The other was one of the ocean's golden beams.
The silver dragon danced,
The yellow monster soared,
As the blade cut tirelessly to left and right,
And the lantern flashed to and fro without a pause.
The old monster was as strong as ever, after eight or nine rounds of their battle in the clouds the young dragon was tiring and unable to keep up the fight, so he hurled his sword at the monster. The ogre used a magic trick to catch it, went for the helpless dragon, throwing the lantern at him and hitting him on the hind leg. The dragon brought his cloud straight down to earth, where the canal in the palace saved his life: once he had dived in, the ogre could not find him. Instead he went back to the Hall of Silvery Peace, clutching the sword and the candlestick. There he drank himself to sleep.
The dragon hid at the bottom of the canal for an hour, by which time all was quiet. Gritting his teeth against the pain from his leg, he leapt out of the water and went back to the hostel on a black cloud, where he turned himself back into a horse and bent over the trough once more. The poor animal was covered with sweat, and his leg was scarred.
The Thought-horse and the Mind-ape had scattered,
The Lord of Metal and the Mother of Wood were dispersed.
The Yellow Wife was damaged, her powers divided,
The Way was finished, and how could it be saved?
We will leave Sanzang in danger and the dragon in defeat to return to Pig who had been hiding in the undergrowth ever since he abandoned Friar Sand. He had made himself a pigsty there, and slept through to the middle of the night. When he woke up he could not remember where he was. He rubbed his eyes, pulled himself together, and cocked up his ear. In these wild mountains no dogs barked and no cocks crowed. From the position of the stars he worked out that it was around midnight, and thought, “I must go back and rescue Friar Sand. It's all too true that 'You cannot make thread with a single strand, or clap with a single had,' No, no. I'd better go back to the city, see the master, and report on this to the king. He can give me some more brave soldiers to help me rescue Friar Sand.”
The idiot went back to the city on his cloud as fast as he could, and in an instant he was back at the hostel. It was a still, moonlit night, and he could not find his master in either wing of the building. There was only the white horse asleep there, his body covered in sweat, and with a greenish wound the size of a dish on his hind leg.
“This is double trouble,” thought Pig in horror. “Why is this wretch covered with sweat and injured on his leg? He hasn't been anywhere. Some crooks must have carried off the master and wounded the horse.”
Seeing Pig, the horse suddenly called out, “Elder brother.” Pig collapsed from shock, got up again, and was about to flee when the horse took his clothes between his teeth and said, “Brother, don't be afraid of me.”
“Why ever have you started to talk today?” asked Pig, who was shaking all over. “Something terrible must have happened to make you do it.”
“Do you know that our master is in danger?” the horse asked.
“No,” Pig replied.
“You wouldn't,” said the horse. “When you and Friar Sand were showing off in front of the king you thought you'd be able to catch the monster and be rewarded for it. Little did you imagine that his powers would be too much for you. You should be ashamed of the way you've come back by yourself without even having any news to report. That monster turned himself into a handsome scholar, came to the palace, and made the king accept him as his son-in-law. He changed our master into a tiger, who was captured by the officials and put in a cage in the court waiting room. The news made me feel as if my heart were being sliced to pieces. It was already two days since you two went, and for all I knew you might have been killed, so I had to turn back into a dragon and try to rescue our master. When I reached the court I couldn't find him, though I saw the monster outside the Hall of Silvery Peace. I changed into a Palace Beauty to trick him. He made me do a sword dance for him, and when I had him fascinated I took a cut at him. He dodged the blow, picked up a giant lantern in both hands, and soon had me on the run. I flung my sword at him, but he caught it, and wounded me on the hind leg by throwing the lantern at me. I escaped with my life by hiding in the palace canal. The scar is where he hit me with the candlestick.”
“Is this all true?” asked Pig.
“Don't think I'm trying to fool you,” said the dragon.
“What are we to do?” said Pig. “Can you move?”
“What if I can?” said the dragon.
“If you can move,” said Pig, “then make your way back to the sea: I'll take the luggage back to Gao Village and be a married man again.” The dragon's reaction to this was to bite hard on Pig's tunic and not let him go. Tears rolled down his face as he said, “Please don't give up, elder brother.”
“What else can I do but give up?” said Pig. “Friar Sand has been captured by him, and I can't beat him, so what can we do but break up now?”
The dragon thought for a moment before replying, still in tears, “Don't even talk about breaking up, brother. All you need do to rescue the master is to ask someone to come here.”
“Who?” asked Pig.
“Take a cloud back to the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit as fast as you can, and ask our eldest brother Monkey to come here. With his tremendous ability to beat demons he ought to be able to rescue the master and avenge your defeat.”
“Can't we ask someone else?” said Pig. “He hasn't been on the best of terms with me since he killed the White Bone Spirit on White Tiger Ridge. He's angry with me for encouraging the master to say the Band-tightening Spell. I only meant it as a joke-how was I to know the old monk would really say it and drive him away? Goodness knows how furious he is with me. He definitely won't come. I'm no match for him with my tongue, and if he's disrespectful enough to hit me a few times with that murderous great cudgel of his, it'll be the death of me.”
“Of course he won't hit you,” said the dragon. “He's a kind and decent Monkey King. When you see him don't tell him that the master's in trouble. Just say, 'The master's missing you.' Once you've lured him here and he sees the situation he won't possibly be angry. He's bound to want to fight the monster. I guarantee that he'll capture the monster and save our master.”
“Oh well,” said Pig, “oh well. As you're so determined I'll have to go, or else I'll look half-hearted. If Monkey's prepared to come, I'll come back with him; but if he isn't, then don't expect me-I won't be back.”
“Go,” said the dragon. “I promise he'll come.”
The idiot picked up his rake, straightened his tunic, leapt up on a cloud, and headed East. Sanzang was fated to live. Pig had a following wind, so he stuck up his ears for sails and was at the Eastern Ocean in no time. He landed his cloud. Without his noticing it the sun rose as he made his way into the mountains.
As he was going along he suddenly heard voices. He looked carefully and saw Monkey in a mountain hollow with hordes of demons. He was perched on a rock, and in front of him over twelve hundred monkeys were drawn up in ranks and chanting, “Long live His Majesty the Great Sage.”
“He's doing very nicely,” thought Pig, “very nicely indeed. No wonder he wanted to come home instead of staying a monk. He has it really nice here, with a big place like this and all those little monkeys at his beck and call. If I'd had a mountain like this I'd never have become a monk. But what am I to do now I'm here? I must go and see him.” As he was rather overawed, Pig did not dare walk boldly over to see him. Instead he made his way round a grassy cliff, slipped in among the twelve hundred monkeys, and started to kowtow with them.