Xiangliu

### Summary

Giant snake daemon whose venom can induce infertility across anywhere that they come across.

**Xiangliu** is a giant nine-headed snake daimon whose poisonous breath can make the land around it infertile.

## Overview

**Xiangliu** (相柳), known in the *Classic of Mountains and Seas* as **Xiangyao** (相繇), is a venomous nine-headed snake monster that brings floods and destruction in Chinese mythology.

He was a minister of the snake-like water deity Gonggong. When Gonggong received orders to punish people with floods, Xiangliu was proud to contribute to their troubles.

Eventually, Xiangliu was killed, in some versions of the story by Yu the Great, whose other labors included ending the Great Flood of China, in others by Nüwa after he was defeated by Zhurong.

It said that his blood stank to the point it was impossible to grow grain in the land it soaked and the area flooded, making it uninhabitable. Eventually Yu had to restrain the waters in a pond, over which the Sky Lords built their pavilions.

An oral version of the Xiangliu myth, in which Xiangliu is depicted as a nine-headed serpent responsible for floods and other harm, was collected from Sichuan as late as 1983.

## Summary

Like many other demonic creatures, xiangliu were the creations of the original demons who used them to wreak havoc in the mortal world, especially on Earth, and bring misery upon mankind. They, in particular, were created by the original Valac alongside many snake-like daemon.

In the Xia dynasty of Ancient China, the god Gonggong employed the service of a dozen witches to summon and bind the Alpha Xiangliu, **Xiangyao**, to him as his familiar to use it in his military campaigns, unleashing its terrible poison onto any place that refuse to worship him. Gonggong was later defeated by Zhurong while Xiangyao escaped into the wild during the conflict.

Many years later, it was killed by the mythical king Yu the Great, and from its body, poisonous blood leaked out as giant floods and stank to the point where it was impossible to grow grain in the land the blood soaked, making it uninhabitable. Eventually, Yu had to restrain the waters in a pond, over which the gods built their heavenly pavilions.

Several centuries later, it was revealed that Xiangyao had managed to reproduce and its progeny now live in the cold and damp lands within the Chinese Underworld, much to the frustration of Yanluo Wang and his fellow chthonic gods.

During the Devil Civil War, a cadet house of the Valac Clan use their hereditary power to supply the Old Satan Faction with hundreds of "domesticated" xiangliu daemon, which were used by the Asmodeus Clan to rain destruction upon the territories that supported the Anti-Satan Faction. These daemon were eventually destroyed, however, when Sirzechs Gremory used his Power of Destruction to disintegrate all of them during the Battle of Serpent's Bay.

## Appearance

Xiangliu daemon resemble giant snakes, with the largest recorded one reaching as large as over a hundred meters across. They have shiny black scales all over their body except on their nine heads, which appear to be the silent screaming faces of humans.

The mythical Xiangyao is recorded to be the largest of them all, befitting its status as an Alpha Daimon, and reached nearly 500 ft across with heads as large as a small house. It had shiny silver-white scales, nine faces that resembled human skulls with giant fangs, and shiny golden gemstones on its head. It secreted a foul-smelling glowing blue slime.

## Characteristics

Xiangliu daemon is known for their savage and terrifying nature, as it is an extremely voracious daimon who would stop at nothing to capture its prey and to fill its nine-stomachs, even if that means devouring entire villages and cities or even committing cannibalism against its own kind. When a xiangliu catches its prey, all nine of its heads will attack the target at once in nine different directions, thus preventing them from escaping.

Because of its voracious nature, it is considered nearly-impossible to tame one as a familiar without demonic means, as the only known ways for a xiangliu daimon to be tamed is either through the demonic witchcraft of witches or through the Valac Clan's hereditary power that allows them to tame all kinds of serpentine creatures. Even then, during the Devil Civil War, in order to maintain their control over the hundreds of xiangliu daemon they kept, the Old Satan Faction had to send people into the mortal world to kidnap thousands of humans every week.

Despite its associations with floods in Chinese mythology, most of its power derived from its dangerous venom which is said to only be seconded by the infamous basilisks. A single drop of it is enough to contaminate entire river and lakes for decades and could only be purified through a year-long ritual performed with the blessing of the Abrahamic Heaven. According to Wukong, while the poison isn't capable of killing a god, it will most likely drive any weak-willed god to the verge of suicide just to stop the excruciating pain.

## Trivia

* Their average lifespan is around 500-525 years.
* Xiangliu, the moon of the planetoid 225088 Gonggong, was named after it.
* They are native to the East Asian region, specially to China.
* Because of its venom and nine-heads, they are also known as the Chinese Hydra by westerners.
* While unconfirmed, it is possible that they, like the majority of snake-like species of daemon, were created by the original Valac.
* In the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", Xiangyao was considered a divine being and minister to the water god Gonggong.