Journey to the West: From the Primordial Era

Chapter 165 Emperor Xin Wants to Abolish Human Sacrifice

boom!

After the court session, Emperor Xin's face turned ashen. He waved his sleeves and swept the wine jar on the wooden table in front of him to the ground. The palace maids serving around him saw his angry face and did not dare to look up.

"Your Majesty, Doctor Fei Zhong requests to see you!"

The guards were reporting outside.

"Let him go!"

Emperor Xin shouted impatiently! But after he said that, he suppressed his anger and said, "Forget it, let him roll in!"

Soon, Fei Zhong came into the hall respectfully.

"What? Are you here to advise me too?" Emperor Xin's gaze fell on Fei Zhong, his eyes somewhat cold.

Fei Zhong knew that Emperor Xin's anger was not directed at him, so he was not too worried.

He said respectfully: "Your Majesty has misunderstood. Whether it is to recover the territories of the princes, strengthen the roots and cultivate the roots, or abolish human sacrifice, they are all excellent strategies! How could I oppose it?"

"Oh? The whole court is against me, saying that I am too impulsive, but you say these are all excellent strategies. Aren't you just flattering me?"

Emperor Xin looked cold and said, "Tell me what is so brilliant about my plan? If you can't, I will regard you as deliberately flattering me and punish you for deceiving the emperor!"

When Fei Zhong heard this, he felt a chill in his heart.

He knew Emperor Xin's character. Although he was both civil and military, wise and brave, he was too young and a little impulsive. If he really couldn't say it, the other party would really put him in jail.

This is the ruler!

"Your Majesty, weakening the princes and consolidating the roots will allow the mainland of Dashan to continue to expand. The mainland is the foundation of Dashan. The expansion of the mainland means the growth and expansion of Dashan!"

"In this way, the power of the Shang Dynasty will continue to rise, while the power of the princes in all directions will continue to weaken, and the national destiny will surely last for a long time!"

"By abolishing human sacrifice, we can win over the hearts of tens of millions of slaves and prisoners of war around Chaoge. Sacrificing living people to the gods is too cruel. Abolishing it can also show your majesty's benevolence to the outside world!"

"Whether it is weakening the princes or abolishing human sacrifice, both are excellent strategies that will benefit the Shang Dynasty. It's a pity that the Prime Minister and the Vice Prime Minister are too stubborn and unwilling to change..."

At the end of his speech, Fei Zhong shook his head, as if he really felt sorry for Emperor Xin.

"Ugh!"

After hearing Fei Zhong's words, Emperor Xin's originally gloomy face suddenly relaxed a little and he let out a long sigh.

He said bitterly: "My dear, you still understand my feelings!"

"The Prime Minister is old after all! He only knows how to govern the world according to past experience. You must know that the world is changing, and people are changing too. If you can't follow the will of heaven and people and reform the bad policies, aren't you just clinging to the old ways and waiting to die?"

Fei Zhong nodded repeatedly.

"Your Majesty, what you said makes sense. The Prime Minister is too old and has long wanted to retire and return home. It is understandable that he does not want to do such troublesome things that offend people!"

"However, if Your Majesty wants to abolish human sacrifice, it is best to think long and hard! After all, changing the sacrificial method can easily cause dissatisfaction among the gods!"

After Fei Zhong's flattery, Emperor Xin's anger subsided a lot.

But after hearing the other party's last sentence, Emperor Xin's eyes suddenly turned cold, and he shouted: "I am the Human Emperor. The Emperor of Heaven controls the heavens, and I rule the human world. What kind of god can be as noble as the Human Emperor?"

"This……"

Fei Zhong was speechless after hearing this. What Emperor Xin said was hard to refute.

Indeed, after the rise of the human race, the Human Emperor became the leader of all spirits in the world. In terms of status, his status was equal to that of the Emperor of Heaven who was in charge of the Heavenly Court. All other gods were ranked below the Human Emperor.

However, when humans were struggling to survive in ancient times, they received a lot of help from innate gods. In order to thank these innate gods, humans built temples and used the blood of their enemies to sacrifice to the gods, asking the gods to bless them.

Even the Emperor of Man had to bring his ministers to worship during the grand sacrifice.

This is an expression of gratitude to the ancient gods and has nothing to do with status.

If Emperor Xin did not want to offer sacrifices, the gods would not be able to do anything to the Emperor. At most, they would no longer protect the human race.

In fact, Fei Zhong was also muttering in his heart that the slaves used for offering sacrifices to the gods were basically the enemies and prisoners of war defeated by the Shang Dynasty. Using them to offer sacrifices to the gods was just a waste of resources. There was no need to care about the life and death of these slaves.

To offend the gods because of these slaves is simply to lose the greater for the less.

Of course, Fei Zhong did not dare to reveal his true thoughts in front of Emperor Xin.

After Emperor Xin shouted angrily, he vented the anger in his heart and became calmer.

"Tell me, is there any way to get the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister to support my opinion?"

Emperor Xin was silent for a moment and then spoke.

He had only been on the throne for a few years and did not have the prestige to make decisions. If he wanted to do anything, he had to rely on ministers like Shang Rong and Bigan. If his ministers rose up in opposition, he would have no way to deal with it.

Fei Zhong showed a wry smile.

Prime Minister Shang Rong and Ya Bi Gan had much higher prestige in the court, and both of them had relatively straightforward personalities. Once they made up their minds, it would be difficult for them to change their minds.

Although he was appointed as a doctor, he still had no say in front of the two prime ministers.

Even Emperor Xin, the emperor of mankind, was helpless in the face of the opposition voices in the court. What good solutions could he, a low-ranking official with no status and power, have?

However, Emperor Xin was staring at him, so Fei Zhong could only rack his brains and think quickly.

"I can only suggest that Your Majesty should not be too hasty. Your Majesty's several strategies will require a certain amount of time for the ministers to adapt. For example, the strategy of weakening the princes and consolidating the homeland, didn't the Prime Minister agree?"

Fei Zhong kept racking his brains and trying to piece together some words to comfort Emperor Xin.

"If Your Majesty wants to abolish human sacrifice, or has other plans, you can wait for a while. The Prime Minister will retire soon. Once the Prime Minister is gone, only the Deputy Prime Minister will be left. As long as Your Majesty convinces the Deputy Prime Minister, you can take control of the power and implement reforms!"

Generally speaking, Fei Zhong only dared to say some bad things about Prime Minister Shang Rong and others in front of Emperor Xin at that time, but he did not have the courage to confront Shang Rong and Bi Gan head-on.

"Even you don't have any good solution..."

Emperor Xin shook his head slightly, feeling somewhat disappointed. After Fei Zhong joined him, he often had some unique insights, and he always hit the spot.

As time went by, Emperor Xin often sought Fei Zhong's advice when he encountered any difficulties, and Fei Zhong did not disappoint him.

But this time, Fei Zhong was powerless.

Emperor Xin sighed inwardly. With his wisdom, he knew that Fei Zhong could not come up with any good ideas. His inquiry just now was just a glimmer of hope.

"Forget it! I'll follow your advice and wait for a while until the Prime Minister retires and returns home, then I'll consider the reform plan!"

If Master Wen was in Chaoge, Emperor Xin would have the confidence to ignore the opposition of all the civil and military officials in the court and implement his own plan.

But now, his foundation is still a little weak, so he can only endure.

......

When Emperor Xin received the memorial, Bigan also got the news. His face changed instantly. He hurriedly prepared a carriage and rushed to the ancestral temple to meet the high priest.

However, as soon as he entered the ancestral temple, he saw the priests and officials in the temple were in a hurry.

He casually stopped a priest to ask the reason. The other party didn't know what happened in the ancestral temple. He only knew that the chief priest had summoned all the priests in the ancestral temple and killed a thousand-year-old turtle for divination. He looked a little unhappy. Now he was preparing to use the luck of the ancestral temple to conduct a second divination.

"Could it be that what the high priest said is true? Is there really an alarm in the ancestral temple?"

Bigan's mind turned, and when he thought of this, a bitter smile appeared on his face. If his guess was true, then the high priest's report was really a coincidence.

Bigan was the uncle of the Emperor of Man and also the representative of the royal family of the Shang Dynasty, so no one stopped him.

He soon reached the core hall of the ancestral temple.

At this time, a small lake was opened in front of the main hall, in which turtles swam and goldfish darted. A dozen priests were grabbing a thousand-year-old turtle and dragging it up.

The divination method of the human race follows the innate eight trigrams created by the ancient emperor Fuxi, using the calcined tortoise shell and the eight trigrams to deduce the destiny of heaven. It is quite effective.

"This is to prepare for divination again! It seems that the ancestral temple has really changed!"

Bigan stood not far away, watching the priests lift up the spirit turtle, then slaughter it with ease, placing the tortoise's shell among the yarrow and continuously calcining it with the divine fire.

Crackling!

After about an hour, some elderly high priests came forward and performed a sacrificial dance in front of the hall. A black bird appeared faintly in the void above the hall.

The black bird screamed towards the sky, then lowered its head and exhaled towards the high priest. After exhaling, the black bird seemed to have consumed a lot of vitality, and it disappeared without a trace.

The high priest was shocked, muttering something, his eyes turned white, as if he had merged with the heaven and earth. He looked at the tortoise armor after calcination and began to deduce using the Eight Diagrams.

When the high priest was deducing, he saw something and his face became uglier and uglier. Finally, his face suddenly turned pale and he spat out a mouthful of blood, which sprinkled on the tortoise shell.

“Blood is rising to the sky, immortals and gods are descending from the sky… The aura of disaster is overwhelming… The great disaster, the great disaster is coming!”

The high priest screamed loudly. He seemed to have seen something horrible just now, which filled his eyes with fear.

Bigan was startled, and hurried forward to support the other party, and asked: "High Priest, what catastrophe? What did you see?"

"Bigan, it's you!"

The high priest had been deducing the secrets of heaven for a long time, which consumed a lot of energy and even shortened his lifespan. His hair turned gray in a very short time. He glanced at Bigan with blurry eyes and recognized him.

He grabbed Bigan's arm.

"Hurry up and report to His Majesty, the great calamity... the great calamity that occurred in ancient times will occur again soon! Now the calamity energy has covered the entire Shang Dynasty!"

"Just now, our ancestor risked his life to penetrate the barrier from the netherworld and come to warn you! Great Shang will respond immediately! Quickly...quickly go and report to His Majesty!"

......