Some say that the Yellow Emperor Huang Di and the Sun God Yan Di were brothers, each having been given half of the universe to govern. While each reigned contentedly over his own land, the people lived in peace and prosperity. But the peace did not last, and war broke out between the two fierce warriors. After a time of fierce fighting Huang Di defeated his brother and drove him to the south, assuming control of whole universe.

Chi You, Yan Di’s son, was one of Yan Di’s greatest generals. When Huang Di had almost defeated Yandi and there were only a few battles left to fight, Chi You was captured and forced to become Hunag Di’s servant.

From his position as servant at court, Chi You came to realize that Huang Di’s government was rotten from the inside, extravagant in its tastes but empty of virtue and real power. Chi You managed to escape with his knowledge, and went directly to his father to encourage him to take his revenge on Huang Di.

Yan Di refused to take action. He had had enough of war. He was old and growing infirm, and his fighting spirit had waned away to nothing. Undeterred, Chi You decided to mount his own revenge. With his 80 sons he went to the Miao People for help.

The Miao had once been kin to Huang Di, but he had treated them cruelly and without respect, favoring other races above them. Thus many of them joined Chi You, as did all of the southern monsters and demons of the woods and mountains who resented the oppressive rule of the ghosts Shen Tu and Yu Lei, whom Huang Di had appointed to govern the south. Together with his 80 men this mass of people was Chi You’s mighty army.

Huang Di heard of Chi You’s great army and wished to avoid war and turmoil. He sent envoys and negotiators to attempt to pacify Chi You, but Chi You would have none of it. War and revenge would satisfy him and naught else.

Though Princesses Ba and Ying Long and many other gods and spirits fought on Huang Di's side, Chi You and the fierce Miao had the upper hand in their early exchanges. Chi You had the ability to snort thick, disorienting fog from his nostrils, and he used this ability to great effect. Huang Di feared no fog, and when he charged into the fray on his great war chariot his forces rallied around him, but it made no difference: they could not see through the fog to find their enemies and it looked as though they might lose.

Then, Feng Hou, one of Huang Di’s most loyal and ingenious courtiers, came up with a solution. In the midst of the clamor of battle he affixed a compass in the form of fairy statue whose arm always pointed south, his own personal invention, to the front of the emperor’s chariot. Now that he could tell one direction from the other the emperor could rally his troops and break out of the fog.

But Chi You had other weapons to hand. He had a great number of mountain demons whose strange and terrible cries would hypnotize a man and cause him to walk unknowing straight into their traps. These demons wrecked havoc on Huang Di’s troops, until he devised a counter attack by calling on his ally the dragon Ying Long. Ying’s mighty roar drowned out the mountain demons’ hypnotic voices, and struck such fear into their hearts that they fled the battle entirely.

Huang Di knew that Ying Long had a great store of rain water in his home of Xiong Li Tu Yue Mountain, and he now called on Ying Long fly up into the sky and unleash a powerful rainstorm on Chi You’s forces. Seeing Ying Long alight into the air, Chi You knew what he would do, and called on the Wind God Feng Bo and the Master of Rain Yu Shi. Together they unleashed a carefully directed storm at Ying Long. So terrible were the wind and rain that Ying Long could not release his great store of rainwater nor stay in the air.

Huang Di turned to Princess Ba, who had the power to produce scorching heat on command. She used this great power to evaporate Yu Shi’s rain and still Feng Bo’s winds, thus overpowering their great storm in moments. Chi You’s forces were buffeted by intolerable heat, and finally they broke and fled the field in disarray. Victory was Huang Di’s, thanks to his daughter’s great powers.

Huang Di and Ying Long chased Chi You’s retreating forces and harried them all the way south. They captured Chi You alive, and Huang Di ordered his immediate execution. So great was Huang Di’s fear of Chi You that mere death would not suffice. He ordered that Chi You’s body remain bound and handcuffed for days after his death. When his manacles were finally taken away, they were thrown far away from human habitation. When they landed they transformed into a grove of maple trees with scarlet leaves to match Chi You’s blood.

Huang Di's victory was not without consequences. Princess Ba poured so much power and energy into the surge of heat that turned the tide of battle that she was never able to fully recover. She lost the ability to ascend to Heaven and was forced to remain on Earth, where drought and famine filled her footsteps and the people feared and hated her and called her the Demon of Drought.

Huang Di was deeply saddened that his dutiful daughter should suffer so, and so he arranged for her to live north of the Chi Shui River. The princess made her home there, but in her sadness and loneliness she hated to remain in one place for long and occasionally she left her home to wander the world.

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