The Emperor Towering-Justice, Son of Tengir, enjoyed 96 years of peaceful and prosperous reign. In that time, owing to the overabundance of grain and the suppression of murder and robbery, the population of the Realm grew almost ten times and thousands of new clans were established. The army, staffed by illustrious warriors, saw only victories during that time, and all unruly elements within the borders finally submitted to the legitimate authority of the Emperor and the Scions of Tengir, or else were expelled. Since the Law practically flowed through his veins, Towering-Justice's rulings and edicts were always proper and the most wise, promoting harmony among the officials, the lords, the warriors and the common people. And since there was only piety and purity in his heart, he never neglected the sacrifices to the gods of Heaven and Earth and the ancestors from Tengir's house, just as his father had instructed him. But just as his father had warned him all those years ago, his body decayed with the years until it could no longer rightly shelter his spirit, and one hundred years to the day since first coming to the Earth, his spirit took wing. He then found a parade of deities and celestial spirits riding cloud chariots or winged horses awaiting him in the skies above the Capital. He joined them in a grand procession back to the Isles of Heaven, where Tengir and all his family welcomed him with the highest honors and feasted with him for an entire week. Shortly after setting foot on Tengir's land, Towering-Justice noticed his appearance had completely changed: no signs of aging were there in his body, and it was as if he was young again.
During his final night on the Earth, Towering-Justice saw a dream where several wise men, sitting in a purple palace in Heaven, were discussing the fates of empires, including his own. When he awoke the next day, he left behind this poem before departing:
Eye of Heaven, cast thy gaze
Upon the fruits of this my land,
And merits, towering, I raised,
Just as I raised this glowing city
When quiet rules the dales and mountains
When dragon and phoenix bathe together
In the joyous gods' fountains,
Then men, instead of wine, drink nectar.
But in the hidden shrines convene
The souls of sages past and future,
Their conversation by mist is screened
But bright, their wisdom penetrates
The final fates of worlds and ages.
Though happy I leave my worthy work,
I have misgivings: many pages
Are still to go, and who will write them?
Towering-Justice was buried at the foot of Fire-Blossom Hill, twenty miles to the east of the Capital, and over ten thousand people attended the funeral. At that time, the True-Pillar Chancellor, who, now in his sixties, had known Towering-Justice his entire life, declaimed this verse:
Beneath his august stairs I served
For sixty dew-drop years I thought
Were ladled from the ocean;
Though Heaven-spawned, this fickle world
Could spare him but a puddle
Another lord had this to add:
Though Heaven-spawned, his dragon-soul
Could stand this worldly dross no more,
Yet with his dragon-hands
He set a Pine whose years will far
Outnumber desert sands
After he passed away, Crown Prince Towering-Soul ascended to the throne and became the second Emperor, and three years of mourning were declared. So beloved was their late sovereign that all the people, whether the highest lords or the lowest peasants or merchants, wept uncontrollably in the streets, for they knew that an era this perfect may never come again. However wretched they felt that that era had come to an end, they counted themselves lucky to have lived through it and shared in the public weal, and in these dark times that inspired them to do the great Emperor justice by diligently seeing to the maintenance of his Realm into the future. Thus they applied themselves to their work even more than before, and the prosperity of the Realm did not diminish even slightly.
To return to the Isles of Heaven, after he had been welcomed back, Towering-Justice was summoned before the throne of Tengir, who had this to say: "My son, you executed the mission I gave you perfectly, and thanks to your labors harmony prevails in the universe. You have planted a new Realm on the Earth, but your home remains forevermore here in the Isles of Heaven. But in that new Realm you have planted your seed, and in the generations that follow it shall grow into a great house that shall rule the Earth. The spirits of these people--our descendants--will need a palace to come home to when they die, which is why I recently caused a new island to rise out of the light sea, just to the south of this one, and with more than enough amenities and resources to provide for your every need. You are to go there and set up your household. There you will be under my protection. I also built a red timber bridge connecting this island to that one, so you can go there on foot." And Towering-Justice gave his assent, and departed for the new island. When he arrived, he found it to be spacious and decorated with a pleasant assortment of wild grasses and flowers. In the middle of the island he saw waiting for him the women he had known in life who preceded him in death, including the Empress and First Consort, along with two of his children who had died young. This reunion brought tears to his eyes. He immediately constructed the palace, creating grand halls and corridors, setting up courtyards with tall, marble walls and interspersing gardens, walkways, pergolas, and so on, and he created splendid apartments for him and his family. Tengir sent over celestial silks and divine artifacts of gold, silver and jade which he used to beautify the palace. Every day he was surrounded by resplendent finery he had all but forgotten on the Earth.