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27 Seven Wonders Mountain

They had chased some distance when a foul stench struck them: they had come to the Persimmon Alley of Mount Seven-Jue. Bajie bawled, "Who is cleaning out a privy? The stink is unbearable! Pah!" Wukong held his nose and only cried, "Hurry after the demon! Hurry after the demon!" The demon darted over the mountain and revealed its true form: it was a great red-scaled python, several tens of zhang in length, with a bloody mouth agape and teeth like steel. Bajie said in alarm, "What a huge serpent! If it took to eating men, I fear it would eat several hundred at a single meal!" Wukong called out, "So those soft-shafted spears were its two forked tongues. Let us strike the snake from behind!" Bajie did as he was told, sprang forward, and raised his rake to strike. The python dodged and plunged headfirst into a hole, leaving several feet of tail outside. Bajie set down his rake, seized the tail with both hands, and hauled at it with all his strength, but could not budge it in the least. Wukong said with a laugh, "Fool! Let the snake go in - old Sun has his own way with it." Bajie truly let go, and the python drew itself in. Bajie grumbled, "Now that the snake has drawn in, how are we to get it out again?" Wukong said, "The lair is narrow and the python is long, so it certainly cannot turn around. It must have gone straight through. There is bound to be another opening, a back door, on the other side of the mountain. Go quickly and block it, while I strike from this end." Bajie ran over the mountain like a wisp of smoke, and sure enough found a cave mouth, where he took his stand and waited. Wukong stood outside the front opening and thrust his staff into it. The pain was more than the python could bear, and it shot straight out of the back opening. Bajie was off his guard, and a blow from its tail knocked him head over heels. Wukong came up after him. Bajie was somewhat ashamed; he swallowed the pain, scrambled to his feet, and flailed about with his rake. Wukong said with a laugh, "The monster is gone - what are you flailing at?" Bajie said, "Old Pig is beating the grass to scare the snake!" Wukong called, "Fool, hurry after the demon!" The two of them chased it across the ravine and saw the python coiled in a heap, its head raised and its great mouth open to swallow Bajie. Bajie shrank back in terror. Wukong, however, went forward to meet it, and the python swallowed him at one gulp. Bajie beat his breast and stamped his feet, crying, "Brother Monkey, I have killed you!" But then they heard Wukong shouting from inside the python: "Do not grieve, Bajie. I will make the snake build you a bridge to look at!" With that he propped up his golden-hooped rod, which grew huge in an instant. The python arched its back until it looked for all the world like a bridge. Bajie said, "Bridge it may look like, but no one would dare walk on it." Wukong said, "Then let me turn it into a boat for you!" And he braced his rod against the snake's belly. At once the python flattened its belly to the ground and raised its head, so that it looked like a boat. Bajie said, "Boat it may look like, but it has no mast or sail, so it cannot catch the wind." Wukong said, "Stand clear, and I will turn it into a mast for you to see." With that he stood inside and thrust his rod up out of the snake's back with all his might, several zhang of it showing, so that it looked just like a mast. The python, struggling for its life against the pain, dashed down Mount Seven-Jue and ran more than twenty li before it finally fell into the dust and died. Meanwhile, back at Tuoluo Village, Old Man Li and the rest had waited a long while. He said to the Tang Monk, "Your disciple has not returned all night. He must surely have lost his life." The Tang Monk said, "That is impossible. Let us go out and look."

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