Hongyun Laozu

When Hongyun reached Zixiao Palace, the six mats before the hall had already been taken in turn by the Three Pure Ones, Nüwa, Kunpeng and himself, with the other listeners ranged behind, waiting for the sermon to begin.

When Jieyin and Zhunti arrived from the west the six seats were full. Seeing that they had come a long way, Hongyun rose and gave up his own mat; Zhunti then took the chance to say that Kunpeng had no business in the front rank.

Yuanshi and others pressed him too. With nobody to speak for him, Kunpeng withdrew to the back and Jieyin sat down. Kunpeng laid the grudge for his lost seat at Hongyun’s door, and it later joined itself to the quarrel over the Primordial Purple Qi.

The versions differ a little in what was said and in what order, but the usual outcome is the same: Hongyun and Kunpeng lose the front mats and Jieyin and Zhunti take them.

When the three sermons were done, Hongjun divided out seven streams of Primordial Purple Qi. The Three Pure Ones, Nüwa, Jieyin and Zhunti received one each, and the last came into Hongyun’s hands. Hongyun took it and left Zixiao Palace, but did not attain sainthood as the other six did.

Having received the purple qi, Hongyun did not stay long in the hall to examine it. He took hasty leave of the others and carried it away, meaning to find a quiet place to work at it, refine it and bring the fruit of the Dao together as soon as he could.

Kunpeng had held his lost seat against Hongyun, and seeing that he alone had received a stream of purple qi, followed him out of the palace. The common versions also have Minghe Laozu join the hunt, and some add Dijun, Taiyi or other great powers.

Halfway along the road Hongyun felt killing-force gather on every side. Kunpeng and the others closed in from four directions, blade and sword-light pressing in, and Hongyun, with no way out in the moment he had, had to fight where he stood.

In the melee Hongyun did everything he could, but he was one against many. After several hard passages he was wounded all over; the purple qi had not yet been refined into him and could shield him only a little, and he began to fail.

Seeing that the ring would not break, Hongyun set his mind and burst his whole attainment together with the unrefined purple qi, hoping to buy a chance to live. With a roar, light and flame went up, and the force of it threw his attackers back several yards.

In the Wuzhuang Temple, Zhenyuanzi felt his spirit shake and knew Hongyun was in danger. He dropped everything and set out at speed, but mountains and rivers lay in his way, and before he arrived he felt the breath fading.

Zhenyuanzi was too late. When he reached the field there was only scorched black ground, every plant withered, and a few broken instruments scattered among it; Hongyun’s primordial spirit had gone with the blast and no trace of it remained.

Zhenyuanzi searched the ruins over and over and found only a few of Hongyun’s belongings and nothing else. The Primordial Purple Qi was gone too, and it never appeared anywhere in the world again.

Kunpeng was never openly called to account for the affair by any quarter. The versions say little about what he did afterwards: some that he vanished from sight, others that he stayed with the Yao clan and went on as before, and they do not agree.

Zhenyuanzi carried Hongyun’s belongings home and put them in a quiet room at the Wuzhuang Temple. At the end of every year afterwards he sat alone in that room for a long time with those broken things before him; the boys never knew why, only that on that day their master would let no one in.