Golden-Winged Great Peng and Sun Wukong

Scouting Lion Camel Ridge, Sun Wukong learned that the green lion, the white elephant and the great peng each held a cave, and that the great peng had turned the whole Lion Camel Kingdom into a demon city. He mixed among the small demons in disguise and was seen through by the great peng from his speech and bearing, and had to fight his way out of the mountain gate.

As the pilgrims passed the ridge, the three demons divided to cut them off, and one beat of the great peng’s wings covered ninety thousand li, so that Wukong could not shake him even by somersault. The great peng took him, and with his two elder brothers put the pilgrims into the Yin-Yang Vase. Wukong bored through its base with the three life-saving hairs Guanyin had given him, and once out was told by the great peng that Tang Sanzang had already been eaten, and so hurried to Vulture Peak for help.

Rulai came with the buddhas and bodhisattvas and spread the light of the dharma above the Lion Camel Kingdom; the great peng shot upward, and whichever way he beat his wings he fell back onto Rulai’s palm. The great peng was kept at Vulture Peak as a guardian, and Sun Wukong went back into the Lion Camel city, broke the doors and freed his master and his companions.