The angry demon king,
Beside himself with fury,
Angry enough to swallow Monkey whole.
Unable to let off his rage,
Viciously he cursed the ape;
“You're always trying to fool with me.
You've killed so many of my people,
And you've taken away my treasures.
There'll be no mercy in this fight:
We'll see who's to survive.”
The Great Sage yelled back at the demon:
“You haven't a lick of sense.
For a beginner like you to fight against me
Would be like trying to smash a rock with eggs.”
The sword was met by the iron cudgel
As both sides fought without giving quarter.
In clash after clash they struggled for mastery,
Turning and twisting to show their skill in arms.
To rescue the pilgrim priest,
And visit the Buddha on Vulture Peak,
Metal and Fire would not yield to each other,
And the chaos of the elements destroyed their friendship.
As they showed their martial prowess and magic powers,
They sent stones and sand flying with their display of skill.
As they fought the sun was slowly setting;
The frightened demon was the first to quit.
After thirty or forty rounds of fighting against Monkey, by when the day was almost over, the demon king could hold out no longer and he broke away, defeated. He made off to the Southwest, heading for the Crushed Dragon Cave.
Monkey then brought his cloud down to land and rushed straight back into the Lotus Flower Cave, where he freed the Tang Priest, Pig, and Friar Sand. The three of them thanked Monkey for delivering them from dire peril, then asked where the demons had gone.
To this Monkey replied, “The Junior Demon King is inside the gourd, and I reckon he must have dissolved by now. I've just beaten the Senior King, and he's gone back to the Crushed Dragon Cave. As for the little devils from the cave, I killed half of them with my magical extra bodies, then wiped out the wounded survivors of the rout who came back here. That's how I was able to get in here to rescue you.”
The Tang Priest thanked him no end: “I'm so grateful to you for your great efforts, disciple.”
“You're telling me it was a great effort,” laughed Monkey. “You lot only had to put up with the pain of being hung up, but I wasn't allowed to stand still for a moment. I was more rushed than a postal courier with an urgent message, having to charge around all over the place without stopping. I was only able to put the demons down because I stole their treasures.”
“Show us the gourd, brother,” said Pig.
“I think he must have dissolved by now.” Monkey took the vase from his belt and then produced the Dazzling Golden Cord and the fan before bringing the gourd out in his hands.
“Don't look inside,” he said, “don't. When he put me in there I tricked him into taking the lid off and letting me get away by swilling saliva round in my mouth. We absolutely mustn't take the lid off in case he plays a trick on us and escapes too.” In their happiness master and disciples found the rice, noodles and vegetables in the cave, cleaned up the stove and cooking pots, and made themselves a vegetarian meal. When they were full they went to sleep in the cave. Nothing worth recounting happened that night, and before long the new day dawned.
The Senior Demon King meanwhile had gone straight to the Crushed Dragon Mountain, where he called together all the she-devils and told them how his mother had been murdered, his brother put in the gourd, the devil soldiers all killed and the treasures stolen.
At this the she-devils all wept. After they had been wailing for a long time he said, “Try not to upset yourselves. I still have my Seven-star Sword, and I'm going to parade all you women soldiers behind the Crushed Dragon Mountain, where I'll borrow some troops from my relatives. My mind is made up: I'll capture Sun the Novice and have my revenge on him.”
The words were not out of his mouth before a little devil from outside the doors reported, “Your Majesty, your lord uncle from the other side of the mountains is here with soldiers.” At this news the Senior Demon King quickly put on white mourning garments and went out to greet him in person. This lord uncle was King Septimus Fox, the younger brother of the demon king's mother, and he had heard from devils of his who were out patrolling the mountains how Monkey had killed his sister then impersonated her to steal his nephew's treasures and was fighting him in the battle of Flat-top Mountain that same day. Septimus Fox was bringing over two hundred of his own devil troops to help in the battle when he called for news at his sister's place on the way. As soon as he stepped inside and saw the demon king in mourning for his mother the two of them started to weep aloud. After weeping for some time the demon king bowed to him and told him what had happened. In his anger Septimus told the demon king to change out of his mourning clothes, pick up his sword, call the roll of women soldiers and join forces with him. They then set off on winds and clouds towards the Northeast.
The Great Sage had just told Friar Sand to get the breakfast ready as they would set off straight after eating it when he heard the sound of a wind. Going outside to look he saw a host of demon soldiers approaching from the Southwest. This alarmed him, so he ran back in a hurry and shouted to Pig, “Brother, that evil spirit is back again with reinforcements.”
Sanzang went pale with fright at the news. “Disciple,” he asked, “what can this mean?”
“Don't worry,” chuckled Monkey, “don't worry. Fetch me all their treasures.” The Great Sage then tucked the gourd and the vase in his belt, put the Dazzling Golden Cord in his sleeve, stuck the Plantain Fan behind his shoulder, and whirled the iron cudgel around with both his hands. Friar Sand he ordered to stay put inside the cave guarding the master, while he asked Pig to come outside with his rake to meet the enemy.
When the demons' line of battle was drawn up King Septimus Fox took command. He had a jade face and long whiskers, a brow of steel and ears like swords. His helmet was of refined gold, he wore chainmail armor and he held a heaven-square halberd.
“I'll get you, you bold and impudent ape,” he shouted. “How dare you treat people so badly? You've stolen the treasures, wounded my relations, killed the demon soldiers, and to top it all occupied their cave palace. All of you stretch your heads out to be executed while I avenge my sister's family.”
“You hairy crowd, you misery-makers,” replied Monkey, “you can't realize what powers I have. Don't go-take this from my cudgel.” The monster twisted round to avoid the blow, then struck back at his head with the heaven-square halberd. The two of them fought three or four rounds on the mountain-top until the monster was too weak to continue. He fled from the field, followed by Monkey until he was blocked by the Senior Demon King. When these two had fought three more rounds Septimus Fox came back into the attack. Seeing this from where he was at the edge of the battle Pig brandished his nine-toothed rake to stop him. The battle went on undecided for a long time with each fighter blocked by another until the demon king called up all the demon troops to surround Pig.