As soon as Monkey heard him mention the Buddha's robe he was sure it was their treasure, and unable to hold back his anger he leapt out from the cliff brandishing his gold-banded cudgel with both hands and shouting, “I'll get you, you gang of devils. You stole our cassock, and now you think you're going to have a 'Buddha's Robe Banquet'. Give it back to me at once.”
“Don't move,” he barked, swinging the cudgel and bringing it down towards the monster's head. The dark fellow turned into a wind to flee in terror, and the Taoist rode off on a cloud; so Monkey was only able to slay the white-robed scholar with a blow from the club. When he dragged the body over to look at it, he saw that it was a white-patterned snake spirit. In his anger he picked the corpse up and tore it to pieces, then went into the recesses of the mountain in search of the dark fellow. Rounding a sharp pinnacle and traversing a dizzy precipice, he saw a cave palace in the cliff:
Thick, misty clouds,
Dense with cypress and pine.
The thick and misty clouds fill the gates with color;
The dense stands of cypress and pine surround the door with green.
For a bridge there is a dried-out log,
And wild fig coils around the mountain peaks.
Birds carry red petals to the cloud-filled valley;
Deer tread on scented bushes as they climb the stone tower.
Before the gates the season brings out flowers,
As the wind wafts their fragrance.
Around the willows on the dike the golden orioles wheel;
Butterflies flit among the peach-trees on the bank.
This ordinary scene can yet compete
With lesser views in Fairyland.
When he reached the gates Monkey saw that they were very strongly fastened, and above them was a stone tablet inscribed with the words Black Wind Cave of the Black Wind Mountain in large letters. He brandished his cudgel and shouted, “Open up!” at which the junior devil who was on the gates opened them and asked, “Who are you, and how dare you come and attack our Immortals' cave?”
“You damned cur,” Monkey railed at him. “How dare you call a place like this an 'Immortals' cave'? What right have you to use the word 'Immortal'? Go in and tell that dark fellow of yours that if he gives back my cassock at once, I'll spare your lives.”
The junior devil rushed in and reported, “The 'Buddha's Robe Banquet' is off, Your Majesty. There's hairy-faced thunder god outside the gates who's demanding the cassock.”
The dark fellow, who had barely had time to shut the gates and had not even sat down properly since Brother Monkey chased him, away from the grassy slope, thought on hearing this news, “This wretch has come from I don't know where, and now he has the effrontery to come yelling at my gates.” He called for his armour, tightened his belt, and strode out of the gates with a black-tasseled spear in his hands. Monkey appeared outside the gates holding his iron cudgel and glaring wide-eyed at that ferocious-looking monster.
His bowl-shaped iron helmet shone like fire;
His black bronze armour gleamed.
A black silk gown with billowing sleeves,
A dark green silken sash with fringes.
In his hands a spear with black tassels,
On his feet a pair of dark leather boots.
Lightning flashed from his golden pupils;
He was indeed the Black Wind King of the mountains.
“This wretch looks as though he's been a brick-burner or a coal-digger,” Monkey thought as he smiled to himself. “He's so black he must be the local soot-painter.”
“What gives you the nerve to act so big round here, monk, and what the hell are you?” shouted the monster at the top of his voice.
Monkey rushed him with his cudgel and roared, “Cut the cackle, and give me back the cassock at once, kid.”
“What monastery d'you come from? Where did you lose the cassock? Why come and ask for it here?”
“My cassock was in the rear abbot's lodgings at the Guanyin Monastery due North of here. When the monastery caught fire you made the most of the confusion to do a bit of looting and brought it back here, you wretch, and now you're planning to hold a 'Buddha's Robe Banquet'. Don't try to brazen it out. Give it back at once, and I'll spare your life, but if even a hint of a 'no' gets past your teeth I'll push the Black Wind Mountain over, trample your cave flat, and flatten every one of you fiends into noodles.”
The monster laughed evilly and replied, “You've got a nerve. You were the one who started the fire last night. You were sitting on the roof of the abbot's lodgings and calling up a wind to make it worse. What's it to you if I did take a cassock? Where are you from? Who are you? You must have a lot of tricks up your sleeve if you have the nerve to talk so big.”
“You can't recognize your own grandfather.” Brother Monkey replied. “I, your grandfather, am the disciple of His Highness the Patriarch Sanzang, the younger brother of the Emperor of the Great Tang. My name is Brother Sun Wukong. If you want to know about my tricks, just give me the word. I'll slaughter you here and now, and send your souls flying.”
“I've never heard of these tricks of yours, so you'd better tell me about them.”
“Stand still and listen to me, my child,” Monkey replied, and went on to say:
“Great have been my magic powers since childhood;
Changing with the wind, I show my might.
Nourishing my nature and cultivating the truth,
I have lived out the days and months,
Saving my life by jumping beyond the cycle of rebirth.
Once I searched sincerely for the Way
Climbing the Spirit Terrace Mountain to pick medicinal herbs.
On that mountain lives an ancient Immortal
One hundred and eight thousand years old.
I took him as my master,
Hoping that he would show me a road to immortality.
He said that the elixir is in one's own body-
It is a waste of effort to seek it outside.
I learned a great spell of immortality.
I could scarcely have survived without it.
Turning my gaze inwards, I sat and calmed my mind,
While the sun and moon in my body intermingled.
Ignoring the affairs of the world, I made my desires few,
When senses, body, and mind were purified, my body was firm.
Reversing the years and returning to youth is then easily done;
The road to immortality and sagehood was not long.
In three years I acquired a magic body,
That did not suffer like a common one.
I wandered around the Ten Continents and Three Islands,
The corners of the sea and the edge of the sky.
I was due to live over three hundred years
But could not yet fly up to the Nine Heavens.
I got a real treasure for subduing sea dragons:
An iron cudgel banded with gold.
On the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit
I was supreme commander;
In the Water Curtain Cave
I assembled the fiendish hosts.
The Great Jade Emperor sent me a decree
Conferring high rank and the title 'Equaling Heaven'.
More than once I wrecked the Hall of Miraculous Mist,
And stole the Queen Mother's peaches several times.
A hundred thousand heavenly soldiers in serried ranks
Came with spears and swords to put me down.
I sent the heavenly kings back up there in defeat,
Made Nazha flee in pain at the head of his men.
The True Lord Erlang, skilled at transformations,
Lao Zi, Guanyin and the Jade Emperor
Watched me being subdued from the Southern Gate of Heaven.
As he was given some help by Lord Lao Zi,
Erlang captured me and took to Heaven.
I was tied to the Demon-subduing Pillar,
And divine soldiers were ordered to cut off my head.
Though hacked with swords and pounded with hammers
I remained unharmed.
So then I was struck with thunder and burned with fire.