Heaven's Question, Part One: Long Yu

When Heaven and Earth were first formed, turbid energy filled the vast firmament. Among the descendants of the gods was one named Yanxi. He severed his right arm and turned it into a giant axe, offering his life as a sacrifice to cleave the turbid energy and divide the ten thousand lands. The axe parted the clear heavens, which came to be called “Heaven.”

Yanxi’s bones melted into the yellow earth, giving birth to a god named Zhuanxing. Zhuanxing established an office and its institutions, overseeing the laws of Heaven. It was named “Myriad Manifestations.” Zhuanxing became the chief of the Myriad Manifestations Inspectorate, where he personally kept watch. By the will of the gods, the Inspectorate monitored all living beings across the heavens, bearing the grave responsibility of maintaining balance and order.

Each of the heavens under Myriad Manifestations had a sole source of fortune. It might be a river, a sea, a mountain, a stream, or even soil, stone, and rotten wood. Whoever gained its fortune held power over that realm. Thus the heavens were divided and reunited again and again, schemes of power abounded, wars erupted, and disputes never ceased. The human heart was treacherous and impossible to fathom, while the people suffered with no one to care for them.

Peace was what the people longed for, and what the gods hoped to see. Thus, once every million years, the Inspectorate sent one of its own to the heavens, tasked with uniting them and bringing peace. Bearing the divine register, the Myriad Manifestations Record, this person was known throughout the ages as the “Son of Heaven.”

A lament:

“When Heaven and Earth first stirred, amid primordial chaos, fate awoke. The Flame Axe sank into dust, yet its iron remains undiminished. One life set the balance right and ordered all things, while the people suffered needless deaths.”

A leaf fell to the earth in the stillness of deep autumn. The gods turned their gaze, and spring was drawing near. Dead leaves rotted into soil, nourishing the growth of countless trees.

The story begins in Litian, one of the heavens under Myriad Manifestations, in the nineteenth year of the Fengxian Dynasty: the “Duanlong Coup.”