ent out with the star officer through the Eastern Gate of Heaven and straight back to Western Liang. Seeing Deadly Foe Mountain not far off, Monkey Pointed to it and said, “That’s the mountain.” The star lord brought his cloud down and went with Monkey to the slope in front of the stone screen.

“Get up, brother,” said Friar Sand to Pig on seeing them. “Brother Monkey is back with the star officer.”

“Forgive me,” said the idiot, his hand still pressed over his mouth, “forgive me, but I’m too ill to pay you all the courtesies.”

“But you are one who cultivates his conduct,” the star lord said. “How can you be ill?”

“The she-devil jabbed me in the lip when I was fighting her,” Pig replied, and it still hurts.”

“Come here,” said the star lord, “and I’ll cure it for you.”

Only then did the idiot put his hands down as he groaned, “Please, please cure it for me. I’ll pay you well when it’s better.” The star lord then touched his lip and blew on it, at which the pain stopped. A delighted Pig went down on his knees and kowtowed to the star lord. “Wonderful, wonderful,” he said.

“Will you touch my head too?” asked Monkey with a smile.

“Why?” the star lord asked. “You weren’t jabbed with the poison.”

“I was yesterday,” said Monkey, “and it only stopped hurting after last night. It’s still rather numb and itchy and may be bad again when the weather turns overcast, which is why I would like you to cure it.” The star officer then touched and blew on his head too, thus removing the remaining poison and stopping the numbness and itching.

“Brother,” said a wrathful Pig, “let’s go and fight that vicious creature.”

“Yes, yes,” the star lord said, “you two call her out so that I can put her in her place.”

Monkey and Pig leapt up the slope and went round the stone screen once more. Yelling insults the idiot used his hands like picks and hit with his rake to clear a way through the wall of stones that had been built outside the mouth of the cave. Once through these outer defenses he struck again with his rake to smash the inner doors to sawdust, giving the little devils behind them such a shock that they ran inside to report, “Madam, those two hideous men have smashed the inner doors now.” The she-devil had just had the Tang Priest untied and sent for some vegetarian breakfast for him when she heard the inner doors being smashed. Leaping out of her flower pavilion she thrust at Pig with her trident. He parried with his rake while Monkey joined in the fight from the side. The she-devil went right up to them and was just going to use her vicious trick when the two of them, who now knew what she was about, turned and fled.

As soon as the two of them were round the rock Monkey shorted, “Where are you, star lord?” The star lord stood up at once on the mountainside in his original form as a giant rooster with twin combs. When he raised his head he was six or seven feet tall, and as soon as he crowed the monster reverted to her true appearance as a scorpion spirit the size of a pipa mandolin. When the star officer crowed again the monster’s whole body crumbled in death. There is a poem as evidence that goes,

With fancy combs and a tasseled neck,

Hard claws, long spurs and angry eyes,

Nobly he leaps, complete in all his powers,

Towering majestic as three times he cries.

He is no common fowl who by a cottage crows

But a star down from the sky in all his glory.

Vainly the vicious scorpion took a human form:

Revealed now as herself she ends her story.

Pig went forward and said, one foot planted on the monster’s back, “Evil beast, You won’t be able to use your horse-killer poison this time.” The monster did not move, whereupon the idiot pounded her to mincemeat with his rake. The star lord gathered his golden light around him once more and rode away on his cloud. Monkey, Pig and Friar Sand all raised their clasped hands to Heaven in thanks.

“We have put you to much trouble,” they said. “We shall go to your palace to thank you another day.”

When the three of them had finished expressing their gratitude they bot the luggage and the horse ready and went into the cave, where the young and old serving girls were kneeling on either side saying, “My lords, we are not evil spirits but women from Western Liang who were carried off by the evil spirit. Your master is sitting in the scented room at the back crying.”

On hearing this Monkey took a very careful look around, and seeing that there were indeed no more devilish vapors he went round to the back and called, “Master!” The Tang Priest was very pleased indeed to see them all there.

“Good disciples,” he said, “I have put you to such a lot of trouble. What has happened to that woman?”

“That damned female was really a scorpion,” said Pig. “Luckily the Bodhisattva Guanyin told us what to do. Brother Monkey went to the palaces of Heaven to ask the Star Lord of the Pleiades to come down and defeat the demon. I’ve beaten her to pulp. That’s why we dared to come right inside to see you, Master.”

The Tang Priest thanked them deeply. They then looked for some meat-free rice and noodles and laid on a meal for themselves that they ate. The kidnapped women were all taken down the mountain and shown the way back home. Then they lit a firebrand and burned down all the buildings there before helping the Tang Priest back on his horse and continuing along the main road West. Indeed:

They cut themselves off from worldly connections,

Turning away from the lures of desire.

By pushing right back the ocean of gold,

In their minds and their hearts their awareness was higher.

If you don’t know how many years were to pass before they finally won their true achievement, listen to the explanation in the next installment.