The story of Huang Tianhua

Huang Tianhua was Huang Feihu’s eldest son. As a child he was carried off by Qingxu Daode Zhenjun to the Yunxiao Cave at Qilin Cliff on Mount Erxian and taken as a registered disciple. Old vines twined before the cave and the cloud never lifted from it; the master taught him the sword and the staff and the handling of treasures, and after years there Huang Tianhua came to understand something of the arts.

The master also gave him a jade qilin for a mount, a beast white as jade whose four hooves raised wind and which travelled a thousand li a day; he carried the Moye Sword, whose edge shone cold when drawn, and had besides the Yin-Yang Mirror, the purple-gold gourd, the water-and-fire crystal banner and the Siming Spade for defence and attack. Two others of the master’s house, Fang Xiang and Fang Bi, huge men of great strength, were sent down with Huang Tianhua as his escort.

When Huang Feihu broke out of Chaoge after the affair of the Star-Plucking Tower and rode out at night with his household and retainers, he was blocked at the five passes and fought his way along in great danger. Qingxu Daode Zhenjun, reckoning that Huang Feihu faced a bloody ordeal, sent Huang Tianhua down to save him.

Huang Tianhua took his leave and rode the jade qilin hard down the mountain, reaching the pass just as Huang Feihu’s people were spent and the pursuit closing. He charged with the Moye Sword, and where its light fell the enemy officers gave way, and he cut his father clear. Seeing so young and able a man, Huang Feihu did not know him at first; Fang Xiang and Fang Bi explained, and he learned that this was the eldest son he had lost so many years before. Father and son acknowledged each other and rode west together.

At Western Qi, Huang Tianhua came over with his father and took service under Jiang Shang, fighting from then on beside Huang Feihu and his brothers, each with his own tally and his own troops, moving between the camps inside and outside the city.

When Wen Zhong set out the Ten Absolutes to block the Zhou army, Huang Tianhua helped the Chan immortals break them, charging the enemy lines again and again with the Moye Sword and the Fire-Dragon Dart, sword-light and dart-fire together, and blunting the Shang officers more than once.

When Deng Chanyu, daughter of Deng Jiugong of Jiameng Pass, led troops out to fight, she carried a bag of five-light stones and threw them one after another before the lines. Huang Tianhua was caught unready, struck full in the face, and thrown from his mount wounded; he withdrew and was some days recovering.

Healed, he went east with the army again and fought through hard engagements at several passes, cutting into formations with the Siming Spade or striking enemy officers with the Heart-Piercing Nails, and his name grew in the army.

As the army pushed towards Jinji Ridge, the Shang commander Gao Jineng held the strong ground against it. He carried a leather bag on his back in which he kept countless poisonous wasps, and when a fight went against him he opened it and the swarm came out to darken the sky.

As blades crossed before the lines Gao Jineng feigned defeat and fled, and Huang Tianhua drove his qilin after him; where the trees closed over the road the bag opened, and the swarm stung his face so that he could not open his eyes and his charge fell apart.

Gao Jineng turned on the moment and ran a spear through his chest. Huang Tianhua fell from the jade qilin and died on the spot, and the qilin cried out and circled his body and would not leave it.

The Zhou army attacked Jinji Ridge again afterwards and Gao Jineng was killed in the end, so that the army could pass the ridge and press on east towards Chaoge.

On the day the roll was read at the investiture terrace, Jiang Shang installed Huang Tianhua as Binglinggong, true god of the three mountains, to share with his father Huang Feihu the affairs of Mount Tai and hold the inspection of the peaks and rivers.