“You give it me,” said Skilful Beast. “Heavens! It's disappeared!”
They both started to search wildly on the ground and in the grass, putting their hands in their sleeves and in their tunics, but it was nowhere to be found.
“Whatever shall we do,” said the two horror-struck little devils, “whatever shall we do? His Supreme Majesty gave them to us to catch Sun the Novice with. Now we haven't caught him and the treasures have disappeared. We can't report this to him or he'll have us beaten to death. Whatever are we going to do?”
“Let's run away,” said Skilful Beast.
“Where to?” asked Dexterous Ghost.
“Anywhere,” said Skilful Beast, “because if we go back and say that we've lost the treasures that'll obviously be the end of us.”
“No,” said Dexterous Ghost, “don't let's run away. Let's go back. Both their majesties are usually very fond of you, and I'll put in a word for you. If they are prepared to make allowances they'll spare your life. Even if we can't talk them out of having us beaten to death, at least they'll do it there, and we won't be caught between two stools. Let's go back.” Having made their minds up the two little demons set out back to their own mountain.
Monkey, watching them heading back from where he was up in the sky, shook himself and turned into a fly that flew down and followed them. Where, you may wonder, did he put his treasures now that he was a fly? Had he left them on the path or hidden them in the grass someone might have found them and taken them, and all his efforts would have been for nothing. So he kept them on his person. But a fly is only the size of a bean: how could he find room for them? Because those two treasures of his, like his gold-banded cudgel, were As-You-Will Buddha treasures that grow or shrink with you. That was why he could keep them on. He went buzzing along after the devils. Before long he was inside the cave, where the two demon kings were sitting and drinking.
The two little devils went up to them and knelt down. Monkey perched on the doorframe, listening. “Your Majesties,” said the little devils.
“So you're back,” said the Junior Demon King, putting down his cup.
“Yes,” said the little devils.
“Have you got Sun the Novice?” was the next question. The two little devils banged their heads on the ground, not daring to reply. The old devils asked again, and still they dared not answer, but just kept banging their heads on the ground.
Only when they had been asked this several more times did they prostrate themselves and say, “Forgive us. We deserve to die a thousand times. Forgive us. We were taking the treasures into the mountains when we met an immortal from Mount Penglai. He asked us where we were going and we told him we were off to catch Sun the Novice. When the immortal heard about the Sun the Novice he said he was angry with him too, and wanted to come along and help. We never asked him to, but we told him all about how we were going to put Sun into the treasure. The immortal had a gourd too that the whole sky could be put into. Because we were greedy to do our family a good turn we swapped our man-holder for his sky-holder. At first we offered a gourd for a gourd, but then Skilful Beast threw the vase in for good measure. But his immortal's treasure was not for the mortal likes of us. We were trying it out when gourd and immortal both disappeared. We beg you to spare us the deaths we deserve.”
At this the Senior Demon King thundered, “Damn it, damn it. It was Sun the Novice disguised as an immortal to trick them out of you. That monkey has enormous magic powers and has knows people everywhere. What hairy little god let him out to con our treasures out of us?”
“Please calm yourself, brother,” said the Junior Demon King.
“That ape is the bloody limit. With all those powers it should have been enough for him to escape. Why did he have to trick us out of our treasures? If I don't have the powers to catch him then I'll never be a monster on the road West again.”
“How are you going to get him?” asked the Senior King.
“We had five treasures,” said the Junior King, “so even after losing two we have three left with which we can and must capture him.”
“What three treasures?” asked the Senior King.
“The Seven-star Sword and the Plantain Fan that I carry with me,” the Junior King replied, “and the Dazzling Golden Cord that's kept at our old mother's place in the Crushed Dragon Cave in Crushed Dragon Mountain. We should now send a couple of little devils to invite our mother to a meal of the Tang Priest's flesh and ask her to bring the Dazzling Golden Cord to catch Sun the Novice with.”
“Which ones should we send?” asked the Senior King.
“Not rubbish like those two,” replied the Junior King, who then shouted at Dexterous Ghost and Skilful Beast to get up.
“What luck,” they said. “We weren't beaten and we weren't sworn at-we've been let off.”
“Send for my regular attendants Mountain Tiger and Ocean Dragon,” ordered the Junior King. The two of them knelt before him while he gave them his instructions. “You must be very cautious.”
“We'll be cautious,” they replied.
“And careful.”
“We'll be careful,” they replied.
“Do you know the way to our mother's home?” he asked.
“We do,” they replied.
“In that case go as soon as you can. When you get to the old lady's place bow to her very respectfully, then invite her to a meal of the Tang Priest's flesh and ask her to bring the Dazzling Golden Cord with her to catch Sun the Novice.”
The two demons obediently hurried off, unaware that Monkey had heard every single word. He spread his wings and flew till he caught up with Mountain Tiger and settled on him. After about a mile he was going to kill the pair of them when he reflected, “Killing them would be no problem, but I don't know where the old lady keeps her Dazzling Golden Cord. I'd better question them before killing them.”
Splendid Monkey! He flew buzzing away from the two little devils and let them get a good hundred paces ahead. He then changed himself with a shake into another little devil with a fox-skin cap and a tigerskin kilt worn upside-down, who hurried after them and called, “Wait a moment, travelers.”
Ocean Dragon looked back and asked, “Where are you from?”
“My dear brother,” Monkey replied, “don't you even recognize members of your own household?”
“You're not one of us,” said the little devils.
“What do you mean?” said Monkey. “Take another look and see if you can recognize me.”
“You're a stranger,” they replied, “and we've never met.”
“That's right,” Monkey said, “you've never met me. I'm one of the outside staff.”
“Well then,” the little devils replied, “we would never have met you, sir. Where are you going?”
“His Majesty told me,” Monkey said, “that he'd sent you two gentlemen to invite the old lady to a meal of the Tang Priest's flesh. You were to ask her to bring the Dazzling Golden Cord along to catch Sun the Novice. He's worried that you two would dawdle and misbehave yourselves and mess things up, so he sent me along too to hurry you up.” As he knew all the details the two little devils were not at all suspicious: they believed that Monkey really was one of them. They rushed along in a great hurry for about three miles.
“This is too fast,” said Monkey. “How far have we gone?”
“About five miles,” said the little devils.
“And how much further is there to go?”
“Just to the black wood over there,” said Ocean Dragon, pointing it out. Monkey looked up to see a dark stretch of woodland not far away. The old demon must live somewhere nearby, he thought; so he stopped to let the little devils get ahead of him, pulled out his cudgel, rushed after them; and took a swipe at their legs. Unfortunately he hit them so hard that he turned the two little devils into mincemeat.