The Nine-Bend Yellow River Formation is one of the most famous and oppressive immortal formations in Investiture of the Gods.
After Zhao Gongming dies, Yunxiao, Qiongxiao, and Bixiao descend from their island to avenge him. With the Hunyuan Golden Dou as the formation’s core treasure, they confront the Chan immortals directly.
The formation matters not only because it can destroy enemies. It places the Twelve Golden Immortals in an unprecedented crisis.
The Three Xiao Sisters Establish the Formation
The sisters originally live on Three Immortals Island. Yunxiao is the most cautious and does not wish to enter the Investiture war lightly. Zhao Gongming’s death finally brings all three sisters into the conflict.
They do not rely only on individual combat. They establish the vast Nine-Bend Yellow River Formation, turning the Three Xiao Sisters into a complete formation-based fighting system.
A Formation Like the Nine Bends of the Yellow River
The name itself creates a powerful visual idea: the Yellow River twisting, turning, and constantly changing direction.
The formation’s danger comes from the whole space. Once inside, a visitor loses direction, encounters layer after layer of turns, and cannot find a reliable path forward or back.
CG should not reduce the formation to nine circles or a flat diagram. It should feel like an immense formation that continually bends, closes, and swallows those inside it.
The Hunyuan Golden Dou
The true core of the formation is the Hunyuan Golden Dou. Through it, the sisters draw several senior Chan immortals into the array.
The Twelve Golden Immortals lose the Three Flowers above the head and the Five Qi within the chest, suffering severe damage to their cultivation. This makes the formation one of the few battles in the novel to inflict a collective disaster on the central Chan forces.
The Twelve Golden Immortals Are Trapped
Those caught in the formation are not ordinary generals but the central immortals of the Chan tradition. Laozi and Yuanshi Tianzun must therefore intervene personally.
Once the highest leaders of the traditions enter the array, the conflict has moved beyond an ordinary contest of magic and become a direct clash at the highest level.
The Deaths of the Three Sisters
After the formation is broken, the sisters continue fighting. Qiongxiao and Bixiao die, while Yunxiao is finally subdued.
The Nine-Bend Yellow River Formation is therefore both their greatest victory and the battlefield on which their fate reaches its end.
CG Visual Language
- immense scale
- circling and repeated turns
- layered paths
- the winding force of the Yellow River
- immortal mist and formation banners
- the Hunyuan Golden Dou at the center
- all three sisters controlling the formation
- senior immortals trapped throughout the space
The key is not a diagram drawn on the ground. The entire space should feel like a Yellow River from which there is no escape.
