“Come with me and I'll teach you,” the woman replied.

“All right then,” Monkey thought with an inward smile, “I'll go with her and see how she fixes things.”

Shoulder nestling against shoulder and hand in hand the two of them left the Buddha Hall and went straight to the garden at the back. Here the monster tripped Monkey over and sent him to the ground. With wild calls of “My darling!” she made a grab for his crotch.

“So you really want to eat me up, my girl,” he said, seizing her hand and throwing her off balance so that she somersaulted to the ground.

“So you can throw your sweetie to the ground, can you, my darling?” she said.

“If I don't take this chance to finish her off what am I waiting for?” he thought. “As they say, hit first and win, strike second and lose.” He leaned forward with his hands on his hips, sprang to his feet and reverted to his own form. With a swing of his gold-banded iron cudgel he struck at the monster's head.

In her astonishment she thought, “What a terror this young monk is.” When she opened her eyes wide for a better look she realized that he was the Tang Priest's disciple Monkey, but she was not afraid of him. What sort of evil spirit was she, you may wonder.

A golden nose,

Snowy white fur.

She makes her home in a tunnel,

Where she is thoroughly safe.

Three hundred years ago, after training her vital forces,

She paid several visits to the Vulture Peak,

Carrying a full load of flowers and wax candles.

Tathagata sent her down from Heaven.

She was a beloved daughter to the Pagoda-carrying Heavenly King;

Prince Nezha treated her as his own sister.

She was no bird that fills up the sea,

Nor was she a tortoise carrying mountains on its back.

She did not fear Lei Huan's swords

Nor was she afraid of Lu Qian's blade.

She came and went

Flowing like the mighty Han and Yangtse;

Moved up and down,

Even up a peak as high as Mounts Taishan and Heng.

Seeing the charming beauty of her face

You would never know she was a mouse-spirit with great powers.

In the pride in her enormous magic powers she held up a pair of swords that rang out as she parried to left and right, moving East and West. Although Monkey was rather stronger he could not overpower her. Then magic winds arose on all sides, dimming the waning moon. It was fine battle they fought in the garden at the back:

Evil winds blew from the ground;

Dim was the light of the waning moon.

Deserted was the hall of the Brahma Kings,

And the devils' cloister could not be clearly seen.

The back garden saw a battle Between the warrior Sun,

A sage in Heaven, And the furry girl,

A queen among women,

Both competing in magical powers and refusing to submit.

One turned her heart in anger from the dark-skinned baldy;

The other glared with his all-seeing eyes at the finely dressed woman.

With swords in her hands,

She is no female Bodhisattva.

The blows of the cudgel

Were as fierce as a living vajrapani's.

The resounding golden band flashed like lightning;

For an instant the iron shone white as a star.

In fine buildings they grabbed at the precious jade;

In golden halls the mandarin duck figurines were smashed.

As the apes howled the moon seemed small;

Vast was the sky as wild geese called.

The eighteen arhats

Applauded in secret;

Each of the thirty-two devas

Was struck with panic.

The Great Sage Monkey was in such high spirits that his cudgel never missed. Realizing that she was no match for him, the evil spirit frowned suddenly and thought of a plan as she extricated herself and made off.

“Where do you think you're going, you baggage?” Monkey shouted. “Surrender at once.”

The evil spirit paid no attention and fled. When she was hard-pressed by Monkey's pursuit she took the embroidered shoe off her left foot, blew on it with a magic breath, said the words of a spell, called out, “Change!” and turned it into a likeness of herself that came back at him waving a pair of swords. Meanwhile she turned her real body with a shake into a pure breeze and went.

This was Sanzang's star of disaster. She headed straight for the abbot's quarters, lifted Sanzang up into a cloud, and, on the instant, before anyone could see anything, she was back at Mount Pitfall and inside the Bottomless Cave, where she told her underlings to prepare a vegetarian marriage feast.

The story switches back to Brother Monkey, who fought with desperate anxiety until he was able to seize an opening and smash the evil spirit to the ground with a single blow, only to find that she was in fact an embroidered shoe. Realizing that he had fallen for a trick he went straight back to see the master. But was the master there? There were only the idiot and Friar Sand muttering together. His chest bursting with fury, Monkey put all thought of what he ought to do out of his head and raised his cudgel to lay about him.

“I'll kill the pair of you,” he shouted, “I'll kill the pair of you.”

The idiot was desperate, but there was no way for him to escape. Friar Sand, however, as a general from the magic mountain who had seen a great deal, adopted a very mild and conciliatory approach when he stepped forward, knelt down and said, “Elder brother, I understand. I'm sure that after you've killed us two you intend to go straight back home instead of rescuing the master.”

“When I've killed you two I'm going to rescue him myself,” Monkey retorted.

“How can you say that?” replied Friar Sand with a smile. “Without us two it would be a case of

You can't spin a thread from only one strand

Or clap with the palm of a single hand.

Who'd look after the luggage or the horse for you? We'd do much better to forget our differences and fight side by side like Guan Zhong and Bao Shuya than to have a battle of wits like Sun Bin and Pang Juan. As the old saying goes,

To kill a tiger you need your brothers' help;

Have fathers and sons fight together in battle.

I hope you will spare us, brother, so that tomorrow morning we can all work together with a single mind in our search for the master.” Although his magical powers were tremendous Monkey knew what was right and needed at the time, so that Friar Sand's entreaties made him change his mind.

“Get up, Pig and Friar Sand,” he said. “But when we hunt for the master tomorrow you'll have to make a real effort.” The idiot was so grateful at being let off that he would gladly have promised Monkey half the sky.

“Brother,” Friar Sand said, “leave it all to me.” The three brother disciples were so anxious that none of them could sleep. They wished they could make the sun rise in the East with a nod of the head and blow all the stars out of the sky with a single breath.

After sitting there till dawn the three of them packed up and were about to get out, only to find the gateway barred by one of the lamas, who asked, “Where are you going, gentlemen?”

“This is most embarrassing,” Monkey replied with a smile. “Yesterday I boasted to all the monks that I'd capture the evil spirit for them. So far from me capturing her she's made my master disappear. We're off to look for him.”

“My lord,” said the lamas with horror, “our trivial problem has got your master involved. Where will you look for him?”

“I know where I'll look,” Monkey replied.

“Even though you're going please don't be in such a hurry,” said the lamas. “Have some breakfast first.” Two or three bowls of hot gruel were brought in that Pig cleaned up with great gusto.