The Story of BaWu

Around 600 AD, as the Sui dynasty was fading and the Tang dynasty was rising, an elderly blind woman who mastered the Gu (蛊：Gǔ) craftGu craft is a mysterious form of witchcraft in ancient Chinese legends cultivated a Gu known as the Longevity Parasite. To avoid people of the Jianghu, she hid deep within Changliu Village in the Deer Foraging WoodsThe original name in Chinese is 鹿食林（Lù Shí Lín）, Lushi Forest. There, she adopted an orphaned boy she named Bawu (巴梧：Bā Wú), meaning "the child blessed by the Deer Goddess."

The woman told Bawu to wear a deer-shaped mask all year long so he could hear the goddess's whisper. Yet Bawu learned from villagers that the mask was in fact meant to conceal his unusual features.

Granny taught him the Gu craft and kept by her side a Toad King that housed the Longevity Parasite. With the strange call inside its body, the toad could draw venomous insects from miles away, commanding them to deliver fresh herbs for it every day. Because Bawu shared a gentle bond with the Toad King, these seeming miracles fueled rumors in the village that Bawu was an immortal.

The Arrival of Chen Huaiqing

When he grew to seventeen, a man named Chen Huaiqing (陈怀卿：Chén Huái Qīng), drawn by these legends, arrived at Changliu Village seeking a remedy for a deadly poison. Bawu treated him.

Once cured, Chen asked for the formula for the antidote and, when he left, claimed himself to be "the apprentice of the immortal."

He never returned, and Bawu heard nothing from him again.

The Toad King's Legacy

On Bawu's birthday, the old woman entrusted the Toad King to him, warning that although it could preserve lives, using it came with a price that could never be undone.

After she passed away, people from Jianghu arrived, pleading for Bawu's help, telling him that the world was ravaged by frequent wars and was crawling with venomous pests. Moved by their desperation, Bawu left the forest with them and spent a year ridding the villages of the infestations.

The Great Betrayal

But when he finally returned home, the very people who begged for his aid followed him back, demanding that he surrender the Longevity Parasite.

Their betrayal angered the Deer Goddess. All night, rain crashed upon the Deer Foraging Woods. The mountains gave way, the earth cracked apart, springs burst upward, and a deep abyss revealed from the dark (the formation of the Gleaming Abyss).

Trapped beneath the earth, the villagers had no chance to survive. With no other choice, Bawu planted the Longevity Parasite within them, hoping it would keep them alive until they could one day return to the surface.

The Price of Immortality

However, as time passed, Bawu felt himself changing. Immortality dimmed his emotions, quieted his longing, and hollowed his heart. He didn't even want to leave the Gleaming Abyss anymore.

A Path to Redemption

Later, the gravely wounded Chen Huaiqing found Bawu under the ravine. He handed him an herbal prescription he developed, which could turn the warped immortals back to normal.

From then on, Bawu devoted himself to crafting an elixir, wishing to free his people from the poison of longevity and, in doing so, spare future generations from the same fate.

What befell him afterward remains unknown.

Cultural Notes

Themes & Reflections