his sons, and go on ahead to the Nine-Bends Coiling Cave. Wait until you have won, then come and report.”
The Yellow Lion received his orders, and led out the Gibbon Lion, the Snow Lion, Elephant-Grappler and Crouching-Civet, each gripping his weapon, to the foot of the wall, where they rolled up wind and brewed a fog and demanded battle.
Over here Pilgrim and Sha Monk sprang out onto the wall and railed at them in hard voices: “You thieving filthy fiends! Send my brother Eight Rules back to me at once and I will spare your lives; otherwise I shall have every one of you ground to powdered bone and shredded flesh.”
Those spirits would allow no arguing about it, and came surging up all together. These two brothers, the Great Sage and Sha Monk, each worked his own stratagem and held off five lions. This battle was quite unlike yesterday's:
Howling and howling, the wild wind raked the ground; darkling and darkling, black fog blotted out the sky.
Stones rolled and sand flew till gods and demons quailed; trees toppled and woods went down till tigers and wolves took fright.
Steel spears bit savagely, battle-axes shone; caltrop-mace, truncheon and shovel-blade were cruel past telling.
They wished they could swallow Pilgrim down whole; they would have seized little Sha Monk alive and kicking.
This Great Sage with his single As-You-Will cudgel, that rolls up and unrolls, gathers and lets go, wonderfully quick;
and Sha Monk with that demon-quelling staff of his, which has a name beyond the Hall of Divine Mists.
This time their magic arts worked far and wide; in the Western Lands they wrought their power and swept the fiends away.
These five lion spirits of mixed coat were fighting Pilgrim and Sha Monk just at the height of it, when the old fiend came riding a black cloud, mounted straight up to the tower on the wall, gave his head one shake - and terrified every civil and military officer up there, great and small, along with the watch-keepers and the labourers, so that they all came tumbling down off the wall. Then he rushed into the tower, opened his mouth, and had the Tang Monk and the old king and his sons snatched out in a single gulp; then came back down to the ground of the Kan quarter and took Eight Rules into his mouth as well.
Now as it happened, his nine heads had nine mouths between them. One mouth held the Tang Monk, one mouth held Eight Rules, one mouth held the old king, one mouth held the eldest prince, one mouth held the second prince, one mouth held the third prince - six mouths holding six people, and three mouths still left empty.
He gave a shout and called: “I am off ahead!” These five little lion spirits, seeing their grandsire had won, unfurled their fierce strength one and all the more.
Pilgrim heard the shouting and uproar of the people on the wall, understood at once that he had fallen into the fiend's plan, and called urgently to Sha Monk to have a care. He then plucked every hair off his forearms, chewed them to a pulp in his mouth and blew them out, and they turned into a thousand or so little Pilgrims, who came swarming up all together.
There and then they dragged down the Gibbon Lion, took the Snow Lion alive, seized hold of the Elephant-Grappler Lion, tumbled the Crouching-Civet Lion over and beat the Yellow Lion to death, roaring and rioting all the way down to the walls of the prefecture. Instead it was the Blue-Faced Fiend, with Sly-Devil-Odd-Fellow and Odd-Fellow-Sly-Devil, three of them, who turned about and slipped away. The officers on the wall saw it, opened the gate once more, took ropes and bound up the five lion spirits, and carried them into the city.
Before anything had been settled, there came the queen, weeping and sobbing, who bowed to Pilgrim and said: “Divine teacher! My lord and his sons, and your own master - their lives are done for. What is to become of this lonely city?”
The Great Sage gathered in his magic hairs, made a bow to the queen and said: “Worthy queen, do not grieve. It is only because I took seven of his lion spirits that the old fiend worked a snatching art and carried off my master along with his highness and his sons - and by my reckoning they will not be harmed. Wait until first light tomorrow, and we two brothers will go to that mountain, and I guarantee we take the old fiend and give you back your four princes.”
That queen and her whole cluster of ladies, hearing these words, all bowed down before Pilgrim and said: “We beg only that his highness and his sons be kept whole in life, and the imperial line stand firm.” The bowing done, one after another they went back to the palace with tears in their eyes.
Pilgrim gave his orders to the various officers: “Take the Yellow Lion Spirit that was killed and skin him; and the six live lion spirits - chain them up fast. Fetch us some vegetarian food, and when we have eaten we will sleep. Set your minds at rest, all of you - I promise you will come to no harm.”
Next day the Great Sage took Sha Monk, mounted an auspicious cloud, and in no long time came to the peak of Bamboo Node Mountain. Reining in the cloud-head to look about them, they saw a fine tall mountain. And this is what they saw:
Peaks ranked and jutting, ridges steep and rough.
Below the deep ravine a purling stream rinses the rocks; before the sheer cliff brocade-bright flowers give out their scent.
Winding hills folded on hills, an old road curving round.
Truly the cranes come, and the pines have company; and sure enough the clouds depart, and the stones lean on nothing.
Dark gibbons hunt fruit towards the bright sunlight; elk and deer seek blossom, glad in the warm day.
The blue simurgh calls in trilling notes; the yellow bird speaks soft and tangled.
When spring comes, peach and plum vie in beauty; when summer arrives, willow and locust contend in lushness.
When autumn reaches it, yellow flowers spread brocade; when winter joins, white snow flies like floss.
Through the four seasons and the eight divisions the scenery is fine; it yields nothing to the fairy prospect of Yingzhou.
The two of them were up on the peak taking in the view when all at once they saw that Blue-Faced Fiend, a short cudgel in his hand, come running out from among the cliffs and gullies. Pilgrim shouted at him: “Where do you think you are going? Old Monkey is here!”
It so terrified the little fiend that he went tumbling and rolling down into the gullies. The two of them gave chase straight after him, and then could see no trace of him at all. Going forward and turning a few paces more, they came upon a cave dwelling, with two leaves of mottled stone door shut fast. Set crosswise into the lintel was a stone tablet, on which ten large characters had been carved in the regular hand, reading: Ten Thousand Spirits Bamboo Node Mountain, Nine-Bends Coiling Cave.
That little fiend had in fact run into the cave, and shut the cave door behind him at once. Reaching the middle hall he said to the old fiend: “Grandfather, there are two more monks outside!”
The old fiend said: “Has your great king come back, and the Gibbon Lion, the Snow Lion, Elephant-Grappler and Crouching-Civet - have any of them come?” The little fiend said: “Not a sight of them, not a sight. There were only two monks up on the high peak of the mountain, looking out. I saw them, turned my head and ran; they came chasing after, and I shut the door and here I am.”
The old fiend heard him out, lowered his head and said nothing.
After a long while he suddenly let fall tears, and cried out: “The bitterness of it! My grandson the Yellow Lion is dead, and my grandsons the Gibbon Lion and the rest have every one of them been taken by monks into that city.” “How is this hatred ever to be repaid?”
Eight Rules, tied up at the side, huddled together in one place with the king and his sons and the Tang Monk, wretched and frightened and suffering, heard the old fiend say that his grandsons had all been taken by the monks into the city, and quietly rejoiced: “Master, do not be afraid. Your highness, stop worrying. My elder brother has already won the day, taken the whole crowd of fiends, and traced us here to get us out.”
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.”
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. So he threw the cave door wide, and without a word of talk went straight at Pilgrim.
Pilgrim used his iron cudgel and blocked him head on. Sha Monk swung his precious staff and struck. 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.
He gave the order: “Fetch ropes.” Sly-Devil-Odd-Fellow, Odd-Fellow-Sly-Devil and the Blue-Faced Fiend, who were the ones that had escaped with their lives the night before, took two ropes at once and bound the pair of them good and tight.
The old fiend asked him: “You filthy ape - you took seven of my children and grandchildren; and I have now taken four of you monks and four princes, which is quite enough to set against the lives of my children and grandchildren. Little ones, pick out thorn-switches and willow rods, and give this monkey-head a beating first, and avenge my grandson the Yellow Lion for me.”
Those three little fiends each took a willow rod and beat away at Pilgrim in particular. Pilgrim was after all a body that had been refined in fire, so those few little willow rods were just about good for scratching an itch. Would he make a sound? However they thumped away at him, he paid it not the slightest attention.
Eight Rules, the Tang Monk and the princes, watching this, were each of them chilled to the bone. In a little while the willow rods snapped. They beat him right through until evening, past all counting.
Sha Monk, seeing how much beating there had been, felt quite badly about it and said: “Let me take a hundred blows or so for him.” The old fiend said: “Do not be in a hurry. Tomorrow it will be your turn. We shall come to each of you in order.”
Eight Rules said in a fluster: “Then the day after that it will be my turn, old Hog's.” They beat him a while longer, and little by little the sky went dark.
The old fiend called: “Little ones, stop there. Light the lamps, take some food and drink, and let me go along to Brocade Cloud Nest and have a bit of a sleep. You three have all been through a mauling, so keep a careful watch, and we will beat him again first thing tomorrow.”
The three little fiends shifted the lamp across, took up willow rods and beat away at Pilgrim's skull again, which was for all the world like knocking a watchman's clapper - tick-tick-tock, tock-tock-tick, a few quick ones, a few slow. The night was getting on, and they all dozed off.
Pilgrim then worked an escaping art, made his body small, and slipped out of the ropes. He gave his hairs a shake, and straightened his clothes.
Out of his ear he took the cudgel, gave it a wave until it was as thick as a well-bucket and two zhàng in length, and said to the three little fiends: “You wretched creatures - you have given your lord a great many strokes with a stick. Your lord is still exactly as he was. Suppose your lord gives you a little prod with this stick of his - see how you like it?”
One light prod at the three little fiends, and he prodded them into three meat pancakes. Then he trimmed the lamp bright again and untied Sha Monk.
Eight Rules had been tied up until he was frantic, and could not hold himself back from bawling out: “Brother! My hands and feet are swollen with the ropes - why not come and untie me first?”
This idiot let out one shout, and had already startled the old fiend awake. The old fiend came scrambling up in a roll and said: “Who is that untying somebody?”
That Pilgrim heard him, blew out the lamp with one breath, and without so much as a thought for Sha Monk and the others, used his iron cudgel to smash through several sets of doors and was gone.
That old fiend came into the middle hall calling: “Little ones, how is it there is no lamplight? Surely nobody has got away?”
He called once, and nobody answered; he called again, and again nobody answered. When at last they fetched a light to look, all they saw were three blood-soaked meat pancakes on the ground; the old king and his sons and the Tang Monk and Eight Rules were all there, and only Pilgrim and Sha Monk were missing.
Lighting a fire and hunting front and back, they found Sha Monk still standing with his back pressed against the corridor wall. He seized him with one hand, threw him down, and tied him up as before. They searched for Pilgrim too, but saw only that several sets of doors had all been smashed through, and knew in their bones that Pilgrim had broken out and gone.
He did not go after him, but had the broken doors patched where they could be patched and screened where they could be screened, and held his household secure - of which we say no more.
Now the Great Sage, having got out of that Nine-Bends Coiling Cave, bestrode an auspicious cloud and went straight back to Yuhua Prefecture. And there on the city wall he saw the local gods of every quarter, the spirits of earth and the god of the city moat and walls, meeting him in the air with bows.
Pilgrim said: “How is it you only show yourselves tonight?”
The city god said: “We minor gods knew the Great Sage had come down to Yuhua Prefecture, and because the worthy king was entertaining you we did not dare show ourselves. Now that we know the king and the rest have met with a fiend, and that the Great Sage is subduing the demon, we have come especially to bow and receive you.”
Pilgrim was in the middle of his displeasure when he saw the Golden-Headed Guardian and the divine officers of the Six Ding and Six Jia bringing a local god under escort, who knelt before him and said: “Great Sage, we have caught this ground-hugging ghost for you.” Pilgrim shouted at them: “Instead of guarding my master at Bamboo Node Mountain, what do you mean by making an uproar over here?”
The Ding and Jia gods said: “Great Sage, after you escaped, that fiend recaptured the Curtain-Raising Grand Marshal and tied him up as before. Seeing how very great his powers were, we brought the local god of Bamboo Node Mountain here under guard. He knows the root and origin of that fiend. We beg the Great Sage to put a question or two to him, and then it will be possible to deal with the matter and relieve the suffering of the holy monk and the worthy king.”
Pilgrim heard this and was very pleased.
That local god knocked his head on the ground, shaking, and said: “That old fiend came down to Bamboo Node Mountain the year before last. That Nine-Bends Coiling Cave was originally the den of six lions, and from the time those six lions got the old fiend here, they all did reverence to him as their ancestral grandsire. The ancestral grandsire is a nine-headed lion, styled the Nine-Spirit Primal Sage.”
“If you want him destroyed, you must go to the Palace of Wondrous Crags at the Eastern Pole and ask his master to come; only then can he be subdued; no one else need think to catch him.”
Pilgrim heard him out, thought back for a long moment and said: “The Palace of Wondrous Crags at the Eastern Pole - that is the Heavenly Worthy Taiyi Who Relieves Suffering, and the seat he sits on is a nine-headed lion.” “So that is how it is.”
Then he gave orders: “Guardian and Golden Armour, go back along with the local god and give secret protection to my master and my brothers and the king of the prefecture and his sons; and the city god of this district is to guard the city walls and moat.”
The gods each went off to obey. Then the Great Sage loosed his somersault cloud and travelled on through the night. At about the third watch before dawn he reached the outside of the Eastern Gate of Heaven, and ran straight into the Heavenly King Vast Eye with his heavenly soldiers and strongmen, a whole retinue of them.
The whole party halted, made bows and said in greeting: “Where is the Great Sage bound?” Pilgrim made his courtesies to them all and said: “I am going along to the Palace of Wondrous Crags for a bit.”
The Heavenly King said: “You do not walk the road to the Western Heaven - so what brings you to the Eastern Heaven instead?”
Pilgrim said: “It is because we came to Yuhua Prefecture, where the king of the prefecture treated us handsomely and sent his three sons to bow to us brothers as their masters and study the martial arts - and quite unexpectedly we ran into a pack of lion fiends. I have now learned that the Heavenly Worthy Taiyi Who Relieves Suffering, of the Palace of Wondrous Crags, is the fiend's master, and I want to ask him to come and subdue the fiend and rescue my master.”
The Heavenly King said: “That is what comes of your wanting to be somebody's teacher - it is what stirred up this whole nest of lions.”
Pilgrim laughed and said: “Just so, just so.” The heavenly soldiers and strongmen each folded their hands and made way for him to pass.
The Great Sage went in at the Eastern Gate of Heaven, and in no long time came before the Palace of Wondrous Crags. And this is what he saw:
Coloured clouds layered on clouds, purple vapours thick and green.
Roof-tiles rippling flames of golden waves, the gate ranged with jade beasts in majesty.
Flowers fill the paired towers, red mists wreathing; sunlight strikes the soaring grove, wrapped in kingfisher haze.
Truly ten thousand perfected ones stand in a ring, a thousand sages flourish here.
Hall upon hall of brocade, windows and casements open on every side.
A blue dragon coils in guard, divine light softly glowing; the yellow path shines out, auspicious vapours dense.
This is the Realm of Blue-Green Eternal Joy, the Palace of Wondrous Crags at the Eastern Pole.
At the gate of that palace stood an immortal lad in a rainbow cape, who caught sight of the Great Sage and went straight in to report: “Grandfather, outside is the Great Sage Equal to Heaven who made havoc in the heavenly palace!” The Heavenly Worthy Taiyi Who Relieves Suffering heard it, and at once called his attendant immortals to go and receive him. They received him into the palace, where he saw the Heavenly Worthy seated high on a nine-coloured lotus throne, in the midst of a hundred million auspicious rays.
Seeing Pilgrim, he came down from the throne to meet him. Pilgrim made his bow towards the throne.
The Heavenly Worthy returned the bow and said: “Great Sage, I have not seen you these several years. I heard some while ago that you had forsaken the Way and turned to the Buddha, and were escorting the Tang Monk to fetch scriptures in the west - I suppose the work is finished by now?”
Pilgrim said: “The work is not finished, though it is getting near. But just now, escorting the Tang Monk as far as Yuhua Prefecture, we were shown favour by the prince, who sent his three sons to bow to old Monkey and his brothers as masters and study the martial arts; and they had our three divine weapons copied and forged to the pattern - and quite unexpectedly they were stolen away in the night by a thief.” “When we searched at daybreak, it turned out that a gold-maned lion which had become a spirit, from the Tiger Mouth Cave on Leopard Head Mountain north of the city, had stolen them. Old Monkey used a stratagem and got them out, and then that spirit gathered up a number of lion spirits and made a great uproar with old Monkey.
“Among them was a nine-headed lion of vast magic power, who carried my master and Eight Rules and the king and his sons, four of them, off in his mouth to a Nine-Bends Coiling Cave on a Bamboo Node Mountain. Next day old Monkey and Sha Monk went tracking after him, and were carried off in his mouth as well. Old Monkey was tied up and beaten past all counting, and by luck worked a trick and got away. They are all suffering over there this minute.”
“I enquired of the local god of that district, and only then learned that the Heavenly Worthy is his master - so I have come especially to beg you to take him in hand and deliver them.”
The Heavenly Worthy heard him out and at once had his immortal officers go to the lion house and call out the lion-keeper for questioning. That lion-keeper was fast asleep, and only woke when the officers shook him about; they hauled him by the scruff to the middle hall to be seen.
The Heavenly Worthy asked him: “Where is the lion beast?” That lad let the tears fall and knocked his head on the ground, saying only: “Spare my life, spare my life.”
The Heavenly Worthy said: “The Great Sage Sun is here, so I shall not beat you for the moment. Tell me quickly why you were not careful, and let the nine-headed lion get away.”
The lion-keeper said: “Grandfather, the day before yesterday I saw a bottle of wine in the Hall of Great Thousand Sweet Dew, and without knowing what it was I stole it and drank it, and fell so deeply drunk that I went to sleep, and failed at the tying and locking - and that is how he got away.”
The Heavenly Worthy said: “That wine was a gift from the Most High Lord Lao. It is called Wheel-of-Rebirth Jade Liquor, and drinking it should have kept you drunk three days without waking. How many days is it now since that lion beast got out?”
The Great Sage said: “According to what the local god says, he came down the year before last, so by now it is two or three years.”
The Heavenly Worthy laughed and said: “That is it, that is it. One day in the heavenly palace is a year down in the mortal world.”
He called to the lion-keeper: “Get up now. I remit the death you have earned. Come down with me and the Great Sage to the world below and take him back. The rest of you immortals go back; there is no need to come along.”
The Heavenly Worthy then went with the Great Sage and the lion-keeper, treading the clouds straight to Bamboo Node Mountain. There they saw the Guardians of the Five Quarters, the Six Ding and Six Jia, and the local god of that mountain all come to kneel in welcome.
Pilgrim said: “You have been protecting them - has my master been hurt at all?”
The gods said: “The fiend was vexed and went to sleep, and has not applied any punishment further.”
The Heavenly Worthy said: “That Primal Sage child of mine is a true spirit that has practised long and attained the Way. When he cries out, his voice reaches up to the Three Sages and down through the Nine Springs; and in the ordinary way he does no harm to living things. Great Sage, go to his door and challenge him to battle, draw him out, and I shall take him in hand.”
Pilgrim heard him and duly whipped out his cudgel, sprang up to the mouth of the cave and railed at him in a loud voice: “Foul fiend! Give me back my people! Foul fiend, give me back my people!”
He called out several times over, but that old fiend was fast asleep and nobody answered. Pilgrim grew hot-tempered about it, swung his iron cudgel and beat his way in, yelling and cursing without a pause.
Only then did the old fiend start awake; and in a great rage in his heart he scrambled up and shouted: “After him, fight!” He shook his heads and opened his mouth to take him. Pilgrim turned his head and sprang out.
The fiend chased him out to the open and cursed: “Thieving ape, where do you think you are going?”
Pilgrim stood up on the high cliff and laughed: “So you still dare be as bold and rude as this - you do not even know whether you are alive or dead. Is that not your own lord and master standing here?”
That fiend ran up to the front of the cliff, and was met at once by the Heavenly Worthy reciting a spell and calling out: “Primal Sage child, I have come.”
That fiend knew him for his master, and dared not struggle; he laid all four feet flat on the ground and did nothing but knock his head down. The lion-keeper came running up at the side, grabbed a fistful of his neck mane and gave the neck a good hundred punches, cursing him: “You wretched beast! How could you run off and leave me to take the punishment?”
That lion beast shut its mouth and said nothing, and dared not stir. The lion-keeper beat away until his hands were tired, and only then stopped; and at once he set the brocade saddlecloth on his back. The Heavenly Worthy mounted, and with a shout told him to go. He then sprang up and rode a coloured cloud, going straight back to the Palace of Wondrous Crags.
The Great Sage gave his thanks to the empty sky, then went into the cave and loosed the king of Yuhua first, next the Tang Monk, and next Eight Rules and Sha Monk and the three princes. They searched out the goods in his cave together, and at their leisure led the whole party out of the door. Eight Rules then fetched a quantity of dry brushwood, heaped it up front and back and set it alight, and burned that whole Nine-Bends Coiling Cave into a blackened, cracked potter's kiln.
The Great Sage then dismissed the gods, though he had the local god stay on to guard the place. Then he had Eight Rules and Sha Monk each work a spell and carry the king and his sons back to the prefecture on their backs. He himself took the Tang Monk on his arm.
In no long time they reached the prefecture city, where the sky was gradually darkening, and there were the queen and the officials all come out to meet them. A vegetarian banquet was set out, and they sat down together to enjoy it. The elder and his disciples still lodged at the Sunshade Pavilion. The princes went into the palace and each to his own rest. The night passed without a word.
Next day the king gave orders again, and threw open a great vegetarian feast. The officials of the whole prefecture, great and small, gave their thanks one by one. Pilgrim then called for butchers and had the six live lions killed, and along with the Yellow Lion had them all skinned, and the meat prepared and brought in to be enjoyed.
His highness was delighted, and gave the order at once: one was to be kept for the use of the household within and without; one to be shared among the Chief Clerk and the other officers of the princely household; and five to be chopped into pieces of an ounce or two apiece, and dispatched by officers to be handed out to the soldiers and townsfolk within the prefecture city and without, for each to eat a little: first, that they might have a taste of it, and second, to press down their fright.
And in every house and every family there was not one who did not look up in reverence. Then they saw the smiths and the rest, who had finished making the three weapons, come and knock their heads before Pilgrim, saying: “Grandfather, we little ones have finished the work.”
He asked them: “What does each of them weigh?” The smiths said: “The gold-hooped cudgel comes to a thousand catties, and the nine-toothed rake and the demon-quelling staff eight hundred catties each.”
Pilgrim said: “That will do.” He called for the three princes to come out, and each took up his weapon.
The three sons said to the old king: “Father, today the weapons are finished.”
The old king said: “It was on account of these weapons that the lives of myself and my sons were very nearly lost.”
The youngest prince said: “By good fortune the divine teachers worked their arts and rescued us, and swept the fiends clean away besides, so that later trouble is ended. This is truly what is meant by calm seas and clear rivers, a world at peace.”
Then the old king and his sons rewarded the craftsmen for their labour, and went to the Sunshade Pavilion to give thanks for their teachers' kindness. The Tang Monk told the Great Sage and the others to hurry and pass on the martial arts, and not to hold up the journey.
The three of them then each took up a weapon and, in the courtyard of the princely residence, taught them one by one. Within a few days the three princes had drilled to a perfect finish, and as for the rest - the ways of attacking and withdrawing, the methods of quick and slow - there were seventy-two sets of moves in each, and not one of them they did not know.
For one thing, the princes were firm of heart; for another, they had the benefit of the Great Sage first conferring divine strength on them - and that is why the thousand-catty cudgel and the eight-hundred-catty rake and staff could all be lifted and all be wielded; compared with the martial arts they had worked up on their own at the start, it was truly heaven and the abyss.
There is a poem in witness of it. The poem says:
From karmic bond and the blessing of good deeds they met the divine teachers; in studying arms, who could have looked for a fiend-lion stirred?
The host of evils swept clean, the altars of state made safe; taking refuge as one body, the border tribes made calm.
The Nine Spirits by their number accord with the principle of primal yang; penetrating on all four sides, the fruit of the Way is reached.
Giving and receiving, the heart made clear, is left to ten thousand ages; and Yuhua in lasting joy, a time of great peace.
The princes then threw open a great banquet again, and gave thanks for their masters' teaching. They also brought out a great tray of gold and silver, to answer their small feeling with.
Pilgrim laughed and said: “Take it away, quickly, take it away. We are people who have left the household life - what use have we for it?”
Eight Rules said at the side: “We really dare not accept gold and silver - but what is to be done, this garment of mine has been torn to pieces by those lion spirits. If you would just change our clothes for us, that would be plenty as a kindness.”
The princes at once ordered their tailors to match the colours and patterns, take several bolts each of green brocade, red brocade and tea-brown brocade, and make one apiece for the three of them. The three of them accepted with pleasure, each put on his brocade cloth robe, gathered up his travelling gear and set out. And there in the city and outside it, great and small alike, there was not one who did not call them arhats come down among men, living buddhas descended to the world.
The sound of drums and music, the colours of banners and flags, filled the streets and blocked the roads. Truly, before every house incense and lamps were burned, and at every door coloured lanterns were offered.
They came a good long way before turning back, and only then were the four of them able to leave the city and go west. This departure shook off the pack of lions at a stroke, and set the heart quietly on the true fruit. Truly:
Free of care and free of sorrow, they come to the Buddha-realm; with sincere heart and honest purpose, they go up to Thunder Sound.
But there is no telling how many stages of road there still are to Vulture Peak, nor when they will arrive - so listen to the explanation in the next chapter.