The imitation Tang Priest had taken as much as he could, so he put his magic away and turned back into himself to say to the deluded monarch, “Your Majesty, you're not at all perceptive. We monks all have good hearts. It's only this Elder of the Nation of yours who has a black heart. His would make a good adjuvant for the medicine. If you don't believe me I'll take his out to show you.”
When the Elder of the Nation heard this he opened his eyes wide to take a careful look. He saw that the monk's face had changed to something quite different. Heavens! Recognizing him as the Great Sage Monkey who had been so famous five hundred years ago he made a getaway by cloud. Monkey did a somersault and sprang up into mid-air to shout, “Where do you think you're going? Take this from me!” The Elder used his stick with a dragon on its head to meet the blow from Monkey's cudgel. The two of them fought a fine battle up in the sky:
The As-You-Will cudgel
And the dragon stick
Making clouds up in the sky.
The Elder of the Nation was really an evil spirit,
Using his fiendish daughter's seductive charms.
The king had made himself ill through his lust;
The monster wanted to butcher the boys.
There was no escape from the Great Sage's divine powers
To catch demons and to rescue their victims.
The cudgel's blows to the head were really vicious;
Splendid was the way in which the stick met them.
They fought so hard that the sky was full of mist,
Casting city and people into darkness and fear.
The souls of civil and military officials went flying;
The faces of the queens and concubines turned pale.
The deluded king tried desperately to hide,
Trembling and shaking, unable to do anything.
The cudgel was as fierce as a tiger from the mountains;
The staff whirled round like a dragon leaving the sea.
Now they made havoc in Bhiksuland
As good and evil were clearly set apart.
When the evil spirit had fought over twenty hard rounds with Monkey his dragon staff was no longer a match for the gold-banded cudgel. Feinting with his staff, the spirit turned himself into a beam of cold light and dropped into the inner quarters of the palace to take the demon queen he had presented to the king out through the palace gates with him. She too turned into cold light and disappeared.
Bringing his cloud down, the Great Sage landed in the palace and said to the officials, “That's a fine Elder of the Nation you have!” The officials, all bowed to him, thanking the holy monk.
“No need for that,” said Monkey. “Go and see where your deluded king is.”
“When our monarch saw the fighting he hid in terror,” the officials replied. “We do not know which of the palaces he is in.”
“Find him at once,” Monkey ordered them. “Perhaps Queen Beauty has carried him off.” As soon as the officials heard this they rushed with Monkey straight to the rooms of Queen Beauty, ignoring the fact that these were the inner quarters. They were deserted and there was no sign of the king. Queen Beauty was nowhere to be seen either. The queens of the main, the Eastern and the Western palaces and the consorts of the six compounds all came to kowtow in thanks to the Great Sage.
“Please get up,” Monkey said. “It's too early for thanks now. Go and find your sovereign lord.”
A little later four or five eunuchs appeared from behind the Hall of Caution supporting the deluded king. All the ministers prostrated themselves on the ground and called out in union, “Sovereign lord! Sovereign lord! We are grateful that this holy monk came here to uncover the impostor. The Elder of the Nation was an evil spirit and Queen Beauty has vanished too.” When the king heard this he invited Monkey to come from the inner quarters of the palace to the throne hall, where he kowtowed in thanks to Monkey.
“Venerable sir,” he said, “when you came to court this morning you were so handsome. Why have you made yourself look different now?”
“I can tell you for a fact, Your Majesty,” replied Monkey with a grin, “that the one who came this morning was my master Sanzang, the younger brother of the Tang Emperor. I'm his disciple Sun Wukong. There are two more of us disciples, Zhu Wuneng, or Pig, and Sha Wujing, or Friar Sand, who are both now in the government hostel. I turned myself into my master's double and came here to defeat the monster because I knew that you had been deluded by his evil suggestions and were going to take my master's heart to use as an adjuvant for your elixir.”
When the king heard this he ordered his ministers in attendance to go straight to the hostel to fetch Monkey's master and fellow-disciples. The news that Brother Monkey had turned back into himself and had fought the evil spirit in mid-air gave Sanzang such a fright that his souls scattered. It was lucky that Pig and Friar Sand were able to hold him up. His face was still plastered with stinking mud and he was feeling thoroughly depressed and miserable when he heard someone call, “Master of the Law, we are ministers in attendance sent by the king of Bhiksuland to invite you to court to receive His Majesty's thanks.”
“Don't be afraid, master,” said Pig, “don't be afraid. This time he's not sending for you to take your heart out. I'm sure that elder brother has succeeded and they're inviting you there to thank you.”
“Even if they have come to invite me there because he has succeeded I could not face anyone with this stinking mask on,” Sanzang replied.
“We've got no option,” said Pig. “We'll just have to go to see my elder brother. He's bound to have a solution.” The venerable elder really did have no choice but to go to the main hall of the hostel with Pig and Friar Sand carrying the luggage and leading the horse. When the ministers saw him they were all terrified.
“My lord,” they said, “they both have heads like monsters.”
“Please don't take offence at our ugliness,” Friar Sand replied. “Both of us have the bodies that were left after an earlier life. If my master could see my elder brother he'd become handsome straight away.”
When the three of them reached the palace they went straight to the throne hall without waiting to be summoned. As soon as Monkey saw them he turned round and came down from the hall to meet them. Pulling the mud mask off his master's face he blew on him with magic breath, called “Change!” and turned the Tang Priest back into himself. Sanzang was now in better spirits. The king came down from the throne hall to greet him as “Master of the Law” and “ancient Buddha.” Master and disciples then tethered the horse and went into the throne hall to be presented.
“Does Your Majesty know where the monsters came from?” Monkey asked. “Let me go and catch them both for you. Then we will have eliminated future catastrophe.”
When all the queens, consorts and concubines of the three palaces and six compounds, who were behind the screen of bright green jade, heard Monkey saying that he was going to eliminate future catastrophe they cast aside all their inhibitions about appearing in front of an outsider, and a male one at that, as they came out to bow to him and say, “We beg you, holy monk and venerable Buddha, to destroy them completely, root and branch, with your dharma powers. That would be an act of the greatest kindness, and we would of course reward you richly.” Quickly responding to their bows Monkey insisted that the king tell him where the monsters lived.