245: Chapter 94: Ping’an Refuses!
Vote for monthly tickets!]_2 245: Chapter 94: Ping’an Refuses!
Vote for monthly tickets!]_2 Previously, upon hearing the term “human sacrifice,” Li Ping’an immediately thought of Great Shang.
Human sacrifice corresponds to the act of ritual sacrifice, which is a significant hallmark of the Shang civilization;
The human sacrifices taken from here are most likely sent to Shang, which should be located in the Southern Continent, protected by the Skycutter Great Array set up by the Holy Mother;
Logically speaking, there should only be two powers able to enter and leave the Skycutter Great Array…
The top echelons of the Eastern Alliance and the Nüwa Palace.
Both of these forces are ones that the Wanyun Sect cannot afford to provoke.
Li Ping’an had really been in a hurry to extricate himself earlier, fearing that the old man Tianli would silence him, but now it seemed that the old man Tianli had not been involved in the matter of human sacrifices.
The old man Tianli sighed and narrated the matters of the Southern Continent.
“The divine court is but an illusory reflection in the mirror, of no concern.
The human sacrifices have nothing to do with this divine court either.
“The court indeed protects the humans of the Southern Continent, allowing them to enjoy good weather for the crops.
The Great Xia Immortal Dynasty has prospered on the Southern Continent for thousands of years.
“During this time, several disputes arose within the Nüwa Palace.
“Some said that this kind of celestial dynasty was wrong and should be dismantled, to return to the tradition of tribal transfers of power.
“Others said that this kind of celestial dynasty was developed by mortals on their own, and the Holy Mother had already admonished to let mortals reproduce on their own.
“With the Holy Mother gone without a trace, several Human Emperors and attendants from the Nüwa Palace could only quietly await the Holy Mother’s return.
“When I went to the Nüwa Palace, I just listened at the side and had no qualification to speak.
“For these Great Powers, a few thousand years is but a flick of a finger, and at first, no one took the Southern Continent’s changes seriously.
“But who could have anticipated…
“A thousand years ago, there was internal strife within the Great Xia Immortal Dynasty, and it was replaced by the merchants from the east.
The Southern Continent underwent a change of dynasties, and the new celestial dynasty was called Great Shang.
“The merchants could not handle the large number of captives obtained during the conquest of the Southern Continent, so they began this… this ritual sacrifice practice.
The Shang King deceived the world by claiming that human sacrifice was a show of respect for heaven and earth and a solace for the ancestors.
“Then human sacrifice became a ritual among the merchants.
“They believed that the more human sacrifices killed in worshipping heaven, earth, and ancestors, the more respectful it was towards heaven and earth, and the more beneficial for the ancestors.
Later, it even got to the point where…
for building larger houses, they would also kill human sacrifices!
“Ah, who could have imagined!
“Our ancestors of the Human Race forged ahead, and the Holy Mother painstakingly established the Skycutter Great Array to provide a peaceful place for mortals to live, for the sake of everyone’s equality, not to be discriminated against based on their cultivation aptitude.
“But in the end, mortals have intensified their actions.
“Royals, nobles, scholars, citizens, people, slaves, human sacrifices…
they divided themselves into classes!
And they kill their own kind in sacrifice to ghosts and gods!
“Cough, cough cough cough!”
The old man Tianli struggled to breathe smoothly.
He looked up, took a breath, and gathered his spirit:
“Let’s not talk about that; my coming here this time was indeed not in vain!
Someone is actually collecting human sacrifices here!
How could such an act not be stopped!”
Li Ping’an asked, “Senior, how do the Nüwa Palace and the Eastern Alliance view the matter of human sacrifices?”
The old man Tianli gave a wry smile and said, “This is a secret, I cannot tell a youngster like you…”
The old Artifact Spirit of the Myriad Manifestation Chart smiled with his hands clasped upon hearing this.
The old man Tianli shifted the topic:
“Of course, Ping’an, you are not an ordinary child of the Human Race.
It’s no harm telling you since Yun Zhongzi, the senior, has shown great kindness and virtue toward our Human Race.”
The old man Tianli said softly:
“Human sacrifices have now taken root in the rituals of Great Shang in the Southern Continent.
“Thousands of years ago, the Holy Mother decreed that we were not to intervene with the mortals of the Southern Continent, and we can only watch even now.
“About a few hundred years ago, this problem surfaced…
all the prisoners of war were killed, and there were not enough human sacrifices left.
“Human sacrifices were generally prisoners of war, but once the Great Shang Immortal Dynasty subdued the Southern Continent and stationed merchants as fiefdoms in various places, tribes that were unwilling to submit to Great Shang began to migrate far away, and the wars gradually diminished.
“The nobility of Great Shang extended their hands towards the descendants of those slaves, allowing the enslaved mortals to reproduce, and their offspring were used as human sacrifices.
But this practice also affected farming and labor, causing food shortages in many places and starving countless people to death.”
Grandmother Linghua angrily said, “This matter!
Why did you not stop it!”
Without the Holy Mother’s orders from the Nüwa Palace, who can enter the Southern Continent?
“Moreover, the number of mortals in the Southern Continent is growing rapidly, and that fictional divine court is also supporting the Great Shang Immortal Dynasty.”
The old man Tianli sighed:
“That divine court has already been linked to the fate of the Human Race.
To remove the divine court above the Southern Continent directly would result in countless deaths and injuries, but the longer it drags on, the more mortals will die because of it in the future.
“To alleviate the shortage of human sacrifices in the Southern Continent, a few experts from the Nüwa Palace began to look for human sacrifices outside the Southern Continent to fill into the Skycutter Great Array.
“Within the Eastern Alliance, only about ten people are aware of this.”
Li Ping’an sighed, “The people inside and outside the Skycutter Great Array are all part of the Human Race, right?
Ah, now I suddenly understand.”
The elder asked, “Understand what?”
“When I first came here a year ago, I saw a large group of the Demon Race lurking behind a village.
These demons were coveting the village, yet the village received no warning from any immortal.”
Li Ping’an shook his head:
“Looking back now, I’m afraid it was arranged by people like Commander Ge.
“Demons have no way of keeping human sacrifices.
Our Human Race’s masters regularly patrol the Western Continent, so where did these human sacrifices come from?
Naturally, they came from the chaotic borderlands.
“The demons on the borderlands regularly raid various villages to capture human sacrifices.
Some are used for food, and others are traded for treasures with that pair of Daoist immortals, then through various intermediaries, the mortals captured by the demons here are sent to the Southern Continent as sacrifices for ritual offerings.”
“In the borders of the Western Continent, sixteen thousand li to the southeast, indeed, who knows how many human sacrifices have been sent to inside the Skycutter Great Array.”