When the pilgrims entered Mount Pingding, Sun Wukong sent Zhu Bajie to scout it. Bajie went a little way, crawled into the grass to sleep, and woke with a few phrases about a stone mountain and a stone cave ready to fob him off with.
Wukong followed him as a small insect, exposed the lie to his face, and made him go back into the hills. This time Bajie met the small demons of the Lotus Cave, raised his rake and fought, and being outnumbered was bound and carried into the cave, to hang from a beam with Tang Sanzang and Sha Seng when they were taken later. When Golden Horn and Silver Horn asked where Wukong was, Bajie shouted from the ropes and was beaten with a saddle-cloth by the small demons, and heard the demon kings settle on a day to steam his master and brothers.
Wukong first stole the treasures, then put Golden Horn and Silver Horn into the gourd and the vase, scattered the small demons and cut the ropes. Bajie came down from the beam, helped Tang Sanzang up, gathered the food and baggage in the cave, and left Mount Pingding with the rest.