Having found all this out Monkey flew straight to the hostel, turned back into himself and said to the Tang Priest, “Something terrible's happened, Master, something terrible.” Sanzang had just begun to eat the king's vegetarian banquet with Pig and Friar Sand when this sudden announcement scattered his three bodily spirits and made smoke come out of his seven orifices. He collapsed in the dust, pouring with sweat, and unable to see clearly or speak.
Friar Sand was so alarmed he came forward to help him back to his feet, calling, “Wake up, Master, wake up.”
“What's so terrible?” Pig asked. “What's so terrible? You should have broken the news gently instead of giving the master such a scare.”
“When the master left the palace I went back to keep an eye on things,” Monkey replied. “That Elder of the Nation is an evil spirit. A moment later the city garrison came to report about the cold wind carrying the little boys away. This upset the king, but the Elder of the Nation cheered him up by saying that this was Heaven giving him eternal life. He wants to use your heart as an adjuvant for the elixir of immortality, Master. The deluded king has accepted this wicked suggestion and ordered his best troops to surround this hostel. He's also sent an aide to ask you for your heart, Master.”
“What a merciful and compassionate chap you are,” said Pig with a laugh. “You saved the boys and made the wind blow all right, but now you've got us in this disastrous mess.”
Trembling and shaking, Sanzang dragged himself to his feet, seized hold of Monkey and said imploringly, “Good disciple, how are we to get out of this?”
“If you want to get out of this,” said Monkey, “there'll have to be a switch.”
“What do you mean by a switch?” Friar Sand asked.
“If you want to survive,” Monkey replied, “the disciple will have to become the master and the master the disciple. Do that and we'll be safe.”
“Save my life,” said Sanzang, “and I will gladly become your disciple or even your disciple's disciple.”
“In that case there must be no hesitation,” Monkey replied, continuing, “Pig, mix up some mud at once.” The idiot loosened some earth with his rake then, not daring to go outside for water, lifted his tunic to make some water himself. With this he mixed up a lump of foul-smelling mud that he handed to Monkey. Monkey had no option but to beat it out flat and press it against his face so that it looked like a monkey's face. Then he told his master to stand up and neither move nor say anything while he placed the mask on his face, said the words of a spell, blew a magic breath and said, “Change!”
The venerable elder now looked just like Monkey. He took off his own clothes and put on Monkey's while Monkey dressed in his master's clothes, made a spell with his hands, said the magic words, shook himself and made himself look just like the Tang Priest. Even Pig and Friar Sand could not tell that he really was not.
Just when they had completed the disguises together there came the sound of gongs and drums as a dense forest of spears and swords appeared. The commanders of the royal guard had surrounded the hostel with their three thousand men. A royal aide came into the main hall of the hostel to ask, “Where is the reverend gentleman from the Tang court in the East?”
The superintendent of the hostel anxiously fell to his knees and said, pointing, “In the guest room over there.”
The aide then went into the room and said, “Venerable elder from Tang, His Majesty has sent for you.”
Pig and Friar Sand stood on either side of the imitation Monkey to guard him while the imitation Tang Priest went out through the door, bowed and said, “Your Excellency, what does His Majesty wish to say to me? Why has he sent for me?” The aide stepped forward to grab hold of him and say, “You and I are going to the palace. His Majesty must have some use for you.” Alas!
Wickedness was stronger than goodness and mercy;
Goodness and mercy only led to catastrophe.
If you don't know whether they were to survive this departure listen to the explanation in the next installment.
Chapter 79
Searching the Cave to Capture the Fiend They Meet Longevity
The Reigning Monarch Saves the Little Boys
The story tells how the royal aide dragged the imitation Tang Priest out of the government hostel and marched him, heavily surrounded by royal guardsmen, straight to the gates of the palace, where he said to the eunuch gate officer, “Please be so good as to report to His Majesty that we have brought the Tang Priest.” The eunuch officer hurried into the palace to pass this on to the deluded king, who ordered that they be brought in.
All the officials knelt at the foot of the steps to the throne hall, leaving the imitation Tang Priest standing alone in the middle of them.
“King of Bhiksuland,” he shouted, “what have you summoned me here to say to me?”
“We are sick with a chronic illness that has dragged on for many a day without any improvement,” the king replied. “Now the Elder of the Nation has to our good fortune presented us with a prescription that has been made up. All that is needed now is an adjuvant. The reason we have sent for you, reverend sir, is to ask you for the adjuvant. If we recover we will build a temple to you in which offerings will be made in all four seasons and incense will be burnt to you in perpetuity by our country.”
“I am a man of religion,” the imitation Tang Priest replied, “and have brought nothing with me. I do not know what adjuvant the Elder of the Nation has told Your Majesty you need.”
“Your heart, reverend sir,” the deluded monarch replied.
“I will be frank with Your Majesty,” the imitation Tang Priest said. “I have a number of hearts. I don't know which you want.”
“Monk,” pronounced the Elder of the Nation, who was standing beside the king. “I want your black heart.”
“Very well then,” the imitation Tang Priest replied. “Produce your knife at once and open up my chest. If there is a black heart there I shall offer it to you obediently.”
The deluded monarch thanked him delightedly and ordered an official in attendance to bring a small knife with a blade shaped like a cow's ear that was handed to the imitation Tang Priest. Taking the knife, the imitation Tang Priest undid his clothes, thrust out his chest, pressed his left hand against his abdomen and cut the skin of his stomach open with the knife in his right hand. There was a whoosh, and out rolled a whole pile of hearts. The civilian officials all turned pale with fright; the military officers were numbed.
When the Elder of the Nation saw this from inside the throne hall he said, “This monk is a suspicious-minded character. He has too many hearts.”
The imitation Tang Priest then held up the hearts one by one, each dripping with blood, for all to see. They included a loyal red heart, a pure white heart, a yellow heart, an avaricious heart, a fame-hungry heart, a jealous heart, a calculating heart, an over-competitive heart, an ambitious heart, an overbearing heart, a murderous heart, a vicious heart, a frightened heart, a cautious heart, a heretical heart and a heart full of indefinable gloom. There was every kind of evil heart except a black one. The deluded ruler was horror-struck, unable to speak until he said in trembling tones, “Put them away! Put them away!”