現了本相 They Showed Their True Forms
小的們，各顧性命走耶。」只聽得呼呼吼吼，喘喘呵呵，眾小妖都現了本身，原來是那山牛精、水牛精、黃牛精，滿山亂跑。那三個妖王，也現了本相，放下手來，還是四隻蹄子，就如鐵炮一般，徑往東北上跑。這大聖帥井木犴、角木蛟緊追急趕，略不放鬆。惟有斗木獬、奎木狼在東山凹裡、山頭上、山澗中、山谷內，把些牛精打死的、活捉的，盡皆收淨。卻向玄英洞裡解了唐僧、八戒、沙僧。小的们，各顾性命走耶。」只听得呼呼吼吼，喘喘呵呵，众小妖都现了本身，原来是那山牛精、水牛精、黄牛精，满山乱跑。那三个妖王，也现了本相，放下手来，还是四只蹄子，就如铁炮一般，径往东北上跑。这大圣帅井木犴、角木蛟紧追急赶，略不放松。惟有斗木獬、奎木狼在东山凹里、山头上、山涧中、山谷内，把些牛精打死的、活捉的，尽皆收净。却向玄英洞里解了唐僧、八戒、沙僧。
逐句解 Line by line
"Little ones — every man look to his own life and run!"
各顧性命 — each see to his own life. The order to break and run, given in four characters by the same kings who were calling for their armour a page ago.
There was nothing to be heard but roaring and bellowing, snorting and panting, and the whole pack of little demons showed their own bodies — they were mountain-ox spirits, water-buffalo spirits and yellow-ox spirits, running wild all over the mountain.
Four doubled sounds in a row — 呼呼吼吼，喘喘呵呵 — and none of them means anything on its own. They are noise, written down. Then the reveal, and it is a farmyard: mountain oxen, water buffalo, yellow cattle. The dreadful army of the Dark-Blossom Cave is livestock.
Those three demon kings showed their true forms too, dropped their hands, and were down on four hooves, going like iron cannon straight away to the northeast.
放下手來 — they put their hands down, and having put them down they have four feet. It is the most economical description of a shape-change in the chapter: no smoke, no spell, just a creature stopping pretending. 就如鐵炮一般, like an iron cannon — for speed and for noise, and the novel is comparing a rhinoceros to artillery four hundred years before anybody thought that was funny.
The Great Sage led the Well Wood Hound and the Horn Wood Dragon in close and hard pursuit, not slackening in the least.
略不放鬆 — not loosening even slightly. The chase that fills the rest of the chapter starts here, and it is going to end in the sea, which Venus told us it would.
Only the Dipper Wood Xie and the Straddler Wood Wolf stayed in the hollows of the eastern hills, on the hilltops, in the mountain streams and down the valleys, taking the ox-spirits — some killed, some caught alive — until they had cleared the lot.
The two who tried to stay behind are the two left doing the clean-up, which is a small joke at their expense. The four locations are listed in full — hollows, tops, streams, valleys — because the point is thoroughness. 盡皆收淨, gathered up clean, not one left. 斗 is dǒu here as everywhere in this chapter, the Dipper, and the base reading gives a sound that means to fight.
Then they went into the Dark-Blossom Cave and loosed the Tang Monk, Eight Rules and Sha Monk.
Fourteen characters, and the rescue that has taken the entire chapter is over in one flat sentence with no adjectives in it. The novel does not give the reunion a scene. It reports the untying and moves on.
Batch two ends where batch one was trying to get to, and the contrast is the whole design of the chapter. In batch one Pilgrim went in alone, in the dark, as an insect, and it cost him both brothers. Here four constellations walk up, say stop, and the doors open. Same cave, same demons, same prisoner.
The reveal is the funniest thing in the chapter and it is played completely straight. The demon army that beat three armed pilgrims turns out to be cattle — mountain oxen, water buffalo, yellow cows — running in all directions across a hillside. The three kings drop their hands and are on four hooves. Nothing supernatural happens; they simply stop pretending, and what is left is farm animals in a panic.
The last sentence deserves its flatness. Fourteen characters to free three people who have been chained up for two chapters, with no scene, no weeping and no speeches. The novel has other business: three rhinoceroses are running northeast towards the sea at the speed of artillery, and everything Venus said about creatures who cannot bear to be dirty is about to matter.