The story of Tu Xingsun

Tu Xingsun took Juliusun as his master at the Feilong Cave on Mount Jialong and learned the earth-travelling art. With a twist of his body into the ground he could cross a rampart or a mountain in a moment.

After Juliusun had gone down to break the Ten Absolutes, Tu Xingsun met Shen Gongbao on the mountain. Shen Gongbao urged him to seek his fortune in the human world, and he stole his master’s Immortal-Binding Rope and two gourds of elixir and went with a letter of introduction to Deng Jiugong’s army.

Deng Jiugong at first thought him too small and made him only a supply officer. Tu Xingsun then burrowed into the Zhou camp by night and burned its grain, and before the lines took Nezha, Huang Tianhua and Jiang Ziya one after another with the Immortal-Binding Rope, and Deng Jiugong began to see him as remarkable.

Yang Jian recognised the Immortal-Binding Rope and hurried to Mount Jialong to report it. Juliusun came to Western Qi and had Jiang Ziya deliberately draw Tu Xingsun out of the city; when Tu Xingsun tried to dive into the ground, the earth beneath his feet turned suddenly as hard as iron, and his master seized him by the hair, trussed him hand and foot, and carried him into the city.

Tu Xingsun gave up Shen Gongbao and mentioned the marriage Deng Jiugong had once promised him. Juliusun reckoned that he and Deng Chanyu were indeed matched, and Jiang Ziya sent San Yisheng to the Shang camp to arrange the match and to shake Deng’s army at the same time.

The Zhou army raided Deng’s camp by night and Deng Chanyu was taken into Western Qi. Jiang Ziya had the two married that same day; the next day Deng Chanyu went back to persuade her father, and Deng Jiugong at last brought his officers over to Zhou, while Tu Xingsun stayed with the Zhou army under orders.

On the eastern march Tu Xingsun repeatedly went underground into the passes and the enemy camps. When Kong Xuan was beating Zhou officer after officer at Jinji Ridge, he dismounted and fought him on foot while Deng Chanyu supported him from behind with her five-light stones, and the two of them wounded Kong Xuan together.

Before Sishui Pass, coming back from escorting grain, Tu Xingsun saw Yu Yuan ride off on his golden-eyed five-cloud camel, and coveting the mount, went into the pass on his own. He leapt onto the camel and drove it, but it would not go out of the gate; Yu Yuan turned, seized him by the hair, and stuffed him into the ruyi qiankun bag.

Yu Yuan had a fire built inside the pass and burned him, bag and all. As the light of it reached the walls, the white crane boy had already carried word to Mount Jialong; Juliusun came, raised a whirlwind, lifted the qiankun bag out of the fire and brought it back to the Zhou camp to let his disciple out.

Jiang Ziya wanted Tu Xingsun beheaded under military law for entering the pass without orders, and Juliusun pleaded for him, so he was kept to redeem himself. Yu Yuan afterwards came out of the pass to demand the bag back and was taken by a stratagem of Juliusun’s.

When the army had surrounded the county of Mianchi, Tu Xingsun met Zhang Kui, who knew the earth-travelling art as well. The two chased each other underground; Zhang Kui could cover fifteen hundred li in a day and Tu Xingsun only a thousand, and he could never catch him.

Jiang Ziya sent Tu Xingsun back to Mount Jialong to ask Juliusun for the art of turning earth to steel. Gao Lanying learned of it by divination, and Zhang Kui left the city at once, reached Mengshou Cliff on Mount Jialong ahead of him, and lay in wait at the edge.

Tu Xingsun saw the Feilong Cave ahead and was climbing towards it when Zhang Kui sprang out beside the cliff. The blade came down across his shoulder and back and cut him down; Zhang Kui took his head and hung it on the wall of Mianchi.

Seeing her husband’s head from the Zhou camp, Deng Chanyu went out weeping to avenge him and died under Gao Lanying’s blade. When the roll was read at the investiture terrace, Jiang Ziya installed Tu Xingsun as the Star of the Earth Bureau and Deng Chanyu as the Star of the Six Harmonies.