“You're worrying over nothing, old man,” said Pig, spitting. “Why go to all that trouble just to tell us about three demons?”

“Aren't you afraid?” the old man said.

“To tell you the truth,” Pig replied, “my elder brother'll kill one with one swing of his cudgel, I'll kill another with one bash from my rake, and the other disciple will kill the third one with his demon-quelling staff. And with the three of them dead our master will be able to cross the ridge. No problem!”

“You don't know the whole story, monk,” said the old man with a smile. “Those three demon chiefs have the most tremendous magic powers. As for the little demons under their command, there are five thousand on the Southern end of the ridge, five thousand on the Northern end, ten thousand on the road East, ten thousand on the road West, four or five thousand patrollers, and another ten thousand on the gates. Then there are any number who work in the kitchen and gather firewood. There must be 47,000 or 48,000 altogether. They all have names and carry passes, and all they do is eat people.”

On learning this the idiot ran back, shivering and shaking. As soon as he was near the Tang Priest he put down his rake and started shitting instead of reporting back. “What are you squatting there for instead of making your report?” shouted Monkey when he saw the idiot.

“Because I'm shit scared,” Pig replied. “No time to talk now. The sooner we all run for our lives the better.”

“Stupid fool,” said Monkey. “I wasn't frightened when I questioned him, so why should you be in such a witless panic?”

“What is the situation?” Sanzang asked.

“The old man says that this is Lion Mountain,” Pig replied, “and that there's Lion Cave in it. There are three chief demons there, and they have 48,000 little devils under them. All they do is eat people. So if we step on their mountain we'll just be serving ourselves up as a meal to them. Let's forget about it.” On hearing this Sanzang shivered, his hairs standing on end.

“What are we to do, Wukong?” he asked.

“Don't worry, Master,” said Monkey. “It can't be anything much. There are bound to be a few evil spirits here. It's just that the people here are such cowards that they exaggerate about how many demons there are and how powerful they are. They get themselves into a funk. I can cope.”

“You're talking nonsense, brother,” said Pig. “I'm not like you. What I found out was the truth. I wasn't making any of it up. The hills and valleys are all crawling with demons. How are we going to move ahead?”

“You're talking like an idiot,” said Monkey with a grin. Don't scare yourself over nothing. Even if the hills and valleys were crawling with demons I'd only need half a night to wipe them all out with my cudgel.”

“You're shameless,” said Pig, “quite shameless. Stop talking so big. It would take seven or eight days just to call the roll. How could you wipe them all out?”

“Tell me how you'd do it,” laughed Monkey.

“However you grabbed them, tied them up, or fixed them where they are with fixing magic you'd never be able to do it so fast,” said Pig.

“I wouldn't need to grab them or tie them up,” said Monkey. “I'll give my cudgel a tug at both ends, say 'Grow!,' and make it over four hundred feet long. Then I'll wave it, say 'Thicken!,' and make it eighty feet around. I'll roll it down the Southern slope and that'll kill five thousand of them. I'll roll it down the Northern slope and kill another five thousand. Then I'll roll it along the ridge from East to West, and even if there are forty or fifty thousand of them I'll squash them all to a bloody pulp.”

“Brother,” said Pig, “if you kill them that way, like rolling out dough for noodles, you could do it in four hours.”

“Master,” said Friar Sand with a laugh, “as my elder brother has such divine powers we've got nothing to fear. Please mount up so that we can be on our way.” Having heard them discussing Monkey's powers Sanzang could not but mount with an easy heart and be on his way.

As they traveled along the old man disappeared. “He must have been an evil spirit himself,” said Friar Sand, “deliberately coming to frighten us with cunning and intimidation.”

“Take it easy,” said Monkey. “I'm going to take a look.” The splendid Great Sage leapt up to a high peak but saw no trace of the old man when he looked around. Then he suddenly turned back to see a shimmering coloured glow in the sky, shot up on his cloud to look, and saw that it was the Great White Planet. Walking over and grabbing hold of him, Monkey kept addressing him by his personal name: “Li Changgeng! Li Changgeng! You rascal! If you had something to say you should have said it to my face. Why did you pretend to be an old man of the woods and make a fool of me?”

The planet hastened to pay him his respects and said, “Great Sage, I beg you to forgive me for being late in reporting to you. Those demon chiefs really have tremendous magical abilities and their powers are colossal. With your skill in transformations and your cunning you may just be able to get over, but if you slight them it will be very hard.”

“I'm very grateful,” Monkey thanked him, “very grateful. If I really can't get across this ridge I hope that you'll go up to Heaven and put in a word with the Jade Emperor so he'll lend me some heavenly soldiers to help me.”

“Yes, yes, yes,” said the Great White Planet. “Just give the word and you can have a hundred thousand heavenly troops if you want them.”

The Great Sage then took his leave of the planet and brought his cloud down to see Sanzang and say, “The old man we saw just now was actually the Great White Planet come to bring us a message.”

“Disciple,” said Sanzang, putting his hands together in front of his chest, “catch up with him quick and ask him where there's another path we could make a detour by.”

“There's no other way round,” Monkey replied. “This mountain is 250 miles across, and goodness knows how much longer it would be to go all the way around it. How ever could we?” At this Sanzang could not restrain himself from weeping.

“Disciple,” he said, “if it's going to be as hard as this how are we going to worship the Buddha?”

“Don't cry,” Monkey said, “don't cry. If you cry you're a louse. I'm sure he's exaggerating. All we have to do is be careful. As they say, forewarned is forearmed. Dismount and sit here for now.”

“What do you want to talk about now?” Pig asked.

“Nothing,” replied Monkey. “You stay here and look after the master carefully while Friar Sand keeps a close eye on the baggage and the horse. I'm going up the ridge to scout around. I'll find out how many demons there are in the area, capture one, ask him all the details, and get him to write out a list with all of their names. I'll check out every single one of them, old or young, and tell them to shut the gates of the cave and not block our way. Then I can ask the master to cross the mountain peacefully and quietly. That'll show people my powers.”

“Be careful,” said Friar Sand, “do be careful!”

“No need to tell me,” Brother Monkey replied with a smile. “On this trip I'd force the Eastern Ocean to make way for me, and I'd smash my way in even if it were a mountain of silver cased in iron.”

The splendid Great Sage went whistling straight up to the peak by his somersault cloud. Holding on to the vines and creepers, he surveyed the mountain only to find it silent and deserted. “I was wrong,” he said involuntarily, “I was wrong. I shouldn't have let that old Great White Planet go. He was just trying to scare me. There aren't any evil spirits here. If there were they'd be out leaping around in the wind, thrusting with their spears and staves, or practicing their fighting skills. Why isn't there a single one?”

As he was wondering about this there was a ringing of a bell and a banging of clappers. He turned round at once to see a little devil boy with a banner on which was written BY ORDER over his shoulder, a bell at his waist and clappers in his hands that he was sounding. He was coming from the North and heading South. A close look revealed that he was about twelve feet tall.