Bi Gan threw his heart and the dagger onto the floor and left the Nine-Chamber Hall without looking back.
No one dared stop him.
Everyone stood frozen like wooden chickens.
Zi Shou was dumbstruck too. Incredible-he had actually cut out his own heart, yet he could still walk around freely afterward.
That was seriously badass.
Bi Gan left the palace and wandered on in a daze, reaching the market before he knew it.
He heard an old woman by the roadside hawking Heartless Vegetables.
A sudden flash of inspiration struck Bi Gan when he heard her, and he asked, "What vegetable is this? How much does it cost?"
The old woman said, "I sell Heartless Vegetables, sir. Three Copper Shells a bundle."
The old woman was shrewd. She knew the feudal lords had all arrived in Chaoge to defend the king. Feeding them and the soldiers they had brought was no small expense, so she could set a higher price for her Heartless Vegetables without worrying that no one would buy them.
"Heartless Vegetables?" Bi Gan murmured. "Vegetables can live without a heart, but what of a person without one?"
The old woman was puzzled. What did this old man mean?
What did heartless vegetables have to do with heartless people?
Could it be...
The old woman eyed Bi Gan warily. He wore fine robes, and although his face was rather pale, he clearly held no ordinary standing.
Was he some high-ranking official?
The old woman wondered to herself whether the feudal lords had complained about the high vegetable prices and specially sent a court official to call her to account.
That can't be right! The pork seller next door jacked up his prices on the spot. A while back, two high officials hoarded huge quantities of pork, and prices still haven't come down. Now that's truly black-hearted!
Wait, black-hearted? What happens to a person without a heart?
The old woman understood. This old man was accusing her of making black-hearted money against her conscience!
She immediately retorted irritably, "A person without a heart can live too!"
So what if I make money against my conscience? Only with money can I buy rice and flour, eat my fill, and live well!
As soon as she finished speaking, Bi Gan felt a warm current rise from his abdomen to his chest. He cried out, and the wound on his chest healed on its own. Even his complexion grew rosy.
Bi Gan suddenly remembered the talisman Zi Qi had forcibly stuffed into his mouth before taking his own life. He had also told Bi Gan to preserve himself even if the assassination failed, so that he could protect Cheng Tang's realm.
This...
Bi Gan's expression shifted repeatedly. His crime was unforgivable, yet King Zhou was benevolent, and Prince Zi Qi had entrusted him with this charge. This life of his...
Since it had been saved, he would use this battered body to safeguard the realm.
Bi Gan hesitated no longer and headed straight for his own estate.
Only the old vegetable seller remained, muttering a curse at yet another man who asked the price without buying anything.
Song Family Village, Chaoge.
On Yuanshi Tianzun's orders, Jiang Ziya had descended the mountain to assist an enlightened ruler.
His master had told him that he was born with scant fortune and would find it difficult to attain immortality; he could enjoy only the blessings of the mortal world. Cheng Tang's allotted days were over, and the House of Zhou was about to rise, making this the perfect time to assist Xiqi.
After descending the mountain, Jiang Ziya had first gone to Chaoge to seek shelter with his sworn elder brother, Song Yiren. He then married Lady Ma, who was "a youthful sixty," and had sold bamboo strainers and flour, run a tavern, and sold live pigs and sheep.
Although he lost money at everything he tried, just as he had intended, he gradually sounded out Great Shang's true condition.
Great Shang was rotten to its very bones! Even its commerce was flawed, with no organized system of trade whatsoever.
Later, he had encountered Zi Qi. After discovering his rebellious intentions, he gave him an immortal sword and talismans, hoping to throw Chaoge into chaos.
Unfortunately, Zi Qi had failed, but it had not been a total loss. At least Jiang Ziya now knew the strength of Chaoge's defenses and the fighting capabilities of its troops.
Just now, Jiang Ziya had sensed his life-saving talisman take effect, but he paid little attention. It was only one fish in the net he had cast far and wide, after all.
He continued gathering intelligence at his fortune-telling stall.
He and his senior fellow disciple Yun Zhongzi occupied the eastern and western markets of Chaoge respectively. With different objectives, they had divided all of Chaoge's fortune-telling business between them.
Zi Shou and the senior court ministers stared blankly after Bi Gan, taking a long time to recover.
The sight had been far too shocking. He had cut out his heart right before their eyes, then walked out as though nothing had happened. It was truly unbelievable.
I should have snatched the dagger and shouted, "Leave it to me!"
Unfortunately, he had not thought of it.
Zi Shou could only have his guards collect Bi Gan's heart and Zi Qi's head, then continue the deliberations.
Under such circumstances, he ought to have dismissed court and let everyone recover, but this was a rare opportunity. Few ministers were attending today, which meant fewer voices of opposition. He had to seize the chance.
Zi Shou raised the issue of what to do with the prisoners of war and allowed the ministers to offer suggestions.
Junior Grandee Xia Zhao proposed using the prisoners for human burial sacrifice, burying them alongside the Great Shang officers and soldiers who had died in the rebellion, such as the South Gate commander Zhou Ji, Deputy Commander XX, and the western gate commander XXX.
Human burial sacrifice was a tradition of the Shang Dynasty, and also its most barbaric aspect.
Whether they were sacrificing to Heaven, honoring their ancestors, praying for rain, or celebrating a festival, they burned or killed living people as offerings every time, anywhere from a dozen or so to several hundred.
When a master died, several of his relatives, friends, and slaves would be killed to help carry his possessions on the journey to the Yellow Springs. Even renovating a house required killing people as sacrifices to make the building sturdier.
In modern times, a burial sacrifice site containing over five hundred people had once been excavated. Some had been beheaded, some buried alive, some buried with dogs, and some buried kneeling. It was utterly horrific.
Yet this was normal.
At least, it had been normal before Wu Yi.
Wu Yi had performed Shooting Heaven with Blood. People denounced him as a tyrant for disrespecting Heaven, and those with ulterior motives even claimed that he had been struck dead by lightning as divine punishment.
Only the royal clan knew that Wu Yi had wanted to abolish human burial sacrifice, taking a bite out of the feudal lords' and nobles' cake. The feudal lords had refused to save him, leading to his death in battle. But that death was too humiliating to speak of: the ruler of Great Shang had ultimately been left utterly isolated, with no one to help him.
To the feudal lords and nobles, if killing a few lowly commoners or slaves could buy peace of mind, why not do it? Those did not even count as human lives!
Yet Wu Yi had not died in vain. Every undertaking was hardest at the beginning. During his thirty-four-year reign, human burial sacrifices gradually decreased, and the common people finally began to recognize the problem.
That was why Su Hu had invoked Wu Yi's name to inspire his common-born soldiers on the march to reinforce Chaoge.
Zi Shou rejected the proposal in stern terms. As a transmigrator with remarkably sound values, he could not bring himself to practice human burial sacrifice. Not only could he not do it, he had to abolish it completely and finish what Wu Yi had left undone.
Abolishing human burial sacrifice would be difficult for people of this era to accept anyway, especially the feudal lords and nobles. They would certainly brand him a foolish ruler. As for what later generations thought, that had nothing to do with him. By then, he would long since have amassed enough Foolishness Value to ascend to immortality in broad daylight!
After Zi Shou rejected the proposal for human burial sacrifice, Senior Grandee Yang Ren stepped forward and proposed using the prisoners for human offering sacrifice.
Zi Shou's expression turned ugly. After putting forward the Mandate of Heaven Theory, he had proposed abolishing human offering sacrifice. Although the ministers had discussed it several times without reaching a conclusion, virtually no one dared propose it anymore. Since occasions requiring human offering sacrifice were uncommon, the matter had not caused much of a stir.
Yet today, Yang Ren was openly opposing him.
Human offering sacrifice differed from human burial sacrifice: its purpose was to make offerings to Heaven.
Yang Ren was one of the court's most active opponents of the Mandate of Heaven Theory, as was clear from the fact that Yun Zhongzi had been staying at his residence all along.
But this was not because he believed in Heaven's mandate. It was simply because he was a loyal minister, so loyal that even after his death, his undying devotion could stir the clouds beneath an immortal's feet.
Like Zi Qi, Yang Ren believed the Mandate of Heaven Theory would harm Great Shang. Apart from feudal lords like Su Hu, whose father had been a commoner, and utterly unprincipled ones like Chong Houhu, no feudal lord or noble would approve of it.
For Heaven's mandate made them superior to ordinary people from birth. It was not merely Heaven's mandate; it also endowed them with status and power. People ought to believe their lot was ordained by Heaven: commoners were commoners, slaves were slaves, and neither could defy the nobility for their entire lives. If they stopped believing in fate, there would be trouble.
To prevent the feudal lords from turning against Shang, Yang Ren resolved to use the prisoners for human offering sacrifice, even invoking Wu Ding, the ruler who had restored the dynasty's fortunes.
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