When Tawny Lion reported to the old demon that two of the lions had been lost the demon ordered, “Tie Pig up but don't kill him. When they give our lions back we'll return Pig to them. If they're stupid enough to kill them we'll make Pig pay with his life.” That evening all the fiends slept outside the city.

The story now turns to the Great Sage Sun, who carried the two lion spirits to beside the city wall, from where the senior prince saw him and ordered that the gates be opened. Twenty or thirty officers were sent out with rope to tie the lion spirits up and carry them into the city. The Great Sage then put his magic hairs away and went straight with Friar Sand to the wall tower, where he saw the Tang Priest.

“This is a terrible business,” the Tang Priest said. “Is Wuneng still alive?”

“No problem,” Brother Monkey replied. “As we've captured a couple of the evil spirits they won't possibly dare harm him. Have them tied up tight. I'll swap them for Pig tomorrow morning.”

The three young princes then kowtowed to Monkey and said, “When you were fighting them at first you were by yourself, Teacher. Then when you pretended to run away and came back again there were over a hundred of you. How was that done? When you came back to the city wall after capturing the evil spirits there was only one of you again. What magical powers did you use to do that?”

“I have 84,000 hairs on my body,” Monkey replied. “Each of them can become ten, and the ten become a hundred, so I can do millions and millions of transformations. It's extra body magic.” The princes all kowtowed as a vegetarian feast was brought to the tower for them. All along the battlements lanterns and banners were displayed. There was the sound of clappers, bells, gongs and drums as the watches were changed, arrows passed on, cannons fired and warcries shouted.

Soon it was dawn, and the old demon sent for Tawny Lion Spirit to make a plan of action: “You must all use your wits to capture Sun the Novice and Friar Sand while I make a secret flight up onto the wall to capture their master, the old prince and his sons. I'll take them back to the Nine-bend Twisty Cave and wait for you to come back in triumph.”

Accepting this plan, Tawny Lion took Monkey Lion, Snowy Lion, Elephant-fighter and Raccoon-dog back to beside the city wall, all carrying their weapons and demanding battle amid winds and fog.

On the other side Monkey and Friar Sand jumped on the wall, where Monkey yelled abusively at the top of his voice, “Thieving damned ogres! Give me my brother Pig back this moment and I'll spare your lives. If you don't I'll smash your bones to powder and chop you all into little pieces.” With no further argument the evil spirits all charged into the attack. The Great Sage and Friar Sand had to use skill and cunning to hold the five lions at bay. This fight was very different from the one on the previous day.

As an evil wind howled across the land

Black fog blotted out the sky.

Moving stones and flying sands alarmed both gods and demons;

As the trees in the forest fell the tigers and wolves were afraid.

Fierce was the spear of steel and bright the axe,

Merciless the rod, the halberd and the brazen hammer.

They wished they could swallow Monkey up whole,

And capture Friar Sand live and kicking.

The Great Sage's As-You-Will cudgel

Could attack and defend with miraculous effect.

Friar Sand's demon-quelling staff

Had won its fame outside the Hall of Miraculous Mist.

Now that it moved with its magical powers,

It would achieve glory in the West by wiping out demons.

While the five lion spirits with coats of different colours were fighting really well with Monkey and Friar Sand the old demon flew on a black cloud straight to the wall tower, where he shook his heads, which gave the military and civil officials, Sanzang, the senior prince and the soldiers guarding the wall such a fright that they all fell off. The demon then charged into the tower, opened his mouths, took Sanzang, the senior prince and his sons in them one by one, and went back to the hollow ground, where he took Pig in another mouth, one of the nine he had in his nine heads. One mouth held the Tang Priest, one Pig, one the senior prince, one his eldest son, one the second son and one the third son.

With six mouths full of six people he still had three mouths empty and wide open as he roared, “I'm going back ahead.” The five junior lion spirits all fought more bravely than ever now that they had seen their grandfather's triumph.

As soon as Monkey heard the yells from the wall and realized he had fallen for a trick, he gave Friar Sand a quick shout to be careful then pulled all the hairs off his arms, put them in his mouth, chewed them up and spat them out as well over a thousand little Monkeys who swarmed into the attack. They knocked Monkey Lion over, took Snowy alive, captured Elephant-fighter, laid Raccoon-dog Lion low and killed Tawny Lion; but as they returned to the city wall with a great hubbub they let Greenface, Wily Freak and Freaky Wile escape. When the officers on the wall saw what had happened they opened the gates, tied up the five lion spirits with ropes and carried them into the city.

But before they could deal with them the princess appeared, sobbing and weeping, to say, “Holy teachers, His Royal Highness the prince, our sons and your master are all dead. How ever is this isolated city to survive?”

Putting his magic hairs away, Monkey bowed to her and said, “Don't upset yourself, Princess. It was only because I'd captured seven of his lion spirits that the old demon carried off my master, His Royal Highness and your sons with catching magic. I'm certain they'll come to no harm. My brother-disciple and I will go to his mountain first thing tomorrow morning, and I can guarantee that we'll catch the old demon and bring your four princes back to you.”

When the princess and her womenfolk heard this they all bowed to Monkey and said, “We pray that His Royal Highness and his sons will all be safe and that our dynasty will be secure.” When their bowing was done the womenfolk all returned to the palace in tears.

“Skin the Tawny Lion spirit we killed,” Brother Monkey instructed the officials, “and have the five who are still alive securely tied up and put under lock and key. Bring us some vegetarian food to eat before we go to sleep. Stop worrying: I promise nothing will go wrong.”

The next morning the Great Sage took Friar Sand up on an auspicious cloud. Before long they were at the top of Bamboo Mountain, and as they brought their cloud down to look they saw that it was magnificent:

Rows of jutting peaks,

Sheer and craggy ridges.

In the deep gill waters gently flow;

Flowers weave a fragrant brocade before the beetling cliff,

Where the ridges twist and double back,

Encircled by the ancient winding paths.

When the crane comes the pine has a companion,

And the rock is left alone as the cloud drifts away.

The black ape heads for brightness when looking for fruit;

The deer rejoice in the warming sun as they search for flowers.

The green phoenix sings sweetly

And the golden bird's melodies never stop.

In spring the peach blossom contends with the plum;

In summer the willow and locust trees are rivals.

In autumn are carpets of chrysanthemums,

And in winter the snow flies all around.

Here there is beauty throughout the year,

Where the scenery can compare with Yingzhou's magic land.

As the two of them were standing on the mountain admiring the view Greenface suddenly appeared in a ravine between cliffs. He was holding a short cudgel. “Where do you think you're going?” Monkey shouted. “I'm here.”