On shimmering clouds they left the country,
Departing from the capital in a blaze of magic light.
On the king's command they came to the mountain cave
To fight hard side by side to capture the evil spirit.
Before long they reached the mouth of the cave and landed their cloud. Pig brought his rake down with all his might on the door of the cave and made a hole the size of a bucket in it. The junior demons guarding it were so frightened that they opened up the gates; at the sight of the pair of them they rushed inside to report, “Bad news, Your Majesty. The long-snouted monk with big ears and the other one with a horrible face have come back and smashed down our doors.”
“Pig and Friar Sand again?” exclaimed the monster in astonishment. “How dare they come and break down my door after I've spared their master's life?”
“Perhaps they've come to fetch something they left behind,” suggested a junior demon.
“Nonsense,” snorted the monster. “Would they break the gate down if they'd just left something behind?” He hastily tied on his armor, took his steel sword, went outside and asked, “Monks, what do you mean by smashing down my door? I spared your master, didn't I?”
“Will you do a decent thing, wretched ogre?” said Pig.
“What?” asked the old monster.
“You forced the Third Princess of the land of Elephantia to come to your cave,” said Pig, “and you've made her stay here for thirteen years. You should send her back now. We've come here to capture you on the king's orders, so you'd better hurry in and tie yourself up if you don't want me to hit you.” The old fiend was now furious. Just watch him as he gnashes his fangs of steel, glares so hard that his eyes become round with fury, raises his sword, and hacks at Pig's head. Pig avoided the blow and struck back at the monster's face with his rake, after which Friar Sand rushed forward to join in the fight with his staff. This battle on the mountain was not the same as the earlier one:
Saying the wrong things can make men angry;
Wicked intentions and hurt feelings give birth to wrath.
The great steel sword of the demon king
Sliced down at the head;
Pig's nine-toothed rake
Went for the face.
As Friar Sand let fly with his staff
The demon king parried with his magic weapon.
One wild ogre,
Two holy monks,
Moving to and fro with the greatest of calm.
One says,
“You deserve to die for your crime against the country.”
The other replies,
“Interfering fellow, trying to put the world to rights.”
“By seizing the princess you have insulted the state,” said the one.
“Just mind your own business,” said the other.
It was all because of the letter,
That the monks and the monster were now in combat.
When they had fought eight or nine bouts on the mountain side Pig was beginning to tire; his strength was flagging and he could only raise his rake with difficulty. Do you know why they could not hold out against the monster this time? In the first battle all the guardian gods had been helping Pig and Friar Sand as Sanzang was in the cave, so that they had then been a match for the ogre. This time the guardian gods were all looking after Sanzang in Elephantia, which was why Pig and Friar Sand could not hold out against the fiend.
“You come forward and fight him, Friar Sand,” said the idiot, “while I go off for a shit.” Then with no further thought for Friar Sand he streaked off into the undergrowth of grass, wild figs, thorns and creepers, diving straight in and not bothering about the scratches on his face. Then he fell into a doze, too frightened to come out again. He kept an ear cocked for the sound of clashing weapons.
Seeing Pig flee, the monster charged at Friar Sand, who could do nothing to stop the ogre from seizing him and carrying him into the cave. The junior fiends tied him up hand and foot. If you don't know what became of him, listen to the explanation in the next chapter.
Chapter 30
An Evil Monster Harms the True Law
The Mind-Horse Remembers the Heart-Ape
Now that he had tied up Friar Sand, the monster did not kill him, hit him, or even swear at him. Instead he raised his sword and thought, “Coming from so great a country the Tang priest must have a sense of propriety-he can't have sent his disciples to capture me after I spared his life. Hmm. That wife of mine must have sent some kind of letter to her country and let the secret out. Just wait till I question her.” The monster became so furious that he was ready to kill her.
The unwitting princess, who had just finished making herself up, came out to see the ogre knitting his brows and gnashing his teeth in anger.
“What is bothering you, my lord?” she asked with a smile. The monster snorted and started to insult her.
“You low bitch,” he said, “you haven't a shred of human decency. You never made the slightest complaint when I first brought you here. You wear clothes of brocade and a crown of gold, and I go out to find anything you need. You live in luxury all four seasons of the year, and we've always been very close to each other. So why do you think only of your mother and father? Why do you have no wifely feelings?”
This so frightened the princess that she fell to her knees and said, “What makes you start talking as if you are going to get rid of me?”
“I'm not sure whether I'm getting rid of you or you're getting rid of me,” the monster replied. “I captured that Tang Priest and brought him here to eat, but you released him without asking me first. You must have secretly written a letter and asked him to deliver it for you. There's no other explanation for why these two monks should have made an attack on this place and be demanding your return. It's all your fault, isn't it?”
“Don't blame me for this, my lord,” she replied. “I never wrote such a letter.”
“Liar,” he said. “I've captured one of my enemies to prove it.”
“Who?” she asked.
“Friar Sand, the Tang Priest's second disciple.” Nobody likes to accept their death, even at their last gasp, so she could only try to keep up the pretence.
“Please don't lose your temper, my lord,” she said. “Let's go and ask him about it. If there really was a letter I'll gladly let you kill me; but if there wasn't, you'd be killing your slave unjustly.” With no further argument the monster grabbed her by her bejeweled hair with his fist the size of a basket and threw her to the floor in front of him. Then he seized his sword to question Friar Sand.
“Friar Sand,” he roared, “When you two had the impertinence to make your attack was it because the king of her country sent you here after getting a letter from her?”
When the bound Friar Sand saw the evil spirit throw the princess to the ground in his fury then take hold of his sword to kill her, he thought, “It's obvious she must have sent a letter. But she did us a very great favour by sparing our master. If I tell him about it, he'll kill her. No, that would be a terrible thing to do after what she did for us. Besides, I haven't done any good deeds all the time I have been with our master, so as a prisoner here I can pay back my master's goodness to me with my life.”
His mind made up, he shouted, “Behave yourself, evil monster. She sent no letter, so don't you mistreat her or murder her. I'll tell you why we came to demand the princess. When my master was your prisoner in this cave he saw what the princess looked like. Later on when he presented his credentials to the King of Elephantia, the king showed him her picture and asked him if he'd seen her on his journey. The king had this picture of her painted long ago, and made enquiries about her all over the place. My master told the king about her, and when he heard this news of his daughter the king gave us some of his imperial wine and sent us to bring her back to the palace. This is the truth. There was no letter. If you want to kill anybody, kill me, and don't be so wicked as to slaughter an innocent woman.”