“Come here, head,” Monkey called again, but his head was no more able to move than if it had taken root there. Monkey was now feeling anxious, so he made a spell with his hands, burst out of the ropes that were binding him, and shouted, “Grow!” In a flash another head grew on his neck, so terrifying the executioners and the soldiers of the guard army that they all shivered and shook.
The officer supervising the executions rushed into the palace to report, “Your Majesty, when the little monk's head was cut off he grew another one.”
“So that's another trick our brother can do,” said Pig to Friar Sand with a mocking laugh.
“As he can do seventy-two transformations,” said Friar Sand, “he has seventy-two heads.”
Before he had finished saying this Monkey came back and called, “Master!”
“Was it painful, disciple?” asked a greatly relieved Sanzang.
“No, it wasn't painful,” said Monkey, “it was fun.”
“Brother,” asked Pig, “do you need sword-wound ointment?”
“Feel if there is a scar,” said Monkey.
The idiot put out his hand and said with a smile of wide-eyed astonishment, “Fantastic. It's completely whole-there's not even a scar.”
While the brother-disciples were congratulating each other they heard the king calling on them to take their passport and saying, “We grant you a full pardon. Go at once.”
“We accept the passport, but we insist that the Teacher of the Nation must be beheaded too to see what happens,” said Monkey.
“Senior Teacher of the Nation,” said the king, “that monk's not going to let you off. You promised to beat him, and don't give me another fright this time.” Tiger Power then had to take his turn to go to be tied up like a ball by the executioners and have his head cut off with a flash of the blade and sent rolling over thirty paces when it was kicked away.
No blood came from his throat either, and he too called out, “Come here, head.”
Monkey instantly pulled out a hair, blew a magic breath on it, said, “Change!” and turned it into a brown dog that ran across the execution ground, picking the Taoist's head up with its teeth and dropping it into the palace moat.
The Taoist shouted three times but did not get his head to come back. As he did not have Monkey's art of growing a new one the red blood started to gush noisily from his neck.
No use were his powers to call up wind and rain;
He could not compete with the true immortal again.
A moment later his body collapsed into the dust, and everyone could see that he was really a headless yellow-haired tiger
The officer supervising the executions then came to report, “Your Majesty, the Senior Teacher of the Nation has had his head cut off and cannot grow a new one. He is lying dead in the dust and is now a headless yellow-haired tiger.” This announcement made the king turn pale with shock. He stared at the other two Taoist masters, his eyes not moving.
Deer Power then rose to his feet and said, “My elder brother's life is now over, but he was no tiger. That monk in his wickedness must have used some deception magic to turn my elder brother into a beast. I will never forgive him for this, and am resolved to compete with him in opening the stomach and cutting out the heart.”
When the king heard this he pulled himself together and said, “Little monk, the Second Teacher of the Nation wants another competition with you.”
“I hadn't had a cooked meal for ages,” said Monkey, “until the other day I was given a meal at a vegetarian's house on our journey West. I ate rather a lot of steamed bread, and my stomach has been aching recently. I think I must have worms, so I'd be glad to borrow Your Majesty's sword, cut my stomach open, take out my innards, and give my spleen and my stomach a good clean-out before going to the Western Heaven.”
When the king heard this he said, “Take him to the place of execution.” A whole crowd of people fell upon Monkey, took hold of him, and began dragging him there. Monkey pulled his hands free and said, “No need to grab hold of me. I can walk there myself. There's just one condition: my hands mustn't be tied up as I will need them to wash my innards.” The king then ordered that his hands be left free.
Monkey walked with a swagger straight to the execution ground, where he leant against the stake, undid his clothes, and exposed his stomach. The executioners tied ropes round his neck and his legs, then made a quick cut in his stomach with a knife shaped like a cow's ear. This made a hole into which Monkey thrust both his hands to open it further as he brought out his entrails. He spent a long time checking them over carefully before putting them all back inside. Then he bent over again, pinched the skin of his stomach together, breathed a magic breath on it, called out, “Grow!” and made it join up again.
The king was so shocked that he gave Monkey the passport with his own hands, saying, “Here is your passport. Please don't let me delay you holy monks on your journey West any longer.”
“Never mind the passport,” said Monkey, “but what about asking the Second Teacher of the Nation to be cut open?”
“This is nothing to do with me,” the king said to Deer Power.
“You wanted a match with him, and now you must go ahead.”
“Don't worry,” said Deer Power. “I cannot possibly lose to him.”
Watch him as he swaggers like the Great Sage Monkey to the execution ground to be tied up by the executioners and have his stomach cut open with a whistle of the cow's-ear knife. He too took out his entrails and sorted them out with his own hands. Monkey meanwhile pulled out one of his hairs, blew on it with a magic breath, shouted, “Change!” and turned it into a hungry eagle that spread its wings, stretched out its claws, swooped down, grabbed the Taoist's internal organs, heart, liver and all, and flew off nobody knew where to devour them. The Taoist was
Left as an empty, eviscerated ghost,
With no entrails or stomach as he wanders around lost.
The executioners kicked the wooden stake down and dragged the body over to look at it. To their surprise they found it was that of a white-haired deer.
The officer supervising the executions came to make another shocked report: “The Second Teacher of the Nation has met with disaster. He died when his stomach was cut open and a hungry eagle carried off all his entrails and internal organs in its claws. He turns out to have been a white-haired deer.”
“How could he have been a deer?” asked the king in terror. To this the Great Immortal Antelope Power submitted the following reply: “How could my elder brother possibly look like an animal after his death? This is all the result of that monk using magic to ruin us. Let me avenge my elder brother.”
“What magic arts do you have at which you might beat him?” the king asked. “I will compete with him at bathing in boiling oil,” Antelope Power replied. The king then ordered that a great cauldron be brought out and filled with sesame oil for the two of them to have their competition.
“I'm most grateful for your consideration,” said Monkey. “I haven't had a bath for a very long time, and these last couple of days my skin has begun to itch. I need a good, hot soak.”
The officials in attendance on the king then set the cauldron of oil in position, built up a pile of dry firewood, set it burning fiercely, and heated the oil till it boiled and bubbled. Monkey was told to go in first. He put his hands together in front of his chest and said, “Is it to be a gentle bath or a rough one?” When the king asked him what they were, Monkey replied, “For a gentle bath you keep your clothes on, stretch your hands wide out, do a roll and come up again without getting your clothes at all dirty. If there is even a spot of oil on them you have lost. For a rough bath you need a clothes rack and a wash towel. You take your clothes off, jump in and somersault or do dragonfly-stands as you play around and wash yourself.”