Chapter 46 Ancient Secrets

The sacrificial scene glimpsed from the palm-sized bronze *ding* was already solemn and magnificent enough, and mysteriously sacred. The low chanting, and the men and women kowtowing in Shang Dynasty attire, transcended the long years, conveying the ancient simplicity and vastness clearly into Wei Yuan's eyes.

He saw the flames in the huge bronze *fangding* gradually extinguished.

When the five bronze wares were placed together, a map appeared on them. However, it was not clear in this illusion. Finally, the scene of sacrificial prayer slowly dissipated, and everything fell into darkness. Only the ancient bronze ware with the Dan bird pattern in Wei Yuan's palm still emitted a burning heat.

There was no doubt that this ancient artifact was together with the bronze *jue* of the Shang King and Su Yu'er's Xuan bird bronze dagger. Added to the other two bronze wares that he hadn't seen clearly, they would gather the Chaoge map left by King Zhou of Shang.

An endless stream of questions and doubts emerged uncontrollably in Wei Yuan's heart—

Why did Di Xin leave this map?

Is this map a Chaoge ancient ruins, or something else?

The intersection of the Shang and Zhou dynasties has extremely important secret meanings in the supernatural world. It is not just the battle of the Gods, which was written less than five hundred years ago. Rather, it represents the end and the beginning of two different supernatural time points.

Wei Yuan tapped his brow, sorting out his thoughts.

Known history: initially, gods and humans lived together in the land of China.

Then, Zhuanxu severed the connection between heaven and earth, and King Yu exiled the *Shan Hai*, cast the nine *ding*, and opened the era of humans. From the end of the Xia Dynasty to the Shang Dynasty, for at least a thousand years, it was purely an era of humans. There were no gods, or very few gods moved around. The gods no longer lived with humans.

The strange beasts of the *Shan Hai* were also driven out and exiled.

And the method of earth deities had not yet been born.

What the Shang Dynasty sacrificed were ancestors and heaven and earth. It is not known today what specific existences they sacrificed at that time. The existences that the Shang King sacrificed were often named ‘Di’. There was also a record in the Book of Songs: ‘The Emperor's order is not violated, as far as Tang Qi. Tang descended not late, sacred respect daily ascends.’

In the Zhou Dynasty, earth deities appeared, as well as gods who were sacrificed with the national fortune: the Vast Heaven God.

One of the reasons why King Wu of Zhou attacked King Zhou of Shang was that he refused to serve the God of Heaven and the spirits.

With the birth of the earth deity method, the Zhou Dynasty had eight hundred years of rule, with five hundred years being the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. In this stage, different ‘gods’ appeared in various parts of China, fighting each other. The Four Emperors of Qin, the Eight Gods of Qi, and the myths of Chu all appeared during this time.

And the thousand years between Emperor Yu and King Zhou of Shang was the period connecting the era when the Five Emperors of China lived with gods and humans, and the years of the pre-Qin era, when hundreds of schools of thought contended. In that era, there were no gods, only the heroic souls of ancestors. The human leaders of the Xia and Shang dynasties possessed the highest royal power and divine power at the same time.

The king of the human race was also the master of all things, the high priest with the highest status in the shamanic sacrifices.

Communicating with heaven and earth, asking ghosts and gods, nothing was not answered.

It was also the period of time hidden in the long river of history.

In the end, the decisive battle between King Wu of Zhou and King Zhou of Shang also represented the earth deities ascending to the history of China.

It represented the complete decline and demise of the ancient mythological period of China since the Five Emperors.

Wei Yuan felt his brow throbbing.

Looking at it now, that battle should have hidden many things. Even King Zhou of Shang, Di Xin, had prepared for failure. Did he foresee that in the years of Xia and Shang, the era when the emperor was the chief high priest, simultaneously controlling divine power and royal power, was about to pass?

So, he hid certain things in advance, sealing them in a certain place.

Only by gathering five bronze wares could the map be found, and the final destination located.

And, understand the changes that occurred during that time.

Wei Yuan had another guess in his mind. Whenever the fortune of the human world changed, his true spirit would be pulled down and reincarnated in the human world. Then, would ‘he’ also be in that battle that represented the end of the ancient mythological era and the beginning of the era of fortune deities?

While Wei Yuan was pondering, he suddenly heard a sound that startled him out of this state.

Wei Yuan turned his head and saw that Zhou Zichang, who should have been directly controlled by him, and whose ability to move had been sealed by him using the means of a martial arts cultivator, had actually stood up and was running. There was an empty medicine bottle at his feet, and the old man beside him could see that his student had swallowed the medicine silently just now.

Zhou Zichang felt his body burning, and the pain made him unable to control himself, roaring out loud.

This was the result of his research over the years, an unstable Wu Xian medicine.

His body possessed a temporary degree of immortality, as if it had been transformed into a weapon, unbinding the body's constraints on its own potential, directly breaking through Wei Yuan's Qi seal, and also breaking his own arm.

With only the crazy obsession of ‘cannot die’ in his heart, Zhou Zichang avoided Wei Yuan, broke through the glass at the limit of human speed, and ran out of a tunnel.

Behind him, the metal door locked directly.

Wei Yuan had left marks and talismans on Zhou Zichang's body, making it impossible for him to escape. This also reminded Wei Yuan that the secrets remaining on the Shang King's bronze ware were greater than he had expected. It was a record of the changes of the era, and he couldn't look at it here. He put away the bronze *ding*, and glanced at the old professor.

He sighed complicatedly and said, "I will notify the relevant personnel to handle this matter."

"Old sir, please rest."

Wei Yuan added the last of the Yellow Turban talismans on his body to these leukemia patients.

Then, the sword in his hand was unsheathed, slashing out. The blade was wrapped in strong *gang qi*, tearing the metal door directly. Then, he shook his sleeves, and a cyan stream of wind swept out, blocking the wind outside, preventing it from entering this place and causing adverse effects on those patients.

Only then did he step out and follow the Qi to track him down.

The Wu Xian medicine itself had huge side effects, let alone in an unstable state.

He could feel that Zhou Zichang's speed was decreasing rapidly.

……………………

Leukemia Research Sanatorium, basement.

The old professor, whose face was covered with wrinkles, coughed. He could already see souls and ghosts, and should not be far from death. He stared at the traces left by Wei Yuan's sword, and his eyes flickered. Finally, he withdrew his gaze and murmured, "Elixir of immortality..."

The old professor coughed, and struggled to roll over from the hospital bed.

Zhou Zichang was his student, and he knew some of the former's habits.

The old man endured the great pain brought by leukemia, and his trembling hands were extremely agile, constantly searching in this place. Finally, he opened a hidden box and successfully found the medicine sealed in a white medicine bottle. He opened the lid and confirmed that it was the medicine that Zhou Ziming had researched from the Wu Xian medicine.

His turbid eyes lit up.

His body, which was originally on the verge of death, seemed to have strength again.

"Elixir of immortality, elixir of immortality..."

He treasured this last medicine and hid it carefully, then laboriously turned on the computer.

Using what was already available here, he found the data of his disciples. He copied these data and deleted all records of the elixir of immortality, completely crushing them.

Zhou Zichang had special software, and the crushed data could not be retrieved.

This was just the amount of exercise to move his fingers.

But it had already made the old man feel exhausted, and his whole body was in great pain.

Finally, he lay on the hospital bed, with no strength to move.

…………………………

As a medical master, Jiang Hualiang had sufficient achievements in cancer and was respected. He was quickly transferred out.

But he chose to return to his home.

It was said to be a home, but it was actually a small but high-end research institute.

He often brought students here.

His wife had passed away six years ago, and he hired a nanny to cook and wash clothes for him. This day, he came back and asked the nanny to help him move his chair forward. The nanny, a middle-aged woman in her thirties or forties, grumbled and advised him: "Old Jiang, you should take a good rest. Sitting in front of the computer is not good for your health..."

Jiang Hualiang coughed and laughed: "It's precisely because my body is not good that I have to hurry up and seize the time."

"Otherwise, there won't be enough time."

The nanny didn't understand what he meant.

After bringing the meal, she swept the floor and went out.

Jiang Hualiang tremblingly took out the USB flash drive and the last elixir of immortality. After modifying the remaining data, he crushed it with Zhou Zichang's special software.

He gritted his teeth and swallowed a pill that he had taken many times before.

This medicine was stronger, like swallowing flames, followed by a severe burning sensation. The old man coughed violently, then reached out and opened the data, starting to type word by word with difficulty. He didn't touch a single bite of the meal brought by the nanny. These medicines supported his life, burning like flames.

"Day 1 of taking the medicine, there is a tearing sensation in the diseased area, then the spirit..."

"Day 3 of taking the medicine..."

"Day 4 of taking the medicine, with..."

Accompanied by violent coughing and the pain caused by cancer cells in the body, accompanied by the elixir of immortality suppressing the vitality of the body, leading to the suppression of the vitality of cancer cells, the old man, who was over seventy years old, felt like he was undergoing chemotherapy every moment. He could only type word by word, deleting and modifying.

Crushing those parts of the data that violated the bottom line.

However, those that could be used in medical technology, those real clinical data, were left by him. Then, without using the painkillers that Zhou Zichang had used before, under absolute pain and absolute rationality, with a doctor's understanding of the body for more than fifty years, and in a cold and rational tone, he faithfully recorded the changes in the body and the reaction of each lesion.

In this case, a medical professor's precise description of his own body has sufficient value in medicine.

This was his last operation.

It's just that the patient will inevitably not be able to walk out standing up.

Until the last day.

He finally typed the last character.

The old man's hands no longer trembled. He inserted the USB flash drive, imported the data into it, saved the backup, and then held it in his hand. In the medicine bottle next to him, there were still a few last pills of Wu Xian medicine. The blood-colored medicine represented the desire for immortality. He put paper in the glass ashtray, lit it, and threw the medicine into it.

Watching the Wu Xian medicine being burned and destroyed.

He looked at the flames, and now all the cells in his body were in an extremely necrotic and constantly dividing state. He was slowly dying. His spirit slowly relaxed. The flames were reflected in his eyes, reminding him of what he had once said, reminding him of himself who had once wanted to study medicine.

‘Our work and study, all our struggles and sacrifices are meaningful.’

‘I am determined to do my best to remove the pain of human beings and help the perfection of health! I am determined to maintain the sanctity and honor of medical skills, heal the wounded and rescue the dying, without fear of hardships, and persistently pursue! Fight for the development of human medical and health undertakings and the physical and mental health of human beings throughout my life.’

The old man was stunned, and then murmured softly:

"Zichang, you are right, science has no boundaries. We must keep trying to find the right direction. This requires sacrifice, struggle, and enough samples..."

"But science also has boundaries."

"All science, free, great science, must take the conscience of scientists as the boundary. The desire for knowledge should be subject to moral principles..."

He murmured, reached out from the cabinet under the table, found another medicine bottle, poured out a pill, and put it in his mouth tremblingly. He could no longer feel the sweetness, and the old man's brow still slowly relaxed.

Finally, he seemed to see doctors coming, and in this dim memory, children were vaccinated.

Then they would get this kind of vaccine candy.

Poliomyelitis vaccine.

In the memory screen, the round-faced child swallowed the vaccine and licked his lips with relish.

"So sweet..."

"I've decided, I want to be a doctor!"

………………………………

The next day, the nanny opened the door with the key and said:

"Old Jiang, Old Jiang, are you awake?"

"Jiang..."

Her voice stopped, and then she seemed to be frightened. She took a few steps back, raised her hand to cover her mouth, and then ran out and called the old man's disciples and relatives. The doctors arrived, they couldn't say anything, and finally choked and bowed deeply to the old man.

The skinny old man's weight had dropped by almost a third. His blue-veined fingers, thumb and forefinger were tightly pinching the marks on the USB flash drive, and his palm was wide and soft, holding the whole thing like a scalpel. This was a familiar movement for every doctor, the grip.

This was his last operation in his life.

Like a dead warrior, like he had completed the final battle.

In his last will, he was thinking of what the young man had said.

The pain that can drive even gods crazy seems to be nothing more than this...

Haha, isn't it?

ps: Second update today... four thousand words~ Thank you for the ten thousand reward from Zui Shi Qing Sheng, thank you very much~

emmmm, it seems that some book friends guessed half of it before...

*Tai Shi* says: Zhou Yi lived in a place where he refused to serve the God of Heaven and the spirits, and the misfortune of his ancestors was not sacrificed. He said: ‘My people have a destiny.’ There is no Liao to remove the leaks, and the heavens also abandoned him and did not cherish him.

*Collection of Oracle Bone Inscriptions*: Offering sacrifices to Emperor Shi Feng, one cow.