A mausoleum.
The burial place of a Son of Heaven.
Ji Zhao's mausoleum had been built amid beautiful mountains and clear waters. In accordance with his last wishes, it was not particularly luxurious, falling far short of the later mausoleums, each more towering and magnificent than the last.
But a mountain need not be high; an immortal made it sacred. With Ji Zhao buried here, this was the holiest of places.
A thousand years had passed, and seas had turned into mulberry fields.
According to legend, when the Luo River Goddess Ji Lingjun was buried here, peach blossoms had covered the entire Sage King's Mausoleum overnight.
Countless people arrived and followed the straight, bluestone-paved road through the mausoleum toward the sacrificial altar. Their rumbling footsteps startled birds from the woods, drawing cry after cry. The branches and leaves of the peach trees swayed incessantly, as though welcoming Luo Jing, who walked at the very front.
At the end of the straight road, a sizable sacrificial altar came into view. It was built entirely of bluestone, and some of the stones atop it had even developed small cracks, adding traces of the passage of time.
This altar had an exceedingly long history. It had been built during King Kang's reign, when King Kang had commemorated Ji Zhao here, though its status then had not been as exalted as it was now.
Later, after the Son of Heaven of Zhou moved east, this became the Luo Clan's place for ancestral sacrifices. During the worst hostilities between the two states, Qin State had once attempted to cut off the Luo Clan's sacrifices to Ji Zhao, but soon lifted the restriction. Thus arose the peculiar sight of Luo State Ruling House Descendants swaggering about outside Qin State's Xianyang.
Liu Che stepped down from the