In the primordial age of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, the land of China was a chaotic tapestry of warring tribes and mystical forces. At the center of this burgeoning world was Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, a ruler of profound wisdom and the progenitor of the Huaxia culture. However, his authority was challenged by Chiyou, the formidable leader of the Nine Li tribe. Chiyou was a figure of terror; legends describe him as having a bronze-plated head, an iron forehead, and the ability to consume stones and sand. He was accompanied by eighty-one brothers, each a monstrous giant with multiple arms and animalistic features. These brothers were the first to master the art of metallurgy, forging weapons of copper and iron that far outclassed the stone and wooden implements of the Yellow Emperor’s people.
The conflict reached its zenith at the Plains of Zhuolu, a vast expanse that would become the site of one of history's most pivotal mythological confrontations. Chiyou, realizing that the Yellow Emperor's forces were disciplined and strategically superior, turned to the dark arts of the natural world. He summoned the spirits of the elements, calling upon Fengbo, the Earl of Wind, and Yushi, the Master of Rain. Together, these deities unleashed a cataclysmic storm. A dense, unnatural fog swallowed the battlefield, thick enough to blind the strongest warrior. Within this gloom, Chiyou’s warriors moved like ghosts, striking from the shadows. To counter this, the Yellow Emperor utilized the South-Pointing Chariot, a mechanical marvel that allowed his army to navigate the grey void, but the physical danger was soon replaced by an environmental catastrophe.
The storms intensified into a literal deluge. Rain fell in sheets so heavy they felt like hammers, and the rivers of Zhuolu burst their banks, threatening to wash away the Yellow Emperor’s entire camp. In desperation, Huangdi called upon Yinglong, the winged dragon of the rains, to intercept the waters. Yinglong fought with all his might, attempting to gather the floodwaters and redirect them to the ends of the earth, but the combined magic of Fengbo and Yushi was too great. The dragon was exhausted, and the waters continued to rise, threatening to end the dream of a unified China before it had truly begun. It was at this moment of absolute peril that the Yellow Emperor turned to the heavens for a different kind of power—the power of his own daughter, Nüba.
Nüba, also known as Ba or Hanba, was a celestial being of radiant, terrifying intensity. While her father represented the harmonious order of the earth and the sun, Nüba was the personification of the sun’s most destructive aspect: the absolute drought. She resided in the upper reaches of the heavens, where the air was thin and the heat was pure. When she received her father's summons, she descended through the layers of clouds, her presence signaled by a sudden and jarring change in the atmosphere. The moisture in the air began to sizzle and vanish. As she neared the battlefield of Zhuolu, the torrential rains did not merely stop—they vanished into steam before they could even strike the ground.
Nüba appeared as a woman of ethereal beauty, yet she radiated a heat so profound that the very stones beneath her feet began to glow. She walked across the muddy, flooded plains, and with every step, the earth parched and cracked. The vast inland sea that Chiyou had summoned was turned into a swirling cauldron of vapor. Fengbo’s winds, once cold and biting, became hot, dry gusts that withered the spirits of the Nine Li warriors. Yushi, the Master of Rain, found his reservoirs empty; every drop of water he attempted to manifest was instantly annihilated by Nüba’s aura. The battlefield was transformed from a swamp into a desert in a matter of hours.
With the magical cover of the storms removed and the ground firm once more, the Yellow Emperor’s army rallied. The soldiers, inspired by the divine intervention of the princess of drought, charged into the clearing mists. Chiyou, deprived of his elemental advantages, fought with the ferocity of a cornered beast, but the tide had turned. He was eventually captured, and the rebellion was crushed. The victory at Zhuolu cemented the Yellow Emperor's status as the supreme ruler and the rightful ancestor of the Chinese people. However, the cost of this victory was borne entirely by Nüba.