The story of Qiongxiao

Qiongxiao cultivated on Three Immortals Isle with Yunxiao and Bixiao, and the three shared the keeping of the cave and its treasures. When Zhao Gongming came back beaten from Western Qi and climbed to the isle to borrow the Golden Serpent Scissors, Yunxiao refused him first, and Qiongxiao did not hand the treasure to her brother behind her back either.

Hanzhi Xian came to the isle afterwards and urged the three sisters again and again to help. The Golden Serpent Scissors reached Zhao Gongming’s hands at last and he chased Randeng Daoren with them; not long after, Luya struck him down with the Seven-Arrow Book of Nails, and the news came back to Three Immortals Isle on the wind.

Qiongxiao came down the mountain with her two sisters, carrying their treasures into Wen Zhong’s camp. The three demanded an accounting before the lines; Qiongxiao charged with drawn sword, while the Coloured Cloud Immortal and Hanzhi Xian loosed the eye-piercing pearl and the wind bag from the side.

In the fighting Jiang Ziya’s God-Beating Whip struck Yunxiao down and Yang Jian’s howling celestial hound bit Bixiao. Qiongxiao raised her sword to shield her sisters, the black wind swept the front of the Zhou camp, and both sides drew back to their own lines.

When Yunxiao had recovered, the three sisters chose six hundred soldiers from Wen Zhong’s camp and drew the plan of the formation in white clay at the rear of the camp. Qiongxiao drilled the advances and retreats and the gates with the rest, and the Nine-Bend Yellow River Formation took half a month to complete.

When Yang Jian came to try the formation, Qiongxiao rode out on her swan with drawn sword to meet him, and Yunxiao raised the Hunyuan Golden Dipper from behind and drew him into it. Jinzha, Muzha, Nezha and Huang Tianhua came up in turn and were sent into the Yellow River Formation one after another.

The Twelve Golden Immortals of the Chan Sect then entered at Randeng’s order. Black mist covered the sky within, the gates turned back on themselves, and the Hunyuan Golden Dipper threw out its light again and again, taking immortals and treasures together, until all twelve lay inside.

Yuanshi Tianzun came to Western Qi and first went in to look at the formation, and the next day came with Laozi to the gate. The three sisters came out to meet them, did not bow to their elders, and turned back to the eight-trigram terrace.

Laozi rode his green buffalo into the formation, and Qiongxiao threw the Golden Serpent Scissors into the air first. The two serpent shapes closed head to tail and came down out of the cloud; Laozi raised his sleeve to meet them, and the scissors fell into it and made no sound again.

Bixiao’s Hunyuan Golden Dipper was taken by the wind-and-fire mat as well, and the three sisters came down from the eight-trigram terrace together with drawn swords. Qiongxiao struck straight at Yuanshi Tianzun, and the white crane boy raised the Three-Treasure Jade Ruyi at his order.

The ruyi came down out of the air and struck Qiongxiao squarely on the crown, splitting it open. She fell in the Nine-Bend Yellow River Formation, and her soul left the field for the investiture terrace.

Jiang Ziya later read out the roll and installed Qiongxiao with Yunxiao and Bixiao as the Immortal Ladies Who Answer the Age. The Hunyuan Golden Dipper the sisters had used appears again in the charge, held jointly by the three true goddesses.