“He's tough, damn him,” said Monkey. “He started fighting me at about four yesterday afternoon and we were nowhere near a result when you two came along to help last night. He fought for half a day and a whole night without showing any sign of tiring. And that bunch of little devils who came out just now were a rough lot too. Now he's shut the doors of his cave and won't come out. What are we to do?”
“It was about ten yesterday morning when you left the master, brother,” Pig said, “so why was it four in the afternoon when you started fighting him? What were you doing for the six hours in between?”
“I reached this mountain soon after I left you,” Monkey replied, “and saw a woman. When I questioned her she turned out to be his favorite concubine Princess Jade. I gave her a bit of a fright with my cudgel, so she fled into the cave and sent her Bull Demon King out. He and I swapped a few insults then started fighting. We'd been at it for a couple of hours when someone came to invite him to a banquet. I tailed him to the bottom of the Green Wave Pool on Ragged Rock Mountain and turned into a crab to do a little spying. Then I stole his water-averting golden-eyed beast and changed myself into the Bull Demon King's double to go back to the Plantain Cave on Mount Turquoise Cloud, where I conned Raksasi into giving me the fan. I went outside to try the magic spell out on the fan and made it grow, but I didn't know how to make it shrink again. As I was walking along with it on my shoulder he turned himself into your spitting image and tricked it back off me again. That's how I wasted six hours.”
“As the saying goes,” Pig replied, “it's just like a boatful of beancurd sinking: it came out of the wet and it disappeared into the wet. Easy come, easy go, But how are we going to take our master across the mountains if we're having so hard a time getting the fan? We'll just have to go back and make a bloody detour.”
“Don't get impatient, Great Sage,” the local god said, “and don't try to be lazy, Marshal Tian Peng. If you make a detour that will mean leaving the straight and narrow: you'll never cultivate your conduct that way. As the old saying goes, 'In walking never take a short cut.' You mustn't talk about detours. Your master is waiting by the main road, desperate for your success.”
“Yes, yes,” said Monkey, his resolve stiffened, “don't talk nonsense, idiot. The local deity is right. As for that Bull Demon King, we'll have to”
Straggle for mastery,
Use our powers,
Until we can make the whole earth change.
Since coming to the West he has never met a rivaclass="underline"
The Bull King was originally the mind-ape transformed.
Only today do the sources flow:
We must hold out till we borrow the fan.
Put out the flames in the cool of the dawn,
Smash through obstinate emptiness to visit the Buddha.
When all is fulfilled we will rise to heavenly bliss,
And all go to the assembly under the Dragon-flower Tree.”
These words braced Pig's spirits too, and eagerly he said,
“Yes, yes, yes!
Go, go, go!
Never mind what the Bull King's powers are,
Wood grows in the nor'nor'west and is matched with a pig;
The bull-calf will be led back to the earth.
Metal was born in West sou'west and was an ape,
Without any conflict or conquest and full of peace.
We must use the plantain leaf as if it were water
To put out the flames and bring harmony.
Hard work by night and day with never a rest
Will lead us to success and the Ullambana feast.”
The two of them led the local deity and his spirit soldiers forward, then battered the doors of the Cloud-touching Cave to pieces with the rake and the cudgel. This so terrified the guard commanders that they rushed inside to report, “Your Majesty, Sun Wukong's brought his troops here and has smashed down our front doors.”
The Bull Demon King was just then telling Princess Jade what had happened and feeling thoroughly fed up with Monkey. The news of the front doors being smashed made him beside himself with fury, so he put his armor on immediately and went outside with his iron mace in his hands shouting abusively, “Damned macaque! You must think you're a very big shot indeed, coming here to play the hooligan and smash down my front door.”
“Old skinflint,” retorted Pig, going forward, “who do you think you are, trying to put other people in their place? Don't move! Take this!”
“Idiot!” the Bull Demon King replied. “Chaff-guzzler! You're not worth bothering with. Tell that monkey to come here.”
“You don't know what's good for you, cud-chewer,” called Monkey. “Yesterday you were still my sworn brother, but today we're enemies. Watch this carefully!” The Bull Demon King met their onslaught with spirit, and the ensuing fight was even finer than the one before. The three heroes were locked in a melee. What a battle!
Rake and iron cudgel showing their might,
Leading the spirit soldiers to attack the ancient beast.
The beast displayed his terrible strength when fighting alone,
Reviving his powers that rivaled those of Heaven.
The rake hit hard,
The mace struck,
The iron cudgel showed its heroic powers.
The three weapons rang against each other,
Blocking and parrying, never giving way.
One said he was the champion,
Another claimed, “I am the best.”
The earth soldiers who were watching could hardly tell them apart.
As wood and earth were locked in combat.
“Why won't you lend us the plantain fan?”
“You had the effrontery to mistreat my wife,
To ruin my son and terrify my concubine.
I haven't punished you for all of that yet,
And now you harass us and beat down my doors.”
“Be on your guard against the As-You-Will cudgeclass="underline"
A touch of it will tear your skin open.”
“Mind you avoid the teeth of my rake:
One blow, and nine wounds all gush blood.”
The Bull Monster fearlessly gave play to his might,
Wielding his mace with skill and with cunning.
Their movements turned the rain clouds upside-down,
As each of them snorted out his mists and winds.
This was indeed a battle to the death,
As they fought it out together with hatred in their hearts.
Taking new stances,
Offering openings high and low,
They attacked and they parried with never a mistake.
The two brother disciples were united in their efforts;
The solitary mace showed its might alone.
They battled from dawn till eight in the morning
Till the Bull Demon had to abandon the fight.
With death in their hearts and no thought of survival the three of them fought another hundred or so rounds till Pig took advantage of Monkey's miraculous powers to put all his brute strength into a rain of blows from his rake that were more than the Bull Demon King could withstand. He turned and fled defeated back to his cave, only to find the entrance blocked by the local god and his spirit troops.
“Where do you think you're going, Strongarm King?” the local god shouted. “We're here.” As he could not get into his cave the Bull Demon King fled, only to be pursued by Pig and Monkey. In his panic the Bull Demon King tore off his helmet and armor, threw away his mace, shook himself, turned into a swan and flew away. Monkey looked around and said with a grin, “Pig, Old Bull's gone.”