Tang Priest and his three disciples¹ traveled westward².

One night, they arrived at the Tongtian River, which was 800 kilometers wide with torrential（汹涌的） waters. They had to put up for the night in a nearby village because they had no way to cross the river.

They came to a house in which lived a man named Chen Cheng and his family. The whole family was crying. The group soon learned that in the Tongtian River there was a spirit who asked the village to send him a virgin³ girl and a virgin boy every year as a sacrifice（祭品） . And this year was Chen Cheng's turn. Learning this, Monkey King consoled（安慰） the Chens, and promised them that he and Pig would act as the boy and girl to wait for the spirit in the temple.

At midnight, the spirit came to the temple to reach for the girl. Pig, the pretended girl, in a hurry swirled⁴ his rake（耙） at the spirit. The spirit fled into the river. The next morning, Tang Priest and his disciples woke up and found the 800-kilometer-wide river frozen. San Zang urged his disciples to cross the river over the ice. When they reached the middle of the river, the ice cracked and the river swallowed Tang Priest who was then captured by the spirit. The three disciples ran after the spirit who knew he was no match for them and did not come out.

Monkey King had to seek help from Guanyin (a Bodhis-attva). It turned out that the spirit was a big goldfish in the South Sea lotus pond. The fish escaped from the Buddha⁵ to hurt people. So the Buddha was asked to retrieve⁶（取回） the fish spirit.

Later, the four were worrying about how to cross the river. Suddenly, there came an old turtle, who said, "I used to live in the river. Now that you have chased away the spirit, I am back. Let me help you get across the river." So the four jumped over the turtle’s back and the turtle took them to the other side of the river.