n her wickedness captured your master. Please don’t be angry with us for being so long. Is this Mount Pitfall? Where is the entrance to the cave?”

“I know the way very well by now,” said Monkey. “This cave is called the Bottomless Cave and it measures over a hundred miles around. The evil spirit has a great many holes in it. Last time my master was held in the gate tower with double eaves, but it’s deadly quiet now. There’s not even the shadow of a demon. I don’t know where she’s taken him to now.” To this the heavenly king replied,

”‘No matter how many the tricks she may try

She’ll never escape from the nets of the sky.’

We’ll think of something else when we get to the cave entrance.”

They all then started out, and after they had gone three or four miles they reached the great rock. “This is it,” Monkey said pointing at the entrance that was no larger than the mouth of a large jar.

“You’ll never capture the tiger’s cub unless you go into the tiger’s lair,” observed the heavenly king. “Who dares go in first?”

“I’ll go,” said Monkey.

“No, I’ll go first,” objected Prince Nezha. “I was the one the emperor ordered to capture the demon.”

The idiot then started acting tough, shouting, “It ought to be me first.”

“Stop that din,” said the heavenly king. “I’ll decide. The Great Sage Sun and the prince will go down with the soldiers while we three hold the entrance. Then we’ll have a coordinated action inside and outside, which will make it impossible for her to find her way up to heaven or go further underground. That will show her a bit of our powers.”

“Yes, sir,” they all said in assent.

Watch as Monkey and Prince Nezha slip into the cave at the head of their troops. As they rode their clouds they looked around and saw that it really was a fine cave:

The pair of sun and moon as before;

A vista of rivers and hills like the other world.

Warm mists spread over pools and wells of pearl;

Much more there is to admire down here.

Crimson houses, painted halls,

Red cliffs, green fields,

Willows in the spring and lotos in the autumn;

A rare and splendid cave heaven.

An instant later they brought their clouds to a halt and went straight to the mansion where the evil spirit had lived before. They went from gateway to gateway in their search, yelling and shouting as they went deeper and deeper inside, trying one place after the next. All the grass for a hundred miles was trampled away. But where was the evil spirit? Where was Sanzang?

“The wicked beast,” everyone was saying, “she must have got out of this cave ages ago. She’ll be far away by now.” What they did not know was that down underneath a dark corner in the Southeast of the cave there was another, smaller cave, where behind a pair of tiny gates there was a tiny cottage with flowers growing in pots and a few canes of bamboo beside the eaves. The atmosphere was dark and heavy with fragrance. This was where the evil spirit had carried Sanzang and was going to force him to marry her. She was sure that Monkey would never find them; none of them realized that her union was fated to be thwarted.

The junior devils were jabbering away in a great crush when a bolder one among them stretched outside the cave for a look around only for her head to butt into a heavenly soldier, who shouted, “They’re here!” At this Monkey flew into a rage, grasped the gold-banded cudgel and charged straight down in. The cave was tiny and all the demons from the big cave were in there, so that when Prince Nezha sent his heavenly soldiers crowding into the attack, not a single one of the demons could hide.

Monkey found the Tang Priest, the dragon horse and the baggage. The senior demon was at her wit’s end. All she could do was to kowtow to Prince Nezha, begging him to spare her life.

“We are here to arrest you at the Jade Emperor’s command,” Prince Nezha replied, “which is not something to be treated lightly. My father and I were nearly in terrible trouble because of you.”

He then shouted at the top of his voice, “Heavenly soldiers, fetch demon-binding rope. Tie all those evil spirits up.” The senior demon too had to suffer for a while. They all went back out of the cave together by cloud.

Monkey was chuckling with delight when the heavenly king withdrew his guard from the mouth of the cave and greeted Monkey with the words, “Now I can meet your master.”

“Many thanks,” said Monkey, “many thanks,” and he led Sanzang to bow in gratitude to the heavenly king and the prince.

Friar Sand and Pig were all for chopping the senior devil into tiny pieces, but the heavenly king said, “She was arrested at the Jade Emperor’s command, and must not be mistreated. We must go to report back on our mission.”

The heavenly king and Prince Nezha at the head of their heavenly troops and divine officers escorted the evil spirit as a prisoner to report to the heavenly court and receive the emperor’s verdict on her. Meanwhile Brother Monkey guarded the Tang Priest while Friar Sand collected the luggage and Pig went over to the horse and invited the master to ride. Then they all set out along their way again. Indeed:

The silken net had been cut, the golden sea dried up,

The precious lock undone, and troubles left behind.

If you do not know what lay in store for them on their way ahead listen to the explanation in the next installment.