Honghuang Records: The Nine-Bend River Protects Life

When chaos first took shape, Pangu cleaved the primordial void with his axe and fought the three thousand Chaos Demon Gods. The source-fragment of the Wood Demon God fell into the Eastern Sea, where it merged with dragon energy and spiritual veins, giving birth to Cangwu, a nine-bend banyan-vine divine dragon who commanded the Great Dao of life.

When the Dragon-Han Tribulation began, the Demon Ancestor Luohou sowed discord, turning the Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin clans against one another and plunging the Primordial World into devastation. Compassionate Cangwu used the vitality of his true form to reverse the deathly energy and save the surviving members of the three clans. On Penglai Island, he created a sanctuary and established the rule of “equal coexistence.” During the war between Dao and demons, he used his body to anchor the western ley lines and earned merit from the Heavenly Dao. He listened to sermons at the Purple Heavens Palace, seized treasures at the Treasure-Splitting Cliff, and gathered many disciples, including Kong Xuan and Jinpeng, building a neutral force.

The Witch-Demon Tribulation, the Investiture of the Gods Tribulation, and the Journey to the West tribulation followed one after another. Cangwu helped Houtu create reincarnation, transformed into a spirit tree to mend the hole in the sky, stopped the Zhuxian Formation, and took on the identity of Chan Master Wuchao to enlighten Tang Sanzang.