“Wuneng,” Monkey said, going up to him.
“Is that you, brother?” asked the idiot, recognizing his voice. “Save me!”
“I'll save you,” said Monkey. “Do you know where the master is?”
“He's done for,” Pig replied. “The evil spirits ate him raw last night.” At this Monkey burst into sobs and the tears gushed out like water from a spring.
“Don't cry, brother,” said Pig. “I've only heard the junior devils gossiping. I didn't see it with my own eyes. Don't waste any more time. Go on and find out more.” Only then did Monkey dry his tears and go to search in the inner part of the palace.
Noticing Friar Sand tied to a column at the back of the palace he went up to him, felt his chest and said, “Wujing.”
Friar Sand also recognized his voice and said, “Brother, is that you here in disguise? Save me! Save me!”
“Saving you will be easy,” said Monkey, “but do you know where the master is?”
“Brother!” said Friar Sand in tears. “The evil spirits couldn't even wait to steam the master. They've eaten him raw.”
Now that both of them had told him the same story the Great Sage was cut to the heart. Instead of rescuing Pig and Friar Sand he sprang straight up into the sky and went to the mountain East of the city, where he landed his cloud and let himself weep aloud.
“Poor Master,” he said:
“I fought against heaven, was caught in its net,
Till you came along and delivered me, Master.
It became my ambition to worship the Buddha;
I strove to eliminate fiendish disaster.
“I never imagined that now you'd be murdered
And I would have failed on your journey to keep you.
The lands of the West were too good for your fate.
Your life's at an end: in what way can I help you?”
Deep in misery, Monkey said to himself, “It's all the fault of our Buddha, the Tathagata, who had nothing better to do in his paradise than make the three stores of scriptures. If he really wanted to convert people to be good he ought to have sent them to the East himself. Then they would have been passed on for ever. But he couldn't bring himself to part with them. He had to make us go to fetch them. Who'd ever have thought that after all the trouble of crossing a thousand mountains the master would lose his life here today? Oh well! I'll ride my somersault cloud to see the Tathagata Buddha and tell him what's happened. If he's willing to give me the scriptures to deliver to the East then the good achievement will be propagated and we'll be able to fulfil our vow. If he won't give me them I'll get him to recite the Band-loosening Spell. Then I can take the band off, return it to him and go back to my own cave to play the king and enjoy myself again.”
The splendid Great Sage jumped to his feet and went straight to India on his somersault cloud. In less than a couple of hours he could see the Vulture Peak in the near distance, and an instant later he had landed his cloud and was heading straight for the foot of the peak. He looked up and saw the four vajrapanis blocking his way and asking him where he was going.
“There's something I want to see the Tathagata about,” Monkey replied with a bow.
Next he was faced by the Vajrapani Yongzhu, the indestructible king of Golden Glow Ridge on Mount Kunlun, who shouted, “Macaque, you're an outrage! When the Bull Demon King was giving you such terrible trouble we all helped you, but now you've come to see us today you're showing no manners at all. If you're here on business you should submit a memorial first and wait till you're summoned before going any further. This isn't like the Southern Gate of Heaven, where you can come and go as you please. Clear off! Out of the way!”
Being told off like this when he was feeling so depressed drove Monkey into thundering roars of fury, and his uncontrollable shouts and yells soon disturbed the Tathagata.
The Tathagata Buddha was sitting on his nine-level lotus throne expounding the sutras to his eighteen arhats when he said, “Sun Wukong is here. You must all go out to receive him.” In obedience to the Buddha's command the arhats went out in two columns with their banners and canopies.
“Great Sage Sun,” they said in greeting, “the Tathagata has commanded us to summon you to his presence.” Only then did the four vajrapanis at the monastery gates step aside to let Monkey enter. The arhats led him to the foot of the lotus throne, where he went down to kowtow on seeing the Tathagata. He was sobbing and weeping.
“Wukong,” said the Buddha, “what makes you weep so miserably?”
“Your disciple has often received the grace of your instruction,” Brother Monkey replied, “and has committed himself to the school of Lord Buddha. Since being converted to the true achievement I have taken the Tang Priest as my master and been protecting him on our journey. No words could describe what we have suffered. We have now reached the city of Leonia near Lion Cave on Lion Mountain where three vicious monsters, the Lion King, the Elephant King and the Great Roc, seized my master. All of us disciples of his were in a very bad way too, tied up and put in a steamer to suffer the agony of fire and boiling water. Fortunately I was able to get away and summon a dragon king to save the others. But we could not escape our evil star: the master and the others were recaptured when I was trying to sneak them out last night. When I went back into the city this morning to find out what had happened I learned that those utterly evil and ferocious monsters ate my master raw during the night. Nothing is left of his flesh and bones. On top of that my fellow-disciples Wuneng and Wujing are tied up there and will soon be dead too. I'm desperate. That's why your disciple has come to visit the Tathagata. I beg you in your great compassion to recite the Band-loosening Spell so that I can take the band off my head and give it back to you. Let your disciple go back to the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit and enjoy himself.” Before he had finished saying this the tears welled up again. There was no end to his howls of misery.
“Don't upset yourself so, Wukong,” said the Tathagata with a smile. “You can't beat those evil spirits. Their magical powers are more than you can handle. That is why you are so unhappy.”
Monkey knelt below the Buddha and beat his breast as he replied, “Truly, Tathagata, I made havoc in Heaven all those years ago and was called Great Sage. Never in all my life had I been beaten before I met these vicious monsters.”
“Stop being so sorry for yourself,” said the Tathagata. “I know those evil spirits.”
“Tathagata!” Monkey suddenly blurted out. “They say those evil spirits are relations of yours.”
“Wicked macaque!” said the Tathagata. “How could an evil spirit be any relation of mine?”
“If they're not relations of yours how come you know them?” retorted Monkey with a grin.
“I know them because I see them with my all-seeing eyes,” the Buddha replied. “The senior demon and the second demon have masters. Ananda, Kasyapa, come here. One of you is to take a cloud to Mount Wutai and the other to Mount Emei. Summon Manjusri and Samantabhadra to come and see me.” The two arhats left at once as they had been commanded. “They are the masters of the senior and the second demon chiefs. But the third demon does have some connection with me.”
“On his mother's or his father's side?” Monkey asked.
“When the primal chaos was first separated the heavens opened up in the hour of the rat and the earth at the hour of the ox,” the Buddha replied. “Mankind was born at the tiger hour. Then heaven and earth came together again and all living creatures were born, including beasts that walk and birds that fly. The unicorn is the most senior of the beasts that walk and the phoenix is the most senior of the birds that fly. When the phoenixes combined their essential spirit they gave birth to the peafowl and the Great Roc. When the peafowl came into the world she was the most evil of creatures and a man-eater. She could devour all the people for fifteen miles around in a single mouthful. When I was cultivating my sixteen-foot golden body on the peak of the snowy mountain she swallowed me as well. I went down into her belly. I wanted to escape through her backside, but for fear of soiling my body I cut my way out through her backbone and climbed Vulture Peak. I would have killed her, but all the Buddha host dissuaded me: to kill the peahen would have been like killing my own mother. So I kept her at my assembly on Vulture Peak and appointed her as the Buddha-mother, the Great Illustrious Peahen Queen Bodhisattva. The Great Roc was born of the same mother as she was. That is why we are relations of a kind.”