In those days, between heaven and earth, four seas surrounded the Central Land. Named for the four cardinal directions, they were called the East Sea, West Sea, South Sea, and North Sea.
Of these four seas, the East Sea lay directly east of the Central Land and was by far the most extensive. Its waves stretched for hundreds of millions of miles, its vistas assumed ten thousand forms, and the strange fish and exotic peoples beneath its waters were as numerous as hairs on an ox, beyond all counting. The East Sea Aquatic Tribe was ruled by the East Sea Dragon Deity, Ao Guang, whose might awed all quarters; his realm was known as the ancestor of the four seas. South and southwest of the East Sea lay the South Sea, traditionally the domain of the South Sea Dragon Deity, Chi Gang, though it was now effectively governed by his Third Crown Prince, Water Marquis Meng Zhang.
The West Sea lay west of the South Sea. Three thousand miles beyond the Divine Prison Archipelago, at the southwesternmost end of the South Sea, began the territory ruled by the West Sea Dragon King, Bi Chaomin. There, too, misty waters stretched boundlessly, with islands large and small scattered like stars across the sky and pieces across a chessboard. Ocean and islands alike enjoyed a hot climate, nurturing tens of thousands of rare plants, birds, and fish in abundant variety. Bi Chaomin, lord of the West Sea, was mild-tempered and sought no quarrel with the world. Two thousand years earlier, his domain had still extended to a point a thousand miles east of the South Sea's Divine Prison Archipelago. Yet after repeated concessions over those two millennia, he had finally relinquished what was now the Divine Prison Archipelago and another three thousand miles