With-Heaven I

After the twins Thousand-Horse and Eternal-One and their sister Dawn-Brook were born, the next child to be born of Divine-Stream-Princess was a boy with a handsome and winsome face, yet one whose eyes carried hints of chaos and madness. The day he was born it was very cloudy, and when he came out of the womb the house shook with the rumble of not distant thunder. Not knowing what to make of him from his face, his parents took the thunder as a sign that he was gone unto them with Heaven's approval, and named him Goes-with-Heaven.

When With-Heaven grew into a young child, he had thick, pitch-black hair and a stormy disposition. Abounding in physical energy, he would run hither and thither through the house and the garden while tumbling and doing somersaults. If left alone, he would swagger around and knock breakable things off tables and shelves and so destroy them. For that reason his mother always kept her eye on him, and when she had to go out and be parted from him she instructed the maids to never let him out of their sight. When he got bigger, his father tried to teach him reading and writing, but he had no respect for books and poked holes in the pages with his brush. Next he tried to teach him music, but he only took pleasure in snapping the strings. Finally, he tried to teach him martial arts, and while he could hold a sword and flex a bow well enough, his motions were coarse and his arrows always missed the mark. And when he sent him on missions and errands, he would disregard every instruction given him and do only as he pleased. Because he was recalcitrant and hated to study, he fought with his father and mother every day, and sometimes they were so at a loss about how to pacify him that they locked him in a cage Tengir had made. The first cage was made of wood, but when he destroyed this, Tengir made a cage out of stone, but when he broke that too, Tengir made a cage out of a refined alloy. He had no friends in all of the country, for whenever he was near the other children he would try to beat or kick them. He would do the same whenever he went near his older brothers, but when his older sister came near him, for whatever reason his frenzy would abate.

When With-Heaven was a youth, he took pride in his having pranked nearly every member of his own household and the households of the other clans. His menacing presence was taken as a bad omen by most people who knew him, but as he was still young and not very strong he was never more than a nuisance. But his older sister Dawn-Brook, by nature the calmest lady in all the country, he always failed to offend, even as he tried to frighten her while she was busy weaving garments or dusting the steps of her shrine. And even though he tried to spoil her work or strike her, she would not get angry at him but would ignore him or just smile. He set his mind on frightening her, even if just for a moment, which is why one day he sneaked into the sacred sealed grove where she bathed in the evening and tossed rocks into the water by her feet. The splashing startled her and she turned around to see that he had come where he should not come and seen what he should not see, and she was mortified. She ran out of the sacred sealed grove, not looking back, and was so scared lest people should see her that she hid herself in a cave.

Dawn-Brook stayed in the cave for several days and nights. During that time the Mirror of Truth was not polished and the rituals were neglected. The Mirror became cloudy and when that happened, heavy storm clouds, taking on ominous shapes, filled the skies and cast purple shadows across all the country. Tengir, Divine-Stream-Princess and many others went to the cave where she was hiding, gave her clothes to put on and tried to persuade her to come out, but she still would not come out. She told them that she feared lest her younger brother was out there to terrify her again, and would not come out unless he accounted for his sins and promised to stop harassing her. Realizing that With-Heaven was at fault for the chaos, Tengir summoned him, but With-Heaven refused to listen to the summons.

When Tengir came to seize him, he ran away, stealing Tengir's Sky-Splitting Sword, and he gave chase. But thanks to his divine cultivation which was only then beginning to blossom, With-Heaven was fast on foot and could fly in the air at the speed of an arrow, so even Tengir could not catch up to him. With-Heaven was getting more and more worked up, he flailed his arms and stomped his feet, roaring at the top of his lungs while swinging the sword in all directions. He knocked over walls and fences, toppled storehouses and watch towers, cut down the crops in the fields, and besides that he also burned down a few houses, killed several dozen livestock, destroyed three dams and in doing so flooded several districts. He also trampled the grasses and flowers growing in sacred precincts. And since his sister was still hiding in horror of his deeds, there was no one who could stay his rage. Divine-Stream-Princess pleaded with her to come out, telling her that she alone can stop With-Heaven's rampage, but she still would not, so Tengir had no choice but to drive With-Heaven beyond the outermost reaches of the settled lands and banish him with a divine boundary. Only when the noise of his rampage had faded did she leave the cave and return to her shrine, where she cleaned the Mirror and resumed the rituals.

After he was driven out of the settled lands, With-Heaven, still unable to calm down, flew into the southern regions which were at that time the home of many related tribes of tiger-headed demons. Since his approach was incredibly loud and bothersome, they could not very well ignore him and sent warriors after him to kill him. The demon warriors chased With-Heaven to the boundary of their land where there was a giant cliff of three thousand feet. With-Heaven was about to fly away but the warriors captured him and took the Sky-Splitting Sword from him. He fought back with his bare fists, killing a few and wounding many. But he was shot many times. Bleeding, he slipped away and hid himself in a mountain crevice where he dressed his wounds. He had a fever and lost consciousness several times, thinking he was about to die, but in the end he convalesced, and no sooner had strength returned to his limbs than he flew out of the crevice and escaped even further to the south via a mountain passage.

When word of the incident, along with the sword, was delivered to Broad-Valor, the prince of the preeminent tribe there, he said thus to his host: "Lord Tengir who lives in the north has been our sworn enemy ever since he dared to rear his head in this world. And now he has sent his monstrous son down here to destroy us. How can we not be offended and incensed at this behavior? Men, saddle my horse and bring me my armor, for I plan to take the warriors with me up to the north to give Lord Tengir a piece of my mind!" As soon as the warriors, some two thousand strong, had finished making preparations, they set off for the north with Broad-Valor at their head.

When Tengir from his tower saw the tiger-headed demon host approaching the settled lands, he rallied his sons, generals and warriors and took them to confront the enemies. Tengir fought an inconclusive duel with Broad-Valor, while Thousand-Horse, Eternal-One and Golden-Wolf took on his sons and generals, killing many of them. At that time, Tengir discovered that the son of Broad-Valor known as Never-Loses was wielding the Sky-Splitting Sword, ignorant of its true power. He retreated for a moment and returned with a brand new platinum sword and confronted Never-Loses, saying to him: "What a tacky-looking sword you have. And you think you are worthy of fighting me with it?" Never-Loses replied: "A sword is a sword, you madman." To which Tengir: "Wouldn't you rather fight me with this?" He showed him the brand new platinum sword. When Never-Loses saw it, his eyes widened in disbelief that there could ever exist such a finely-crafted sword. Tengir said: "Shall we trade blades?" And they traded. As soon as the Sky-Splitting Sword was returned to Tengir's hand, however, it began to once again shine like the sun and exude spirit energy. He engaged Never-Loses in a duel and quickly slew him. In the meanwhile the rest of his warriors had nearly destroyed the demon host. Broad-Valor their prince was forced to submit.

Tengir naturally spared the demons' lives, but he made their country into a tributary, demanding a yearly payment of one thousand silver pieces and one hundred gold pieces. Since over a hundred lesser clans paid loyalty to them, he figured this not to be exorbitant.