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21 Jindou Cave

Heavenly King Li, watching from the side, saw the eighteen arhats also defeated. He sighed, "Such a demon is hard to subdue. How are the rest of us to go back to heaven and report?" The gods, at their wits' end, looked at one another helplessly. The two arhats, Dragon-Subduing and Tiger-Taming, seeing the gods all downcast, stepped forward and said to Wukong, "The Buddha said, if the golden cinnabar sand is lost, the Great Sage is to go to the Doujiao Palace of Taishang Laojun; he is sure to find some trace of the monster!" Wukong's worry turned to joy, and he complained, "Confound it! Confound it! Why didn't you say so earlier and spare the venerable ones this long journey?" Wukong at once took his leave of the gods and Buddhas, mounted the somersault cloud, passed through the southern gate of heaven, and headed straight for the realm beyond the thirty-three heavens. Before long Wukong arrived before the Doujiao Palace in the Heaven of Parting Sorrow. The two immortal boys at the gate, seeing that it was the Great Sage, Equal of Heaven, who had wreaked havoc in the heavenly palace in days of old, did not dare to forcibly stop him. Wukong, shouting as he went, made for the great hall, where he happened to meet Taishang Laojun coming out and bumped into him full in the chest. Wukong bowed and said, "Old official! Many years since we met. I trust you have been well?" Laojun laughed, "This ape doesn't go and fetch his scriptures, but comes here instead. Whatever for?" Without another word, Wukong made his way into the hall, looking about him this way and that. Wukong searched through several corridors, then suddenly saw the boy by the ox-pen fast asleep in a drunken stupor, while the blue ox was nowhere in the pen. He shouted at the top of his voice, "Old official! So it really is your blue ox that has run off!" Laojun was greatly alarmed, and at once woke the ox-boy to ask what had happened. The boy kowtowed and said, "Grandfather, I remember picking up a golden elixir in the alchemy room. The moment I ate it I fell into a drowse here. I really do not know when the blue ox ran off." Laojun stroked his beard and sighed, "Untended as the beast was, it must have seized its chance to slip down to the mortal world and become a demon!" Laojun took stock of his various treasures, and saw that the diamond bracelet alone was missing. He said to himself, "Just as I thought - it is my diamond bracelet. Luckily that beast has not stolen my banana-leaf fan, or even I would be no match for him!" Wukong said, "So that is the ring you used to beat me with in the old days, old official. No wonder it is so powerful. Who knows how many of our things it has already drawn away!" Laojun said, "This diamond bracelet is the very vessel I used when I passed through Hangu Pass and converted the barbarians. No weapon, no water, no fire can come near it!" He then asked Wukong, "Where is the fellow? I shall go with you to subdue him." Wukong told him the place. Taishang Laojun took up the banana-leaf fan, left the immortal palace, and together with Wukong came to the borders of Mount Jindou. After Laojun had greeted the gods, he at once sent Wukong to lure the One-Horned King out to fight. Wukong leaped down from the peak and cursed fiercely, "You foul demon! Come out at once and meet your death!" The One-Horned King, hearing the voice, came hurrying out of the cave. Wukong sprang forward, dealt him a stinging slap across the face, then turned and ran. The One-Horned King gave chase with his spear, when from the lofty peak a voice called, "Ox, when will you come home if not now?" The old demon looked up and saw that his master had come. In his panic, he forced himself to throw the steel ring at Laojun. Laojun uttered a spell, waved the banana-leaf fan, and caught the ring in his hand. Laojun fanned him a second time, and the old demon at once felt his strength fail and his sinews go limp. He showed his true form: a one-horned blue ox. Laojun passed the diamond bracelet through the ox's nose, took off his sash and tied it to the ring, took leave of the gods, mounted the ox's back, and went straight back to the Heaven of Parting Sorrow. Wukong and the gods and Buddhas stormed the demon's cave and slaughtered every one of the hundred-odd imps within. The gods each took back their weapons and returned directly to the heavenly realm. Wukong rescued his master and brothers, gathered up the horses and luggage, and left the demon's cave. The Tang Monk, full of regret, thanked Wukong again and again, while Bajie hung his head in shame. The four master and disciples were chatting along the way when the Mountain God and Earth God stepped out from the roadside. The Earth God, holding a steaming alms-bowl of food, said to the Tang Monk, "Holy Monk, this meal is what the Great Sage begged the other day. Eat up, and quickly! Do not disappoint the Great Sage's kind heart." Hearing this, the Tang Monk shed tears.

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