The story of Xuanhuang Exquisite Pagoda

After Pangu split the sky and the clear and turbid were fixed, the merit of that opening fell into the world. The common account has part of the xuanhuang vapour of it condense into an exquisite pagoda, which came afterwards to Taiqing Laozi.

The pagoda has many storeys, and when it is raised, streams of xuanhuang vapour hang down from its eaves. Laozi kept it at the Bajing Palace, where with the Taiji Diagram it guarded the seat of the Human Sect.

After the Three Xiao had set out the Nine-Bend Yellow River Formation outside Western Qi, Laozi came before it on his green buffalo. The Hunyuan Golden Dipper and the golden light of the formation pressed at him, and the pagoda appeared above his head with the xuanhuang vapour falling to shield him.

Laozi went in by the formation gate to its depths, first stilled its shifting with the Taiji Diagram, and then joined Yuanshi Tianzun, who arrived after him. As the Twelve Golden Immortals came free of the formation, the pagoda still hung above the green buffalo.

With the Yellow River Formation broken, Laozi took the pagoda back into his sleeve. When the Zhuxian and the Ten Thousand Immortals formations opened he went into them again with Yuanshi, Jieyin and Zhunti, and when the fighting was over carried his treasures back to the Bajing Palace.