Chapter 5 Sacrifice

Does the ritual really work?

It should, otherwise, there shouldn't be the words "ritual strengthening" on the progress bar.

Can I really share the effect of the ritual by staying here?

I don't know. Li Qi doesn't understand at all. He is just taking a gamble.

He lives a muddle-headed life, working as a boatman and selling hard labor.

He doesn't want this.

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At this moment, on the other side.

On the river-viewing tower of Lishui River.

In order to monitor the water level anytime and anywhere, and to have a panoramic view of the city, there is a river-viewing tower on the riverside.

The tower is a hundred feet high, towering into the sky. Even modern skyscrapers rarely have this height.

The lower floor is a restaurant, but after thirty feet, no one is allowed to enter. As for the top floor, it is usually managed by the river officials, who are responsible for river management, monitoring of ships coming and going, and dredging embankments.

The prosperity of Lizhou depends entirely on the Lishui River.

The safety of the Lishui River is related to the livelihood of a state, and its importance is self-evident. Therefore, usually, no outsiders will appear on the upper floor of the Guanhe Tower except for the officials in charge of river observation.

But today, there are layers of altars on the Guanhe Tower, and nine witches wearing masks and strange clothes.

These witches are wearing lotus leaves and water plants, wearing lotus crowns on their heads, and painted with seven colors on their faces. They twist their bodies and chant.

Between the altar and the witches, there is a man with disheveled hair, holding a wooden paddle in his hand, and wearing a simple loose robe.

Surrounded by many altars, he chanted: "The sky and the earth have their own boundaries, and each produces its own resources. The craftsmen of Tang, the horns of the east, the gold of the west, the horns of the south, and the mines of the north cannot be used in their own places, so they need to be moved to other places. This is the benefit of circulation!"

"Alas! The god of Lishui River, who brings in the treasures of the four directions to provide them with resources, builds boats to sail on the water, manages 90 million people, and travels thousands of miles. His achievements are immeasurable, and the people look up to him!"

He shouted the sacrificial words while waving the oars.

The witches and shamans next to him picked up the drumsticks and beat the crocodile drums made of crocodile skin.

The crocodile, called the crocodile in ancient times, can make drums with its skin, and beating the drums can please the water god.

With this tossing, then... I saw that the whole Lizhou City was faintly rising with a strange energy.

Accompanying it, there was also a gurgling stream of water that suddenly gushed out of the altar.

These waters rushed to the man in the middle holding the oars.

The man continued to shout: "At the beginning of spring, the weather is good! Harmonize the cold and warm, be natural and casual, open your mind and body, remove the dirt in your heart, be clear and pure, pure as if invisible, the precious sand is shining, no depth is not illuminated! Turn to pour, remove my 葑!" (葑: zi, refers to disaster.)

He was drowned by the water.

The witches and shamans around stopped, sweating all over, and sat on the ground to rest.

Their dance didn't look very tiring, but looking at them now, it seemed as if they hadn't rested for ten consecutive days. Even their muscles couldn't help but cramp, sweat like a spring, and they collapsed on the ground and couldn't move.

At this time, a young man came out.

If Li Qi was here, he would definitely recognize that this was the young man who was with the "Strong Gang"!

"The most important affairs of the country are sacrifices and wars. The county magistrate presides over the sacrifices every year with such dedication. The king must be very happy to know." The young man looked at the man wrapped in the water and said so.

"Mr. Zhu, why do you say that? Sacrifice is the foundation of witchcraft. Dalu Kingdom was founded on witchcraft and respects ghosts and gods. How could it not care about sacrifice?" The county magistrate was floating in the water, but he could speak normally.

A closer look showed that his chest was still rising and falling, and he was obviously breathing.

In the water, he was still breathing.

"A country founded on witchcraft? But there are no witches or fortune-tellers, no divination, no dreamers, and divination in the palace. Instead, counties and prefectures were established, county magistrates and county magistrates were established, the king was respected, and bureaucrats were established. Is this witchcraft or humanity?" The young man called Mr. Zhu said with a smile.

But the county magistrate could not laugh when he heard this, and his expression became subtle.

"Mr. Zhu's words are too serious. Dalu Kingdom is of course based on witchcraft, but the human way is good at gathering the power of all living beings. If the country wants to expand and become strong, it must borrow the skin of humanity." The county magistrate immediately defended.

"That would be the best." Mr. Zhu nodded, and seemed to want to say something.

But the county magistrate didn't want him to say anything more, so he quickly replied: "Mr. Zhu, I heard that you have been very close to the common people recently, and often go in and out among the poor. Why is that?"

"I held a grand sacrifice a few years ago, and the result was that a foreign object would appear in Lizhou City, so I asked them to find it." Mr. Zhu waved his hand and didn't say much about this trivial matter.

"Although foreign objects are somewhat strange, most of them are waste and have little use. It's a bit... extravagant for you to use a grand sacrifice to search for this." The county magistrate reminded him.

"Nothing, the sacrifice is for divination, not for special search, but it's just an unexpected gain." Mr. Zhu seemed to answer casually.

Then, without waiting for the county governor to continue speaking, he suddenly looked puzzled: "County governor, I saw your festival, why does it seem that the power has weakened a little?"

"It's the end of the festival, it's normal for it to weaken, and it will fluctuate normally." The county governor didn't seem to care much. He stopped talking and immersed himself in the water flow, starting to absorb the power from it.

It did weaken, but it was probably less than one ten-thousandth, which is within the range of normal fluctuations.

It was just that Mr. Zhu looked downstairs thoughtfully.

And downstairs, in the corner.

Li Qi was posing in a strange posture, reciting the sacrificial text.

Where did the sacrificial text come from? Of course it was read by the county magistrate!

It was that paragraph: In Qinghua Palace, there is the god of Lishui River, with 42 departments and 90 million people, in charge of the affairs of the Lishui River. You boatmen are one of them. You pull the boats and sail the boats, relieve the natural disasters above and save the dark locks below. Today is the grand ceremony of opening the river. You Qi will relieve the disaster water, eliminate the sins and eliminate the crimes, and you will be rewarded.

This world, for some reason, uses characters similar to Chinese characters. He has some culture, so he can understand it.

So, he made a slight modification and changed it to: We boatmen are one of them. We pull the boats with all our heart, and then changed the latter to: Today is the grand ceremony of opening the river. We Cao Qi will relieve the disaster water, eliminate the sins and eliminate the crimes, please reward!

Did it work?

Of course it worked!

Because the progress bar moved!

He had tried many times before, modifying word by word, including body movements, and changed them many times. He originally stood and waited, but found it was completely useless.

Even when the progress bar of the river-opening ceremony reached 99.6%, he had no intention of sharing the profits.

Then, Li Qi immediately started to try other things.

He changed his posture, modified the sacrificial words, and tried many times, but it was useless.

Because he had realized one of the functions of the progress bar, which is to determine whether something is useful!

If it is useful, there will definitely be a progress bar describing the progress!

He tried for a full three quarters of an hour, and finally found that when he prostrated himself, faced the Lishui River, and prayed for the sacrificial words, the progress: "Ritual strengthening, 1%." finally popped up!

Just when he finally tried the method, the progress bar of the river-opening ceremony had reached 99.8%

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