The Origin of the Yellow Emperor (Excerpt from "Immortal")

...

Huangdi was actually among the five ruling dragons. Five dragons served as guardians of our world: the black dragon of the north, the white dragon of the west, the red dragon of the south, the azure dragon in the east, and the yellow dragon served in the center. The yellow dragon would travel between heaven and his fellow dragon brethren to report life on Earth back to the gods.

The yellow dragon enjoyed his job; he loved hearing the stories of the various tribes of Earth and their lives. Over time though, the yellow dragon wanted to experience life on Earth. So, he made an appeal to the gods, asking if he could be born into the life of a mortal on Earth to experience life on Earth himself. At the end of his life, he promised that he would report in far greater detail what was going on in the Earthly domain.

The gods thought it over and decided to accept his appeal. So the yellow dragon’s soul was split in two… his immortal dragon soul was locked away, and his newly created mortal human soul was sent to Earth to be born and live.

His mortal soul was birthed to a woman named Fubao, who witnessed the splitting of his soul. Fubao was the wife of a tribal leader and son of Lord Youxiong, a king figure named Shaodian. Fubao and Shaodian previously had a son set to take overrule as the Yandi, the flame emperor.

Fubao was proud of her newborn son, whom she named Xuanyuan, but her husband, Shaodian, did not recognize Xuanyuan as a son or heir. Despite this, Xuanyuan was fierce, proud, and noble. He grew to be well-liked and respected, which put him at odds with his brother Yandi.

Yandi took to the ruling, and while Yandi ruled. Xuanyuan governed soldiers as a general and helped unify various tribes under Yandi’s rule; however, many did not wish to be led by Yandi. They saw greatness instead of Xuanyuan and desired him to rule.

Xuanyuan had no plans of overthrowing his brother, but Yandi had plans to kill his brother. In this assassination attempt, that’s when Xuanyuan had unlocked the hidden truth of his origins and transformed into his yellow dragon form.

Yandi had no choice but to step down as ruler, and Xuanyuan became Huangdi – yellow emperor. He was named for the yellow light he let off and, of course, his origin known only by Huangdi as being the yellow dragon.

All the while, the four other dragons laid witness to everything Huangdi did, and they, too, wished to live life as mortals. They appealed to the gods, and they were granted as the gods saw Huangdi doing great things on Earth. However, they had to remain on duty as guardians, so they, like Huangdi, would have access to their dragon forms.

The other dragons were born as sons to Huangdi: Heidi, the black dragon reborn, Baidi, the white dragon reborn, Chidi, the red dragon reborn, and Cangdi, the azure dragon reborn. Huangdi was proud to have his son, and former dragon brethren join him. They brought about positive change to the land and ruled as kings in their selective regions.

But as the guardian dragons grew busy with their lives on Earth, they began abusing their duties. The gods summoned Huangdi, who proposed creating dragon servants. He explained that creating other dragons could help serve the dragon guardians’ roles often serve. There presented one problem; these lesser dragons would not be celestial. They didn’t have celestial chi as only the guardian dragons were permitted these divine souls. Because of this, these lesser dragons could not fill the roles set aside for them. They also acted of their own free will with no fear of punishment.

Some were punished for becoming serpents, some forced into becoming rivers in China, and others banished to the lives of humanity without prior recollection or ability of their former selves.

The gods grew incredibly impatient and summoned Huangdi. They explained that he must give up his mortal life and come back to the role of the yellow dragon. Huangdi made one more pleading. He explained that the expectation of him to come back to the role of the yellow dragon would surely mean the other guardian dragons would be expected to return as well. He pleaded that they all should be allowed to produce offspring to carry on their legacy of humanity.

The gods allowed this. Huangdi and his empress gave birth to their youngest son, who, ironically, had no interest in ruling as an emperor. His name was Sheng, meaning triumph and victory. He was tasked with carrying on his father’s legacy for humanity. Sheng did not have a celestial dragon soul, nor did he contain a dragon form or, for that matter, an ounce of abilities.

Sheng as a child, was close to his father, but then tragedy befell them. Yandi, the flame emperor, sought revenge. Yandi made a deal with demons to gain abilities to overcome his brother and became the first immortal demon. While still powerful and at this point well over a hundred years old, Huangdi was growing old as his mortal soul aged him despite his celestial soul.

Yandi knew he’d have to be clever to take out his brother, Huangdi, and attempt to gain back his ruling. It was then he uncovered Huandi’s weakest link – Sheng. Sheng was 16 when it was announced he would be inheriting the throne from his father, but his role would be smaller than his brothers. The other mortal guardian dragons – would rule over their individual kingdoms. He would also be marrying the love of his life, a woman named Anqi.

Sheng initially protested, but with getting to marry his childhood sweetheart, agreed. Yandi knew all of this and plotted revenge by taking out Anqi to hopefully manipulate Sheng to take out his father.

However, this did not go as Yandi hoped. Anqi was murdered, and Sheng was furious. Instead of blaming his father, as Yandi hoped, Sheng renounced his inheritance of emperor. He did, however, blame the gods for interfering with humanity by allowing celestial beings, such as his father and brothers, to become mortal. Accompanied by Anqi’s father and Sheng’s tutor, they journeyed to find the gods to take out Yandi and return Anqi. Sheng vowed to do this and adopted her name as he became Anqi Sheng.

Their journey was demanding and strenuous. With their absence and Yandi’s forces still at strength, the land broke out into war. Yandi manipulated the dragon brothers to not trust each other as they fought over their kingdoms to inherit the seat Anqi Sheng gave up.

Huangdi was, of course, heartbroken by all that happened, and using the rest of his mortal and even celestial chi, he created two divine beings to watch over his land and aid his son in his quest: the phoenix, or Fenghuang, given the task to provide support, loyalty, and fertility to the people of Earth, and another creature known as a qilin, who would appear as a teacher, advisor, and mentor for those destined to aid the people of Earth.

Only a tiny remainder of Huangdi’s chi remained, so he allowed his mortal form to dissolve. He sent it to seek out his youngest son and guide him on his journey to find the gods.

In due time Anqi Sheng would indeed find the gods. He expressed what all had happened, and they revealed what they suspected was happening but were unable to confirm without the role of Huangdi being served. The gods revealed that Huangdi was dead. Something confirmed by the aura surrounding Anqi Sheng. Anqi Sheng was shocked by all he learned, and he struck a deal with the gods.

The deal consisted of taking the role of an informant of Earth and humanity for the gods. In exchange, the love of his life was to be reincarnated. Further, the gods were to provide celestial beings human forms. He also argued that loyal mortals should gain an immortal form to protect Earth, especially since he would need this form to serve the gods.

The gods agreed to this. Anqi Sheng and his tutor were then made into the first immortals. They gained abilities similar to his father as an informant and a prophet. Anqi Sheng’s teacher would become an immortal teacher meant to teach and test only mortals who would serve the gods and humanity to become immortals themselves. With this in effect, Anqi Sheng returned and was able to unify his guardian dragon brothers and lock away Yandi within a fiery hell, unable to obtain his former throne.

The guardian dragons recognized what they did was wrong and devised their own plan. If the soul of Anqi could be reborn, then their dragon chi should be passed on and reborn through cycles of mortal guardian dragons. They testified that they learned a lot and felt they better served their purpose with a human form.

The gods allowed this, and the guardian dragons’ souls were split in two – one to serve as the primary guardian and another who would grow into the position. Thus, the guardian dragon cycle was born.

The world would go on in peace. The mortal descendants of the guardian dragons would serve as kings, and they, of course, would give birth to rivals and danger as this was part of a mortal’s nature.

Forces were now working behind the scene to keep things in balance.

As for Anqi Sheng, it would be almost 1000 years before he’d find his beloved’s reincarnated. He, unfortunately, would lose her again to the cycle she was cast into. But before her second, untimely death, she served her own role in producing balance. She gave birth to their child, who would become humanity’s balance...