The stars are like raindrops, ornamenting the pitch dark screen of night, while the glow lightly shed by the wheel of icy moon embraces and is entrapped by the boundless earth, with its lofty mountains and verdant trees. Save for the layer of white light brus.h.i.+ng the summit, the rest of the earth is captured in shadow.

At this precise moment, two elders sit upright atop the peak of Cangmang Mountain. One is wearing a robe of white, the other, a robe of black. They were each over six decades old, yet their appearances were beautiful.

“It has been so long since I’ve seen this kind of moon, these kinds of stars!” The white-robed elder seated on the left lifts their head to gaze at the sky, sighing as if about mult.i.tudes.

“What a shame that everything will soon change!” The black-robed elder joins in staring fixedly at the sky.

As if waiting for those words, the stars above the sky lift, and to the east a star of especial brightness rises. This kind of brightness obscures the bright moon itself, and in a moment, lights up the entirety of the heavens and the earth.

“It’s appeared, it’s appeared!” The white-robed elder gazes, bright-eyed, at the star, the face which was originally calm and tranquil now containing a thread of uninhibited excitement.

Just as the words fall out of the elder’s mouth, another star of similarly expansive brightness rises quickly from the west, an arrogant gleam that seems to say that there is only room for this one star in all the world.

“Look! Here comes this one, here comes this one!” The black-robed elder stands in excitement, pointing a finger towards the western star.

“Have they both finally appeared?” The white-robed elder stands as well, watching those two stars who have outshone the moon, and who face one another from opposite sides of the sky, competing with their different brilliance.

“Finally! An end is finally in sight for these troubled times!” The black-robed elder cries out excitedly, antic.i.p.ation apparent on their face.

“The chaos will end in their hands, but they must meet. When the stars meet, who will descend?” the white-robed elder suddenly mutters.

And in the sky the two stars have at this time already hidden their faces, not as dazzling to the eyes as before, yet still radiating a glow brighter than all the surrounding stars.

“When the stars meet, who will descend? That is up to fate to decide.” The black-robed elder’s words are serious.

“How brightly they s.h.i.+ne! Yet it is destined that above the nine heavens, only one can s.h.i.+ne as king!” The white-robed elder is hesitant to part their gaze from the two stars in their heavens, and the words are full of regret and of frustration.

“Should we continue this game of chess?” The black-robed elder restrained their excitement, their gaze dropping to the chessboard.

It was a giant rock, thirty feet across, which was for unknown reasons naturally flat, and had a chessboard carved upon it. The square chess pieces were five jin in weight. This was a game that was half completed, its players evenly matched, and at this juncture it was unsure at whose hands the deer* would fall.

“Let’s not play anymore.” The white-robed elder’s gaze swept swiftly over the chessboard, and then raised a hand to point at the sky. “Let them play that game of chess!”

“Will it be them who play?” The black-robed elder first glanced at the chessboard, and then at the heavens. “Fine as well. We’ll let them play, and see who wins and who loses.”

“We should go down the mountain; it’s about time for you and I to look for them.” The white-robed elder swept the skies one last time, and then turned to prepare for the descent.

“Could it be that the outcome of their game will be the outcome of ours as well?” The black-robed elder stopped the other in their tracks.

“Does that need to be said? You and I have fought for thirty years, but yet we’re still unable to come up with a victor between us. The last half of the game will be theirs to play, and that will determine who will be the victor between us two. This, too, falls under the jurisdiction of the heavens!” The white-robed elder turns to look at the other.

“Good.” The black-robed elder nods. “Let’s go down the mountain.”

The two left swiftly, leaving only that incomplete game of chess on the peak of Cangmang Mountain.

—

Those who ascended to the top of Cangmang Mountain afterwards will have seen that same match in progress, and each was astonished by it, yet no one touched it. Those who could climb to the top of the tallest mountain in the Eastern Realm were few in number, and the ones who could were not ordinary people. Since there were those who left behind this match, there would inevitably be people who would come and finish it.

Many years later, there will come two people following the path laid down by their destinies, who will finally meet at the summit of Cangmang Mountain, and will have to face this game that fate has left for them.

This time is precisely in the fifth year of the reign of Emperor Qi of the Eastern Realm.

—

Three hundred or so years have pa.s.sed since the founding of the Eastern Realm to the reign of Emperor Qi. The founder, Emperor s.h.i.+, was a man of great skill and strategy, whose martial skills were matched by none, and though besieged by war on all sides, he was able to vanquish his enemies and comfort the people, and thus was able to establish the vast empire of the Eastern Realm.

After the establishment of empire, Emperor s.h.i.+ evaluated his generals, and made the seven whose achievements were most valuable into kings and granted them each a tributary, took each of their surnames as a state name, and divided them into the seven states of Ning, Feng, Huang, Feng, Hua, Bai, and Nan. He created an eight-faced seal, and called the largest face ‘Xuanzun Seal,’ to be kept only by the emperor. The seven smaller faces were termed the 'Xuanmo Seals,’ and were split up to be given to the Kings of the Seven Kingdoms. At the time of splitting, the emperor and each of the kings swore a blood oath: when the Xuanzun Seal is shown, the seven kingdoms will bend their heads.

After Emperor s.h.i.+, Emperor Cheng, Emperor Guan and Emperor Yan were all wise leaders, employing deserving talents and always attuned to the wants of the people, levying light taxes, and politically pure and aboveboard. The va.s.sal states were attentive to their duties, paying tribute and taxes; under these emperors, the Eastern Realm grew stronger by the day.

Yet the Emperors Zhi, Yi, Qi, and Zhao were none of them even a tenth as competent. Even preserving the accomplishments of their predecessors was for them an accomplishment. And Emperor Jia, Emperor Xi, and Emperor Yi were unprincipled leaders, coveting comfortable pleasures, and appointed all manner of conniving officials to take control of all political matters, and a strong Eastern Realm instead became weaker by day.

Emperor Li, though he wished to accomplish great things, was fond of luxury, and every time he wanted to conduct an inspection tour of the land, required the building of new palaces, and wasted much manpower. Twice he went to war against Mengcheng, yet both times was soundly defeated and driven back, and thus made life so difficult to live that complaints sprung up everywhere. Each of the va.s.sal states began to become disloyal under his reign – first there was the King of Ning, who raised an army with the intent of storming the imperial capital and sought to place replace the emperor. But Emperor Li did not even wait for the Ning soldiers to enter the throne room to die.

The Crown Prince Jing succeeded him to the throne, becoming Emperor Jing, who issued orders under the Xuanzun Seal, calling the other six va.s.sals to come to the aid of the Emperor, to muster up their armies and push back the forces of the King of Ning. The King died, and his lands were split among Feng, Huang, and Feng.

After calming the chaos caused by Ning, each va.s.sal controlled more power, and though Emperor Jing had the ambition for great reform, a hundred separate maladies plagued the Eastern Realm and caused its disintegration, and during the Ning Uprising, the emperor had been shot in the chest with an arrow. Not three years later, Emperor Jing died without heir, and the Second Royal Prince became Emperor Li.

Emperor Li had a vicious disposition, and paid no heed to riches or to beauties. His only fondness was for hunting – not beasts, but people! He had live people dispersed among the hunting grounds, and lead his officials and his soldiers to hunt, rewarding those who captured the most heads. And if any survived the hunt, they would be rewarded with wine, and killed. This was how he found pleasure!

During this time, the people were enraged, and in every part of the land volunteers joined militias. And after two wars with Mengcheng and the Ning Uprising, the armed forces of the Eastern Realm were nigh depleted. Emperor Li had no choice but to turn to the va.s.sal states for their help in suppressing the people, and thus each va.s.sal state could openly and brazenly recruit soldiers. Each began to fight with the others, and the Emperor had no ability to maintain order among the kingdoms.

In the eleventh year of the reign of Emperor Li, he was mobbed by a group of peasants and beheaded.

After this riot, the Crown Prince Qi became Emperor, but discovered that the Xuanzong Seal had gone missing, and each kingdom had no obligation to obey, so the Emperor existed in name only. The once-strong Eastern Realm became disunified, and each of the six kingdoms established their own governments, and the world descended into chaos.

—

And the Eastern Realm, with its imperial capital at the centre and its ten provinces, became split into provinces under the direct governance of each king. In the north there was the Bai Kingdom, with a thousand li of land and ten cities; in the west there was the Feng Kingdom with three thousand li of land and thirty-six cities; to the southwest there was the Feng Country with two thousand li of land and twenty cities; to the south there was the Huang Kingdom, with three thousand li of land and thirty-four cities; between Feng Country and Huang Kingdom there sprang up Hua Kingdom, with two thousand li of land and twenty cities; to the east there was Nan Kingdom, with twelve hundred li of land and ten cities. Of the Six Kingdoms Huang and Feng had the largest territories, and were strong, Hua was richest, Feng Country in the middle, while Bai and Nan were the weakest.

After the disappearance of the Xuanzong Seal, all the warlords in the land sought to find it for themselves, and reign supreme over an empire.