Like a sharp knife cutting through bam-boo, he slashed through the battalions of imperial soldiers and the hordes of ferocious wild beasts dispatched by the Yellow Emperor to block his passage and halt his progress. Leaving a bloody trail of death and destruc-tion behind him, the great giant at last stood at the threshold of the Yellow Emperor’s Palace. Standing tall he bellowed out a blood-cur-dling challenge to the four-faced, all-seeing Yellow Emperor who governed the Heavens and the Earth. The Emperor, enraged at be-ing so addressed in his own palace, grasped his enormous double-edged sword and in great rage, led an enormous force of soldiers and generals, tigers and jackals, leopards and lions, bears and myriad other ferocious crea-tures to do battle with this implacable foe. A terrible clamor descended across the Heavens and Earth when the swords of these enemies clashed. The battle raged furiously from dawn till dusk, axes and swords flashing in the air, quarter neither asked nor ceded.
The cosmic battle raged all along the slopes of Chang Yang Mountain in the west, where Yan Di was said to have been born. Such was the force of arms that a state of cha-os and darkness descended on the Mountain. There was still no sign of a victor emerging. The Yellow Emperor realized his foe was an adversary to be reckoned with and decided to, once again, call upon the services of the great Dragon Ying Long, who had captured and ex-ecuted Chi You in the previous conflict. The light grew dark as the sun was eclipsed by the thousands of mighty wings of the dragon swooped from the Heavens to answer the call of his liege and master, filling the air with cloud and mist to confuse the enemy.
The lionhearted giant who had been fighting so fearlessly with his flashing axe and impenetrable shield, found himself suddenly enclosed in a vast enveloping blanket of mist and vapor. The Yellow Emperor, ever vigi-lant, took advantage of the giant’s momentary disorientation and with a mighty swing of his broad, double-edged sword, he cleaved the enormous head of the giant from its body. The severed head fell to the Earth with an almighty crash like the rolling of immense thunder. The land shook violently with the tremendous impact.
Gingerly reaching up his great hand to his neck, the giant found no head on top of it. He passed his broad axe from his right hand to his left and began to grope around on the forested mountain slopes frantically search-ing for his severed head. The desperate grop-ing hands threw up enormous ancient trees and removed the very peaks from the granite mountains.
Seeing this, the Yellow Emperor grew alarmed that the giant would succeed in find-ing his head and, once replaced on his neck, the great battle would resume with the out-come still in doubt. He raised his enormous sword high in the air, its blade glinting in the flashing sunlight and smote Chong Yang Mountain with every ounce of his strength. An enormous chasm opened momentarily in the mighty mountain and the giant’s head rolled into the abyss which was, in the blink of an eye, closed again as the enormous force of the mountain snapped back closing the chasm. The frantic giant, still squatting on the ground searching for his head, realized with black dread that his severed head had been buried under the mountain by the Yellow Emperor. He would never be whole again. Surely now resistance was futile. The very land seemed to draw a breath, sighing a lament for the fate of this lionhearted warrior.
The very thought of surrender, however, could never enter such a courageous heart. With a great roar the giant rose up to his full height. His nipples became his eyes, his bulg-ing navel his mouth uttering a blood-curdling war cry. With his immense shield clutched in his right hand and his death-bringing axe flashing in his left hand the fearless giant rushed forward towards death or glory....
