"Your Majesty... this, this..."
Li Jing was so shocked that his heart and mind were both shaken, all the color draining from his face as he stared blankly at King Zhou, as if hearing a world-shaking secret that subverted his understanding.
He never imagined that the current turmoil in Great Shang was not caused by a muddled imperial court at all, but by immortals of the Heaven Realm scheming and battling while using the mortal world as a chessboard.
A chill rushed straight from the soles of his feet to his crown.
When immortals fight, mortals suffer.
Were not they, these mortal ministers and common generals, along with the tens of thousands of subjects across the realm, caught in the perilous gaps between life and death at any moment, unable to even master their own destiny?
In Li Jing's heart, millions upon millions of Great Shang commoners were each a living life, flesh-and-blood compatriots of the same clan and lineage—how could he bear to watch such devastation of all living things?
He immediately cupped his hands, his tone urgent:
"Your Majesty! Since Empress Nuwa is willing to help stabilize the Auspicious Qi of Great Shang, could... could these deities be entirely banished from the mortal world?
We mortals simply wish to live out our days in peace; why must we suffer such unwarranted calamity!"
King Zhou gently shook his head, his eyes filled with helplessness and heaviness.
How he wished to keep the immortals far away from Zhaoge and prevent them from interfering in mortal affairs!
Yet the Great Tribulation of Investiture of the Gods was already destined to fall upon Yin Shang, and even thousands of common folk were caught up in the tribulation, unable to act of their own accord.
He had no wish to watch his subjects