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34 The Linked Caves

Wukong and Bajie shouted to know who he was. The old demon raised his iron club and cried aloud, "I am the Great King of the Southern Mountain, and for centuries I have roamed these parts as I pleased. Your Tang Monk has been eaten by us; what will you do about it?" Wukong flew into a rage and brought his rod down upon him, while Bajie, his anger blazing too, drew his rake and rained blows upon the Wolf Vanguard. A great melee filled the mountain, and they fought until sky and earth alike grew dark. After a while the lesser demons crowded forward in disorder to join the fray. Finding them troublesome, Wukong used the art of dividing himself: he plucked a handful of hairs, chewed them fine, spat them out, and turned them into scores of rod-bearing doubles to fight the host. The lesser demons could not stand against them; they were beaten until their true shapes showed, and fled in every direction. Wukong turned back to the old demon. His strength spent and his heart grown faint, the demon made a feint with his club, whipped up wind and mist, and fled back into the cave in defeat. The Wolf Vanguard was slow in getting away; Wukong felled him with a single blow of the rod, and his true shape appeared, an iron-backed grey wolf demon. The demons blocked the cave mouth so that Wukong and Bajie could not get in. "This cave must have a back way in and out," said Wukong. "Go and wait with our brother Sandy at the rocky cliff; I will hunt for the back gate." With that he turned towards the rear of the mountain. Rounding the hillside he heard the sound of running water: it was a mountain stream. Beside the cave was a gate, and beside the gate a hidden channel from which red water flowed without cease. "Beyond all doubt this is the back gate," thought Wukong. Wukong changed himself into a water rat and, with a whisk of his tail, slipped into the channel that drained the water away, followed it straight into the rear cave, and came up into an inner courtyard. Peering out, he saw several lesser demons sunning strips of human flesh in a warm corner. He climbed from the channel, shook himself into a winged ant, and flew towards the central hall. In the central hall a young demon came in to report: "My king, I was watching outside the back gate just now and saw Sandy and Bajie there, bowing at a grave and weeping bitterly. They must have taken the false head for the Tang Monk's and buried it." Wukong heard this and knew his master was not dead, and his heart grew light. He looked this way and that, spied a small door close by that was shut fast, and squeezed through the crack of it. Inside lay a great garden. Wukong flew deep into it and saw two men bound to the trees, and the one bound there was the Tang Monk himself. He flew up and called, "Master!" and the Tang Monk, hearing his voice, was overjoyed past all hope. Wukong comforted him, saying, "Bear it a little longer, Master. Let me make an end of the demons, and then I will come and set you free." Wukong flew back into the central hall, where he found all the demons arguing endlessly over how the Tang Monk should be eaten.

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