Now, when Wukong awoke, all his cultivation was gone. Rebuilding it would take at least three years.
As Bajie pondered, something suddenly occurred to him. "Brother, come over here."
Wukong approached. "What is it?"
Bajie lifted the flap of his bag, revealing the two wooden buckets inside. "Look!"
At the sight of the wooden buckets, Wukong remembered too. "These are-!"
Bajie said, "The Dao Ancestor once said that if we ever lost all our cultivation, entering through the Filthy Bucket and coming out through the Clean Bucket would deliver us from great calamity! Wasn't he talking about today?"
Delighted, Wukong said, "Exactly! Exactly! The merciful Dao Ancestor foresaw today's disaster long ago and left this means of helping Old Sun. Bajie, hurry and take them out!"
But after some thought, Bajie shook his head. "Brother, don't rush. It isn't time yet."
"Why?" Wukong asked.
Bajie said, "Even if you use them now, you still can't escape the formation. If they notice and strip away your cultivation again, what will we do?"
Wukong considered this and nodded. "Quite right! Quite right! Put them away! Put them away!"
Bajie put the Clean Bucket away.
Sha Wujing brought over some water. "Eldest Brother, have a drink. You haven't touched a grain of rice or a drop of water for seven days. When Second Brother tried to give you water earlier, that Demon Dragon came over and forbade us to give you anything to drink or eat. Now that he's gone, hurry and have some."
Hearing this, Bajie said, "No. There may be more to this."
Sha Wujing said, "What more could there be? That Demon Dragon saw that Eldest Brother had lost his cultivation and deliberately used this to punish him, didn't he?"
Bajie said, "Eldest Brother lost all his cultivation, yet when