Prologue

How does one measure a journey? Will it be better to speak of it in terms of distance in time and space? Or would it make more sense to consider the depth of its heartaches and height of its joys?

Such is the path of a mortal. Born crying and gasping into a world that resists the life, love and beauty of a human, and yet embraces all of these in their vastness in nature.

Some say the gods play a game of chess with us, yet they neglect to consider the games humans play against one another in their fights for power, control and ultimate right to rule over others.

Jiàn Shēng and his rebellious hordes keenly observed the mortals or Jiāngshī as they called them, mere puppets! He knew what he had to do but he was not too certain of how to accomplish it.

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His beloved had perished. Her parting words to him were to gather her from the dust of the earth if he could. Her triune body had shattered, and the remains were scattered quite literally to the winds and the dust of the mortal realm. He did not know that the only thing that survived was her primordial seed which had made its way into Zhì Rén and Yīn-er.

Jiàn Shēng had a few goals in mind that became his lifelong quest and motivation in his dealings with the humans. He had to gather her remains. He also had to figure out how to restore her to wholeness. Then he could woo her, win her love and find a way to consummate their union which had to include some form of fully knowing her. If he succeeded, he could return to the heavens and rule them with her. The reigning King would abdicate and go into exile.

He was not the only one with these goals. The King promised him a battle for her heart and had taken a huge risk in entrusting her primordial seed to Zhì Rén and Yīn-er. It remained to be seen if their descendants would be worthy or unworthy vessels of her seed.