Born short-lived

Zhou Zirong didn't sleep all night, and there were two bruises under his eye sockets, and his eyes were bloodshot.As a result, when Luo Chi came to call him early in the morning, when he opened the door, he was almost frightened to death by his appearance as a hanged ghost.

Luo Chi looked at him worriedly: "General, are you...are you feeling unwell?"

Zhou Zirong closed his eyes and pinched his sore brows, waved his hands at him and said, "It's okay, you go out first, I'll leave after changing my clothes."

Luo Chi hesitated for a moment, glanced at his expression cautiously, and hesitated, "That's okay..."

He withdrew out step by step, Zhou Zirong closed the door and exhaled secretly, walked to the table and poured himself a whole pot of herbal tea that had been left overnight, and then he became a little clearer.

He changed into the ceremonial attire for the sacrificial ceremony, and when he went out, he was afraid of being too high-profile, so he planned to go to the back alley.But the Fengchan Grand Ceremony was empty for thousands of people, and the bustling side road at the entrance was almost empty, so the effort of detour was saved.

It's not auspicious time yet, but the Jinming Terrace in front of Shenwu Gate is already crowded with people.In order to deal with these hot-blooded "mobs", the Forbidden Army collectively wore heavy armor as if they were facing an enemy, but they were still squeezed to the point where they could hardly stand on their feet, and their foreheads were sweating profusely.

The commander of the imperial army was so anxious that he had been cursing since the moment he was on duty.

When Zhou Zirong first arrived, his sedan chair was almost stopped outside.The little soldier who stopped him was probably a recruit. Although King Beizhao had a great reputation, he didn't give a damn.

Commander Wei was already angry, but when he saw that the stupefied young man had blocked King Beizhao outside, he was furious on the spot and severely criticized him, and even sent a small team to clear the way for him.

The sedan chair was really inconvenient, so Zhou Zirong lifted the curtain and followed the guard brothers to cut a path out of the crowd.

When the common people crowded on both sides of the road heard that this man was Zhou Xi, king of Beizhao, they immediately lost their composure.

"That's King Beizhao."

"Oh, you are really young."

"I heard that with a force of [-], he defeated the two forces of Black Flag and Da Ling in Nanyang."

"Oh, is it really that magical?"

"That's right! Back then, he was also a well-known young hero. I heard that he could wield a sword at the age of three!"

……

As a result, these people's words became more and more outrageous, and even Zhou Zirong himself could hardly listen anymore, so he hurriedly stepped up.

Jinming Terrace has a round sky, several feet wide, and 81 steps. It feels very majestic when you look up from the bottom to the top on weekdays.Now it has been renovated again, and it looks very brand new. The surrounding railings have been washed and polished, and they are hung with crimson silk embroidered with dark flowers one by one.

In the middle of the Jinming Terrace, there is a stone platform like an altar, with a huge white crystal stone inlaid on it - that is the spirit stone for offering sacrifices to the heavens of the Jiang clan. Clothes.

But in fact, the one that really works is placed in the sacrificial hall, and the one on the Jinming platform will only have spiritual power flow when offering sacrifices to the heavens.

The white crystal spiritual stone array in the sacrificial hall is the center of Huaxu's white crystal spiritual energy network, and the source of spiritual energy in the white crystal spiritual energy network is the high priest of the Jiang clan.

Bai Ling is different from other psychic users. Their psychic energy is too pure to practice spiritual art or control spiritual martial arts.But the natural psychic power is strong, and the purest person can support the spiritual energy supply of the entire country with his own power-and this purest person will be selected as the high priest.

It was also after the high priest of the Jiang clan that there were man-made spirit weapons and man-made spirit weapons.Nowadays, the structure of man-made spiritual weapons is constantly improving, and its power is getting stronger and stronger, even gradually covering up the advantages of other spiritualists.

After all, no matter how powerful a spiritualist is, it is almost impossible to resist the indiscriminate bombardment of spiritual cannons.

The only one in the world who can rival it is the Royal Black Spirit.

And that's why, the emperors of the Dong clan of all dynasties have always been very vigilant against the people of the Jiang clan - even the high priest of the Jiang clan who raises a piece of land and water and provides millions of elite soldiers can only return to the family with the emperor's permission.

Zhou Zirong was brought to his seat in front of the Jinming Terrace. At that time, almost all the civil and military officials had arrived, and Jiang Kun was at the head of the civil officials. When he saw him, he gave him a nod.

Zhou Zirong immediately smiled and returned a salute.

A group of people stood in front of the Jinming Terrace for almost a stick of incense ". Mountain. And. 氵. Eve." In the meantime, they heard the eunuch of Li Li screaming in a high-pitched voice: "The emperor is here——"

Zhou Zirong knelt down and worshiped with everyone.

There was no sound at all in front of the Jinming Terrace. The empress, dressed in a black crown dress embroidered with the pattern of the rising sun in the sky, came step by step step by step on the sacrificial music, and the prince followed closely behind.Dong Sheng was treated like a dog by those palace eunuchs that day. The black jade hair crown on his head was made by Tiangongyuan a month in advance, and the workmanship is extremely exquisite.And the hem, cuffs and skirt of the Xuanpao on his body were all rolled with silver borders with sunburst patterns, which made the ink jade bead between his eyebrows black and black.

Zhou Zirong inexplicably felt that the ink jade chime on his chest seemed to be alive, as if he was secretly listening to the pulse in his chest.

Dong Sheng used to be in the East China Sea in the days of fresh clothes and angry horses, and it was so beautiful, but after all, it is not the same as before. Dong Sheng clearly realized from his cheeks that were about to become paralyzed that something had changed.

In previous years' Fengchan Grand Ceremony, no matter how dignified and dignified it was on the surface, I couldn't help secretly delighting in the scenery above ten thousand people.But now he gradually realized that he had long since lost his youthful disposition.

When passing through the two columns of civil and military, he unconsciously glanced at Zhou Zirong.

Zhou Zirong didn't look up according to the etiquette, but Dong Sheng somehow felt that he knew he was looking at him.Dong Sheng wasn't sure if it was a sympathetic heart or just his own sentimentality, but he couldn't control his heart and felt at ease.

Dong Sheng couldn't help but wonder if he was a little too dependent on him.

During the Summer Festival, the royal family did not go to the Jinming Terrace, and there was a smaller altar under the Jinming Terrace, where the empress would lead the royal family to perform the ceremony of enshrining Zen.

But this does not mean offering the Jiang clan as gods.

When the high priest of the Jiang family succeeds, he will brand a mark on his tongue, which means that he believes in God and has nothing to hide.The method of branding is extremely particular, neither can it damage the function of its language, but also ensure that the mark is clear - just like the mark that was stamped on slaves in ancient times, but the high priest of the Jiang clan is considered a "slave of the gods", and it is not so unbearable.

"Auspicious time-"

The eunuch in charge of ceremonies yelled, and the tune of the sacrificial music changed, echoing vigorously and calmly in the square in front of Shenwu Gate.The queen raised her sleeves and knelt down in front of the altar with all the royal family. All the officials and the heads of Guizhou also prostrated, and all the people prostrated themselves for a while.

"The world and the earth are in harmony, but I have admiration—"

Jiang Huaibi stretched out her wide moon white sleeve robe, the silver bell hanging on her wrist jingled, and the clear sound of the bell was scattered in the wind.

"Yuanxi Jinming, looking for a way out—"

After she finished a worship ceremony, she held up the gold-plated dagger on the altar with both hands.

"Respectfully accept the sacrificial offering, honor the Supreme God—"

The light of the knife flickered, and there was a bright red bloody mouth on her palm, and the blood dripped onto the altar.Then she clasped her hands together, and finally stuck her blood-stained hands to the huge white crystal spirit stone.

In an instant, the inspiration flowed.

"Xuantian Golden Crow, the origin of Donghua. Hundreds of officials are gathered together, and everyone respects them."

"Moyu Wangtu, Bailing is the abyss. The four directions are peaceful, the river is clear and the sea is Yan."

The Fengchan Grand Ceremony ended on the same day, but the sacrificial ceremony lasted for several days.According to the past practice, Dong Sheng had to "guard the altar" after the grand ceremony, that is, to guard the altar for another three days in front of the Jinming Terrace, which was regarded as praying for "benevolence for all generations".

He has been used to this since he was a child, and he didn't feel anything, but now that he was asked to do nothing and stay here for three days, he began to feel uneasy.

Many things can happen within three days, especially after the grand ceremony—if there is no "stumbling block" like him in the court, wouldn't Jiang Kun have to go forward indomitably?

And what worried Dong Sheng even more were those secret letters.

According to a report from his insider, Jiang Huaibi secretly withheld a hexagram or inscription. Although it is not clear what was written in it, it must be able to make the high priest of the Jiang clan, who has always been ignorant of things outside the window, think so carefully. It's not that simple either.

It's just that Dong Sheng always felt that Jiang Kun's hidden stake must have been deeper than his, and he might have known the oracle earlier.

At this moment, Jiang Kun sent someone to deliver some stomach-filling pastries to Dong Sheng, and presented them respectfully in front of him.

[The author has something to say: The libretto for the sacrifice was rewritten based on Liu Che's "Heaven and Earth", which is somewhat nondescript, please forgive me. . . . 】