Jiang Ziya and Yuanshi Tianzun

Jiang Ziya climbed Kunlun at thirty-two and cultivated under Yuanshi Tianzun at Yuxu Palace for forty years. One day Yuanshi called him before the palace, told him that the immortal road was closed to him by birth but that he had the destiny of a minister among men, and charged him to invest the gods on heaven’s behalf and go down to serve Zhou.

Jiang Ziya did not want to leave the mountain and knelt on the steps pleading again and again; Yuanshi only had the white crane boy see him out, and put the Investiture List and the God-Beating Whip into his hands. After many turns Jiang Ziya reached Western Qi, and whenever an immortal trap such as the Ten Absolutes or the Nine-Bend Yellow River Formation appeared he sent word up the mountain or returned to Yuxu Palace to ask in person.

Yuanshi then sent the Twelve Golden Immortals down and entered the Yellow River and Zhuxian formations himself. Once Chaoge had fallen, Jiang Ziya went back to Kunlun for the jade tally and golden register, then called the god of pure blessing Bo Jian to the investiture terrace and enfeoffed the gods by the roll Yuanshi had settled.