These four words have the power of a drop of water falling into a hot oil pan.
Unlike the latter, where scalding oil splattered everywhere, the former was so quiet you could hear a pin drop! This silence lasted only a very short time before a hot-tempered person stepped forward: "What does the Imperial Advisor mean by this? Is he mocking our rabble?"
His words carried a hint of threat.
He knew this imperial advisor was unorthodox and incredibly powerful, but that didn't mean the other party could openly mock them and trample on their dignity. If they remained silent today and endured the humiliation of being called a "rabble," how could they possibly have the face to stand up to anyone?
The man known as the Imperial Advisor was not afraid but laughed instead.
"You don't even understand what 'rabble' means? Do I need to explain it to you personally?" The man had silver hair and a voice as old as an eighty-year-old man, but he had an extremely young face, judging from his appearance alone, he was no more than twenty-five or twenty-six.
These words further fueled the other party's anger.
"You old scoundrel, you've gone too far!"
He was so angry that his voice trembled.
Driven by rage, he drew his sword with a swift motion, pointing the blade directly at the Imperial Preceptor. His face ashen, he roared, "No matter who you are, only blood can wash away this humiliation. Do you dare?"
After speaking, he looked around and glanced at Wu Xian.
Seeing that the lord to whom he and his family had served loyally for many years was merely observing without any intention of stopping or comforting them, his heart sank instantly, as if he had fallen into an ice cellar, feeling utterly cold.
He suddenly felt empathy for Zhao Feng and Qin Li from back then.
They must have felt just as heartbroken that day.
Suppressing his anger, he asked again, "Dare you?"
Wu Xian then abruptly ended the farce, stepping forward to knock his sword away, but only warning himself, without uttering a harsh word to the Grand Preceptor. At that moment, it seemed as if a string in his mind snapped. Forgetting that Wu Xian was the king, he smashed the sword sheath in front of him.
He simply turned and left.
The others looked at each other in bewilderment and then took their leave one after another.
Their dissatisfaction with Wu Xian had reached its peak, but they couldn't openly break ties, as they were still hoping Wu Xian would send troops to retake Tianhai and save their precarious ancestral graves. Having someone speak out on their behalf was a way of achieving their goal.
As for such a big conflict, why not just surrender Kangguo?
"I never expected Wu Zhaode to be so disheartening..."
"It would be better to demote Shen Youli!"
Zhao Feng couldn't possibly have the nerve to disturb their ancestral graves.
Someone suddenly said this, but no one agreed.
"Submit to Chen Youli? How? Not to mention that Zhao Feng and Qin Li have a grudge against us, would they believe us? Even if they forgive us, would we abandon our relatives and clansmen in the capital? With Wu Zhaode's current magnanimity, if we submit, he would dare to slaughter us as a warning to others!" This is also a major reason to restrain them. Who doesn't have a large family behind them?
If they were all like the bachelors under Shen Youli's command, a bunch of them who couldn't even afford a pair of parents, they could easily leave without a second thought. But they weren't like that. Not only were they not alone, but as the pillars of their families, they also had to consider the situation of their loved ones.
Didn't Qin Li and Zhao Feng endure this again and again because of the elderly, weak, women and children? They only dared to speak up after everyone was settled.
A few words were enough to dispel their idea.
Before the group could reach a decision, devastating news arrived.
There was a constant commotion outside the tent, with people vaguely saying that someone had committed suicide out of fear of punishment.
What's all that noise outside?
A trusted aide rushed forward: "Master, something terrible has happened."
The man who had just clashed with the Imperial Advisor was dead. The servants who went in to bring water discovered blood everywhere. Hearing this, several people rushed over. When they arrived, many of their colleagues had also come, and they could see the fear and anger in each other's eyes.
What constitutes suicide out of fear of punishment?
How could it be suicide out of fear of punishment?
Who commits suicide out of guilt? The sword pierces the neck and pushes it to the guard. The expression on the frozen corpse also suggests it wasn't suicide, but murder! So obvious, yet the dismissive phrase "committed suicide out of guilt" is used to conclude the matter? I refuse to accept this!
Wu Xianyi suppressed their dissatisfaction.
The Imperial Advisor simply scoffed at this.
"How utterly boring. These people today have none of the courage or spirit we had back then. To endure such a humiliation is to show they are destined for mediocrity." Inside the tent, the Grand Preceptor sat alone before the chessboard. He raised his finger, and a wisp of white mist condensed at his fingertip, instantly solidifying into a crystal-clear "chess piece" as white as jade. With a crisp snap, it fell to the ground.
The seat opposite the Imperial Advisor was empty.
What followed was an extremely bizarre scene.
Suddenly, a cloud of black mist appeared in the air opposite, transforming into a black piece and falling to the ground. With a decisive move, the black piece on the chessboard transformed into a black dragon, relentlessly attacking the white pieces. The Grand Master remained unperturbed, placing another piece. The seemingly defeated white pieces, as if injected with a shot of adrenaline, erupted in spirit, launching a fierce counterattack against the overwhelming black army. The two dragons, black and white, clashed endlessly.
As each piece was placed, the two sides exchanged moves.
Until one mistake by the black pieces, they suddenly found themselves in a dead end.
The Imperial Advisor flicked his sleeve, and the black and white pieces on the chessboard vanished as the energy of heaven and earth: "...If it were back then, the likes of Wu Zhaode would have been nothing but weeds and rubble. It's just a pity that the Emperor suffered a cruel fate and died tragically, and from then on, these lowly cuckoos have taken over the human world."
He stood there for a while to calm himself down.
He strode out of the tent.
The tent was empty.
Wu Xian challenged Shen Tang to a battle at an ancient battlefield near Weixia.
"The ancient battlefield of Weixia?"
Shen Tang vaguely felt that the name sounded familiar.
A quick search of my memory brought back a recollection of this small place I had read about in a fragment of a travelogue. It was said to be a place of dense vegetation and rugged terrain, where the author of the travelogue had unexpectedly passed through. On that day, after the rain had cleared, a spectacular sight of seven rainbows appeared in the mountains.
Feeling deeply puzzled, the author climbed mountains and waded through rivers.
Upon returning, he wrote down this volume of his observations.
but--
"Wasn't it said that the terrain around Weixia was rugged?" She had assumed Wu Xian was lying in ambush when she saw the challenge post, but upon approaching with her troops, scouts reported back that the area around Weixia was a vast expanse of flat land. She exclaimed in anguish, "That travelogue was a lie!"
Gu Chi asked her, "When was the travelogue written?"
Shen Tang had no idea.
She had stumbled upon that travelogue by chance.
Gu Chi said, "The gorge is now called an ancient battlefield, so it's normal for the terrain to have changed. Before the battle, the terrain was indeed rugged."
The travelogue was probably written before the war.
Shen Tang: "..."
She forgot that wars in this era could turn mountains and hills into vast plains, and maps had to be updated every few years. What place could remain unchanged? The area of Weixia was no exception.
I had wronged the travelogue author.
The area of Weixia nominally belongs to the Gao Kingdom, but it has a sparse population and is largely ignored by the Gao Kingdom. This is because the land there is severely infertile, making it extremely difficult for crops to grow, resulting in yields that are more than half lower than in other places. The taxes in the Gao Kingdom are not light; a family's hard work for a year is not enough to cover the taxes, let alone support them. Unable to survive in Weixia, most of the able-bodied men have migrated elsewhere.
Only a few thousand elderly and weak people remained.
Shen Tang quickly flipped through the investigation intelligence.
"That's not right. The land in Weixia is so barren, so why does the travelogue describe it as having lush vegetation?" In this era of fragmented power, frequent wars, and the loss of many records, even travelogues written casually by predecessors still have some reference value.
"It's said to be because of that great battle."
The great battle that turned the gorge into an ancient battlefield.
The timeline can be traced back to the Wu Kingdom period more than a hundred years ago.
The two sides mobilized a total of 150,000 troops in that great battle, engaging in several pursuits and ambushes before finally deciding the outcome near Weixia. The two sides fought fiercely, and every piece of land in Weixia was plowed a hundred and eighty times, while the mountains and hills were leveled.
Shen Tang: "That doesn't mean the land is so barren."
After most battles were fought, the soil's fertility not only didn't decrease but actually increased, becoming exceptionally rich, and with good fortune, there could even be several years of bumper harvests. This was simply because so many people died, and their bodies, buried on the spot, nourished the earth.
"My lord, please don't rush, I haven't finished yet."
The battle was so massive that it unearthed a mass grave dating back to an unknown era. According to local elders, when the mass grave was discovered, countless eerie black mists surged from the ground, shooting straight into the sky. Within the mists, countless wronged souls could be heard screaming in agony, sending chills down one's spine. Even more bizarrely, the moon that day was so crimson it seemed to drip blood.
These things were passed down orally.
Although there are distortions and exaggerations, they still offer a glimpse into the chaos of that time.
The elders all say that the battle unleashed vengeful spirits, disturbing their peace in the afterlife. The victors, instead of offering sacrifices to appease them, arrogantly threw the corpses into a mass grave, then brought soil to refill it, acting as if nothing had happened. The vengeful spirits, dissatisfied with this, retaliated, causing the power to collapse at its peak and leaving the land of Weixia barren and impoverished ever since…
A blood moon hung in the sky, and black mist filled the air.
The gorge is no longer suitable for ordinary people to live in.
Oh, I forgot to mention.
That short-lived power was called the Wu Kingdom.
Shen Tang was interested in these supernatural and ghostly contents.
"Is the black mist the resentment of a vengeful ghost?"
"This place is called Weixia."
The first sentence was spoken by Shen Tang, and the second sentence came from the top of the tent. Gongxi Chou, who was standing on the top of the tent, had come down at some point.
"What's wrong?"
Gong Xichou said, "It sounds somewhat familiar."
Shen Tang asked, "From which travelogue did you hear this?"
She was joking, but Gong Xichou shook his head seriously: "No, the clan seems to have a record of this place, but I can't remember it right now. Brother, do you remember?"
Ji Moqiu, who had been quiet all along, did not disappoint him.
“I remember that an ancestor once went on a journey and discovered the Corpse Vine in a deep mountain forest. The Corpse Vine had extensive roots and took root in a mass grave with many white bones. The ancestor took the Corpse Vine and filled the grave.”
That place is called Weixia.
Upon hearing Ji Moqiu's words, Gongxi Chou immediately recalled everything.
"Yes, this is the place."
It is speculated that the mass grave dates back to the same period as the Garden of Eden, and is a relic of the previous human civilization.
Shen Tang fell silent, then Shen Tang exploded.
Her focus is always different from others.
Shen Tang gritted her teeth: "Gong Xi Chou, didn't you say you didn't know the location of that mass grave? The notes left by your ancestors didn't record the detailed address either. I sent people to look for it and even searched for tomb raiders, but I haven't made any progress at all!"
Now he says he's familiar with the place name Weixia?
Gong Xichou felt guilty after being scolded by Shen Tang.
He said sheepishly, "Mama, you can't blame me for this. The notes left by our ancestors didn't mention it, but the old priest seemed to have... mentioned it briefly when he told me the story. I just forgot, it's not like I deliberately hid it, so please don't be angry."
His smile was stiff, but inside he was about to cry.
Didn't you see the look in your older brother's eyes that suggested he was willing to sacrifice his own family for the greater good?
Shen Tang wasn't really angry.
This isn't really a major issue, but Gong Xi Chou's terrible memory has really gotten her into trouble several times. If she doesn't get angry and express her opinion, wouldn't she be too easy to talk to? If this mass grave was formed in that era, wouldn't the so-called black mist be...
Radiation?
Radiation carrying a zombie virus?
Images of countless zombies running rampant flashed through her mind: "Should we ask Wu Zhaode to let us fight somewhere else? What if we accidentally unearth a mass grave while we're fighting?"
Although humans of this era have evolved immunity, the black fog can still pollute the land, reducing crop yields and having a significant impact. Why did Wu Zhaode choose this battlefield? The last person who won here met a bad end.
Gu Chi: "..."
I'll give you a look; you'll understand.
Since they've already come all this way, if they turn around and retreat now, wouldn't Wu Xian be ecstatic? Seize the opportunity when their formation is unstable and launch a surprise attack; they'll definitely take a huge bite out of them.
Shen Tang slumped down, feeling deflated.
The situation is now irreversible; there's no turning back.
If he didn't want to fight, Wu Xian wouldn't allow it either.
Ji Moqiu seemed to know her inner worries: "Your Highness need not worry, the scene you fear will not happen. Wu Zhaode set up the position here, most likely at the behest of that uncle and nephew. They are from the Wu Kingdom, and many former Wu Kingdom members are buried here."
This seemingly fair war is not fair.
The location chosen by Wu Xian would naturally be advantageous to Gao Guo.
"Brother, isn't this obviously a loss for us?"
Gong Xiqiu crossed his arms in dissatisfaction.
He sides with his relatives regardless of right or wrong, and he can't stand seeing his own people suffer.
However, Mama sided with her elder brother and did not support him, which infuriated Gong Xichou. Shen Tang explained to him, "A considerable number of former Wu Kingdom troops are buried in the gorge, but as the defeated side, Wu Kingdom has even more enemies. We also have half a step ahead."
If we can't compete on quality, can't we compete on quantity?
From this perspective, choosing this location is not a bad choice.
Maybe it can even give Wu Xian a big surprise!
It's not just the other side that can cause deaths in battle.
"Who knows, we might even be able to get our ancestors from thousands of years ago..." Shen Tang joked, then immediately thought of the young people of that era who had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high blood sugar at such a young age, and his lips twitched violently as he muttered, "Let's just forget about them, they might just cause trouble."
Even thousands of years after death, people still suffer so many calamities. Their joint burial graves are dug up and filled in again, filled in and dug up again. How can their resentment not be strong?
Perhaps that black mist really is their resentment.
This battle embodies much of the essence of Zhou ritual.
Before a fight, give each other a heads-up and agree on the time and place for the fight.
The two armies stood ready, and before the battle began, they exchanged pleasantries, each sending out their most eloquent and sarcastic subordinates.
─=≡Σ(((つω)つ
On my first day at the Lu Xun Academy, I met a lot of big shots.
The weather is a bit dry, and I had a nosebleed when I woke up this morning. I miss the air in my hometown a little.
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