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10 Yellow Wind Ridge

"Do not worry, my king," said the Tiger Vanguard. "Your officer will take fifty men and bring that monkey back." The Yellow Wind Demon agreed, promising that if the thing were done he would swear brotherhood with him. The Tiger Vanguard mustered fifty sturdy imps, beat the drum and shook the banners, took up his two red-copper blades, and swarmed out of the cave, bawling, "What thieving monk is this, shouting and bellowing here?" "You skin-flaying beast!" Wukong cursed him. "Hand back my master and I will spare your life." "Your master is even now being prepared for the king's supper," said the Tiger Vanguard. "And you come too — two for the price of one." At this Wukong flew into a rage and struck with his rod. The Tiger Vanguard caught it on his blades, and the two, each showing his power, fought there before the cave. After a while the Tiger Vanguard could hold out no longer and turned to run. But he had boasted before the Yellow Wind Demon and dared not go back into the cave, so he fled up the mountainside. Wukong would not let him go and followed hard with his rod. So the one ran and the other chased, until they came to the wind-sheltered hollow where Bajie was grazing the horse. Bajie heard the shouting, saw Wukong in pursuit of the tiger-demon, dropped the horse and ran at him with his rake. The Tiger Vanguard thought only of saving his life. He guarded his rear and forgot his front — and Bajie, striking sideways and from above, drove the rake into him and opened nine holes. He fell down dead. Bajie asked where their master was. "The demon has carried him into the cave," said Wukong. "You killed this one, and the credit is yours. Stay here and watch the horse and baggage; I must subdue the old demon before we can get him out." Bajie agreed readily. With his iron rod in one hand and the dead tiger dragged behind him with the other, Wukong came to the mouth of the Yellow Wind Cave, flung the carcass down and began to shout curses. News came to the Yellow Wind Demon that the Tiger Vanguard had been killed and that Wukong was at the gate calling for battle. He armed himself in haste, took up a three-pronged steel fork, and led his host of demons out of the cave. The Yellow Wind Demon came out and stood fast, shouting harshly, "Which of you is Sun Wukong?" Wukong planted a foot on the tiger's carcass. "Your grandsire Sun is here! Hand back my master at once!" The demon saw how lean his face was and how small his body, and laughed. "I took you for a hero not easily overthrown — and here you are, a living skeleton, a sick ghost!" "You have no eyes in your head, my son," said Wukong with a laugh. "Your grandsire is small, it is true — but strike him once on the head with that fork-handle and he will grow three feet." "Then take my fork!" said the demon with a laugh, and swung the handle at his head. Wukong showed no fear. As the handle came down on his head he straightened his back and grew to more than ten feet, at which the demon turned the fork in confusion and thrust at his chest. Wukong whirled his iron rod, in the stroke called "black dragon skimming the ground", knocked the fork aside and struck at the demon's head. There before the mouth of the Yellow Wind Cave rod swung and fork answered, and a fierce battle it was: thirty rounds and more, with neither the better. Seeing the fight would not be settled, Wukong used the art of the body outside the body: he tore out a handful of hair, chewed it to shreds, spat it into the air, and turned it into a hundred or more Wukongs, each with an iron rod, who ringed the demon round in midair.

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