Chapter 113: Heavenly Sacrifice
The Great Dao Si Ren Wan Shou Emperor personally led the army to fight, and the grand ceremony was so grand that it could not be compared with the expedition led by the Crown Prince Zhu Yijun.
The 100,000 elite soldiers of the Shenwu Camp were only the imperial guards guarding the periphery. In the inner layer, there were 20,000 to 30,000 Jinyiwei personal troops. Following the imperial carriage were tens of thousands of dukes, nobles, eunuchs, palace maids, etc.
The army of more than 100,000 people marched in a mighty manner stretching for dozens of miles. Wherever they passed, local officials, wealthy families, and even the gods of the underworld all knelt down to welcome them, and no one dared to neglect them.
The imperial court is gradually declining, but the current emperor is not a good-for-nothing. When Jiajing first ascended the throne, he was quite wise. His skills were many times stronger than those of the crown prince Zhu Yijun. All the civil and military officials in the court were obedient to him and dared not do anything wrong.
It's a pity that he later became obsessed with cultivating immortals and had no time to take care of state affairs. In addition, he blindly trusted treacherous ministers, and the Ming Dynasty was in a state of despair. The crown prince was even more unscrupulous and acted recklessly, which led to the Ming Dynasty's current chaos.
The aristocratic families are quite aware of his abilities. If he really wants to mobilize the whole country to fight against the Great Devil of Jiuling Mountain, Chen Jiu may not be able to defeat him.
Therefore, after the news of the emperor's personal expedition spread, no one from the noble and wealthy families dared to come to Jiuling Mountain anymore, and many of them even went to welcome the emperor!
Chen Jiu did not dare to be negligent. He pulled all the 80,000 troops of the Qinglian Sect to the north of the new territory. From Yishan, Lushan, to the area four or five hundred miles north of the new territory, he set up a talisman formation for thousands of miles.
The monkey demon, bean soldiers, bat soldiers, peach tree spirit, Luo Li brother and sister, old fox fairy, wolf demon Wang Er, Da Qing and Xiao Qing, etc., were all taken in and settled down in the fairy palace. He was prepared to run away if he couldn't win.
Of course, he would not easily give up the new domain that he had conquered with great difficulty. He was still trying his best to enhance his strength.
He now has more than 700 demon king-level bean soldiers under his command, and the third batch of 365 has also been stuffed into the demon power space for birth.
The number of monkey demon kings has now reached seven or eight hundred, and there are more than two hundred who are taking blood soul pills and practicing hard in the demon power space.
The Honghuang Divine Cauldron is also working hard to forge a standard immortal weapon, the Da Guan Dao. If there is enough time, thousands of bean soldiers and thousands of monkey demon kings will be equipped with it.
He also stuffed a bunch of Blood Soul Pills and Immortal Pills into the Wolf Demon King II, Sun Dasheng, Zhu Tianpeng, Niu Dali, and even Jiaona and Zhang Wanxia, asking them to practice quickly and try their best to break through to the realm of demon immortals or earth immortals.
If Jiajing had come a little slower, he might have been able to hold off the 100,000-strong Shenwu Camp army and hundreds of earthly immortals and save the new territory.
It was not known whether Jiajing had taken the wrong medicine or was simply not in a hurry. He did not lead his army directly to attack the new territory. Instead, after entering Jinan Prefecture from Hejian Prefecture, the imperial army headed straight for Mount Tai in the southeast!
The new territory is in the direction of Yishan. If the imperial army wants to wipe out the Great Demon King of Jiuling Mountain, they should come to the southeast. Going to the southwest would be a mistake of a thousand miles.
What is going on here? Does Jiajing want to kill Luo Menghong, who is at the top of the earthly immortal level, first and make him lose his greatest supporter?
To the southwest, bypassing Mount Tai is Liaocheng!
When Chen Jiu received the news, he quickly sent bat soldiers to inform his father-in-law, asking him to bring the people of the Qinglian Sect to the new domain if all else failed. After all, the place here is big enough to accommodate millions of people.
As a result, he guessed wrong again.
Jiajing went to Mount Tai, where his army surrounded the top of the mountain tightly and then stopped there.
What does this guy want to do?
When Chen Jiu received the news, he immediately invited the old ancestor Hong Yun from the Immortal Palace to come out, and asked with a puzzled look on his face: "The imperial army ran to the top of Mount Tai, and they stopped there. What is Jiajing trying to do?"
Upon hearing this, Patriarch Hongyun said solemnly, "He wants to offer sacrifice to the heavens and ask the gods in heaven to take care of you!"
ah!
Chen Jiu couldn't help but asked in surprise: "Is this true?"
Patriarch Hongyun still looked solemn and said, "Of course it's true. Our Zhang family is the descendant of the Emperor of Heaven, and we have some understanding of the Heavenly Court. If ordinary people go to the top of Mount Tai to offer sacrifices to the Heaven, the Heavenly Court gods will ignore them. But if the emperor of the mortal world goes to offer sacrifices to the Heaven, the Heavenly Court gods will still give him face and meet him."
This is trouble. If Jiajing really invites the gods from heaven, he will probably not be able to escape.
He has a divine weapon from heaven!
Although the Book of Life and Death is useless to him, who knows if other divine artifacts of the Heavenly Dao will be of use to him?
Chen Jiu also said solemnly: "Ancestor, do you think the gods in heaven will help?"
Patriarch Hongyun shook his head slightly and said, "I don't know. Although our Qingyang Zhang family is a descendant of the Heavenly Emperor, we are not direct descendants. We don't even have the qualifications to communicate with the Heavenly Emperor. Only Patriarch Dingjun of the Yuyang Zhang family is qualified to communicate with the Heavenly Emperor."
What should I do?
Can Jiajing really ask the gods in heaven for help?
In fact, Jiajing didn't know this either, as it was his first time to offer sacrifices to heaven.
After he led his army to the top of Mount Tai, he ordered his men to set up an altar according to ancient methods, place various offerings on it, and then bathe, burn incense, and fast for three days.
Early in the morning of the fourth day, as the sun rose, he slowly walked up to the altar, sat cross-legged, and ordered people to begin the complicated ceremony of offering sacrifices to the sky.
A group of officials from the Ministry of Rites burned incense, performed rituals, and offered sacrifices. They repeated this process three times and were busy for more than an hour. Only then did a ritual officer with a loud voice pick up the sacrificial text and read it aloud.
The beginning part of this sacrificial text is all ready-made. It is nothing more than praising the merits of the gods in heaven and expressing respect. The latter part is the key point. He has to tell the gods in heaven what he wants to do.
Jiajing's purpose was naturally to ask the gods in heaven to take action to deal with Chen Jiu. A large part of the sacrificial text was devoted to enumerating the heinous crimes committed by the great demon king of Jiuling Mountain. The deaths and injuries of the victims from all over the Ming Dynasty were all blamed on Chen Jiu.
After the sacrificial text was read, it was time to burn incense and welcome the gods. Jiajing stood up and lit nine incense sticks himself, respectfully inserted them into the cauldron on the altar, and then stood there waiting silently.
Will the gods in heaven pay any attention to him?
If we go by the royal records, yes!
Although he had not come to the top of Mount Tai to offer sacrifices to heaven, many emperors in history had come here to offer sacrifices to heaven, and the gods in heaven would usually receive them.
On the surface, Jiajing was concentrating on the incense burner in front of him, but he was actually extremely annoyed.
He originally wanted to let the Crown Prince lead the dukes and nobles to suppress the aristocratic families, while he himself would concentrate on cultivation. After becoming a god, he would live forever, and it would be just a matter of time before he could deal with the vassal kings and the aristocratic families.
Who would have known that a demon king from Jiuling Mountain would suddenly appear in Qingzhou, and this guy’s surname was Chen!
Those with the surname Chen must die. This sentence was not actually said by the crown prince, nor by him, but by the ancestor of their royal family.
This sentence is recorded in the ancestral precepts of the Ming Dynasty, and all emperors of the Zhu family must obey it.
He really wanted to kill Chen Jiu, but he was quite afraid of the other person's strength.
So many earthly immortals from the Zhao family were killed by others. Can he catch them and kill them?
With this guy's strength, he might not be able to catch him at all.
For this purpose, he also specially sent Xu Wenbi, Duke of Wei, to test it out.
As a result, he was calm and didn't care at all.
What does this prove? It proves that they are not afraid at all!
Of course he knew that if such a disaster was not caught, there would be endless troubles.
This guy's abilities are already terrifying enough, and he has an even more terrifying weapon in his hand. If this guy hides in the dark and launches a sneak attack, he might be killed by him.
He doesn't want to take the risk.
Therefore, he chose to change his route to Mount Tai and ask the gods in heaven for help.
Will the gods in heaven take action?
He was standing there in a daze when suddenly a burst of exclamations was heard from all around.
Why are these slaves making such a commotion?
He turned around and glanced around majestically, only to find that everyone was staring at the sky in front of him in amazement.
Only then did he realize that it was the nine incense sticks that blocked his view.
He turned his head, took a little breath, floated up a little, and looked through the curl of cigarette smoke, and couldn't help feeling happy.
South Gate of Heaven!
The legendary South Gate of Heaven really appeared above the clouds right in front of him.
There is a Nantianmen in the royal records, and this Nantianmen is the gateway to heaven.
At this time, a team of heavenly soldiers and generals came floating in on auspicious clouds, bowed respectfully and said: "Please invite the emperor of the world to come to the heaven for a talk."
Okay, the Heaven is giving me face.
Jiajing smiled slightly, floated up, stepped on the auspicious clouds under the admiring gaze of everyone, and slowly floated towards the South Gate of Heaven.
In fact, he also has the strength of a peak earthly immortal and is only one step away from becoming a god. Otherwise, he would not have dropped everything to concentrate on cultivation like Luo Menghong.
However, like Luo Menghong, he was worried that he would not be able to survive the terrible heavenly tribulation, so he was reluctant to take the last step.
Rumor has it that one can become a god without experiencing a heavenly tribulation. This time, he also wanted to ask the gods in heaven how to avoid a heavenly tribulation.
