17

A Skilled Trader

From the moment the twenty-fifth realm was created, the King and his beloved often entered it to spend time with their children. This created great consternation in Jiàn Shēng.

‘More competition for her attention! What is so fascinating with those Jiāngshī? I will deal with them when I have greater power. First, let me get some faithful followers,’ he thought to himself. He had a plan in mind.

In the heavens, the fiery, living stones on Huǒrè de bǎolěi were used for many purposes from building to making precious, divine weapons, as rewards and in games. There were endless uses for them, and every living thing had a need for their use – from the fish and birds in the northern realms, to the herds and packs in the eastern and western realms. One can say that these stones were to them what bread came to mean for humans except they did not need them for survival. Nevertheless, they were precious, and it was an honor and delight to receive them.

Jiàn Shēng decided to use them to buy over the allegiance of the Tiānshǐ. He did not care that the corruption within his heart would spread to them, awakening the love of self, of power, fame, treasures, and unabated indulgences. Love in their hearts would be compromised and corrupted.

There were some legitimate ways in which to receive the stones of power. One of them was by participating in duels and games during the Great Assemblies. Another was by doing one’s work well. A third was as a gift from the King, Bride or another Tiānshǐ. A fourth way was by simply having a legitimate need, in which case the being could make their way to Huǒrè de bǎolěi, present their badge and enter the heights to search for the stone that would be most suitable for their use. In such a case, once the need was met, the stone would return on its own to its place of origin in the mountains.

What was not done was taking a stone without a need for it just because one fancied it or thought its power could be reserved and used at a later time. They could only gather what was needed, not more. This simple act displayed whether they had faith that their needs would be provided for later on.

For any system or power and rulership to work, it relies heavily on the trust of those who ascribe to its authority over themselves.

Jiàn Shēng was a guardian of these stones along with his closest brother and friend, Xióng Zhǎn. In the past, he often walked among these stones visiting the ones of different hues. His favorite were the blue, indigo and violet stones as they were the ones with greatest powers. It was not easy to win them over. The amount of time he had spent sharpening his own wisdom against theirs caused him to be exceptional among all the Tiānshǐ. It was true that he had far more of these stones than anyone else in all the realms.

At first, he convinced himself, ‘I will give them what is in my own possession as gifts. There is nothing wrong with that. I am just gaining their favor and there is no rule forbidding me.’

So, Jiàn Shēng took the time to carefully watch which of the Tiānshǐ were inclined towards favoring him for various reasons. Some of them saw him as a role model of leadership apart from the King and Bride themselves. Many loved his speed tactics in duels and his abilities in combat. They would do anything to lay aside their work just to watch one of those heavenly duels. A few were astounded by his wisdom, which was far greater than their own. And some loved his beauty above all things for there was no Tiānshǐ who rivalled him in splendor and perfection when it came to his physical appearance.

The one who came a close second would be Zhì Shēn, followed in equal measure by Pèi Zhōng and Yīng Fēng. One could not call Xióng Zhǎn beautiful by any measure. He was ruggedly handsome and built strong with the best male features among all the heavenly beings. When one saw him, the perfect way to describe his looks would be that of raw power and strength. He was not to be trifled with in battle for he hid much of his strength out of his own humility and good will towards others while his beloved brother Jiàn Shēng was the one who thrived in exhibiting all he was and had.

Jiàn Shēng struck up conversations with these Tiānshǐ to gauge how strongly they held their allegiance to the King. He was very cautious not to rouse their suspicions.

With those who admired his leadership he dialogued, ‘What do you think about this aspect?’ the aspects often concerning the work everyone engaged with in the realms. He never betrayed any negative sentiments at this point. They were just harmless talk.

‘Would you like to learn my entombing enchantment skills? I can teach them to you if you are willing,’ he said to another. To those who loved his skills, he bartered training them with his own dueling skills or even gave them some choice weapons that he had won or made in exchange for time combating with them. That time was not spent in vain; he was forming alliances.

Then there were those who were in awe of his knowledge and wisdom. He approached them with questions they were seeking answers to, slowly leading them to find those answers for themselves. This he did because there was much insight he had gleaned from the stones of power which carried the very wisdom of the Makers in them.

When one of them wondered, ‘What is life?’ he replied, ‘Fickle poetry in motion,’ and this later became a saying among his followers.

As for those who loved his beauty, they were the most easily won over. He did not have to do much except grace them with his presence, throwing some words of acknowledgement and compliments their way to make them feel seen and valued by him, their hero.

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All these purposeful meetings arranged by Jiàn Shēng had one thing in common, he gave them gifts of fiery stones which were from his own collection making them feel a sense of being indebted to him that they could not explain nor shake off.

‘I cannot go on this way. I do not want to deplete my own stones. I have to get my supply from the mountain henceforth,’ he realized one day.

He began to wait for when their duty guarding the stones would end before making his way up the mountain.

Xióng Zhǎn asked, ‘Are you not joining me for dueling practice?’

‘I will come a little later. You get started first and work through your moves,’ Jiàn Shēng replied.

‘Where are you going?’ his brother wondered.

‘Just to try sharpening my mind with those stones in the red region,’ Jiàn Shēng replied. This was not unusual for him for he had done it often, so his brother did not suspect anything amiss.

Jiàn Shēng began by convincing and taking stones of lesser power at first. These included the red, orange, yellow and green ones. He gave them to the Tiānshǐ he wanted to win over, without telling them that they were not legitimately his. He had taken them without a need except a selfish purpose.

Among his band of followers, the ones who were more loyal to him and close to pledging their allegiance to his leadership, he began rewarding with stones of greater power such as the blue and indigo ones.

At one point, he had hidden a blue stone in his armor and was making his way down the mountain when he ran into the King.

The King knew what he had done and looking firmly into his eyes said, ‘Jiàn Shēng, is it worth it? What does it profit you to gain the whole world but lose your own self? It is not yet too late for you to change the direction of your steps.’

There was no convincing Jiàn Shēng for he was turning stubborn in his obsession to possess the Bride as his own beloved. For that, he was willing to trade even his own soul.

Then the real trading began. It was on the day of one of the assemblies at Dàshān. He watched those who won praise and stones of power from the King specifically. The ones the Bride awarded; he disregarded for his agenda was against his rival alone. He also took note of those who came close to winning and who belonged to the little band he had successfully influenced.

He approached the near winners after the assemblies and began twisted conversations with them which were designed to manipulate their feelings.

‘I do not agree with how the King chose the winner. He did not see your skill, diligence and hard labor,’ he would instigate them. At first, even his loyalists did not dare to raise a complaint against the King as they knew in their hearts that the winners truly deserved it more than they. Over time, Jiàn Shēng’s words began to erode through their resistance and good conscience, especially the weaker-willed ones whose hearts were first corrupted because they had allowed it.

‘Why would he overlook my best and reward another? He is partial. He is unfair and unjust. My best will never be good enough to please him. It is pointless to keep trying,’ such were the thoughts that slowly filled the minds of these Tiānshǐ. They forgot to consider all the good they were given, all past rewards and loving words of encouragement from the King. All they could focus on was the pain of their current loss which felt like the whole world of existence to them.

Jiàn Shēng’s trading had successfully grown and diversified. He was now trading in not just stones of power, but also in slandering and spreading lies and gossip about the King among his little band of followers. Those who began to verbally slander the King with him and help him spread such lies to convince others under their own sway became handpicked leaders of his. He rewarded them with the purple stones which had the greatest power, motivating them to do a lot more of his dirty work for him.

He would give those who bought into his schemes, the stones he was stealing while telling them, ‘Look, do not be disheartened. I saw your skill and hard work. I have something to give you because you deserve it more than the others. I am impartial.’

The Bride lay in the arms of her beloved on Méiguī shān. ‘You have seen it?’ she asked him referring to Jiàn Shēng's thriving business partnerships. ‘He is making deals in exchange for their souls,’ she added in disgust.

‘Yes, we must just let it be for now. A little while longer and we can confront all of them. Let him help us filter all heaven and the hearts that can turn away, let him take. Then only the hearts that are firm will remain in the realms. This will avoid future troubles once all judgments are given at the end of his time,’ the King replied. The Bride sighed knowing this was true.

The King looked intently at her and pulled her in more closely. ‘Too tight!’ she exclaimed as she wriggled in his embrace. He laughed.

‘Do not tell me that now! See, I want to make the most of the time left to us. These moments are too precious for me to squander. I do not want to be separated from you. I do not want you to forget my love, my embrace, and my unwillingness to lose you,’ he said firmly and seriously.

‘Then you must keep reminding me when the time comes, and I do forget!’ she said softly and sadly.

‘I will, but now I shall seize the moment and not let you forget,’ he said as he kissed her passionately.

Many think these heavenly rulers somehow lack a sense of love and passion. They do not realize that mortals are hardwired to love passionately because their Makers love passionately within the legal bonds of a loving relationship and not by force or coercion. Such love is strong, mutual, and reciprocal in intensity. It is powerful, indeed stronger than death itself for what one loves, can live beyond the grave.

Love is a double-edged sword. It can kill as surely as it can make alive. It can be the most precious thing in all the realms or the most destructive of them all when it is corrupted. It beats in the spirits of all things. Those who master love, master all things. Those who let the love within them be corrupted, squander it and cave to evil.

On account of self-love, wrongful and illicit love or love for things like power and wealth, nations turn against nations and people against people. The greatest power though is love. It is the gold that forges life and death as two sides of the same coin. It is the choice before every living soul. All life is a test of love and a growth towards learning to love perfectly. Those who master love and love perfectly, have perfected, and mastered themselves by casting out everything that hinders perfect love.

For now, the heavenly realms thrived with two types of love, perfect and imperfect. Jiàn Shēng had greatly invested in the latter and traded, diversified and profited from it among those in whom he had sown seeds of corruption. For their part, they traded their souls for all kinds of profits for themselves including name, popularity, stones of power, and illegitimate rulership in an illegal force being gathered.

Unknown to Jiàn Shēng at that time, the King and his beloved had also taken a great risk which would require a terrible price in exchange. They had put all their investment into two, apparently weak, innocent mortals and into them they planted and diligently watered the seeds of great love.