Meanwhile, the monster had risen high into the air and thus saved its life. The Pilgrim’s blow did not harm it in the least, for as already mentioned, it used magic to send its spirit soaring just in time.
It took a seat atop the clouds and, grinding its teeth in fury, muttered full of hatred toward the Monkey King:
“So close! The Tang monk nearly fell into my grasp. I would have seized him, and no one could have rescued him from my claws. Still, I won’t let this monk go so easily.”
Second Transformation: The Old Woman
The monster landed at a rocky bend a little further ahead. Shaking its body slightly, it transformed itself into an old woman of eighty years, holding in her hand a bamboo staff with a strikingly curved handle.
Walking with great difficulty, she made her way toward the monks, all the while crying out loud.
Seeing her, Bajie exclaimed, startled:
“Master, what shall we do? This old woman is coming looking for someone you and I both know.”
“Who are you talking about?” asked Monk Tang.
The pig replied:
“The girl our elder brother just killed. I’m certain this old woman is her mother.”
Wukong urged:
“Please stop speaking nonsense. The young woman you speak of was barely eighteen, and this woman is well over eighty. How could she have given birth in her sixties? I assure you, this is another trap. Let me take a closer look.”
Recognizing her at once, he raised his iron bar and brought it down hard on her head. But the beast once again used magic to send its spirit flying upward, allowing the iron to shatter only its disguise. The body of the old woman lay motionless by the roadside.
Tang Monk’s Fury and the Band-Tightening Spell
Seeing this, Monk Tang fell from his horse. So deeply moved was he that he recited the spell twenty times in a row.
The spell was unbearable. Wukong threw himself to the ground, rolling about like a madman while begging his master:
“For the love of Heaven, please stop reciting!”
Monk Tang exclaimed:
“I’ve tried again and again to teach you the value of always acting with virtue, but you have turned a deaf ear to my words. Why do you insist on violence? What explanation can you give for senselessly taking yet another human life?”
“She was a monster,” the Monkey King desperately explained.
Monk Tang replied:
“I believe you’ve lost your mind. You seem born with a natural tendency toward evil, and you show no will to pursue good. The best thing you can do is leave elsewhere.”
Wukong complained bitterly:
“So little do you value me? Very well, I shall go. But there is still one matter left unaddressed.”
“What is it?” asked Monk Tang.
At once, Zhu Bajie chimed in:
“What else could it be? He wants you to divide up the luggage with him. After staying by your side for so long, he won’t leave empty-handed. If you wish to be rid of him, you’ll have to give him some old clothes or hats.”
Upon hearing this, the Monkey King flew into a rage, leaping forward like a madman and shouting:
“You fool! You say nothing but nonsense! Ever since I embraced the principle of absolute poverty, I have never shown signs of envy or greed. How dare you claim that all I want is to take half of our master’s belongings?”
Monk Tang asked:
“Then why don’t you just leave, if it’s true that you’ve never been swayed by greed or envy?”
The Monkey King replied:
“More than five hundred years ago, when I dwelled in the Water Curtain Cave deep within the Mountain of Flowers and Fruits, I was revered by demons from seventy-two caves, and no fewer than forty-seven thousand spirits obeyed my every command without question. I was regarded as a hero, lacking for nothing. If you truly wish to cast me away, then tear off this strip from my forehead, so I may return proudly among those who see me as a hero, not a servant. You cannot deny me this favor. It is the least you can do after all these years of faithful service.”
Monk Tang responded:
“I’m very sorry, Wukong, but I don’t know how to remove that strip from your head. The Bodhisattva never taught me.”
The Monkey King concluded:
“In that case, you have no choice but to keep me with you.”
Realizing he had no other option but to accept him once more, Monk Tang said:
“All right, all right. I forgive you again, but on the condition that you never use violence ever again.”
Wukong promised:
“I renounce it from this day forward.”
Standing up, he helped his master mount the horse once more.
The Demon’s Final Gambit – The Third Transformation
Meanwhile, the monster had not perished in Wukong’s second attack. Sitting atop a cloud, it murmured to itself:
“What an extraordinary monkey! What amazing perception he has! The problem is, in another forty miles they’ll have left my territory forever. I’d better descend again and mock them a little longer.”
Shaking its body slightly, it instantly transformed into an elderly man with white hair and a thick beard, holding in his hands a Buddhist rosary which he used to chant a sutra.
Seeing him, Monk Tang was visibly pleased and exclaimed, greatly impressed:
“It’s clear the West is truly a holy land. Look at this old man: he barely has the strength to walk, yet still finds the will to chant sutras.”
Bajie advised:
“Save your enthusiasm for another time. That man has come to demand justice.”
“What do you mean?” asked Monk Tang.
Bajie replied:
“He must have learned we’ve killed his wife and daughter, and now he seeks revenge. We have no escape. We are guilty of these crimes. You will be sentenced to death, Sand Monk will be condemned to forced labor for life, and I myself will be conscripted into the army until the end of my days. As for our elder brother, of course, he’ll suffer nothing—he’ll simply vanish like morning mist before the sun.”
The Monkey King scolded him:
“How idiotic you are! Why needlessly alarm our master? We don’t even know who this old man is. Let me go check.”
Approaching the demon, he asked:
“May I ask where you’re headed, and why you chant a sutra as you walk?”
The false old man replied:
“Sir, I have lived here all my life. From youth I have devoted myself to doing good—feeding pilgrims, studying sacred scriptures, and chanting sutras without cease. I am here searching for my wife and daughter. Have you seen a young woman and an old lady?”
“You may deceive others, but not me,” the Pilgrim declared, laughing. “I recognize you as a demon!”
The beast was so bewildered that it could not utter a word in defense. Wukong quickly grabbed his iron bar but hesitated. Inwardly, he thought:
“If I don’t kill it, it will keep trying to seize my master. But if I do, my mentor will recite the spell again and drive me mad. If I spare the beast and it captures my master, I’ll have to work twice as hard to rescue him. No, it’s better I finish it now, saving myself much trouble later. What does it matter if the master recites his cursed spell? As the saying goes: Even the bloodthirstiest tigers do not devour their own kind. Besides, I have no shortage of wit—I can talk my way out of this.”
With that, Wukong raised his iron rod and struck the demon with all his might. This time, luck did not favor it, and its spiritual light faded away. (See why the White Bone Demon, Cadaver Demon has three lives?)
Bajie’s Betrayal and Wukong’s Exile
Seeing this, Monk Tang felt such horror that for a long time he could not utter a single word. Bajie remarked with a hint of malice:
“This monkey is truly mad! In less than half a day, he’s already killed three people.”
Monk Tang prepared to recite the spell again. But Wukong threw himself at the horse’s feet, shouting:
“Please, please don’t do it! Come first and see what remains of that beast.”
Before them lay only a pile of white bones.
Monk Tang, greatly disturbed, commented:
“That man just died. How could he have become a skeleton so soon?”
Wukong explained:
“He was nothing but a living corpse, seeking only to harm people. Now that he’s dead, his true nature has finally revealed itself. There are writings upon his spine: ‘White Bone Lady.’”
This time, Monk Tang seemed ready to believe him. But Bajie refused to let the matter rest:
“Wukong is incorrigible. He delights in showing off his strength and killing people. Still fearing your spell, he transformed this old man’s corpse into nothing but a pile of bones, just to escape rightful punishment. He doesn’t care whom he deceives, as long as he avoids pain.”
Monk Tang had a most fickle temper, and once again he allowed himself to be swayed by the pig’s words. At once, he began reciting his terrible spell.
Wukong, at the very limit of his strength, managed with great difficulty to kneel down by the roadside. In despair, he begged his master:
“Stop! Stop! If you have something to say to me, say it now!”
Monk Tang rebuked him sharply:
“Stubborn monkey! What more can I say? You’ve escaped punishment for killing three people only because we are in this desolate place where no one can stand against you. But suppose we entered a city, and suddenly you took it into your head to strike people with your heavy iron bar, heedless of morality and law—how do you think you would escape such a mess? We’d all be in terrible trouble, unable to continue our journey. Therefore, I believe the best course is for you to return to wherever you came from.”
Wukong tried to defend himself:
“You are gravely mistaken, Master. The corpse you see here was, in truth, a monster plotting your ruin. All I did was protect you from its ambush. Yet you refuse to recognize it. Instead, you choose to believe the slanderous words of a fool and insist on casting me away at all costs. As the old saying goes: ‘Rare indeed is the thing that happens thrice.’ You have commanded me so insistently that if I truly do leave, I will seem shameless and without principle. Very well. I shall go. But I assure you, you gain nothing by my departure—for then none will serve you as selflessly as I have done.”
Monk Tang, losing his patience, exclaimed:
“This monkey grows more disrespectful by the day! Who do you think you are? Are Wu Neng and Wu Jing any less loyal than you?”
Wukong’s Lonely Flight
A feeling of helplessness seemed to weaken Wukong’s will, but he quickly overcame it. With a mighty leap, he mounted a sacred cloud, intending to make his way back to the Water Curtain Cave atop the Mountain of Flowers and Fruits.
Alone and defeated, he soared swiftly through the sky, until suddenly he heard the thunderous roar of rushing waters. He immediately halted the cloud and found himself hovering directly above the Eastern Great Ocean. This stirred memories of Monk Tang, and tears flowed freely down his cheeks. For a long time he remained suspended in the air, listless and indecisive, unable to bring himself to fly onward.
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