A Polite Greeting

"Thank you for taking care of me, but my head is still swollen from being hit, and you still say that to me."

Sun Wukong looked helplessly at Zhu Bajie upon hearing this, and said to Zhu Bajie:

"They are monsters here, while we are the original monks. You're incredibly brave, but you should still be careful. If you go up and call her a monster, are you going to let her hit me instead of you? We've already said to prioritize courtesy."

"What exactly do you mean by that? I don't understand."

Zhu Bajie asked Sun Wukong with a puzzled look, but Sun Wukong seemed to have already guessed what he wanted to say. Zhu Bajie then said to Zhu Bajie, "You've been eating people in the mountains since you were a child. Do you know about two kinds of trees?"

After saying this, Zhu Bajie was completely bewildered. Seeing this, Sun Wukong continued, "There are two kinds of Mutou. One Mutou is weak and can be used to make statues, while the other Mutou is hard and can be used as a stick in an oil mill. That kind of Mutou becomes stronger when faced with a strong opponent."

"Brother Monkey, if you had told me these things sooner, I wouldn't have had to suffer so much."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Bajie looked distressed and said to Sun Wukong.

"It's alright, it's alright. Just change your appearance again and ask again. Don't overthink it."

Sun Wukong patted Zhu Bajie the shoulder and said something to him. At this moment, Sha Wujing also stepped forward to encourage Zhu Bajie.

"Brother Monkey, now that I've changed my appearance, how am I supposed to ask her questions now?"

It seems Zhu Bajie still didn't understand what Sun Wukong meant. Sun Wukong could only smile and say to Zhu Bajie:

"You transform first, then go to her and bow. See how old she is. If she's about our age, call her 'Miss,' and if she's older than us, call her 'Grandma.'"

Before Sun Wukong could finish speaking, Zhu Bajie laughed and said to Sun Wukong, "You're really making a fuss! We've traveled so far, only to find out we've come all this way to find relatives."

"This isn't about recognizing relatives. We're just trying to get information out of her. If she's caught Master, it'll be easier to make our move. If it's not her, we won't wrongly accuse her. What do you think of what I said?"

Sun Wukong came to Zhu Bajie's side and looked at Zhu Bajie like he was a fool, because Sun Wukong Zhu Bajie hadn't listened to anything Sun Zhu Bajie said to him.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Bajie laughed and said to Sun Wukong, "You think things through more than you think. You make a good point. I'll go right now."

Zhu Bajie placed his Nine-Toothed Rake at his waist, transformed into a fat, dark-skinned monk, and swaggered over to the monster. He bowed and said, "Grandma, I've come here to ask you a few questions."

"This monk is so polite; he even knows how to address us."

The two demons looked at each other, then smiled at Zhu Bajie and said to Zhu Bajie.

"Elder, where do you come from?"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Bajie dared not speak recklessly, but silently shook his head. Then the demon chuckled and said, "This monk is good at making friends, but he has no background and can only nod without speaking."

After a short while, Zhu Bajie asked the demon, "Grandma, why are you fetching water?"

"You wouldn't know this, would you? Yesterday, my grandmother captured Tang Xuanzang in the cave and wanted to entertain him. However, the water in our cave isn't clean, so she sent the two of us here to fetch water so that Tang Xuanzang would drink it tonight and then they would get married."

The monster smiled and looked at Zhu Bajie, but Zhu Bajie was startled upon hearing this and immediately ran up the mountain, shouting loudly:

"Sha Wujing, hurry up and bring the luggage over, let's divide it up."

Upon hearing this, Sha Wujing looked at Zhu Bajie a bewildered expression and asked, "What exactly happened? Why are we starting to divide the luggage again?"

Zhu Bajie sighed and said to Sha Wujing:

"After the luggage is divided, you'll still go to the Flowing Sand River to eat people, while I'll go back to my Old Gao Village, Brother Monkey will go to Flower-Fruit Mountain to become the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, White Dragon Horse will return to the sea and transform into a dragon. Master is now marrying a demon. We might as well just look after ourselves."

Upon hearing this, Sun Wukong immediately stepped forward, grabbed Zhu Bajie by the ear, and said, "You idiot, what nonsense are you spouting again?"

"I wasn't lying at all! I just heard those two water carriers saying they were going to wash Tang Xuanzang before getting married!"

After speaking, Sun Wukong lowered his head and thought for a long time before saying to Zhu Bajie:

"It seems Master really has been captured by those demons. He's still waiting for us to rescue him. Why are you saying these things here?"

"Then tell me, how are we going to save him? We need to come up with a plan."

This was the first time ever that Zhu Bajie had used his brain to speak to Sun Wukong.

However, Sun Wukong seemed to have already devised a plan, and said to Zhu Bajie, "You two, lead the horse and carry the load. We'll go and act as bait for those two female demons, so they'll lead us to the door so we can attack together."

Zhu Bajie really did follow Sun Wukong into the deep mountains, but Sun Wukong disappeared after walking with the two monsters for a while.

Just then, Zhu Bajie, seeing this, exclaimed in alarm to Sun Wukong, "Oh no! This is bad! Master has probably been captured by those ghosts!"

"Zhu Bajie, you have good eyesight. How could you tell his true form?"

Sun Wukong patted Zhu Bajie on the shoulder and praised him.

"Do you think I'm blind? That monster just keeps disappearing as it walks by; it must be a ghost."

Zhu Bajie Sun Wukong's hand away and said to Sun Wukong.

However, Sun Wukong sneered, observed for a while, then looked at Sha Wujing said, "I feel that what Zhu Bajie said might be a little off. Why don't we observe carefully here for a while? It's probably just that it crawled into the cave."

After speaking, Sun Wukong used his Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils to look all over the mountain and found no movement. So he came to the side of the cliff and suddenly saw a cave entrance.

Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujing quickly went forward to investigate. They saw the three large characters "Bottomless Cave" written on it. Upon seeing this, Sun Wukong said to Zhu Bajie:

"Brothers, this monster put the cave entrance here, and we don't even Daoist Sect is."

However, Sha Wujing, relying on his experience, said to Sun Wukong, "Logically speaking, this cave shouldn't be too far from this sign, so let's search carefully in the vicinity."

After speaking, Sun Wukong turned around and indeed saw a large rock at the foot of the mountain, with a smooth, large hole in the middle. Upon seeing this, Zhu Bajie said to Sun Wukong:

"Brother Monkey, this must be the entrance to the demon's cave. When do we plan to go in?"