Goodness and mercy only led to catastrophe.

If you don't know whether they were to survive this departure listen to the explanation in the next installment.

Chapter 79

Searching the Cave to Capture the Fiend They Meet Longevity

The Reigning Monarch Saves the Little Boys

The story tells how the royal aide dragged the imitation Tang Priest out of the government hostel and marched him, heavily surrounded by royal guardsmen, straight to the gates of the palace, where he said to the eunuch gate officer, “Please be so good as to report to His Majesty that we have brought the Tang Priest.” The eunuch officer hurried into the palace to pass this on to the deluded king, who ordered that they be brought in.

All the officials knelt at the foot of the steps to the throne hall, leaving the imitation Tang Priest standing alone in the middle of them.

“King of Bhiksuland,” he shouted, “what have you summoned me here to say to me?”

“We are sick with a chronic illness that has dragged on for many a day without any improvement,” the king replied. “Now the Elder of the Nation has to our good fortune presented us with a prescription that has been made up. All that is needed now is an adjuvant. The reason we have sent for you, reverend sir, is to ask you for the adjuvant. If we recover we will build a temple to you in which offerings will be made in all four seasons and incense will be burnt to you in perpetuity by our country.”

“I am a man of religion,” the imitation Tang Priest replied, “and have brought nothing with me. I do not know what adjuvant the Elder of the Nation has told Your Majesty you need.”

“Your heart, reverend sir,” the deluded monarch replied.

“I will be frank with Your Majesty,” the imitation Tang Priest said. “I have a number of hearts. I don't know which you want.”

“Monk,” pronounced the Elder of the Nation, who was standing beside the king. “I want your black heart.”

“Very well then,” the imitation Tang Priest replied. “Produce your knife at once and open up my chest. If there is a black heart there I shall offer it to you obediently.”

The deluded monarch thanked him delightedly and ordered an official in attendance to bring a small knife with a blade shaped like a cow's ear that was handed to the imitation Tang Priest. Taking the knife, the imitation Tang Priest undid his clothes, thrust out his chest, pressed his left hand against his abdomen and cut the skin of his stomach open with the knife in his right hand. There was a whoosh, and out rolled a whole pile of hearts. The civilian officials all turned pale with fright; the military officers were numbed.

When the Elder of the Nation saw this from inside the throne hall he said, “This monk is a suspicious-minded character. He has too many hearts.”

The imitation Tang Priest then held up the hearts one by one, each dripping with blood, for all to see. They included a loyal red heart, a pure white heart, a yellow heart, an avaricious heart, a fame-hungry heart, a jealous heart, a calculating heart, an over-competitive heart, an ambitious heart, an overbearing heart, a murderous heart, a vicious heart, a frightened heart, a cautious heart, a heretical heart and a heart full of indefinable gloom. There was every kind of evil heart except a black one. The deluded ruler was horror-struck, unable to speak until he said in trembling tones, “Put them away! Put them away!”

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.”