Lord Seventh made a noise of agreement, but still his gaze did not shift from the chopstick. The Great Shaman had to feed him spoonful by spoonful; this Great Shaman of Nanjiang looked frosty, and was not a man of many words, but he seemed to have infinite patience for Lord Seventh.

Lord Seventh was used to it, and ate each spoonful he was fed. The Great Shaman couldn’t help himself from asking, “What are you doing?”

Lord Seventh said, “I want to stand this chopstick on its end.”

The Great Shaman frowned, not understanding what he meant by that. He plucked the unfortunate chopstick from his hand, and jabbed it lightly at the table. As though the table surface was made of tofu, the Shaman punctured a hole into it, and the chopstick was planted steadfast in it.

Lord Seventh glared at him. “This method of yours is one of brute force, you can’t do it like this.”

The Great Shaman smiled indulgently, but did not say anything else, and merely watched him tinker around without comment as he fed him.

Lord Seventh muttered to himself, "One chopstick can't stand on its own. I need to find another chopstick."

As he spoke, he picked up the other chopstick. After a very long while, he had indeed precariously balanced the two chopsticks on their heads, propping each other up on the table. Carefully, Lord Seventh pulled his hands away, and started to speak extremely softly, as though he was afraid that a large breath would topple the chopsticks he had gone through so much trouble to erect.

The Shaman heard him say, "Achieving equilibrium--is really too difficult."

The Great Shaman was slightly confused, and asked, "What?"

Cheerily, Lord Seventh said, "If you desire a situation to result in something long-lasting and stable, it must be in equilibrium. Harmony is one sort of equilibrium, and division is another sort of equilibrium. The way to equilibrium is none other than…"

The Great Shaman pinched his nose bridge and interrupted him. "Beiyuan, stop rambling about irrelevant things.”