Monkey, who had been waiting on the bank, suddenly saw them coming out of the water after Pig, so he put one foot on a cloud and brought out his iron cudgel with a shout of, “Stay where you are.” His first blow smashed the ancient dragon king to pulp. It was a terrible sight: his corpse and the scales that had come off it floated on the surface of the pool, which turned red with his gore. His sons and grandsons all fled for their lives in terror, while Prince Ninehead took the body back to the underwater palace.
Brother Monkey and Pig did not pursue them but went back to the bank to discuss what had happened. “I've knocked a bit of the stuffing out of him,” said Pig. “I went charging in with my rake and smashed everything to smithereens. They were all scared witless. I was just fighting the prince when the ancient dragon king went for me. Thanks for killing him. Now those bastards have gone back they'll be too busy with mourning and the funeral to come out again. Besides it's getting late now. What are we going to do?”
“Never mind about it being late,” replied Monkey. “This is our chance. Get back down there and attack again. You must get the treasure so that we can go back to court.” The idiot was feeling lazy so he made all sorts of excuses to get out of going down again, but Monkey insisted: “Don't worry so, brother. Just draw him out again as you did just now and I'll kill him.”
As the two of them were talking they heard the roar of a mighty wind as dark and gloomy clouds came from the East, heading South. When Monkey took a closer look he saw that it was the Illustrious Sage Erlang with the Six Brothers of Plum Hill. They had falcons and hounds and were carrying foxes, hares, water-deer and deer that they had killed. All of them had bows and crossbows at their waists and were carrying sharp swords as they arrived on their wind and clouds.
“Pig,” said Monkey, “here come my seven-sage-sworn brothers. Let's stop them and ask them to help us in this fight. This will really stack the odds in our favour.”
“If they're your sworn brothers they owe you that,” said Pig.
“The only trouble is that the eldest of them, the Illustrious Sage, once made me surrender, so I feel too embarrassed to face him,” said Monkey. “I'd like you to go up, stop the clouds and say, 'Wait a moment please, True Lord. The Great Sage Equaling Heaven would like to pay his respects.' I'm sure he'll stop then. I can only face him after he's landed.”
The idiot then shot up on his cloud to the top of the mountain to stop Erlang. “True Lord,” he shouted at the top of his voice, “could you slow down for a moment? The Great Sage Equaling Heaven would like to see you.” On hearing this Lord Erlang ordered the six brothers to stop and exchanged polite salutations with Pig.
“Where is the Great Sage Equaling Heaven?” he asked.
“Awaiting your summons at the foot of the mountain,” Pig replied.
“Brothers,” said Erlang, “go and ask him up at once.”
The six brothers Kang, Zhang, Yao, Li, Guo and Zhi all came out of their camps and said, “Great Sage, our eldest brother has sent us with an invitation for you.”
Monkey went forward, paid his respects to them, then accompanied them to the top of the mountain, where Lord Erlang received him, took him by the hand and returned his courtesies.
“Great Sage,” he said, “allow me to congratulate you on being rescued from your terrible sufferings and being converted to the Buddhist faith. Soon you will have succeeded and will be sitting on your lotus throne.”
“I don't deserve your congratulations,” Monkey replied. “I am under enormous obligations that I've hardly begun to repay. I've been rescued and am heading West, but it's too soon to say whether we'll succeed. As we agreed to rescue some monks from disaster in the kingdom of Jisai we are here to capture a demon and demand the return of a treasure. Seeing that you are passing this way, eldest brother, I wonder if I could persuade you to stay and help us. May I ask where you have come from and whether you'd be willing to help?”
“I'm just on my way home from a hunting trip with my brothers because I had nothing to do,” Erlang replied. “I'm grateful to you, Great Sage, for asking me to stay out of consideration for our old friendship. Of course I'll help subdue a demon if that is what you wish. What kind of demons are there here?”
“Have you forgotten?” the six brothers asked. “This is the Ragged Rock Mountain, and below it is the Green Wave Pool, the Infinitely Sage Dragon's palace.”
“The Infinitely Sage Ancient Dragon is no trouble-maker,” said Erlang with astonishment. “How could he have robbed the pagoda?”
“Recently he's had a son-in-law living with him,” Monkey replied, “a nine-headed monster turned spirit. He plotted it all with his father-in-law. They made it rain blood on Jisai then stole the sacred Buddha relic from the top of the pagoda in the Golden Light Monastery. The king in his ignorance had the monks arrested and tortured. I captured two of their underlings in the pagoda who'd been sent out on patrol when my master in his mercy swept it out one night, and they confessed everything in the palace this morning. When the king asked our master to capture these monsters we two were sent here. In the first fight the nine-headed monster grew another head that shot out from his waist and carried Pig off. I had to transform myself to go into the water and rescue him. Then there was another big fight in which I killed the ancient dragon king. The swine have recovered the body and are now in mourning. We two were just discussing how to draw them into battle again when we saw you arriving. That's why I have had the effrontery to ask to see you.”
“As you've killed the ancient dragon king you'll have to hit them so hard that the monster won't know what to do,” Erlang replied. “Then you can clean up the whole den of them.”
“Yes,” said Pig, “but it's late now.”
“There's a soldier's saying that you should never put off an attack,” Erlang replied. “It doesn't matter that it's late.”
“Don't be so impatient brother,” said Kang, Yao, Quo and Zhi. “The demon's family is here, so we don't think he'll run away. Brother Monkey is a distinguished guest, and Iron-haired Pig has been converted too. We have wine and good food in our camp. Why don't we tell the little ones to light the stove and set out a banquet here? It would be a way of congratulating them and a chance to talk at the same time. After a good night's feasting there'll be plenty of time for the battle tomorrow.”
Erlang was very pleased with the suggestion: “An excellent idea, brothers.” The underlings were then ordered to set out the banquet.
“We couldn't possibly refuse you gentlemen's generous invitation,” Monkey replied. “But now we're monks we may only eat vegetarian food. We can't eat meat.”
“We have vegetarian food in plenty,” Erlang replied, “and monastic wine too.” All the brothers then drank and talked of the old days under the light of the moon and the stars; when the sky was their canopy and the earth their mats.
How true it is that the night is long in loneliness and short in pleasure. Soon the East started to become light and Pig, feeling very cheerful and energetic after a few drinks, said, “It's getting light. I'm going down to challenge them to battle.”
“Be careful, Marshal,” said Erlang. “Just lure him out for my brothers and me to deal with.”
“I understand,” grinned Pig, “I understand.” Watch as he tucks up his clothes, grabs his rake, makes water-dividing magic, jumps in, goes straight to the archway, and charges into the palace with a great war-cry.