I Test the Divine

Throughout history, emperors and generals have cloaked themselves in the mantle of heavenly mandate, while scriptures portray bodhisattvas and immortals raising the banners of enlightenment and moral instruction to test mortal conduct. They speak endlessly of virtue, cultivation, and the great Way—yet remain conspicuously silent about the foundation that underpins it all: violence. A transmigrator sword immortal, gazing across the river of time, declares coldly: “The tide of history is unstoppable; the Yuan shall rise, and a true dragon will appear a century later. I follow heaven's will and draw no blade—that is true compassion.” In the Qin era, another transmigrator, dazzled by the First Emperor, offers him the secret of immortality: “Qin Shi Huang is supreme! I present you with the immortal arts, so our Great Qin may endure for ten thousand generations.” In mythic lore, when Guanyin appears as the Fish-Basket Guanyin to test the people of Shaanxi and Youzhou, a transmigrator defends her: “This is the bodhisattva's skillful means, guiding beings according to their conditions.” In the Investiture of the Gods, when Yuanshi Tianzun allows Shen Gongbao to stir calamities to ensure Jiang Ziya fulfills the destined order, yet another explains: “The Heavenly Venerable acts in accord with the tribulations—this is simply the necessary outcome of the evil karma all beings have accumulated.” “Nonsense!” Xie Yankang has long been disgusted by such sanctimonious posturing. World after world, emperors claim the mandate of heaven, and gods test mortals—as if it were the natural order. They forget who writes history, who forges civilization. From Li Shimin and Yang Guang to Laozi and Yuanshi—from emperors and generals to immortals and demons—let them all taste what it means to be tested.