Battle with the Sea Monster

The battle with the sea monster is a turning point in Mulan, Lu Ting-Pin, and the Jade Rabbit’s voyage: an attack that threatens to end their journey becomes a test of Mulan’s strength and resourcefulness, and of the party’s ability to act together. The creature is awakened in the ocean’s depths after Daji and Xianniang, disguised as fish, descend toward it; when it rises against the travelers, Mulan and Lu Ting-Pin use their boat to bring it down.

Discovery and attack

The danger begins before the travelers see the creature. In the ocean’s deepest darkness, Daji’s anglerfish form shines a powerful blue-green light toward something she has sought beneath the water. Two enormous eyes open in response. The scene first follows Xianniang as she swims after Daji, then shifts to Mulan aboard the boat with Lu Ting-Pin and the Jade Rabbit, connecting the awakening below to the approaching threat above.

Mulan notices that the sea has turned black beneath the boat, though the sun remains visible overhead. The water suddenly parts and surges upward, throwing the passengers about. A gigantic creature rises over them, and its many limbs threaten the boat. The Jade Rabbit recognizes the danger as an old enemy of Lu Ting-Pin; Lu replies that the creature is an old foe he should have killed four centuries earlier. With Lu’s sword serving as part of their boat, however, he has no weapon at hand and must confront it without one.

Lu’s counterattack and Mulan’s intervention

With no sword available, Lu Ting-Pin leaps from the boat and forces one of the creature’s tentacles away from them. He then flies toward its eye and strikes it, clouding the eye with a milky opacity. The blow only partially blinds the creature: its other eye remains able to track him, while its limbs continue to batter the water and throw the boat off balance. The Jade Rabbit warns that Lu and the others cannot hold out much longer.

Mulan sees Lu fall from the sky after the creature strikes at him. She also notices that the enchanted yuloh can steer the fast-moving boat when she presses against it. Rather than wait for Lu to recover, she turns the boat toward the creature. Remembering her mother’s rebuke that she is too strong for her own good, Mulan grips the oar and forces it down, putting her strength into driving the boat forward.

The boat surges across the water, and its pointed bow hits the creature with enough force to make it recoil. The impact also throws Mulan into the sea. Her intervention has wounded the creature and altered the battle, but she is now separated from the boat and must keep afloat while Lu continues the attack.

The counterattack and the creature’s defeat

Thrown from the boat, Mulan struggles to stay above the waves with the Jade Rabbit. Lu Ting-Pin throws her his gourd, which she uses to keep herself and the Rabbit afloat. Meanwhile, Lu has recovered enough to return to the boat. He repeatedly heaves it so that its pointed bow drives farther into the creature; after the fourth shove, the creature stops moving, and Lu’s attack has dealt it a mortal wound.

As the water calms, Mulan’s strength begins to fail. Holding on to the gourd through the waves, she recalls Ba’s teaching that she must rise and continue, and tightens her grip rather than give up. Lu tells her to hold on, then frees the boat from the creature. The dead creature sinks beneath the water, and Lu reaches down from the boat to pull Mulan aboard. Exhausted, she is told that they are safe for now.

Aftermath and significance

The victory leaves the boat damaged: its bow is stained, its mast broken, and its sail hanging from a single rope. After Lu Ting-Pin brings Mulan aboard, she modestly describes her part as merely helping; nonetheless, she measures herself against Ba, whom she regards as a mighty warrior, and resolves to try to be like him. The battle thus ends not only with the creature defeated but with Mulan recognizing her own action as part of the courage she has learned from her father.