“I remember Pig being told,” he thought, “when he questioned the planet that there were three demon chieftains and 47,000 or 48,000 junior devils like this one. Even if there were tens of thousands more juniors like this it would be no problem. But I wonder how great the three leaders' powers are. I'll question him first. There'll be time to deal with them later.”
Splendid Great Sage! Do you know how he questioned the demon? He jumped off the devil's hat and landed on a tree top, letting the junior devil go several paces ahead. Then Monkey turned round and did a quick transformation into another junior devil, sounding clappers, ringing a bell and carrying a flag over his shoulder just like the real one. He was also dressed identically. The only difference was that he was a few inches taller.
He was muttering the same things as the other as he caught him up, shouting, “Hey, you walking ahead, wait for me.”
Turning round, the junior devil asked, “Where have you come from?”
“You're a nice bloke,” Monkey said with a smile, “not even recognizing one of your own people.”
“You're not one of ours,” said the demon.
“What do you mean?” Monkey asked. “Take a look and see if you can recognize me.”
“I've never seen you before,” the demon said. “I don't know you.”
“It's not surprising you don't know me,” said Monkey. “I work in the kitchens. We've rarely met.”
“You don't,” said the demon, shaking his head, “you don't. None of the brothers who do the cooking has got a pointy face like yours.”
“I must have made my face too pointy when I did the transformation,” thought Monkey, so he rubbed it with his hands and said, “It isn't pointy.” Indeed it was not.
“But it was pointy just now,” the little devil said. “How did you stop it being pointy just by rubbing it? You're a very shady character. I don't have the faintest idea who you are. You're not one of us. I've never met you. Very suspicious. Our kings run the household very strictly. The kitchen staff only work in the kitchen and the mountain patrols keep to patrolling the mountain. How could you possibly be a cook and a patroller?”
“There's something you don't know,” said Monkey, improvising a clever answer. “I was promoted to patrolling because the kings saw how well I'd worked in the kitchens.”
“Very well then,” said the little devil. “We patrollers are divided into ten companies of forty each, which makes four hundred in all. We're all known by our ages, appearances, names and descriptions. Because Their Majesties want to keep the organization neat and roll-calls convenient they've given us all passes. Have you got one?” Monkey, who had seen what the devil looked like and heard what he had said, had been able to turn himself into the devil's double. But not having seen the devil's pass he was not carrying one himself. Instead of saying that he did not have one the splendid Great Sage claimed that he had.
“Of course I've got one,” he said. “But it's a new one that's only just been issued to me. Show me yours.”
Not realizing what Monkey was up to, the little devil lifted his clothes to reveal a gold-lacquered pass with a silken cord through it fastened next to his skin that he lifted out to show Monkey. Monkey saw that on the back of it were the words “Demon-suppresser,” while on the front was handwritten “Junior Wind-piercer.”
“Goes without saying,” Brother Monkey thought, “all the ones in mountain patrols have 'Wind' at the end of their names. Put your clothes down now,” he said, “and come over here while I show you my pass.” With that he turned away, put a hand down to pull a little hair from the tip of his tail, rubbed it between his fingers, called “Change!” and turned it into another gold-lacquered pass on a green silken cord on which were handwritten the words “Senior Wind-piercer.”
With his liking for taking things to extremes and his gift of finding the right thing to say, Monkey remarked, “There's something you don't know. When Their Majesties promoted me to patrolling for doing so well in the kitchen they gave me a new pass as a Senior Patroller and put me in charge of you forty lads in this company.”
At this the demon at once gave a “na-a-aw” of respect and said, “Sir, I didn't recognize you as you've only just been appointed. Please forgive me if anything I said offended you.”
“I'm not angry with you,” said Monkey, returning his courtesy. “There's just one thing. I want some money from you all to mark our first meeting: five ounces of silver each.”
“Please be patient, sir,” the little devil replied. “When I get back to the Southern end of the ridge to meet the rest of our company we'll all give it to your together.”
“In that case I'm coming with you,” said Monkey, and he followed behind as the demon led the way.
After a mile or two a writing-brush peak was seen. Why was it called a writing-brush peak? Because on the top of the mountain there was a pinnacle about forty or fifty feet high that looked just like a writing brush standing upright on a brush stand.
Going up to it Monkey lifted his tail, jumped to the top of the pinnacle, sat down and called, “Come here, all of you.”
The young Wind-piercers all bowed low beneath him and said, “We're at your service, sir.”
“Do you know why Their Majesties appointed me?” Monkey asked.
“No,” they replied.
“Their Majesties want to eat the Tang Priest,” said Monkey, “but they're worried about Sun the Novice's tremendous magic powers. They've heard that he can do transformations and are worried that he might turn himself into a young Wind-piercer and come along the path here to find out what's going on. That's why they're made me Senior Wind-piercer to check up on you and find out if there are any impostors among you.”
“We're all genuine, sir,” the junior Wind-piercers all replied at once.
“If you're all genuine do you know what powers His Senior Majesty has?” Monkey asked.
“Yes,” one of the young Wind-piercers said.
“In that case,” said Monkey, “tell me about them at once. If what you say matches what I know, you're genuine. If it's at all wrong you're impostors, and I'll take you to Their Majesties for punishment.”
Seeing him sitting up on high, playing wise and cunning as he shouted at them, the young devils had nothing for it but to tell him the truth. “His Majesty has vast magical abilities and enormous powers,” one of the young devils replied. “He once devoured a hundred thousand heavenly warriors in a single mouthful.”
“You're an impostor,” Monkey spat out when he heard this.
“Sir, Your Honour,” said the young devil in panic, “I'm real. How can you call me an impostor?”
“If you're genuine why did you talk such nonsense?” Monkey replied. “No matter how big he is His Majesty couldn't have swallowed a hundred thousand heavenly soldiers in a single mouthful.”
“This is something you don't know about, sir,” the young devil replied. “His Majesty can do transformations. He can make himself tall enough to hold up the sky or as small as a cabbage seed. Some years ago when the Queen Mother invited all the immortals to a peach banquet she didn't send him an invitation, so His Majesty wanted to fight Heaven. The Jade Emperor sent a hundred thousand heavenly soldiers to subdue His Majesty, gave himself a magical body and opened his mouth that was as big as a city gate. He made as if to swallow hard, which frightened the heavenly soldiers so much that they dared not give battle, and the Southern Gate of Heaven was shut. That's how he could have swallowed a hundred thousand heavenly soldiers at a single mouthful.”
Monkey grinned to himself and thought, “Frankly, I've done that too. What powers does His Second Majesty have?” he asked.