“The Chronicles of the Grand Ancestor records: The Grand Ancestor was the eldest son of the High Ancestor, named Yi, from Qianzhou Kun County. His mother, Lady Chen, while pregnant, dreamt of a deity offering her a single pill, radiant and glowing, which she swallowed. Upon waking, she still smelled the lingering fragrance. At his birth, red light surrounded the house, and an unusual fragrance lasted through the night. From that night on, strange lights frequently appeared. Officials and neighbors thought it was a fire and rushed to help, only to find nothing there. As an infant, his body glowed golden for three days without fading. As he grew, his appearance became majestic and extraordinary, with a unique bone structure reaching the top of his head, a broad vision, and a generous disposition that no one could fathom; those with insight knew he was no ordinary person…”
The morning sun rose in the east.
In a ruined Taoist temple on Gushan Mountain, a young Taoist practitioner finished his morning exercises and quietly recited a historical text, although if others heard its content, they would be horrified beyond words.
“This ‘Chronicles of the Grand Ancestor’ reveals all the secrets of Emperor Ji Yi of the Great Zhou…”
Wu Ming, having successfully cultivated his Qi and established a firm foundation, now had a mature Yuan Shen (Primordial Spirit), which continuously nourished his cultivation, rapidly advancing his Taoist abilities. Moreover, his body had been transformed to possess Yuan Ling (Primordial Spirit) potential, making his progress truly remarkable, advancing by leaps and bounds. After a single night of cultivation, he had already accumulated sufficient magical power to reach the rank of a Magician, rivaling an old Taoist priest’s lifelong cultivation.
At this moment, he considered descending the mountain, and a passage of text surfaced in his mind.
When a true cultivator’s Yuan Shen is matured, claiming total photographic memory might be an exaggeration, especially regarding the Daoist inscriptions imbued with profound meaning, which cannot be memorized at a glance. However, for ordinary books, reciting them once allowed him to remember seventy to eighty percent, and after three readings, the content would be deeply etched in his mind, never to be forgotten.
“This ‘Chronicles of the Grand Ancestor’ reveals most of the secrets behind Emperor Ji Yi of the Great Zhou’s rise, making it an invaluable scripture for reincarnators. However, considering the tendency of historians and emperors to write history books, following their descriptions too literally might lead one into serious pitfalls…”
This reincarnation world was set in the late Shang Dynasty, during the founding war of the Great Zhou, a history from the main world!
Reincarnators originated from the Great Zhou world, and at least understood the heavenly mandate of Zhou’s rise against Shang, giving them a significant advantage.
However, Wu Ming was certain things wouldn’t be this simple.
“At this point in time, Ji Yi must have already risen to power; those who want to invest early in the dragon’s humble beginnings can forget about it…”
“The thirteen rebel kings still remain, but they are on their last legs…”
“As for the twelve golden statues?”
Wu Ming’s face immediately turned gloomy.
Official historical records naturally wouldn’t document such supernatural events, merely stating that the last emperor of the Shang Dynasty, Jie, was arrogant and extravagant, collecting weapons and metals from across the land to cast twelve golden statues, which were later destroyed by rebel forces after the fall of the Shang Dynasty.
However, the reality was clearly far more complicated!
“According to the serious instructions from the Temple of the Primordial Gods, these twelve golden statues were clearly closely related to the fate of the Shang Dynasty, and might even hold secrets to immortality. How difficult it is for an emperor to seek eternal life? If the twelve golden statues could accomplish this, they must be supreme treasures capable of suppressing the land’s energy and altering destiny, defying the heavens!”
“…Such secrets would certainly only be recorded in the hidden scriptures of great aristocratic families or the various schools of thought. Perhaps even families like the Xie clan might have fragments of such knowledge, unfortunately, none of which are accessible to me at my current level…”
Wu Ming, dressed in a brand new Taoist robe, packed his belongings and leisurely descended the mountain: “My immediate priority is to first determine the current political situation, to know how far the struggle for the empire has progressed, and then find Li Xiuyun… Sigh…”
Amidst the chaos of war, he wasn’t very optimistic about her ability to protect herself, and could only do his best under the circumstances.
As he exited the mountain gate, he smiled broadly: “In this world, I, the young master, am the current disciple of Maoshan Taoism—the Star-Seeking Disciple!”
He took out two talisman horses and slapped one on each leg.
Snap!
A magician’s spell takes effect! Magical energy surged in his mind, and the talisman horses immediately manifested horse spirits, neighing loudly to the sky, transforming into black clouds that vanished beneath their feet.
Wu Ming took a step forward, feeling the wind at his feet, and heard the sound of horses snorting from both sides, and in an instant, he had moved several meters away.
“Hmm! Although most of the Maoshan Taoist techniques require animal souls and are easily dispelled, I have to admit they do have some novelty. This talisman horse technique could even fool ordinary people into thinking I have the ability of a swift messenger…”
Wu Ming strode swiftly like the wind but felt little fatigue, knowing it was all due to the power of the talisman horses, which he inwardly acknowledged.
This talisman horse technique ranked at the bottom of the Maoshan Taoism’s forty-nine techniques. It required selecting two pairs of excellent warhorses, raising them with secret methods from a young age, feeding them high-quality feed daily, supplemented with eggs, which was a significant expense.
When they matured, they were given talisman water and cinnabar, and after ninety-nine days, they were mated, producing foals that must be one black and one red!
If there were any mistakes in the process, resulting in horses of incorrect coat colors, the entire process would have to be restarted.
After obtaining the black and red foals, they required substantial resources, being fed medicinal substances to strengthen their bones and muscles, making them as strong as the legendary heavenly horses.
After years of effort, only a small amount of essence blood could be obtained from their hearts, used to create the talisman horses.
The old Taoist priest had painstakingly collected enough essence blood to create only sixteen talisman horses before refusing to continue. Now, these were the only ones left, his last resort for survival, yet Wu Ming used them so casually. If the old Taoist found out, he would surely be enraged to death all over again.
…
Needless to say, the talisman horses proved extremely useful, and by noon, Wu Ming had already exited the deep mountains.
At the end of the Shang Dynasty, the journey was bleak, with no one for hundreds of miles, and bones lying bare in the fields, as expected. However, after traveling another hundred miles, the situation slightly improved, occasionally revealing fortified manors of rural gentry and villages with smoke rising from cooking fires. Seeing this, Wu Ming immediately ended his technique and asked a wary village guard for the location of the county town, then headed there directly.
“A mere small village that doesn’t even know which emperor is currently ruling this year—how can I learn about the state of the empire without going to the county town… Although it might be a bit late, at least it won’t be completely wrong…”
The closer he got to the county town, the more refugees he encountered, and it became common to see people dying of starvation on the roadside.
However, what slightly surprised Wu Ming were the groups of zombie-like refugees.
They were emaciated and listless, their eyes lifeless, like the walking dead. Only when they saw food did their eyes briefly light up, resembling the zombies Wu Ming remembered from his past life.
“The Lotus Holy Maiden has blessed us!”
In the center of the refugee crowd, a group of people were gathered around an eight-bearer sedan chair. Around it were a dozen boys and girls, their expressions solemn, holding red lanterns, lotus flowers, fly-whisks, and other ritual objects, a sight that made Wu Ming pause in astonishment.
“The Holy Maiden has blessed us!”
“Blessed us!”
Instantly, the entire crowd of refugees went wild, rushing toward the center but stopping in front of the tent, not daring to offend, yet eagerly anticipating something.
“In times of great calamity and the decline of the final age, only those who believe in the Lotus Holy Mother can attain eternal life and ascend to the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, free from hunger…”
The boys and girls, along with the guardian warriors, murmured these words, as if chanting scriptures.
Some of the refugees kept kowtowing, others joined in chanting, all appearing very devout.
After a while, some steamed buns were thrown from the tent, immediately triggering a scramble among the crowd.
Cries, shouts, and fights broke out. Some refugees fought each other for a bite to eat, trampling others underfoot. They picked up the buns, not caring about the mud or even blood on them, and began to devour them hungrily, as if it were a living hell on earth.
“The Lotus Sect? The Lotus Holy Mother?”
Wu Ming scratched his head.
It was said that in ancient times, whenever chaos arose, various heretical sects would proliferate like weeds, appearing and disappearing quickly, and unless they caused particularly significant impacts, historical records would not even bother to mention them.
Clearly, this Lotus Sect was one of those that only affected a single county or commandery. Perhaps it was mentioned in local county or commandery records, but its influence on the entire empire was too minor for Wu Ming, who was not a professional historian, to have even heard of it.
“However, it seems to have quite a significant presence here…”
Wu Ming shook his head inwardly, knowing that few of these sects did any real good. The smaller ones trafficked in people, seized property by force, and profited from national disasters, while the larger ones directly conscripted refugees to attack cities and seize territory, dreaming of becoming emperors.
Of course, if they mixed with demons, they became even more ruthless, directly worshipping evil deities, seizing the nation’s fortune, or killing people to capture souls for crafting demonic artifacts, or gathering boys and girls to concoct medicinal pills from their organs, and so on.
“The plight of the common people…”
This scene immediately caused Wu Ming to sigh, but he did not meddle and simply walked away.
In times of chaos, it was indeed an opportunity for heroes to rise, but for the common people at the bottom of society, it was a great misfortune.
Although the social order collapsed and resources were redistributed, how many commoners could truly benefit and rise from the lowest rungs to the top? Those who managed to rise were still the wealthy landowners and aristocrats who were already prepared.
“Just like Ji Yi, the Great Ancestor of the Great Zhou, whose ancestors were feudal lords of the Shang Dynasty, serving as high-ranking officials for four generations, renowned throughout the land. When the great chaos erupted, he quickly gathered tens of thousands of troops, and the entire Qianzhou region submitted to him. How could ordinary people have such resources?”
Wu Ming shook his head inwardly and walked away, paying no attention to the thoughtful gaze from behind the curtain.
“The Holy Maiden?”
After Wu Ming left, on the eight-bearer sedan chair, a hand as white as jade lifted the curtain, revealing a young girl wearing white gauze, her face gentle and kind, exuding a compassionate aura. Her long hair cascaded over one shoulder, tied with a golden ring.
“That person just now…”
The Lotus Holy Maiden spoke, her voice like a nightingale’s song, captivating to the ears.
“Just a little Taoist priest, it seems he dares not interfere with our Lotus Sect’s affairs!”
One of the guards nearby said arrogantly.
“A little Taoist priest? I remember seeing him once at my senior aunt’s place; back then, he was just a dull-witted and foolish child…”
The Holy Maiden sighed softly, her eyes flashing with light: “Now this person’s demeanor has completely changed; could it be that my senior aunt’s martial arts have reached a new level? But why hasn’t he come to contact my master?”
She immediately gave orders: “Send this information to my master and let her decide what to do!”
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