Pilgrim, half in cloud and half in mist, stood waiting with his iron rod.

那行者 deictic nà; 行 xíng. 提著 durative 著 zhe; 哩 the vernacular final particle li. 半雲半霧, poised between cloud and mist — Wukong waiting aloft while the two go under.

Seeing the two of them come up without the fiend, he brought his cloud down at once, came to the bank to meet them, and asked: "Brothers, why hasn't the fellow come up?"

那話兒: 那 deictic nà, 兒 the diminutive suffix er — a set colloquial phrase, "that thing, that fellow," for a person one will not name. 看見 看 kàn.

Sha Monk said: "That monster has shut his mansion gate tight and won't come out to show his face again.

那怪物 deictic nà. Sha Monk delivers the report; the plot now needs only Wukong's decision.

When Second Brother broke the gate-leaves open and we looked, the whole inside was mud and stones, packed solid and blocking the way.

門扇 扇 shàn; 看時 看 kàn; 那裡面 deictic nà; 都 dōu; 石塊 石 shí. The wall of earth is reported a second time, from the pilgrims' side.

So we could get no fight out of him, and came to talk it over with you — how are we to contrive to save our master now?"

不能得戰: 得 dé. 計議, to deliberate. The question, for the third block running, is how to save a master no assault can reach.

Pilgrim said: "Faced with a thing like this, there is no remedy to be had here.

似這般: 似 sì, "like, of this sort." 無法可治, no means of dealing with it — Wukong's admission that force is at an end.

You two just patrol the riverbank and keep watch. Don't let him get away to some other place. Wait while I go."

巡視著 durative 著 zhe; 別處 處 chù. Wukong's instruction fences the demon in place while he fetches the one power that can move him.

Eight Rules said: "Brother, where are you going?"

那裡去 interrogative — 那 nǎ, "where."

Pilgrim said: "I'll go up to Potalaka Cliff and put the question to the Bodhisattva — find out where this fiend comes from, and his surname and his name.

普陀巖, Potalaka, Guanyin's mountain. 看 kàn; 那裡出身 interrogative 那 nǎ; 姓甚名誰 甚 interrogative shén. The method is genealogical — to defeat the demon by tracing his origin.

Once I have hunted out his ancestral home, seized his household, and taken his neighbours, I'll come back here to catch the fiend and rescue our master."

尋著 resultative 著 zháo, "track down." 祖居, ancestral seat; 家屬, household; 四鄰, the four neighbours. It is the strategy of a magistrate serving a warrant, not of a warrior.

Eight Rules laughed: "Brother, doing it that way is just too much bother — it'll hold us up for hours."

擔擱: 擔 dān, and the compound 擔擱 (also written 耽擱) means to delay; 擱 gē. 忒 tè, "too, excessively." Bajie's objection is characteristically to the effort.

Pilgrim said: "I'll warrant you it's no bother and no delay — I'll be back as soon as I go."

管你, "I guarantee you." 不擔擱 擔 dān. Wukong's confidence is the block's closing note, and it is justified: the Bodhisattva is already expecting him.