21: Section 21

You were about to hug her from behind, but before you could, you were thrown away by a burst of power.

When you tried to repeat the trick, you found that the power within your body had weakened considerably.

“No.”

“You brute, weren’t twelve times enough?”

A hint of fear appeared on Daji’s beautiful face; clearly, her last experience had left a shadow.

Daji left.

It felt as if a piece was missing from your heart.

For some reason, the image of the little girl you had saved earlier reappeared in your mind.

On this day, you had another dream.

In the dream, you transformed into a Xuan Bird, soaring out of Spirit Mountain, circling Zhaoge three times, and then landing in West Qi.

You woke up.

When you woke up, you found that you had returned to the appearance of Shang King, Di Xin.

The palace maids beside you had already cleaned your body and dressed you in the black royal robes.

At this moment, a hint of discomfort settled in your heart.

You vaguely felt that true freedom was drifting away from you.

From then on, day after day, you and Daji attended court and handled state affairs, while Bi Gan still looked displeased with you.

And every time you tried to get close to Daji again, you would be mercilessly pinned to the ground.

Gradually, you found such days boring.

You missed the times hunting daily in the Qiang people tribe.

Later, you heard that Bo Yikao had not yet left, and Marquis of the West, Ji Chang, had not been released.

You remembered your father.

But this was not something you could decide, so you could only sympathize in secret.

Time quickly passed for a year.

The annual Witch Sacrifice was approaching; the Witch Sacrifice was a carnival for the merchants, and on this day, every household would slaughter human sacrifices to worship their ancestors.

However, you noticed that in the past year, not many human sacrifices had died.

Almost everyone had switched to blood sacrifices.

By using the blood of human sacrifices to worship ghosts, gods, and ancestors, as long as the bleeding was stopped in time, there would be no significant life danger.

After an inquiry, you learned that this was a policy proposed by Bi Gan, primarily because the rampant slaughter of human sacrifices over the years had led to a decreasing number of slaves and Qiang people.

Only such a method could be adopted as an alternative.

Furthermore, with no natural disasters in the past year, the merchants also felt that ancestors and ghosts and gods preferred this form of sacrifice, so they followed suit.

After all, for the common people at the bottom, a human sacrifice was worth a lot of money.

Not only could they work, but they could also be used for pleasure when needed.

On the day of the Witch Sacrifice, you and Daji stood on Lu Terrace.

Daji’s trusted shamans burned yarrow on the altar and scorched specially prepared tortoise shells for divination, praying for guidance from their ancestors.

At the same time, beside them, three hundred warriors, bare-chested and holding bone knives, performed the Heart-Gouging Nuo Dance.

They repeatedly chanted: “Hearts feed ghosts and gods, disasters leave no trace.”

The people in Chaoge City also gathered here, watching the performance with fervent eyes, wishing they could replace the performing warriors and go into battle themselves!

Just when it was halfway through, the clear, cloudless sky suddenly changed; clouds gathered from who knew where, and a heavy rain poured down.

All the scorched tortoise shells, once wet with rain, cracked, and all displayed one message.

That was: The Emperor Star is dim, the national destiny is weak, a “Seven-Orifice Exquisite Heart” is needed to sacrifice to ghosts and gods to stabilize the national destiny!

Chapter 26: Bi Gan, the people of the world want your heart, will you not give it?

When this news was heard, everyone was stunned.

No one had ever imagined such an ominous omen.

Bi Gan, seated at the head of the officials, was no longer calm at this moment.

Seven-Orifice Exquisite Heart.

What do you mean by this? Do you want to gouge out my heart?

Bi Gan panicked at this moment.

Because he saw the eyes of the ministers and nobles.

It was an extreme, pure gaze, devoid of malice, yet only wanting to sacrifice him.

In Shang Dynasty, there had always been such a tradition.

The higher one’s status, the more one could please ancestors and ghosts and gods after being sacrificed.

And he.

Son of Shang King Wen Ding, younger brother of Shang King Di Yi, uncle of Shang King Di Xin.

As a sacrifice, he would definitely be top-notch!

If there was anyone more noble than him, it would probably only be the Shang King himself.

But the Shang King himself, of course, could not be sacrificed.

Bi Gan’s mind was in turmoil.

He looked at you and Daji, who were seated on the throne, his eyes filled with anger.

In a short time, he had already guessed that you two had plotted against him!

Bi Gan did not stay long.

He left the altar with his attendants.

He knew very well.

The longer he stayed here, the more dangerous it would be.

Bi Gan dared not gamble.

If he continued to stay, even a commoner, upon receiving such a divine oracle, would dare to come with a knife to dig out his heart!

After Bi Gan left, you looked at Daji.

Daji's charming eyes were serious and earnest, as if she was thinking about what to do next to save Shang Dynasty.

But you knew clearly that all of this was because of a single sentence from you.

After a year.

Finally, such an opportunity arrived.

After the Witch Sacrifice, rumors began to circulate in Chaoge City.

It was said that Bi Gan’s refusal to use human sacrifices had angered ghosts and gods, which was why ghosts and gods had sent down a divine oracle, demanding Bi Gan’s Seven-Orifice Exquisite Heart as a sacrifice to completely quell their wrath.

The merchants took matters of life and death lightly.

But they held great reverence for ghosts and gods.

No one wanted to see ghosts and gods angered, so the number of people wanting to kill Bi Gan increased daily; even though his status was second only to the Shang King, it could not stop the people’s determination to kill him!

Upon returning, you vaguely felt some apprehension in your heart.

You always felt that doing this would lead to something bad.

Seeing Daji's normal expression, you finally couldn't help but ask.

“Is it worth it?”

Daji looked directly into your eyes.

“There is no worth or unworth, only whether I am happy.”

Then Daji told you that the treasures sent by the feudal lords were actually harboring ill intentions.

The Nine Skull Nuo Masks sent by the Eastern Yi were actually embedded with nine eyes of sea monsters; wearers would unknowingly transform into sea slaves.

At the same time, the sea monsters’ companions had been lured into the underground water veins of Chaoge City because the sea monster clan believed that entering water brought peace, and deceased sea monsters had to return to the sea; before long, the entire Chaoge City would be flooded by seawater drawn from the underground water veins.

And the jade Puppets inside the jade figurines sent by Southern Chu, their fragrance was actually refined from a type of peach blossom Gu; those afflicted by the Gu would uncontrollably fall in love with the jade Puppets, thus defecting and becoming Southern Chu’s pawns.

The wine pot of the Gui Fang tribe, if drunk, would turn one into a werewolf during the full moon, causing widespread slaughter and chaos.

The Snake Ji of Baiyue was not skilled in rain-praying witch dances, but rather an ancient witch dance that could bring disaster.

The bronze sacred tree of Ba Shu, its roots could deeply penetrate the earth veins causing destruction and destroying the agricultural Foundation of Shang Dynasty, and so on.

You broke out in a cold sweat listening to the end.

You never expected these feudal lords to harbor such sinister intentions.

They showed no regard for how many people would die.

Seeing your shocked gaze, Daji spoke.

“However, once these feudal lords saw that the Shang King had awakened, the remaining hidden schemes were no longer activated.”

“However, I am preparing to use that Nine Skull Nuo Mask.”

“Chaoge City hasn’t bathed in who knows how long; it’s time for a cleansing.”

You said nothing after hearing this, but took the opportunity to hug Daji while she was talking to herself.

For the first time in a year, you truly held Daji in your arms.

Her familiar scent made your blood boil.

In the scene, Daji half-heartedly yielded to Su Mo…

But at the ninth time, the screen went black again.

…

The next day during court, you felt refreshed, and at the same time, you noticed that Bi Gan was uncharacteristically absent from court.

Before, Bi Gan would come to the imperial court regardless of wind or rain.

Just as you were about to listen to the ministers report on what had happened recently, a terrifying roar appeared in the distance.

It was not a beast’s roar, but rather like the sound of the earth itself.

Immediately after, a gasp of alarm came from outside the hall.

“A great flood!”

This great flood lasted for a long time, gradually subsiding after seven days and seven nights.

Chaoge, as the capital of Shang Dynasty, had an extremely dense population.

Countless people and animals died during the flood.

Because the bodies were not cleaned up in time, coupled with the hot weather, a plague followed the flood, and the plague lasted for a full six months.

After this series of natural and man-made disasters, the population of Chaoge City plummeted by more than half.

Bi Gan's situation also became increasingly dire.

Now, he was confined to his home, attempting to make people forget about the matter.

But with so many disasters sweeping through, it was hard not to link them to him.

Who knows how many eyes were fixed on him.

It could be said that digging out Bi Gan’s heart now was the will of the people; not a single person would stand up against it.

Daji, seeing that the time was ripe, had you issue an edict.

The edict contained only a short passage.