The crisp sound seemed to ring in the bottom of his heart.
Wu Yu's footsteps suddenly stopped.
The sound in his ears slowly dissipated, and the lingering sound was endless. He almost thought it was his own hallucination. He held his breath and slowly turned his head. His breathing suddenly became heavy, and then he saw a figure shrouded in light appearing on the ancient altar that had been passed down from generation to generation by the people of the Shang Dynasty.
He saw the ancient bronze wine cup and the ancient tripod with red bird patterns in his hands. The surrounding area was burning with bronze-colored flames, emitting an ancient aura like that of gods. At least the burning light was like that of ghosts and gods. Perhaps this change was too much beyond his expectations. Wu Yu was a little absent-minded for a while. The disbelief at the moment was even more than ecstasy. After several breaths, he murmured:
"Are you the 'Emperor'?"
Wei Yuan barely understood what he said and shook his head. He did not hide this point and explained calmly:
"I am not the emperor you believe in."
"I am just a, well, human who likes to collect antiques and stories. To you, I am just a passerby. I contacted you by chance, that's all..."
Not the emperor?
Wu Yu's hope in his heart sank uncontrollably. He looked at the shining figure, the power that was similar to the aura of ghosts and gods in the records, and the bronze sacrificial vessels described in the classics passed down from generation to generation, but he was suspicious.
Wei Yuan did not go too deep into the question of identity.
He did not say that he was from Shenzhou. He had not yet confirmed the attitude of these Shang Dynasty survivors towards the people in Shenzhou. Some things must be kept secret. He paused and smiled in the language he knew: "I just heard you talk about a topic that I am very interested in."
"Are you going to restart the blood sacrifice?"
Wei Yuan is now very fortunate that the language of the late Shang Dynasty is not much different from that of the late Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors where he lived. He can still communicate with Wu Yu. Otherwise, no one in this era would be able to communicate with these Shang Dynasty survivors.
Of course, Nujiao, who has lived for who knows how many years, is definitely not among them.
Blood sacrifice, very interested.
Wu Yu's heart sank when he heard this. His brain was a little confused. After a long time, he said, "Yes... Emperor, no, are you really only interested in blood sacrifice?" He thought of questioning the emperor, but his friend's words lingered in his mind. Wu Yu finally lowered his head and said with difficulty, "Then, we will sacrifice you with blood and beg for your response."
No, I want to stop this mess. Wei Yuan looked calm and peaceful, saying, "No, I am not interested in blood sacrifice. I want to stop you and... solve your problems." His voice paused, and he asked a question that he had always wondered about: "What did Emperor Xin do back then?"
"What troubles have you encountered again?"
Emperor Xin...
Call him by his name?
Wu Yu slowly exhaled, sorted out his stiff thoughts, and after a long time, he answered:
"That was a long time ago."
"At that time, the Shang Dynasty was already trapped internally and externally. Ji Fa's army was approaching Chaoge City. There were ghosts and gods in their army. The king decided to preserve the flame of Shang, so he opened the forbidden underground palace and used the method created by King Yu to try to send the real Chaoge City out of the human world to wait for the next generation to come back."
"But the king did not leave with them. He chose to stay with General E Lai and resisted Ji Fa's army. The ancestors waited for nine days and nine nights, but the king did not return, so we know that the king He and the general have fulfilled their duties and died in battle, so we have to keep Chaoge City away from the human world and avoid the war. "
"We must inherit the destiny of our ancestors, cultivate our character, and return to the human world one day."
"At the beginning, we made preparations for decades, and even saved some money. It is possible that the things stored can support a hundred years, but a hundred years have passed, and we have not found a way to return to the human world. At this time, we realized that we have encountered a bigger problem."
Wu Yu's tone was painful, and Wei Yuan guessed what they had encountered in the past from their current situation, and sighed in his heart.
As expected, Wu Yu managed to calm down and whispered:
"We lost our way and direction."
"Most importantly, food and water were no longer enough, so we had to look outside. Finally, with the efforts of the ghosts and gods, we managed to make Chaoge City border with another 'land' after struggling for two hundred years, and found land and water sources to survive."
"But soon, the fierce beasts from the Classic of Mountains and Seas appeared."
"It was then that we realized that we had arrived at the place where King Yu had exiled the world of mountains and seas. That was a wild era, and there were even monsters as powerful as ghosts and gods. We They are the descendants of those who exiled them, and they are full of hatred for us. "
"We fought and built barriers, and finally managed to gain a foothold."
A sad and powerless look appeared on Wu Yu's face, and he said:
"But at that time, another contradiction became more and more prominent. Sacrifice requires blood sacrifice. The original tradition was to use slaves and defeated prisoners of war to please the gods and ghosts, but the king sent us out, and all that was left were the seeds of Shang. How could we use our compatriots for blood sacrifice?"
"At that time, everyone was divided into two tribes. One part supported the continuation of blood sacrifices to reproduce, and the other part decided to make a big The two families supported each other and abolished the barbaric way of blood sacrifice. After a long struggle, the two sides finally abolished the blood sacrifice completely two thousand years ago. "
"The ancestors of successive generations continuously improved the rituals of sacrifice, and finally they were able to use the blood sacrifices of the killed mountain and sea beasts to please the ghosts and gods and get blessings. We were finally able to live here, but later, we began to find that something was wrong. The effect of the blessings from the ghosts and gods was getting weaker and weaker. "
"Even if you keep practicing, the results of your practice cannot be compared with the original effects. These changes cannot be seen in one year or ten years, but in the past one thousand or two thousand years, they have become more and more clear, especially In the past hundred years, for some reason, those mountain and sea beasts have become more and more violent, while we have become weaker and weaker. "
"Not to mention competing with our ancient ancestors, we are now no match for people three generations ago. Before, we could rely on bronze mechanical beasts to compete with mountain and sea beasts, but now the beasts are getting stronger and stronger, and our harvest is getting less and less, and the quality is getting worse and worse. If the sacrifices are not enough, we can't please the ghosts and gods, which leads to the next generation's qualifications getting worse and worse. "
"If this goes on for generations, we merchants may die out in less than a hundred years."
Wu Yu's face was full of pain and unwillingness, and Wei Yuan finally knew why they chose blood sacrifice.
This is the last attempt that has been forced into a desperate situation.
Wei Yuan frowned slightly and analyzed the reason for this situation. He has gone through several generations, whether it is the way of the pre-Qin Dynasty or the original Taoism, he has dabbled in it and understood it. In addition, the Tianshi Mansion is now open to many classics, so he can now be said to be absolutely profound in terms of cognitive level.
Of course, the most important reason may be that too many things have been done to cut down mountains and destroy temples.
The one who knows you best must be your mortal enemy.
The same is true in reverse.
Those evil gods and lewd worshippers all imitated the ghost and god worship of the Shang Dynasty.
Through cruel methods such as live sacrifice and blood sacrifice, they please the ghosts and gods, and then transfer part of the power of the sacrifice to the host as a reward, while the other part is swallowed by the ghosts and gods as the cornerstone of their existence.
Those rewards may be blood and qi, or cultivation.
This may also be one of the reasons why prisoners of war are used as sacrifices.
Those are the elites on the battlefield. Their blood and qi and strength must have reached a certain level. After the sacrifice, part of the blood and qi is transferred to the host, which can greatly help the latter to increase his cultivation. If we analyze it with this logic, then the decline of the Yin and Shang immigrants is very clear.
They cut off the blood sacrifice, which is equivalent to making the ghosts and gods lose the cornerstone of their existence.
Without sacrifices for a long time, even the most powerful ghosts and gods will gradually weaken and one day disappear between heaven and earth.
Wei Yuan could even tell that the ghosts and gods of the Shang Dynasty must have dispersed.
Wu Yu just said that after the ancestors' constant exploration, they could use the mountain and sea beasts to complete the blood sacrifice. According to the existing logic, this is probably a ritual that does not require the presidency of ghosts and gods, but simply uses qi and blood to strengthen the human body's functions and qualifications. However, without the guidance of ghosts and gods, the conversion efficiency of this ritual will inevitably be very low.
It was just because the human race still had strong people at that time who could kill powerful beasts, and the strength of those beasts made up for this. However, as generations continued, each generation was weaker than the previous generation, and it was difficult to kill powerful beasts. Failure to use powerful beasts for purification will cause the next generation to be weaker, forming a vicious cycle.
Until now, the beasts have rioted, completely forcing them into a desperate situation.
Wei Yuan pondered for a moment, and suddenly thought of a possibility-
The riot of mountain and sea beasts also happened in a hundred years.
The revival of spiritual energy also happened in a hundred years.
Is there any connection between these two things?
Wu Yu could hardly contain the grief and helplessness in his heart, his face was in pain, and he said: "Whether you are an emperor or not, please help us. Once the blood sacrifice begins, will we fall back to the era where we must kill each other to survive?"
Wei Yuan thought silently. Since the lack of Yin and Shang rituals is due to the lack of the existence of the host ceremony.
Then we just need to find a way to replace the role of ghosts and gods.
He thought for a while and asked: "Are there still mountains and rivers in Chaoge City that have been sacrificed from generation to generation?"
There is a record of "making sacrifices to the God, offering sacrifices to the six clans, looking at the mountains and rivers, and all the gods" in the Shang Dynasty.
So, under normal circumstances, their sacrifices cannot be without mountains, but the current situation is special after all, so Wei Yuan still asked a question.
Wu Yu hurriedly said, "Yes, there are ancestral veins that have been worshipped since the Shang Tang era."
At this moment, Sakurajima's divinity was about to be completely burned out. After Wei Yuan got Wu Yu's answer, he breathed a sigh of relief and stopped hesitating. He pointed his finger at the bronze plate, concentrated his mind slightly, and wrote out the decree he created in one go. Then he opened his palm slightly, the seal emerged, and slowly stamped it.
The decree was shining.
Then, this extremely luxurious decree that directly consumed the divinity passed through the bronze plate.
It emerged directly on the altar.
Wei Yuan felt the great consumption of the power in the seal, and the Sakurajima divinity was consumed even faster, and he himself felt a kind of fatigue. Wu Yu saw a decree that he had never seen before on the altar, with a breath as heavy as a mountain and as distant as the wind, and then slowly fell on his palm.
His breathing almost stagnated, and he held the decree carefully. The picture on the altar slowly began to disappear. Wu Yu heard the voice saying:
"In the sacrifice before the blood sacrifice, put this decree between the thrones of the upper and lower emperors, and then..."
The voice paused slightly and said calmly:
"Then, recite my name."
"Yuan."