Chapter 409: Chapter 215: Sacrifice to the Heavenly Pillars
Translator: 549690339
Lianshan, the Deep Valley Altar.
After traveling for two days and nights, Lu Yuan and his companion finally arrived at their destination.
“Greetings, Your Majesty.”
Li Qian, the disciple in charge of overseeing the construction here, hurriedly came forward to greet his master and king upon their arrival.
“Rise, there’s no need for excessive formalities.” Lu Yuan waved his hand and looked at the completed altar in the valley. He asked, “You sent a message back saying that the altar has been built, is this true?”
Li Qian hastily replied, “Your Majesty, it is true. I have spent over a year to complete this altar as per your command. You can verify its authenticity immediately.”
Lu Yuan said, “Then let’s go take a look together.” He turned to the True Person Anqiu and said, “Take a look and see if there are any issues.”
True Person Anqiu nodded: “Fellow Daoist, rest assured, this altar also concerns the great plan of my own Dao. I will carefully examine it.”
Under Li Qian’s guidance, the two went to the altar in the valley.
There are three types of altars for worshipping Heaven in the Taiping Dao Book, corresponding to offerings for Man, Earth, and Heaven.
Each kind of offering requires different altars.
The altar being built now is for the Man offering. This offering corresponds to the Heavenly Pillars established by Emperor Hua Guang in ancient times. Among them, the altar Lu Yuan built is the smallest of the Man offering altars.
Despite its size, the altar is still a thousand steps wide and built with nine layers of foundation. Each layer of the altar’s platforms was covered with a large number of precious gold and silver objects, various spiritual materials, and a large number of runes and instrument tracks, displaying an ingenious design.
Above the nine-layer foundation, an enormous stone pillar stands tall in the center of the altar. The surface of the pillar is carved with intricate patterns, and its thickness requires three people to hug it together. It reaches straight into the sky, making the altar appear even more majestic and magnificent than the Heavenly Altar Lu Yuan had used during his ascension outside Changsha City.
This is also why building this Man Offering altar required the efforts of thousands of people and took over a year to complete.
Lu Yuan and True Person Anqiu started their examination from the bottom layer of the altar’s foundation, carefully checking every detail of the altar.
Were there any problems with the formation patterns and instrument tracks laid on the ground?
Were those specially prepared gold and silver objects placed in the right locations?
Were the bricks and stones on each platform arranged in the designated direction?
Were there any deviations in the position of the altar’s various parts?
Were there any errors in the various runes and drawings on that central stone pillar?
Any mistakes in these many details would affect the effect of the Heaven Worship, and may even lead to the failure of the ceremony.
Therefore, both of them were extremely careful in their examination.
Some runes, instrument tracks, and objects had already been buried deep below the steps, invisible and untouchable to the naked eye.
Fortunately, one of them was an Inborn Grandmaster and Cultivator, and the other was a Cultivator, both of whom had basically developed their Divine Sense.
So they were able to employ their Divine Sense to carefully examine the deeper aspects of these hidden objects, confirming their accuracy.
After inspecting everything for nearly four hours, they finally finished their examination as it began to get dark.
“Well done, you have not disappointed my trust in you.”
After Lu Yuan completed inspecting the last part of the stone pillar on the altar and exchanged a glance with True Person Anqiu, confirming that there were no problems, he turned to his disciple Li Qian with a smile on his face: “You’ve experienced a lot of hardship overseeing the construction in this remote place for more than a year.”
“Now that you’ve successfully completed the task entrusted to you, you’ve made a great contribution.”
I remember that your previous military rank was that of a camp leader, right?
From today onward, you will be a military officer. Go to the Military Department after you return.
As for your martial arts, you are about to reach the second level. Here are two Divine Blood Elixirs for you to take at the right time, which will help you break through the bottleneck.”
Lu Yuan tossed out two jade bottles, each containing an elixir.
Li Qian quickly caught them, kneeled down and thanked him: “Thank you, Your Majesty, for your graciousness.”
Lu Yuan made a gesture: “Enough, get up. Since the altar has been built, have your men tidy up and immediately evacuate the valley. Then seal off the surrounding area within ten miles and allow no one to enter.”
“Yes, I obey your command.” Li Qian nodded quickly, but hesitated for a moment before he asked, “Your Majesty, now that the altar is built and the laborers are no longer needed, how should the Miao People be dealt with?”
It was clear to Li Qian that the valley altar was a secret location. The Miao laborers who knew its secret would pose a risk if they were released without proper handling.
Therefore, Li Qian dared not make the final decision himself and could only consult his king.
Hearing this question, Lu Yuan furrowed his brow and asked, “How many of the Miao people are left now?”
Li Qian replied, “After more than a year of hard labor, over two hundred of the original thousand Miao people have died, leaving more than seven hundred remaining.”
“Over seven hundred…”
Mulling over the number, Lu Yuan hesitated for a moment but finally said, “Forget it. Detain these people for now and temporarily place them nearby. This altar of mine will not be used just once; it will serve future purposes as well.”
“After this period, someone will need to watch over it.”
Since the altar was built by the Miao people, have their families relocated here to serve as guards for the altar.”