"Shh!" Ji Chang made a silencing gesture.

Li Ping'an subconsciously wanted to turn over and jump down. Just as he was about to move, he remembered that his incarnation had no magic power. In order to practice the way of all living beings, he even withdrew the power of his immortal consciousness.

"coming!"

Li Pingan took two steps on the roof and climbed down the wooden ladder.

He also discovered that the palace soldiers and maids who were patrolling around before were now gone.

He hurried to the rockery and saw several gaps covered by the rockery.

Ji Chang looked around and lifted up a stone slab with some effort, revealing a sloping downward passage. There were aqueducts and rainwater collection designs on the edge of the passage. Below was a passage lit by luminous spiritual stones.

"Go, be silent."

"Hey," Li Ping'an agreed, feeling a little curious in his heart.

Then he followed Ji Chang down here, and did not forget to close the stone slab after entering.

The ventilation design here is really good.

Li Ping'an sighed in his heart, and then remembered the cellar Ji Chang built in the old Xibohou Mansion a few years ago.

He looked carefully and found that there should be a road leading to Xibohou Mansion.

For ordinary people, this is quite a big project.

Then he saw a dozen white bones arranged neatly at the end of a corridor...

"They are the slaves who built the tunnel here," Ji Chang sighed, "There is no way, we can't let them leave. Although I also thought about cutting out their tongues, I still felt uneasy in the end, so I had to do this.

"

Li Ping'an asked in a low voice: "What is father doing here?"

"Of course it's to deceive others."

Ji Chang smiled bitterly and bowed to these bones.

Li Ping'an always felt that this scene was a bit ironic.

The murderer saluted the slain, and then the murderer felt that he was worthy of the slain... Well, in terms of the current common courtesy, Ji Chang, the Xibohou, saluted the slave, which was considered a gift.

They explain enough.

Ji Chang turned around and said, "Come here, I'll take you to see something."

Li Pingan had already roughly guessed what Ji Chang wanted to take him to see.

Sure enough, one side of the wall was larger and more complex, with the sixty-four hexagrams of King Wen engraved on it. Under the light of several braziers, Li Ping'an's eyes came into focus.

There are more than a dozen huge wooden frames on both sides of this wall.

Ji Chang seemed to have aged a few years. He touched the wall with his fingers, sighed softly, and murmured:

"If there are no gods, then what do I have? What do I think about day and night? My son, can you tell your father? Did you really fail to communicate with the gods before you became a father?"

Li Ping thought quietly and didn't know how to answer for a while.

Ji Chang slowly leaned his cheek against the stone wall and murmured in a low voice:

"Fortunately, the three of them are not gods, but immortals. They are just enjoying themselves.

"How can gods communicate with mortals? Even a mortal king should be small and humble in front of gods. He must kneel down and salute the gods.

"Dan'er, do you know, do you know?"

Li Pingan asked calmly: "What do I know?"

"Do you know how shocked I was when I entered Chaoge City for the first time?"

Ji Chang narrowed his eyes slightly, his slumped figure left the wall, slowly walked to the bookcase beside him, and sat in a chair.

The firelight illuminated his face and the furrows of his wrinkles.

Ji Chang murmured:

"That was when I was as old as Fa'er. At that time, I also had strong physical skills and was particularly good at shooting.

"I led a group of Qiang people to Chaoge City. Because Chaoge City was in such a hurry, I was afraid of losing time, so I traveled all day and night, day and night, and 20% of the Qiang people died.

"Fortunately, the sacrifices were not delayed, and all the Qiang people arrived.

"I was also very tired, but when I came to my senses, I turned around and looked... guess what I saw?"

Several pictures emerged in Li Ping'an's mind, and then he shook his head and asked in unison: "What?"

"Hundreds of people! Hundreds of people!"

Ji Chang's voice became trembling, and his body was trembling slightly:

"Hundreds of people were stripped of their clothes, washed clean, and then hung up in a row. Then hundreds of butchers came forward and began to bleed and dismantle them.

"I was scared, you know? I really didn't dare to move, I just looked up.

"It turns out that the Qiang people were sent here to be slaughtered, just like those cattle, sheep, pigs and dogs, no, worse than them.

"The sacrifices have begun... I don't even know when the sacrifices started. I was pulled by someone to change into a dress. I followed behind your grandfather and walked among a group of ministers. I looked at the king, who was not very tall.

Your Majesty, step by step, you walked up the stairs to the top, prayed to God, and asked your ancestors for their blessings.

"Those human animals that were originally slaughtered were all used as sacrifices and placed here.

"You know, when I close my eyes now, I see these pictures, they turn over and over again, like a nightmare that I can't wake up from.

"Later I found out...they are all the same."

"Them?" Li Ping'an was a little confused.

Jichang sighed: "That is, the larger princes, the princes who guard the borders for the king, are all the same. They all have similar experiences and are shocked by this picture. The king just wants us to be afraid, fearful, and then, suddenly something

One day, I received your grandfather's coffin at home and opened the coffin... He was dismantled into pieces like a human sacrifice and was delivered to me. Then the king's messenger told me that I will start from today.

This is the new Xibohou..."

Li Ping'an nodded slightly.

Ji Chang looked up at him, with an extremely complicated look in his eyes.

He whispered:

"You know Dan'er, I have never dared to think about how to find an explanation for your grandfather. Your grandfather did not rebel. He conquered the east and west for the king of Shang and expanded the territory for the merchants. This is what happened in the end.

, I am not convinced! But I dare not be convinced!

"Before today, I have been thinking, thinking, thinking, how do businessmen communicate with the gods in the sky?

"In the entire Shang Kingdom, only the king knows how to communicate with the gods. So is it possible that this matter is false? Did the Shang King deliberately say this in order to deceive us and scare us?

"Actually, I'm not the only one who thinks so, they all think so.

"Then, I began to secretly learn their sacrificial methods and study the steps of human and animal sacrifices."

Li Pingan was startled for a moment.

He thought of those dozen white bones.

That might...not be the craftsman who repaired the cellar...

Ji Chang smiled bitterly: "But I can't communicate with the gods at all, and my divination often makes mistakes. Every time I think I have found the pattern, I later find that the pattern is wrong. There is no trace. There is really no trace."

Xun, take a look at these hexagrams! These recordings! I really found some patterns, but these patterns have nothing to do with gods! I can even predict when it will rain and when it will blow, and most of them

The time is always right!”

Li Pingan nodded secretly.

The sixty-four hexagrams coincide with the number of heaven.

"Alas," Ji Chang seemed relieved, "I just learned today that the gods are gone long ago, gone! Hahahaha! Hahahaha! No one is protecting King Shang anymore! Their ancestors, the ancestors they have always worshiped

, all gone!”

He laughed for a while, and then looked at Li Ping'an with a somewhat complicated look.

Ji Chang whispered: "Dan'er, I need to ask you a few questions, and you must answer me truthfully."

"Otherwise, father, you will kill the child, right?"

Li Pingan responded with a smile.

Ji Chang was slightly startled, and the dagger hidden in his sleeve shrank further.

(End of chapter)
Chapter completed!