A chick broke out of its shell, surrounded by darkness.
The chick pecked at the insects on the ground and grew into a young chicken.
It grew a comb as red as blood, its claws became dazzling as gold and could slice through iron like mud, and it clothed itself in emerald plumes and brocade feathers.
The young chicken roamed the dark forest, pecking at insects and snakes, battling fierce beasts, bravely fighting evil ghosts, and driving away zombies, growing amid bloodshed.
The young chicken grew into a rooster. To see through the darkness, it developed double-pupiled golden eyes and became even fiercer in the dark. Insects and snakes dared not approach it, fierce beasts became its bloody meals, and a single glance from it would set evil ghosts and zombies ablaze.
The rooster no longer feared the darkness, but it loathed it.
At last, one day, it could endure no more. The rooster, which had never made a sound since its birth, crowed with all its might. Its cry shattered evil ghosts and made insects and beasts bow their heads, but that was not enough. It kept crowing, its voice rising ever higher, until even the darkness seemed to retreat.
Suddenly, brilliant golden light descended from the sky, sweeping all the darkness away.
The sun had risen.
It had called the sunlight down upon this land.
Bathed in golden light, the rooster left that land.
It wandered the mortal world and discovered that many people grew up beneath the darkness. Wherever it went, it cleared away the venomous insects and ghostly monsters, then crowed to summon the light.
And so people called it Sun Essence, Fire Essence, Yangzi, Singing Bird, Dawn Caller, Fine-Voiced Bird, Night Watcher, Night Candle, Red-Robed Gentleman, Red-Crest Gentleman, Ghost-Catching General, and Insect-Catching General.
Later, people discovered that the rooster's blood was so fiercely potent that it could melt and burn away every evil thing-not only venomous insects, evil ghosts, and zombies. If a scoundrel with a bellyful of lies drank it, his guts would be pierced and his entrails would rot. And so they also called it Lord of Trustworthiness, Young Master of Fierceness, and Young Master of Five Virtues.
People also discovered that the rooster's cry could not only summon light, but call back lost souls. And so they called it Soul-Summoning Lord and Spirit-Calling Lord.
Everyone hoped the rooster would stay in their village, but too many places beneath heaven needed it. So the rooster pecked open its own body and let its scalding blood flow out. Beneath the sunlight, that blood turned into little chickens. This was the origin of all chickens in the world.
"Oh! So that's how it happened!"
"That's how it happened!"
"..."
In the night, old folk and children sat outside Yunqi's house, listening to him tell the story.
The old village chief nodded earnestly. "Then where did that first divine rooster go?"
Yunqi continued:
"Later, the divine rooster mastered Daoist arts and cultivated into an immortal. He took human form and named himself Yuandan. Look at this character, 'dan'-I'll write it for you. A sun rising above the ground. See? That's 'dan.' Doesn't it look just like that? And what does 'yuan' mean? It means everything has only just begun. So 'Yuandan' means the sun has risen, the ghosts and monsters have been swept away, and a new life has begun. Daoist Yuandan is this fellow you've all pasted on your doors and windows."
Yunqi pointed at the newly pasted door-god pictures on every house in the village as he spoke.
Everyone looked at the pictures and could not help nodding. The Daoist in them was so burly and imposing that he really did resemble a great rooster.
One child said, "Yuandan is the day after the old year ends! It's also the first day of the new year!"
Yunqi smiled, nodded, and stroked the child's head. "That's right. That day happens to share Daoist Yuandan's name. If you paste up a picture of Daoist Yuandan that day, he'll protect you."
The child nodded and said he would.
"Later still, Daoist Yuandan became incredibly powerful. One night, he saw a dark patch in the night sky where the stars gave no light, so he simply flew up and went to live in the heavens. Then that region of stars lit up. It's called the Hairy Head Lodge, so people also called him the Hairy Head Sun Star Lord, and the place where he lived was called the Bright Palace.
"Look, right there!"
Yunqi pointed at a cluster of stars in the western sky.
"I see it!"
"I see it!"
The children clapped. The stars there really were a little brighter than those elsewhere.
"But sometimes it gets too cold living on the stars, so the star official occasionally goes to live inside the sun. That's the warmest place of all. Keep an eye out from now on. If the Hairy Head Lodge is bright, that means the star official is home. If it isn't bright, that means he's gone to hide in the sun again."
"Oh-"
The children gazed at the stars and took Yunqi's words to heart.
"All right, all right. Daoist Yun needs to rest. We'll come again tomorrow night."
The old village chief ushered the children away. These past few days, Daoist Yun had told them Daoist Yuandan's Demon-Slaying Tales every evening, and the children were always reluctant to leave.
Yunqi smiled as he saw the children off.
The villagers would never know that as Yunqi kept telling stories about Daoist Yuandan and painting door pictures to guard their homes, a Daoist Yuandan born from the Hairy Head Lodge, yet never before seen in this world, was slowly taking shape on the highest floor of his Twelve-Storied Tower.
The nineteenth day of the ninth month was his eleventh day in the village, and also Yunqi's birthday.
Early that morning, after watching Red-Crest General crow, he went into the mountains. When he returned, he carried two great bundles of firewood and a wild boar on his back.
He set everything down in the middle of the village and told the villagers gathering around,
"We're having a bonfire party tonight!"
Everyone erupted in cheers.
They were all looking forward to it. With a boar that big, one feast would leave them with no need to eat meat for months!
That night, the fire shone brightly, the smell of meat drifted everywhere, and the fragrance of wine filled the village.
Holding several children, with a few White Dragons beside him, Yunqi fell asleep in the warmth by the bonfire.
The twenty-ninth day of the ninth month was his twenty-first day in the village.
At dawn, a few lingering stars dotted the blue-gray sky, and the eastern horizon glimmered fish-belly white.
Yunqi sat in meditation facing east, the centers of his palms, soles, and crown turned toward heaven.
"Cock-a-doodle-doo-"
Red-Crest Gentleman began crowing again.
Then light blazed forth.
Yunqi breathed naturally. Within the Twelve-Storied Tower, Daoist Yuandan sat meditating in red robes as well.
Amid the radiance of the great sun, wisps of golden vapor entered Yunqi's mouth and nose, descended into the Twelve-Storied Tower, and circled Daoist Yuandan. The golden vapor looked light and magnificent, like gold threads in the finest brocade.
A faint smile surfaced on Yunqi's face.
He turned his palm upward, and a golden flame danced upon it. As its tongues flickered, the empty air warped into shapes like rippling water. Sensing its terrifying heat and fiercely potent nature, he murmured:
"The visualization method is complete. So this is solar bing fire?"
That night.
Yunqi sat meditating outside his house again, facing the village.
The lights in every home resembled the stars above, but while starlight was cold and clear, lamplight warmed the heart.
Within the Twelve-Storied Tower, Daoist Yuandan sat serenely.
As Yunqi breathed, almost imperceptible threads of fiery essence drifted from the lights in every home, nearly transparent yet tinged with the warm yellow of ginger. They gathered into wisps, slipped into his mouth and nose, and flowed into the Twelve-Storied Tower. Remaining as distinctly separate from the solar bing fire as the Jing and Wei Rivers, the two circled the vermilion-robed Daoist together, like twin dragons.
Yunqi marveled. This was the visualization method: with sincerity of heart, the deity took form; once the deity took form, it followed his every desire. At this moment, he had drawn in a flame never before recorded in writing.
"The ancients took the meanings of essence, qi, and spirit and combined them into samadhi true fire. Rather than pick up scraps from another's teeth, I'll take the three flavors of the mortal world, mortal hearths, and mortal affection, and combine them into three-flavored true fire."
I'm working the late shift tonight, so I'm posting a short chapter for you all to read first. The second chapter will be very late.
Before you continue