Shen Gongbao

Shen Gongbao entered Yuanshi Tianzun’s gate at the same time as Jiang Ziya and lived at Yuxu Palace, having cultivated for a comparable span of years; but he thought highly of his own arts and resented Jiang Shang’s charge over the investiture. He rode a black tiger backwards in and out of his cave, and did much that set him apart from the other Chan disciples.

When Jiang Shang was sent down the mountain, Shen Gongbao barred the road at Qilin Cliff. Mist wrapped the cliff and the wind ran hard across it as he pressed Jiang Shang to give up serving Zhou and help Shang instead, and then, to show the depth of his attainment, took his own head off, threw it into the air to fly for a while, and set it steadily back on his neck.

Nanji Xianweng arrived at that moment, saw that Shen Gongbao meant to unsettle Jiang Shang, and had a white crane carry the flying head off, teasing him with it for a while before letting it back. Shen Gongbao was made to swear that if he could not help Shang destroy Zhou he would throw himself into the eye of the northern sea to stop it up; then he left in a fury, and Jiang Shang went on down with the list.

Afterwards Shen Gongbao travelled from cave to cave, and by talk alone brought down the four sages of Jiulong Island — Wang Mo, Yang Sen, Gao Youqian and Li Xingba — and the Ten Heavenly Lords and other Jie people, to help King Zhou against Zhou.

He went in person to Three Immortals Isle and brought out Zhao Gongming. Zhao Gongming was at first unwilling to be drawn into the war, and only after Shen Gongbao had argued the ties of a common school and the honour of the Jie Sect did he come down with the Sea-Stilling Pearls and other treasures to block the Zhou officers.

After Zhao Gongming’s death Shen Gongbao went to the three immortal ladies and persuaded Yunxiao, Qiongxiao and Bixiao to set out the Nine-Bend Yellow River Formation, which put Jiang Shang and the officers of the Zhou camp in real danger.

He also went to Lü Yue, who came down with the plague department and spread sickness before the Western Qi lines, so that the Zhou soldiers fell ill and could hardly move; and he fetched Luo Xuan, the flame immortal of Fire Dragon Island, who rode fire dragons and loosed the crow-jar to burn a corner of the Western Qi wall, which the Zhou soldiers put out together to save the city, until Luo Xuan was beaten and killed.

He also found Yin Jiao and Yin Hong, who had gone over to Zhou under Guangchengzi and Chijingzi, and by working on old grudges and the honour of the Jie Sect persuaded both to break their masters’ orders and return to the Shang camp, where each turned his own treasures on the Zhou army; both died before the lines in the end.

When the Zhou army was gathering to cross the river, Shen Gongbao came to the ford at Mengjin disguised as a diviner and spread rumours among the arriving lords, hoping to turn the alliance back; Jiang Shang saw through the trick and it came to nothing. Every time one front quieted he moved on to the next cave, told the newcomers of the dead and of the peril of the Jie Sect, and sent more of its disciples down to die.

While the Zhuxian and the Ten Thousand Immortals formations were open, Shen Gongbao still moved among the Jie disciples, helping them deploy and cheering them on, and watched Tongtian Jiaozhu’s followers fall inside one after another without ever once taking on the disciples of the Three Pure Ones himself.

Shang fell at last, and the oath Shen Gongbao had sworn years before went unfulfilled. Yuanshi Tianzun called him to account and had him sealed into the eye of the northern sea by the sea-stilling art, pressed beneath the water to hold the flood down, his body enduring without release.

On the day the roll was read at the investiture terrace, Jiang Shang read out his name too: Shen Gongbao was invested as the General Who Divides the Waters, with charge of the rise and fall of the northern sea.