When the king heard this he ordered his ministers in attendance to go straight to the hostel to fetch Monkey's master and fellow-disciples. The news that Brother Monkey had turned back into himself and had fought the evil spirit in mid-air gave Sanzang such a fright that his souls scattered. It was lucky that Pig and Friar Sand were able to hold him up. His face was still plastered with stinking mud and he was feeling thoroughly depressed and miserable when he heard someone call, “Master of the Law, we are ministers in attendance sent by the king of Bhiksuland to invite you to court to receive His Majesty's thanks.”
“Don't be afraid, master,” said Pig, “don't be afraid. This time he's not sending for you to take your heart out. I'm sure that elder brother has succeeded and they're inviting you there to thank you.”
“Even if they have come to invite me there because he has succeeded I could not face anyone with this stinking mask on,” Sanzang replied.
“We've got no option,” said Pig. “We'll just have to go to see my elder brother. He's bound to have a solution.” The venerable elder really did have no choice but to go to the main hall of the hostel with Pig and Friar Sand carrying the luggage and leading the horse. When the ministers saw him they were all terrified.
“My lord,” they said, “they both have heads like monsters.”
“Please don't take offence at our ugliness,” Friar Sand replied. “Both of us have the bodies that were left after an earlier life. If my master could see my elder brother he'd become handsome straight away.”
When the three of them reached the palace they went straight to the throne hall without waiting to be summoned. As soon as Monkey saw them he turned round and came down from the hall to meet them. Pulling the mud mask off his master's face he blew on him with magic breath, called “Change!” and turned the Tang Priest back into himself. Sanzang was now in better spirits. The king came down from the throne hall to greet him as “Master of the Law” and “ancient Buddha.” Master and disciples then tethered the horse and went into the throne hall to be presented.
“Does Your Majesty know where the monsters came from?” Monkey asked. “Let me go and catch them both for you. Then we will have eliminated future catastrophe.”
When all the queens, consorts and concubines of the three palaces and six compounds, who were behind the screen of bright green jade, heard Monkey saying that he was going to eliminate future catastrophe they cast aside all their inhibitions about appearing in front of an outsider, and a male one at that, as they came out to bow to him and say, “We beg you, holy monk and venerable Buddha, to destroy them completely, root and branch, with your dharma powers. That would be an act of the greatest kindness, and we would of course reward you richly.” Quickly responding to their bows Monkey insisted that the king tell him where the monsters lived.
“We asked him when he came here three years ago,” the king replied shamefacedly, “and he told us that it was only some twenty miles to the South of the city, in Pure Splendor Grange on Willow Slope. The Elder of the Nation was old and had no son, only the daughter that his second wife had given him. She was just fifteen and unmarried. He offered to present her to us, and because we fancied the girl we accepted her. She was the favorite among all the palace women. We never expected that we would fall so ill that all the prescriptions of the Royal College of Physicians would be of no avail. Then he told us that he had a formula for an elixir for which a decoction of boiled little boys' hearts was needed as the adjuvant. In our folly we believed him and chose some boys from among the common people. At noon today we were going to operate and take out their hearts. We never expected that you would come down to us, holy monk, and that at that very moment all the boys would disappear in their coops. Then he said that as you were a holy monk who had cultivated the truth for ten lifetimes and not yet dissipated your primal masculinity your heart would be ten thousand times more effective than the little boys' ones. In our temporary delusion we did not realize that you would see through the evil monster, holy monk. We hope that you will make full use of your great dharma to eliminate any future catastrophe. All the wealth of the nation will be given to you as your reward.”
“I will tell you the truth,” Monkey replied. “Because my master took pity on the little boys in the coops he told me to hide them. Don't say anything about giving us wealth. When I capture the evil monsters that will be a good deed to my credit. Come with me, Pig.”
“Whatever you say, elder brother,” Pig replied. “The only thing is that I've got an empty belly: I'll be rather weak.” The king then ordered the department of foreign affairs to prepare a vegetarian meal at once. Before long the food arrived.
Having eaten his fill, Pig braced his spirits and rose by cloud with Monkey. The king, queens, consorts and civil and military officials were all so astonished that they all kowtowed to the sky, exclaiming, “They really are immortals and Buddhas come down to earth.” The Great Sage led Pig twenty miles due South, stopped their wind and cloud and started searching for the demons' home. All he could see was a clear stream running between banks on which grew thousands of willows: he had no idea where the Pure Splendor Grange might be. Indeed:
Endless expanses stretched out in his gaze;
The embankment had vanished amid willows and haze.
When he could not find the grange the Great Sage Sun made a spell with his hands, said the magic word “Om” and summoned the local deity, who approached shivering and shaking, fell to his knees and called out, “Great Sage, the local god of Willow Bank kowtows to you.”
“Don't be afraid,” Monkey said, “I'm not going to hit you. Tell me this: is there a Pure Splendor Grange on Willow Hill? And where is it?”
“There is a Pure Splendor Cave,” the local deity replied, “but there has never been a Pure Splendor Grange. I suppose you have come from Bhiksuland, Great Sage.”
“Yes, yes,” Monkey replied. “The king of Bhiksuland was hoodwinked by an evil spirit till I turned up, saw through the monster, defeated him and drove him away. He turned into a beam of cold light and I don't know where he went. When I asked the king of Bhiksuland about it he told me that when the demon first presented him with the girl three years ago he asked the spirit about his background. The demon said that he lived in Pure Splendor Grange on Willow Hill twenty miles South of the city. I've found this place with its wooded hill but can't see any Pure Splendor Grange. That's why I asked you about it.”
“I beg your forgiveness, Great Sage,” said the local god, kowtowing. “This is part of the domain of the king of Bhiksuland, and I should have kept a closer watch on things. But the evil spirit had such terrible magical powers. If I had given away what he was doing he would have come and given me a bad time. That is why he has never been caught. Now that you are here, Great Sage, you need only go to the foot of the nine-forked willow on the Southern bank, walk round it three times to the left and three times to the right, hit the tree with both hands and shout 'Open up' three times. The Pure Splendor Cave Palace will then appear.”
On learning this the Great Sage sent the local god away again, jumped over the stream with Pig and went to look for that willow tree. There was indeed a tree with nine forks on a single trunk. “Stand well back,” Monkey ordered Pig, “while I make the gates open. When I've found the demon and chased him out you're to help.”
In response to this order Pig took up his stand about three hundred yards from the tree while the Great Sage followed the local god's advice and went round the tree three times to the left and three times to the right then hit it with both hands, shouting, “Open up! Open up!” An instant later a pair of double doors opened with a noisy whoosh and the tree was nowhere to be seen. Inside the doors was bright light of many colours but no sign of human life. Confident in his divine might, Monkey charged in. He could see that it was a fine place: