Chapter 124 Echoes of the Past

Wei Yuan looked at the bronze ware in his hand, his eyes showing surprise and astonishment.

This was… resonance?

He tried to call out to the Shang King Bronze Jue, but received no response.

This also confirmed the unexpected situation at hand.

The consciousness of the Shang King Bronze Jue would fall into slumber whenever resonance occurred.

At this moment, the ancient patterns on the bronze jue slowly lit up, and the trajectory of the Chaoge City map reappeared. The other two bronze artifacts also began to glow with flowing light. Wei Yuan hadn't expected such a resonance between these three bronze artifacts.

Especially since Su Yu'er, who served as the 'key', and the bronze short sword were not present.

According to his original deduction, without Su Yu'er and the sword, the bronze wares shouldn't have reacted at all. Could there be some other variable or hidden element that he had missed last time?

Wei Yuan pondered for a moment and entered the quiet room with the three bronze wares.

He raised his hand and cast a talisman to conceal their aura.

Seemingly because their own auras were confined in this small room, the interactions between the three bronze wares intensified. The ancient patterns on them lit up, and a cyan aura emanated, striking the walls and being bounced back by the talisman's power.

The auras constantly overlapped, eventually developing a vast and majestic quality, like transforming into waves.

And Wei Yuan, standing in the cyan waves, finally sensed where the resonance of the bronze wares was coming from. He reached out, and the bead formed from the Shinto divinity of Sakura Island emerged. As the ripples of the bronze wares swept over it, it glowed with a steel-like flame, slowly burning. The emanating essence made the resonance of the bronze wares even stronger.

Was it divinity?

Wei Yuan mused. Although this object came from the geisha doll, it was originally a divinity that had existed for two thousand years. After its spirituality was erased, what remained was a small, yet pure, divinity.

So, to promote the resonance of the bronze wares, did he need to burn a god as firewood?

That was certainly in line with the Shang Dynasty's style of offering sacrifices to ghosts and gods.

Wei Yuan quickly realized the reason:

These bronze wares were cast at the end of the Shang Dynasty, and in the Shang Dynasty, sacrifices were made to ghosts, gods, and ancestors.

The highest god in the Shang Dynasty was called 'Shang Di' (the Upper Emperor), the souls of dead Shang kings, while those still alive were called 'Xia Di' (the Lower Emperor). In that era, the Kunlun lineage of gods had already disappeared from the human world and did not communicate with humans.

It was normal that objects cast by the Shang kings, then called 'Xia Di', could be activated by the power of ghosts and gods. Of course, this was clearly not the normal activation method but rather a shortcut, which required the extremely high price of completely burning divinity.

It was like… a catalyst.

Wei Yuan reached out and crushed the bead made of Sakura Island's divinity.

The divinity transformed into light dust and flew into the bronze-colored flames of divinity, stimulating the three bronze wares to tremble violently. It seemed as if something was about to emerge from the void. Wei Yuan recalled that last time, Su Yu'er had dripped her blood into them, and her blood had resonated the bronze wares to an extremely high degree.

So, could he infer that a high-ranking divinity from Shenzhou was sleeping within Su Yu'er's body?

Wei Yuan's expression shifted slightly. As the divinity of Sakura Island was completely burned as the price, the bronze-like ripples suddenly converged. The three bronze wares floated in the air, their patterns seeming to have become real, emitting a mixture of bronze and gold light. The bronze plate floated in the center, and water flowed within it.

Then, a picture suddenly appeared on the water's surface.

It was still the towering altar he had seen last time, but this time, there were no people wearing ancient clothing, praying and dancing on the layers of steps. This made the altar seem somewhat lonely. Because the people who had prayed before were gone, he could see the cracks appearing on the altar, guessing that it must be extremely old, having experienced far too many years.

Then, Wei Yuan saw a person staggering onto the altar.

It was a man at least in his forties, with a robust and tall figure, and muscles that clearly contained power. His black hair was tied up, and he was wearing the robes of a shaman. However, he was currently distraught. He came to the altar, suddenly knelt down, placed his palms upward on the ground, and kowtowed with his forehead touching the ground, his face full of pain:

"Upper and Lower Emperors, if you truly exist,"

"Then please manifest quickly. The people of Shang can no longer endure…"

"The banished Shan Hai Jing (Classic of Mountains and Seas) strange beasts are appearing more and more frequently."

"Yet they are getting farther and farther away from the human world."

He kept kowtowing. The language he used was the one commonly used in Shenzhou before the Western Zhou Dynasty. Wei Yuan could barely understand it, and his expression changed slightly. He could confirm that the people living here were indeed descendants of the Yin Shang, but what he had not expected at all was that the strange beasts from the Classic of Mountains and Seas were frequently appearing in the area inhabited by the Yin Shang descendants.

Was it because they were also located far away from the human realm?

Did Di Xin try to send the Chaoge City area out of the human realm, but as a result, it approached the realm of Shan Hai Jing strange beasts?

At this time, the man heavily kowtowed one last time, clenched his hands tightly, and said in a choked voice, "Does it really require us to reopen blood sacrifices and human sacrifices, using our own lives as offerings, for you to respond?"

Reopen blood sacrifices and human sacrifices? In other words, even in this isolated place, the descendants of Yin Shang had still abolished that barbaric method of sacrifice and continued to procreate until now? Wei Yuan caught the key information in these words. He wanted to help, but it seemed that he couldn't help them with just this bronze plate.

No, perhaps he could try something.

At least he had to prevent the tragedy of blood sacrifice from happening again.

After thinking for a while, Wei Yuan reached out and tentatively touched the bronze plate.

…

Half a day ago.

In Chaoge City.

"What did you say?!"

Wu Yu glared at his close friend, completely unable to believe that those words had come from his friend's mouth. The man, wearing armor and holding a long spear, remained silent for a moment but then said calmly, "That's right."

"I propose reopening the ancient methods of sacrifice: blood sacrifice."

Wu Yu said, "Why?!"

Fei Yu replied, "You know why."

He stared at Wu Yu and slowly said, "In recent centuries, the strange beasts from the Classic of Mountains and Seas have been appearing more and more frequently. Their power has not weakened at all, they are still so strong, but what about us? Think about it, what about us?!"

Fei Yu answered himself, "We are getting weaker and weaker."

"In recent years, who else has been able to cultivate to a high level?"

"We can't even open the ancestral underground palace anymore. The aptitude and cultivation progress of each generation are constantly weakening. Even if we hunt strange beasts and use their blood for sacrifices, the response we get is worse each time. Clearly, the ghosts and gods are abandoning us."

"If this continues, one day, we won't even be able to kill the weakest strange beasts. At that time, it won't just be a few dying, but all of us being killed. Rather than that, it's better to abandon a portion of the people, blood sacrifice to the ghosts and gods, and then exchange that for the survival of the other part, to exchange for the prosperity of the entire Chaoge."

Wu Yu said, "Abandon a portion of the people, and then exchange that for the survival of the other part?!"

"Who will go to die?! Who will be the sacrifices?!"

"Do you want to let our Chaoge fall into a day of internal strife? Proposing this method, and then forcing others to go die? This will throw the entire Chaoge City into chaos. I would rather die together with everyone, fighting against the Shan Hai strange beasts, than…"

Fei Yu replied, "I will go."

Wu Yu suddenly choked on his words.

The tall Fei Yu's expression softened as he said, "We have already discussed it. We proposed it, so we will be the first batch of sacrifices, reopening the blood sacrifice of two thousand years ago, to sacrifice to the ghosts and gods."

"Perhaps you will think that living on by such a method is selfish, cruel, and it is better for everyone to die together in a heroic and honorable manner, and perhaps that is indeed the case."

"However, the continuation of civilization is above all else."

"Above cruelty, selfishness, and even above so-called humanity."

"If the current situation continues, Chaoge will become a dead city in at most a hundred years. But if our attempt is effective, at least in the future, our descendants will still be able to judge us as cruel, barbaric, and selfish, and perhaps they will even be able to return to Shenzhou."

"That is what is more important."

…

Watching his friend leave calmly, and knowing that in another month, it would be the time of ancient ghost and god sacrifices recorded in the ancient books, Wu Yu was powerless, because what Fei Yu said was true. Their inherited methods were all based on ghost and god sacrifices, and ghost and god sacrifices inevitably involved blood sacrifice.

His heart was filled with pain. Wu Yu came to the original place of sacrifice in confusion.

He had already passed the age of believing that the Upper and Lower Emperors still existed, but now he couldn't help but pray to the ghosts and gods, because he could do nothing else. And as expected, the legendary ghosts and gods did not give any feedback.

Wu Yu looked up at the altar that had been passed down through generations.

All he saw were lifeless stone carvings.

He was silent for a long time, laughed self-deprecatingly, and turned around, staggering away.

He seemed to have aged too much in that instant.

And at this moment—

A crisp sound, like the sound of fingers tapping on a jade chime, slowly echoed from the highest point of the altar behind him.

ps: Second update today... Thanks to Alliance Master 卌巜, thank you~