Chapter 216: Bad food

Forty-six days.

Forty-six full days had passed.

Li Qi had traversed every inch of Guangyang.

Since then, he had been engrossed in meticulously organizing, deliberating, and constructing every step of a Grand Ritual.

This was an incredibly difficult task.

His hair was disheveled, his eyes bloodshot, but they still shone brightly. His face showed some fatigue, yet his movements remained swift, and his reactions were unaffected.

He buried himself in countless scrolls, meticulously refining every detail of the sacrifice.

Sacrifices to Heaven involved burning wood, to Earth involved burying offerings, to seasons involved a red calf, to cold and heat involved a pit altar, to the sun involved a palace, to the moon involved night brightness, to stars involved a dark temple, to floods and droughts involved a rain dance, to the four seasons involved four pit altars, and to all gods involved the world.

This is what is meant by 'Ji' (Sacrifice).

If laws benefit the people, they are worshipped; if one dies diligently serving, they are worshipped; if one stabilizes the country through labor, they are worshipped; if one can ward off great disasters, they are worshipped; if one can defend against great calamities, they are worshipped. Heaven, Earth, the four directions, mountains, and rivers are worshipped according to the season.

This is what is meant by 'Si' (Worship).

Distinguishing these differences, and then arranging different scales according to specific situations, a Grand Ritual needs to be pieced together from countless individual small sacrifices and worships. Furthermore, all parties must be coordinated according to certain specifications to collectively complete the ritual, which is quite complex.

When Li Qi was in Li Prefecture City, the annual river opening ceremony was, in fact, a regularized sacrifice.

The entire city, with over a million people, was mobilized, with everyone performing their respective duties. What each person did, what each Gang did, and what was done at what time, all had arrangements.

Even what to eat that day was prescribed by custom.

Only then could the river opening ceremony reach such a scale, benefiting both the God of the Li River and the Lord of Lizhou greatly. The people below, such as Boat Towmen like Li Qi, could also share in some benefits, receiving rewards and meat.

It was also like festivals such as Ghost Festival, where the entire world would simultaneously perform rituals on that day. Everyone would burn paper, worship ancestors, and offer sacrifices.

Such a Grand Ritual, performed by an unknown number of people simultaneously, was even more complex. Furthermore, depending on the region and country, the rituals of the people in each place differed, but this difference was precisely what the entire Grand Ritual required.

Just thinking about it makes one realize how complicated it is to mobilize people across the entire world to do one thing simultaneously, with different divisions of labor, and to solidify all of this...

It's unknown how it spread throughout the entire world... In any case, it just formed into 'customs'.

What Li Qi had to do now was the same thing, just on a smaller scale.

Shaman God Mountain promoted the Ghost Festival, which was promoted throughout the entire world.

Li Qi, on the other hand, had to plan everything that tens of millions of people in Guangyang would do within a single day.

On that day, everyone must follow his arrangements, perform various rituals, produce different effects, and generate different Qi.

All of this Qi would converge at the main altar in the center through Li Qi's coordination, and then subtle reactions would occur between the different types of Qi, ultimately achieving the desired result.

Just hearing it reveals its complexity, and the calculations required are too numerous to count.

What kind of Qi would a certain ritual produce?

What types of Qi, once produced, would combine, what reactions would they generate, and what effects would those reactions have?

This infinitely spreading chain reaction had hundreds of millions of nodes, each with a different effect, and each would also trigger a chain reaction with other nodes.

Relying solely on books, it was truly difficult to avoid any oversight; small-scale attempts had to be made bit by bit.

Li Qi organized this knowledge, and then, based on the actual situation in Guangyang, he arranged everything step by step, even down to a specific village or a certain street in a county town.

In fact, it shouldn't have been so precise; being too precise could easily lead to errors. But Li Qi could only assume the worst, starting with precision, confirming the effects, and then slowly modifying it later to improve fault tolerance.

This increased his workload by more than tenfold, but it effectively reduced risk.

However, the consequence of this was that he had to be quick.

More than forty days had already passed.

If he really dragged out this design work for a year, the number of people who would starve to death would not be limited to a hundred thousand.

Moreover, after the design was completed, it still needed to be implemented, and that would take even more time.

He had to be quick, very quick. If everyone died, everything he had done before would be a joke.

So, apart from necessary eating and resting, Li Qi devoted almost all his time to this.

Just as Li Qi was working diligently, there was a sudden knock on the door outside.

"Mr. Li... it's time for lunch." A maid entered, carrying some meat broth and meat patties.

These items were too simple for lunch and did not at all match Li Qi's status.

However, this was specifically requested by Li Qi. If he were to eat every meal according to normal standards, it would take too much time.

Meat patties, meat broth, with some vegetables thrown in, he could finish a meal in just two or three bites, which was very efficient.

"Oh, thank you." Li Qi looked up from his endless reading of documents and smiled as he took the food.

Li Qi had been buried here for over a month.

But during all this time, Li Qi, apart from eating, spent all his other time sitting here reading various materials he had found.

These materials included not only the 'Zhu' book but also some documents and ancient books he had asked Senior Le Ya to collect, including some secret materials from within Shaman God Mountain, among which were many key points on sacrifices, arrangement methods, and various experiences personally written by Grand Invoker.

This was the advantage of a large power.

Just these books, even a few words from them, would be enough to cause a bloody storm outside.

Yet, Li Qi could freely browse and even pick and choose from such valuable items.

These materials were much, much more than he had imagined, probably a hundred or two hundred million characters, and every character was a pearl, extremely concise text, each requiring careful chewing and savoring to understand; he couldn't just skim them.

Some even came with pictures and videos, and some were even holographic illusion explanations, directly playing the situation at the time in his mind for real-time demonstration, very advanced.

But this wasted even more time.

He had to quickly find the key parts, and this couldn't be delayed.

So, just like now, Li Qi spent all his time, except when eating, reading these materials tirelessly, not daring to miss a single word.

Even when eating, he ate while reading.

He casually tore open a meat patty, swallowed it whole with the soup, and finished everything in just over a minute. That counted as a meal.

The maid beside him looked at Li Qi with some concern: "Mr. Li... you are still pushing yourself too hard. Why don't you rest?"

"No need to worry, you may go." Li Qi shook his head and replied casually.

"Yes." The maid dared not say more and exited the room.

Outside the room, Shen Shuibi was sitting by a stone table in the courtyard.

Seeing the maid come out, she turned her head and asked, "Still the same answer?"

"Still the same, my lady... I'm afraid you will have to persuade him yourself." The maid replied fearfully.

"No need to persuade, why persuade him to do this?" Shen Shuibi tilted her head: "You go, you don't need to come after this. I'll take care of things here."

"Yes." The maid nodded and then retreated with trepidation.

It was best if she didn't have to come here.

That Young Master Li, she heard he was someone who did great things. Every time she was near him, she felt a pressure, and her heart would pound every time he spoke.

She was very nervous. If she didn't have to come in the future, although she felt a bit lost, she would also be much more relaxed.

However... she heard many people say that this Mr. Li was a Sage-like person, so she wouldn't be beaten to death for making a mistake.

She heard he was so busy now for the sake of the entire Guangyang.

But she didn't quite believe it.

The entire Guangyang... so vast. What could the power of a mere person do?

The maid retreated, filled with questions.

Meanwhile, Shen Shuibi tidied herself up and pushed the door open to enter.

Li Qi frowned, not even looking up: "Is there something? If it's not urgent, it's best not to come in except for two meals a day."

However, it wasn't the maid's voice that answered Li Qi, but Shen Shuibi.

"It's me," she said.

"Ah?" Li Qi stopped what he was doing and looked up at Shen Shuibi: "Ah, Shen Guniang, why are you here?"

Shen Shuibi walked over to Li Qi, pulled up a stool, and sat beside him, picking up a book: "I'm here to help you."

Li Qi chuckled, shaking his head: "You don't know how to..."

"So you'll teach me. I learn very quickly." Shen Shuibi replied as a matter of course, then opened the book.

Li Qi immediately realized that Shen Shuibi was serious.

He immediately said, "This is Shaman God Mountain's secret. These books are—"

However, before he could finish speaking, Shen Shuibi had already touched his forehead with a finger.

Suddenly, a Legacy of divine will appeared directly in his mind, but he didn't have time to read the content, only recognizing the five characters on the cover.

"Celestial Pole Golden Elixir Method"

This was... Mount Luofu's fundamental method?!

It had been said before.

There is a Celestial Pole in the sky, which is the center of the sky, eternally unmoving. All stars revolve around it, and each revolution is called a 'Zhou Tian'.

Mount Luofu uses the chen ji to metaphorize the Golden Core, where oneself is the center of the Universe, and all things revolve around oneself.

It emphasizes refining oneself to perfection, remaining unmoved by external appearances. When the heart is unmoved, self-refinement is complete, tempering oneself as the 'chen ji' of all things.

This—

As Li Qi stood in shock, Shen Shuibi spoke:

"This is the foundation of Mount Luofu's methods. With this, Grand Invoker and Grand Diviner should have nothing to say."

Hearing this, Li Qi was speechless, not knowing what to say.

He also had nothing to say.

Shen Shuibi, however, paid no mind to that, instead opening the book and directly beginning to study it.

Even starting from scratch, she believed her speed would definitely be faster than Li Qi's.

Li Qi, meanwhile, took a deep breath.

Since Shen Shuibi had gone this far, there was no need to say anything more. He just needed to speed up.

In the study late at night, only the sounds of the two of them reading and researching could be heard.

Occasionally, there would be Shen Shuibi's questions.

"How far does the ritual sacrifice extend?"

"The sacrifice is added to the offering."

"Oh."

Time passed, bit by bit.

Another month went by.

During their time together, Li Qi truly felt how incredibly... intelligent Shen Shuibi was.

Her ability in this area was simply unbelievable.

She grasped everything instantly, learning everything with ease.

Inferring from one instance to many was effortless for her. In most cases, she could achieve in-depth research simply by reading books, and among a hundred thousand choices, she could 'guess' the correct answer purely through speculation and deduction.

Li Qi couldn't even count how many situations she had predicted, accurately foreseeing many errors purely through numerological deduction, helping Li Qi avoid countless detours.

Here, everything was so stable.

————————

Another twenty days passed.

However, on Le Ya's side, things were getting a bit delicate.

This fifth-grade Shaman who had rushed from Shaman God Mountain had the task of being Bo Yue's protector of the Dao.

Of course, because he had wrongly accused Li Qi, he had made a promise to Li Qi to help him complete this Grand Ritual.

He initially thought this wouldn't be a problem. His job was to allow this very promising Young Master to wholeheartedly complete his work, a Grand Ritual that could be considered the ultimate among ninth-grade works.

This achievement, on Shaman God Mountain's side, would likely earn a perfect score.

Whatever help or materials this Young Master needed, he would provide.

Le Ya believed his strength could easily protect the other party in completing this Grand Ritual.

He could ensure that no external factors could interfere here.

Things like the Swallowing Heaven Demon Nest or national wars, if they dared to interfere with the Grand Ritual at this moment, he would sever their heads as a warning to others.

Given his strength, it wouldn't be difficult.

The Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord's strength was not inferior to his, but as long as he was sane, he wouldn't come here at this time.

As for these so-called 'country lords' of the Baiyue, they were nothing but rabble.

But the problem was, all of this was based on 'normal circumstances'.

The current situation was a bit tricky.

That Shen Shuibi from Mount Luofu... actually handed over the Celestial Pole Golden Elixir Method.

What did this mean?

Headache.

Shaman God Mountain would not stoop to demanding a Young Master's private property; that would be too demeaning.

It was like a child in the family earning two hundred yuan in pocket money; any Parent with a bit of dignity wouldn't ask the child for that two hundred yuan.

Even if the Celestial Pole Golden Elixir Method was the method to activate the Sun-Moon True Lead Cauldron, it didn't matter.

The Sun-Moon True Lead Cauldron was a second-grade Spiritual Artifact controlled by Empress Luofu, but while the Shamanes were insidious in their actions, they were still upright in character and would not forcibly seize something while taking advantage of another's misfortune.

In short, whether it was the Young Master's or Empress Luofu's private property, Shaman God Mountain would certainly not touch it.

But the problem was... Tang Nation might not feel the same way.

Within the Sun-Moon True Lead Cauldron, there was a secret. Le Ya didn't even know what it was, only that it was the fundamental reason for Mount Luofu's destruction, the reason Tang Nation decided to destroy Mount Luofu.

Now, the Celestial Pole Golden Elixir Method had been leaked, and Shaman God Mountain already had a way to activate the Sun-Moon True Lead Cauldron.

Without a doubt, with the methods of Tang Nation's Imperial Astronomical Bureau, they must have already learned about this through Karma.

If this had happened within the mountain gate, everything would be fine; at most, it would be a complete falling out. Could they really fight their way into Shaman God Mountain?

But now, it happened in the Baiyue...

Le Ya painfully covered his face.

He had already reported to the mountain gate.

What happened next was no longer something he could decide.

As for the Young Master's Grand Ritual...

Let fate decide.