After hearing his words, Wu Geng's originally calm expression changed instantly. He had been bending down respectfully before, but he quickly straightened up. His whole person had an inexplicable aura of a king.
He looked at Zu An and said calmly: "When did you know?"
Following his words, the surrounding environment suddenly changed. The battlefield was filled with rivers of blood and fighting, but in the next second, everything disappeared.
The place it was located was not Makino's battlefield, but on the deer platform built a few years ago.
Pei Mianman also appeared here. She was a little confused and hurriedly came to Zu An: "Azu, what's going on?"
Zu An smiled bitterly: "The man in front of me is the creator of this trial, the real last Shang King Wu Geng."
Pei Mianman looked aside in surprise. This usually taciturn prince often asked her for greetings, so it was really difficult to get in touch with the final boss.
Wu Geng frowned: "You haven't answered my question yet."
Zu An then replied: "Actually, after I entered this secret realm, I have always had a doubt, that is, King Zhou Muye was defeated and fled to Lutai and burned himself to death. He obviously did not have time to build this secret realm.
.Then there are most likely two people left. One is King Zhou’s concubine brother, Wei Ziqi, who later founded the Song Dynasty; the other is King Zhou’s prince, Wu Geng, who later became the King of Shang.”
"Wei Ziqi competed with King Zhou for the throne. To a certain extent, he was a traitor to the Shang Dynasty. Moreover, he was the founding king of the Song Dynasty and had a good relationship with the Zhou people. It is really unlikely that he would build such a secret realm."
"Then you are the only one left. After King Zhou burned himself to death, Zhou became the co-lord of the world. You became the last king of Shang. After temporarily surrendering, after a few years, you took advantage of the young king of the Zhou Dynasty to directly lead the merchants to counterattack and fight with the Zhou people.
The war lasted for three years, but unfortunately failed in the end."
After listening to his analysis, Wu Geng's eyes flashed with surprise: "You seem to be quite clear about this past event, but people in this world don't know this history. Who are you?"
Zu An sighed: "He's just a destined person."
Wu Geng obviously did not want to delve deeper. He turned to look at Lutai next to him, and his voice was a little heavy: "Do you know what happened after the defeat in the Battle of Makino?"
Zu An shook his head. Seeing that the other party seemed to want to talk about something, how could he interrupt.
Wu Geng stretched out his hand, and the air in front of him rippled, like a mirror, and some pictures soon appeared.
I saw a tall and heroic man fleeing back to Lutai. He looked up to the sky and sighed. He did not want to be humiliated by the Zhou people, so he burned himself to death.
This was naturally King Zhou of Shang, and Daji died with him.
Not long after, the Zhou army also entered the capital of Shang Dynasty. After declaring merits and rewards, they began to offer sacrifices to the heavens to thank the gods.
The best sacrifice to offer sacrifices to heaven is human sacrifice, and human sacrifices are now readily available.
One hundred lucky ministers of King Zhou were escorted under the altar, their hands and feet were cut off with axes and axes, and they were allowed to roll and struggle in the bloody water. The louder they shouted and the more violent they struggled and rolled, it meant that the sacrifices dedicated to the gods were more serious.
rich.
The recalcitrant generals on the Makino battlefield and the forty chiefs of the core merchant clan were stripped naked and thrown into a cauldron of boiling water.
The bones of King Zhou were found, and the heads of him and his wives and concubines, as well as the ears captured by the enemy in the war, were piled on a huge pyre and burned. The smell of burnt smoke was the god's favorite food.
…
Zu An and Pei Mianman had stayed in this trial for such a long time, and had been kings and queens of the Shang Dynasty. When they saw the cruel scenes on the screen, their faces changed greatly, and at the same time they were extremely angry.
At this time, Wu Geng said: "The main reason why I established this secret realm is to restore the truth of the past, and at the same time reflect on why the powerful merchants perished."
After a pause, he looked at Zu An and Pei Mianman with sharp eyes: "After going through these trials, have you concluded the reasons for the demise of Dashang?"
Zu An's head jumped, could this be the final test? He did not dare to neglect, sorted out his thoughts and replied: "In my opinion, there are four main reasons. One is naturally the rise of the Zhou people, and the Qiang Fang in the northwest.
After being defeated, the Zhou people took advantage of the vacuum of power in the Guanzhong area and took over the land of Guanzhong. Throughout history, Guanzhong is the land of dragon prosperity. As long as it is managed well, it will be unstoppable. Unfortunately, there were various other things around the Shang Dynasty at the beginning.
The powerful enemy simply did not have the energy to deal with this side. After the Shang Dynasty solved other enemies, the Zhou people had completely risen, and the Shang Dynasty could only fight and pull, such as killing Ji Li and marrying Sancai. Unfortunately, the Zhou people had many deliberate plans, and several
Dai Jian and Shang were unswervingly determined, but Shang could not escape the fate of being destroyed."
Wu Geng had no expression on his face: "What else?"
Zu An then replied: "The second reason is the issue of the succession of King Shang. Throughout the Shang Dynasty, the conflicts between brother and brother and father and son are irreconcilable. The royal family is always in a state of internal strife and chaos.
The national strength has been greatly reduced and it is unable to deal with the outside world in a unified manner."
Wu Geng sighed: "Yes, during the 500 years of the Shang Dynasty, the royal family has always been in chaos. This is also the reason why the capital was frequently moved in history."
After receiving his approval, Zu An breathed a sigh of relief, held Pei Mianman's hand beside him, and then continued: "The third reason is the struggle between royal power and divine power. In fact, the matter of sacrifice only fools the common people at the bottom.
As a Shang king, he must know that there are no gods, but the high priest can use the name of the gods to check and balance the royal power. No aspiring Shang king can tolerate this situation. Both sides compete for power by using their own strengths. In fact, speaking of
, this is similar to the second reason, after all, those high priests are also members of the royal family who have lost their right to inherit."
Wu Geng nodded: "Starting from Yiyin of this dynasty, the power of the high priests has been very powerful. All the Shang kings have wanted to take back the divine power. Unfortunately, except for a few Shang kings such as Wu Ding Dynasty who are super powerful, the divine power has been taken away by others.
The royal high priest controls...what’s the fourth reason?”
"The fourth reason..." Zu An paused and said, "Those mentioned before are the fundamental reasons for the demise of the Shang Dynasty. The fourth reason should be the direct cause of the demise of the Shang Dynasty. During the Zhou Dynasty, Wang Shubi Gan, Ji Zi
The old nobles headed by them were not of the same mind as the King of Shang because of hundreds of years of tradition; Wei Ziqi was dissatisfied because the throne that originally belonged to him was lost for a funny reason, so he wanted to rely on the power of the Zhou people to become the king. In the end, he
I got my wish, although I didn't become the King of Shang, I became the King of Song."
"There are also those important ministers in the court, Shang Rong and Xin Jia, who are all friendly to the Zhou people. There must be more who cannot be named. King Zhou looked at the entire court and must have felt a sense of despair that no one in the world could understand the Zhou people.
"
"Actually, you missed one person." Wu Geng said, "Jiao Ge, who was promoted by his father, had already secretly joined the Zhou people."
Zu An was stunned: "Jiao Ge? Wasn't he rescued from slaves by your father and then promoted with one hand? How could such a direct descendant join the Zhou people?"
Wu Geng snorted: "Because before his father rescued him, he had been bribed by the Zhou people. Don't forget that he is a Dongyi person. After hundreds of years of war, the hatred between Dongyi people and merchants is irreconcilable.
What's more, when the Dongyi people's sacred jade cong was plundered by the merchants, how could they sincerely seek refuge with the merchants?"
"Jade Cong..." Zu Anxin's head jumped. It was the one that Jiang Jiang, the young girl outside, asked him to look for. Wu Ding did see it in the first place, and was later buried with his wife.
But he came back to his senses immediately and continued: "In addition to the few people just mentioned, you, the prince, seem to be dissatisfied with King Zhou and should have participated in their rebellion. King Zhou is surrounded by enemies. In this situation
How can he be undefeated? But I don’t quite understand. It’s understandable for others to rebel against King Zhou, but you are already the prince, why do you rebel against him too?”
Wu Geng looked lonely: "Back then, my father favored Daji, and my mother has been in a state of disfavor and may be deposed at any time. When Daji has another son, I will not be able to secure my position as the prince, so I might as well strike first.
In fact, many nobles in the court at that time did not really want to fight against the merchants, but just wanted to use the help of the Zhou people to force their father to step down. Unfortunately, they did not expect that the Zhou people were so ambitious and came with the purpose of destroying the merchants from the beginning.
"
"Let the wolf enter the house." Zu An sighed. The power struggle between the nobles of the Shang Dynasty led Dong Zhuo to the capital. Who knew that this "Dong Zhuo" was so fierce.
"When we people realized it, it was already too late. At that time, the overall situation was decided, and the Zhou people became the common masters of the world." Wu Geng gritted his teeth and said, "The Zhou people were too strong at that time, so I could only hide my capabilities and bide my time to accumulate strength. Later, Ji Fa died.
Now that my youngest son has ascended the throne, I found an opportunity to have a decisive battle with the Zhou people. Because I was worried about failure, I prepared this secret realm in advance so that even if I failed, someone would know the truth about that year."
After Wu Geng finished speaking, he looked at Zu An and Pei Mianman: "You are very good. The testers who came several times before have higher cultivation than you. Unfortunately, I directly deprived everyone of their cultivation in this test and gave them all
People have become ordinary people. Because what I value is not the cultivation of the testers, but whether they can understand the anger and grievances of our businessmen, and whether they can find a solution."
He continued: "Those who tried before were also smart and talented people, but many did not get through the first level. They were either misled by Xiao Tuo or turned against Fu, or after decades of imperial life,
I forgot who I was and why I came here, and completely lost myself."
"As for the second level, if she hadn't really cared for Sancai since childhood, she would not have taken the initiative to propose an alternative marriage. Once the female trialist married to the Western Zhou Dynasty, there would be only death."
"As for the third level, you actually sorted out the mess, knew who were enemies and who were friends, brought back the main force from the Battle of Makino, and asked your companions to lead a group of surprise troops to suddenly join the battlefield, and even saw my
Identity, if my father had been like you back then, the outcome might have been really different."
Zu An and Pei Mianman looked at each other and breathed a sigh of relief. Apparently, they were the first pair among all the trialists to reach this stage.
But then Wu Geng changed the subject: "It's a pity that you still haven't completed the trial. You only figured everything out at the last moment. At that time, it was too late to stop anything. As long as I give the order, my subordinates will
Even if the army fights back, the outcome is still destined, and you haven’t changed a bit.”
Zu An and Pei Mianman's expressions both changed, and they fell on the final threshold to clear the level. They were really depressed.
Wu Geng's tone was also full of regret: "Your performance in the trial was really excellent, much better than all the previous trialists. But the more you do this, the more I look forward to it. Maybe there will be something in the future."
There are trialists who are better than you and can solve all of this perfectly, so you should prepare to die."
After saying that, his whole body slowly rose up, filled with black energy. He slowly raised one hand, and a layer of ferocious gluttonous patterns appeared on his palm. Then his whole palm turned into a black hole, and there was a sound coming from inside.
With the huge suction force, everything around him began to be destroyed. Even the tall and majestic Ludai began to fall apart, and all kinds of things were sucked into his palm.
Obviously, he decided that the two of them had failed the trial, and wanted to close this trial world, waiting for a long time for the next destined man and woman to open it.
Zu An and Pei Mianman felt a powerful soul tearing force, as if they were about to be sucked into each other at any time.
Pei Mianman held Zu An's hand tightly and smiled sadly: "We have lived a lifetime, and now we are satisfied to die together."
"It's so easy to die." Zu An stared at Wu Geng in mid-air and said quickly, "We have not failed in this trial, I still have a backup plan!"
"Oh?" Wu Geng was stunned, and couldn't help but sneer, "All your methods have been hidden from my eyes and ears, so how can you have any back-ups?"
Even though he said this, he still clenched his hands slightly, and the suction around him suddenly decreased significantly.
Zu An felt his whole body light up and couldn't help but sigh: "It seems that you still want us to succeed subconsciously."
Wu Geng snorted coldly: "It's useless to try to make friends. If you can't come up with any back-up plan, then just wait for destruction."
Zu An quickly replied: "The purpose of your design of this secret realm is mainly to leave the truth of what happened back then and wash away the many infamy of the Shang Dynasty; and also to see if there is any way to save the situation in that dead situation.
Seek that glimmer of hope."
"So what? Although you have accomplished the former, you are still a little short of the latter." Wu Geng said coldly.
Zu An smiled: "You still remember Fei Lian Elai and his son, right?"
Wu Geng didn't understand what he meant, frowned and said: "Remember, you promoted them from poor people, and they can be considered loyal people. If the battle just now continues to develop, in the Battle of Muye, Evil will die, Fei Lian
Although he escaped and devoted his life to rebelling against the Zhou Dynasty, it was a pity that his power was too weak and he did not make any waves in the end."
Zu An replied: "Although Fei Lian did not successfully rebel against the Zhou Dynasty in his life, he planted a seed that was passed down from generation to generation. Fei Lian was the ancestor of the Qin people, and the Zhou Dynasty would be destroyed at the hands of Qin in the future.
! The people of Zhou Dynasty have been determined to destroy Jian Shang for generations, and they have just succeeded in destroying Shang. The same is true for Fei Lian."
"Fei Lian is the ancestor of the Qin people?" Wu Geng was stunned, closed his eyes, and seemed to be quickly retrieving some information.
After a while, he suddenly opened his eyes and burst out laughing: "Fei Lian raised Er Lai's son Nv Fang, Nv Fang gave birth to Pang Gao, Pang Gao gave birth to Tai Ji, Tai Ji gave birth to Da Luo, Da Luo
Feizi was born, Feizi founded Qin, and then Qin destroyed Zhou, hahaha, wonderful, really wonderful!"
Zu An secretly called it a fluke. If it weren't for the existence of Empress Mi Li of the Qin Dynasty, he would not be so clear about these relationships. Therefore, when he saw Fei Lian E coming to his father and son before, he immediately reused them. At that time, he also thought of using them as a back-up.
I didn't expect to actually use it.
Wu Geng completely retracted his hand and slowly landed from the air to the ground. Everything around him that had collapsed fell into a state of stillness.
He looked at Zu An with a complex expression: "You really surprised me, you actually have such an arrangement. Although this is not a direct change of destiny, changing the outcome of Shang Mie back then. But so what if you changed it, after all, this is
Everything is in the world of trials, is false, and has no impact on reality at all. It is not as satisfying as the descendants of Fei Lian who destroyed Zhou Lai in real history."
Zu An cupped his hand and said, "It's just a fluke. In the final analysis, it was the prince's hope for the trialists that gave us so many opportunities."
Wu Geng nodded slightly: "Yes, yes, I am not complacent. If my father had been as humble as you, he would not have caused everyone to betray and alienate."
Zu An did not interfere. People said that his father could do it, but it would be easy to get into trouble if he said it himself: "I wonder if we have passed this test?"
Wu Geng did not look at him, but asked in a deep voice: "Answer my last question, why do you know the "Phoenix Nirvana Sutra" of the Zhou royal family? Could it be that you have also entered the secret realm of the Zhou Dynasty?"
He did not doubt that the other party was a descendant of the Zhou royal family. After all, during the trial, this guy chopped Ji Chang and his son into meat paste. How could there be such an unworthy descendant?
As for the other party's "Hongmeng Yuanshi Jing" of the Qin royal family, he was not familiar with it, so he was not that sensitive.
Feeling the flash of murderous intent in the other person's eyes, Zu An answered cautiously: "I have not entered the Zhou people's trial, but a senior has entered, and I got an advantage by chance." He roughly told what happened to Old Man Mi.
Said it once.
"That's good, that's good." Wu Geng laughed loudly after hearing this: "It seems that you are indeed blessed and qualified to accept the inheritance of our Shang Dynasty, then."
As he spoke, he threw a bronze book coupon over. Zu An took it and saw clearly the first few characters on the copper coupon: "Taotie Devouring the Sky"!
"This is considered your reward for passing the trial," Wu Geng said, "The Taotie Devouring Heaven Technique is a supreme treasure book that only Shang kings of the past dynasties are qualified to practice. It is much more powerful than the Zhou people's Phoenix Nirvana Sutra. I
How could Dashang lose to Zhou people in this aspect!"
Hearing the dissatisfaction in his tone, Zu An couldn't help but feel happy. It seemed that this guy's resentment towards the people of Zhou was indeed very serious.
He hurriedly asked: "What about my companion? Can she practice this thing? What rewards does she get?"
Wu Geng said calmly: "Only King Shang can practice the "Taotie Devouring Heaven Technique", so naturally she can't. But you don't have to worry, she will also gain something."
As he spoke, he flew a piece of jade that was full of fluidity into Pei Mianman's hands. Wu Geng explained: "This is Tianzhi Jade, which can absorb the vitality of heaven and earth, making cultivation more effective with half the effort. It also has another function. As long as this jade is not sold, even if the body dies,
, the soul can still be immortal."
Pei Mianman put this jade into the palm of his hand and felt that his soul was greatly nourished. It can be imagined how helpful it is to practice. And judging from the meaning of the other party's words, this seems to be equivalent to having a second life?
Wu Geng continued: "In addition, through this jade, you can get the recognition of the Owl Lord at the entrance of the trial. It is also a powerful magic weapon. You were a good wife in your previous life, and it is a perfect match for you."
Pei Mianman's eyes lit up: "Thank you, Prince!"
"I should thank you," Wu Geng waved his hand, "You can leave on your own. I, a sinner, finally have the nerve to pay homage to my ancestors in the Ancestral Temple..." After saying that, he turned around and left with a lonely expression.
The figure gradually turned into nothingness.
---
Today 2 chapters are combined together
This chapter has been completed!