The prince said, "The Great Sage is a fine fellow after all.

這太子 takes zǐ and 還是 takes hái, "after all, as before". Nezha, who lost six weapons in the twelfth passage and blamed Wukong for it in the thirteenth, opens the reckoning with praise.

That round of boxing went like brocade with flowers worked on it; and the body-dividing art was true splendour before a crowd."

走得 takes dé and 一路 is yí by mechanical sandhi. The two clauses run under one ； in a single sentence and are joined (rule J1). 錦上添花 and 人前顯貴 are both set phrases, and using two in a row is how a young man compliments a famous one.

Pilgrim laughed and said, "You gentlemen were watching from a distance here — how do the creature's powers compare with old Monkey's?"

遠觀 takes guān and 那怪 takes nà. He asks for the comparison rather than waiting for it, which is entirely in character.

Heavenly King Li said, "His fists are loose and his feet slow — not the equal of the Great Sage for tightness and speed.

不如 is bù by mechanical sandhi. The Heavenly King has fought the fiend himself and gives a fighter's answer.

When he saw us coming down he got flustered at once; and when he saw you bring out the body-dividing art he grew anxious. That is why he made such play with the snare."

著忙 takes zháo, the resultative reading of 著惱 and 睡著 — to fall into a state — not the dispatching zhuó. 急了 takes le. The two clauses under one ； are joined (rule J1) and the short closing tail joins backwards (rule J3). This is the chapter's only assessment of the fiend as a fighter, and it is not flattering.

Pilgrim said, "The demon king is easy enough to deal with. It is the snare that is hard to subdue."

難降 takes xiáng, to subdue, and 套子 takes zi. Thirteen graphs, and they contain everything the chapter has established. He has known it since the thirteenth passage and it has taken four defeats to get everyone else there.

The Fire Virtue and the Water Earl said, "If you are to win at all, there is nothing for it but to get that treasure of his — after that he can be taken."

若還 takes hái, 得了 takes dé and le, and 他那寶貝 takes nà. Two star lords who came down with a fire office and a river between them conclude that the answer is theft.

Pilgrim said, "How is that treasure of his to be got? There is nothing for it but to go and steal it."

他那寶貝 takes nà and 可得 takes dé. The two units are joined (rule J2). He asks the question and answers it himself in six graphs.

Deng and Zhang, the two lords, laughed and said, "If thieving is to be the order of the day, there is no one able but the Great Sage. Think back to the year he made havoc in the palace of Heaven — he stole the imperial wine, he stole the peaches of immortality, he stole dragon liver and phoenix marrow and the Lord Lao's elixir. What a hand he was!"

想當年 takes dāng and 那是何等 takes nà. 行偷禮 keeps 行 at xíng. The thunder lords are teasing him with his own criminal record, and the list is accurate: chapters 5 and 7 in order.

"Today is just the day to take it out and use it here."

此處 takes chù, the place reading. 正該拿此處用 turns his worst offence into the company's best remaining plan.

Pilgrim said, "Well said, well said. In that case, sit here a while, gentlemen, and let old Monkey go and find out how things stand."

打聽去來 is one more of the offhand reduplications the chapter has run on — 查勘查勘, 走走來, 救援救援, 寬坐坐. The two units are joined (rule J2).