“Don't talk nonsense,” said the Great Sage. “You asked to take three cuts at me but only took two. Now you've invited me to hit you once. I'm not Monkey if I hit you one and a half times.”
“Very well,” said the senior demon.
The splendid Great Sage hugged his two bodies together, rolled, became one body again and struck with his cudgel at the demon's head. The old demon raised his sword to parry the blow. “Damned ape,” he said, “you've got a cheek! How dare you come here attacking me with a mourner's staff like that?”
“If you ask about this cudgel of mine,” shouted the Great Sage, “everybody in heaven and earth has heard of it.”
“What's it famous for?” the senior demon asked. To this Monkey replied:
“The cudgel is made of nine-cycled wrought iron
Tempered by Lord Lao Zi himself in his furnace.
King Yu called it a divine treasure when he obtained it
To hold the eight rivers and four oceans in place.
In its middle the constellations are secretly set out,
And each end is banded with yellow gold.
Ghosts and gods are amazed at its intricate decorations,
Dragon patterns and phoenix signs.
Known as the Divine Male Cudgel,
It was inaccessibly deep in the bed of the sea.
Its shape can change and it knows how to fly,
Sending clouds of many colours drifting through the air.
Once it was mine I took it back to my mountain,
Where I discovered how its infinite changes.
When I want size it's as thick as a vat,
Or it can be as thin as an iron wire,
Huge as a mountain or small as a needle,
Adapting its length to the wishes of my heart.
Lightly I lift it and coloured clouds spring up,
Or it flies through the sky and flashes like lightning.
The cold air it gives off chills all who feel it,
And ominous mists appear in the sky.
I have carried it with me to beat dragons and tigers,
Travelling to all of the ends of the earth.
Once with this cudgel I made havoc in heaven,
And used its great might to wreck the peach banquet.
The heavenly kings were unable to beat me,
And Nezha was hard pressed to match me in combat.
With this cudgel against them the gods had no safe refuge;
A hundred thousand heavenly troops all scattered and fled.
The gods of thunder guarded the Hall of Miraculous Mist
When the cudgel attacked the Palace of Universal Brightness
All of the angels at court were flustered
And the Jade Emperor's ministers were thrown into panic.
I raised my cudgel to overturn the Palace of the Dipper,
Then turned back to shake up the South Pole Compound.
Seeing my dread cudgel at his golden gates
The Jade Emperor invited the Buddha to see me.
The soldier takes defeat and victory in his stride;
There is nothing to choose between suffering and disaster.
I stuck it out for full five hundred years
Until I was converted by the Bodhisattva Guanyin.
Then a holy monk appeared in Tang
Who swore a mighty oath to heaven,
To save the souls in the City of the Unjustly Slain
And fetch the sutras at an assembly on Vulture Mountain.
On the journey to the West are many evil monsters
Whose actions would be a great obstacle to him.
So, knowing that my cudgel is matchless in the world,
He begged me to be his companion on the journey.
When it struck down evil spirits they were sent to the Underworld,
Their flesh turned to red dust and their bones all to powder.
Evil spirits everywhere were killed by the cudgel,
In thousands upon thousands too numerous to count.
Up above it wrecked the Dipper and Bull Palace,
And below it ruined the Senluo Court in Hell.
Of the heavenly generals it routed the Nine Bright Shiners,
And it wounded all of the Underworld's judges.
Dropped from mid-air it shakes mountains and rivers;
It is stronger than the sword of an evil star.
With this cudgel alone I protect the Tang Priest
And kill all the evil monsters in the world.”
When the monster heard this he trembled, lifted his sword and struck with all his strength. Chuckling, Monkey blocked the blow with his iron cudgel. At first the two of them struggled in front of the cave, but then they both sprang up and fought in mid-air. It was a splendid battle.
The divine rod had once secured the bed of Heaven's River:
The As-You-Will cudgel is the finest in the world,
Praise of its powers enraged the demon chief,
Whose mighty cutlass was full of great magic.
When they fought outside the gates they were still open to reason,
But no mercy was shown in their battle in the sky.
One could change his appearance at will;
The other could make himself grow on the spot.
The fight was so intense that the sky filled with clouds,
And all of the plains were enveloped in mist.
One had often determined to devour the monk Sanzang;
The other used his magic to protect the Tang Priest.
All because the Lord Buddha transmitted the scriptures
Evil and good were opposed in harsh conflict.
The senior demon and the Great Sage fought over twenty rounds without either emerging the victor while Pig admired their magnificent battle from down below until, unable to restrain himself, he grabbed his rake and leapt up into the air, riding on the wind to strike at the evil monster's face. The demon panicked, not realizing that Pig had no staying power, but could only rush recklessly in and give people a fright. All the demon could see was that Pig had a long snout, big ears and a vicious way with his rake, so he abandoned the struggle, threw his sword away, turned and fled.
“After him,” the Great Sage shouted, “after him!” The idiot raised his rake and went down in all his ferocious might straight after the monster. Seeing how close Pig was to him the old demon stood still in front of the mountainside, faced the wind, shook himself, resumed his real appearance and opened his mouth to devour Pig. This so terrified Pig that he fled as fast as he could into the undergrowth, not caring that brambles and thorns were tearing his head. He sat there trembling and listening out for the sound of the cudgel. When Monkey caught up with him the monster opened his jaws to eat Monkey up too. This was just what Monkey intended. Putting his cudgel away he went straight towards the demon, who swallowed him in a single gulp.
This gave the idiot such a fright as he was hiding in the undergrowth that he grumbled to himself, “You've got no common sense, Protector of the Horses. Why did you go towards the monster when he wanted to eat you up instead of running away? Now he's swallowed you. Today you're still a monk, but tomorrow you'll be a turd.” Only when the monster had departed in triumph did Pig emerge from the undergrowth and slip back by the way he had come.
Sanzang and Friar Sand were still waiting for Pig at the foot of the mountain when they saw him come running breathless towards them. “Pig,” said Sanzang with horror, “why are you in this terrible state? Why is Wukong not here?”
“My brother was swallowed up by the evil spirit in a single gulp,” Pig replied amid sobs, at which Sanzang collapsed in terror. A little later he stamped and beat his chest, saying, “Disciple, I thought you were good at subduing demons and were going to take me to see the Buddha in the Western Heaven. Who would have thought that you would die at this demon's hand today? Alas! Alas! All the efforts of my disciples have now turned to dust.” The master was thoroughly miserable.