三個肉餅 Three Little Meat Pancakes
三個小妖移過燈來，拿柳棍又打行者腦蓋，就像敲梆子一般，剔剔托，托托剔，緊幾下，慢幾下。夜將深了，卻都盹睡。行者就使個遁法，將身一小，脫出繩來。抖一抖毫毛，整束了衣服。耳朵內取出棒來，幌一幌，有吊桶粗細，二丈長短，朝著三個小妖道：「你這孽畜，把你老爺就打了許多棍子。老爺還只照舊，老爺也把這棍子略掗你掗，看道如何？」把三個小妖輕輕一掗，就掗做三個肉餅。三个小妖移过灯来，拿柳棍又打行者脑盖，就像敲梆子一般，剔剔托，托托剔，紧几下，慢几下。夜将深了，却都盹睡。行者就使个遁法，将身一小，脱出绳来。抖一抖毫毛，整束了衣服。耳朵内取出棒来，幌一幌，有吊桶粗细，二丈长短，朝着三个小妖道：「你这孽畜，把你老爷就打了许多棍子。老爷还只照旧，老爷也把这棍子略挜你挜，看道如何？」把三个小妖轻轻一挜，就挜做三个肉饼。
逐句解 Line by line
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 best sound-joke in the chapter. 梆子 is the hollow wooden block a night watchman beats to mark the hours, so the noise coming off Pilgrim's head is the sound of a public timekeeping device. Then the novel actually writes the rhythm out - 剔剔托，托托剔 - and reverses it the second time, three syllables each way, so the beating has a tune. 緊幾下，慢幾下 finishes it off with the tempo marking.
The night was getting on, and they all dozed off.
盹睡 is the shallow sleep you fall into sitting up, not proper rest. The three of them were told to keep a careful watch about ten characters ago.
Pilgrim then worked an escaping art, made his body small, and slipped out of the ropes.
He could have done this at any point during the entire afternoon. The novel does not remark on that, and neither does he.
He gave his hairs a shake, and straightened his clothes.
Two small domestic verbs after an escape - shaking out and tidying up. The book almost always gives him a beat of grooming before violence.
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.
A zhàng is a Chinese unit of length, ten chǐ, which puts the cudgel at somewhere around six or seven yards - and as thick as the bucket you would draw well-water with. The measurement is kept in its own units rather than converted, because the point is the leap in scale, not the figure. 長 is cháng here, the reading for extent, not the zhǎng that means senior. And 著 is zhe, holding him turned towards them as he speaks.
"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?"
掗 is to shove or press something at somebody, and the phrase 略掗你掗 puts the verb either side of the pronoun to make it casual, the way English says give you a bit of a poke. Coming from something holding a six-yard iron bar, the understatement is the threat.
One light prod at the three little fiends, and he prodded them into three meat pancakes.
The verb is repeated from his own sentence, which is what makes it land - he said prod, and then he prodded. 肉餅 is a real thing you can buy, a flat pan-fried meat cake, and choosing a food word for what is left of three characters is the novel's usual way of refusing to be solemn about violence.
The chapter's funniest passage and its most casually brutal, in that order and without a join. It opens with three demons drumming on a monkey's head in rhythm, which the novel notates - tick-tick-tock, tock-tock-tick - and closes with the same three demons flattened into griddle cakes.
The watchman's clapper is a good joke twice over. It is the right sound, and it is also the instrument that marks the night watches - the very thing the city was fitting to its battlements earlier in the chapter. The defenders are keeping time with drums and gongs while the prisoner's skull keeps time under willow rods.
One thing the novel declines to mention: Pilgrim shrinks out of his ropes in a single clause, and could plainly have done it at any hour of that long afternoon. He took the beating. Whether that is patience, tactics or something closer to enjoyment, the book leaves entirely alone.