"Sun Supre God's protection! The result of divination is six! Kan Gua, corresponding to Water!"
"Soone, carry out Water Punishnt, throw into the lake, offer sacrifices to the Chief Divine!…"
"The result of divination is seven, Gen Gua, corresponding to Mountain!"
"Carry out Stone Punishnt, crushed to death by stones, offer sacrifices to the gods!…"
"The result of divination is one, Qian Hexagram, corresponding to Heaven!…"
The sky was clear, and the February sunshine was abundant. On the two-ter-high small Divine Platform, Xiulote held the only kui grass, displaying it to hundreds of xica nobles, and imdiately a murmur of surprise and excitent echoed around. After several Divination Deciding Cases, everyone already knew that this was the only acquittal blessed by the Sun Supre God among the eight Chief Divine judgnts' results!
On the higher Grand Divine Platform, God King Avit still showed no expression. He nodded slightly, and facing the fourth lucky person of divination, a young noble from the southeast High Mountain City, he proclaid indifferently.
"The sun gazes from the sky, the Chief Divine grants rcy, pardoning your sins! Soone, release him!…"
"Ah! Sun Supre God's protection! Sun Supre God's protection!…"
The young City-State noble was incoherent, too excited to say anything. He just kept murmuring the Chief Divine's na, kneeling and bowing to the superior God King and the divinatory hall, eyes full of gratitude. Soon, two Tonsured Guards brought him back into the crowd, allowing the next noble waiting for divination to step forward.
"Sun Supre God's protection! The result of divination is four! Zhen Gua!"
"Soone, carry out Thunder Punishnt!"
"Boom!!…"
After the cannon fired, the nobles quieted down again. They watched Xiulote's divination intently, as if witnessing so thrilling yet silent sacrifice. In fact, this was indeed no different from sacrifices, aside from the newly added Thunder Punishnt and Wind Punishnt, Water, Fire, Stone, and Earth Punishnts and Sacrificial Rites were familiar traditional sacrifice practices to the xica people.
"The result of divination is five, Xun Trigram, corresponding to Wind!"
"Carry out Wind Punishnt, shot dead by arrows, offer sacrifices to the gods!…"
"Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!…"
"Ah! Uh… cough cough…"
"The result of divination is eight, Kun Trigram, corresponding to Earth!"
"Carry out Earth Punishnt, dig a pit and bury alive, the soul returns to the Divine Kingdom, the body returns to the earth!…"
"Ah, no!!…"
"The result of divination is two, Dui Gua, corresponding to Marsh, also to Blood!…"
A series of divinations and sacrifices soon reached the last person. Xiulote held two kui grasses, displaying them to those around him. Many nobles looked at the Eight Trigrams Divine Banner, found the corresponding swamp and blood mark, and then all looked at God King Avit.
One Qian is Heaven, it is the life bestowed by the Chief Divine. Two Dui is Blood, the decision from the King or Priest made by the Chief Divine, also has a glimr of life. In the eight Chief Divine judgnts, the outco of "Dui" is the only "Blood Punishnt" decided by the judge, or called "Blood Sacrifice." According to the alliance's traditional Blood Sacrifice rules, it could be a heart-excavating "Grand Sacrifice," or a finger-severing "Small Sacrifice"... As for now, it all depended on the God King's decision!
"Hmm… Sacrificed six nobles in a row, the army's morale is sowhat shaken!…"
God King Avit gazed around, seeing the generals' expression of submission and great reverence, he nodded secretly. Xiulote, rumored to have received "Western Divine's Divine Revelation," created this set of divination and hexagrams that not only completely fit the xica people's venerated divination sacrificial traditions but is also obviously more convincing and controllable than traditional thods like burning armor bones, inhaling divine smoke, consuming mushrooms, eating Uvayut, inviting gods to embody a trance-like "mad" divination, convincing knowledgeable nobles!…
Avit pondered for a mont, still expressionless, proclaiming like a divine spirit.
"The Chief Divine bestows rcy, I, as the supre God King, will also give you an opportunity to fight and kill in battle! Sever your pinky, redeem yourself, for the Sun Supre God's Southern Expedition, for the army to continue southward attacking Cloud Mountain City, lead the charge and fight to the death!…"
"Ah! Yes! Yes!… God King above! I will definitely lead the charge and fight to the death for the Chief Divine!"
The narrowly escaped royal noble showed excitent, knelt and bowed, then was dragged away by the Imperial Guard Warrior. Soon, a suppressed low cry vaguely erged, yet it was a "small punishnt big warning," rely the blood sacrifice of severing the pinky.
"Xiulote Supre High Priest, the army is about to set out! Please again consult the Chief Divine about the on of this southward movent, whether it is auspicious or ominous?…"
"Obeying you, God King!"
Xiulote bowed slightly, the vibrant Chagel Long Feather on the Feather Crown fluttered in the wind. His expression remained solemn, his movents were also ticulously reginted, as though adhering to so special rhythm. Then, he prayed thrice again, taking out one kui grass to offer to the gods, dividing two piles of kui grass as heaven and earth, then drawing one kui grass from the earth pile as human. This ti, he was conducting a complete yarrow stalk divination, front and back to divine Six Lines!
"Four stalks, four stalks, four stalks... one becos five... two beco four... three beco four!..."
Xiulote separated from the pile of kui grass in his right hand, grouping them in fours, until there were four stalks or fewer left. He did the sa with the pile in his left hand to find the remainder. The remainders from both hands, combined with one from his left pinky, gave the number "five." He then took these five stalks out, separated the remainder into piles again, drew one, and found the remainders from repeatedly removing sets of four, then combined the remainder with the one from his pinky again to get "four." Upon removing these four stalks, for the third ti, he obtained "four" again.
"Five, four, four, three tis few, this stands for the Old Yang. The First Line is 'Yang'!..."
Xiulote completed this three tis and spread out a piece of white cloth on the altar. A low-ranking priest presented a jar of fresh blood on the Divine Platform. Obviously, this blood ca from the previous six sacrifices, essential for the xica's Great Divination. Xiulote silently recited the numbers in his heart, dipped his middle finger in the blood, and drew a "-" representing the Yang line at the bottom, marking it with a dot for an Old Yang changing line.
"Five, four, eight, two few and one many, this stands for the Lesser Yin. The Second Line is 'Yin'!..."
Quickly, the second line was divined, resulting in a "-" Yin line. All the surrounding nobility held their breath and focused, even Avit on the high platform appeared solemnly engrossed in this series of "Divine Revelation Divination" that profoundly amazed them, despite not fully understanding it.
Actually, Avit had a deep understanding and familiarity with the intricacies of High Priest divination. Traditional divination lacked a complete, analytic logic like "Yi" which the common tribespeople might be fooled by, but it wouldn't work as well on those with insight among the royalty and honorable nobility.
All along, Avit viewed "divination" as a ans to manipulate the hearts and morale of people and did not take it seriously. However, now that the thod of divination had evolved from the "Shang Dynasty" to the "Zhou Dynasty", from the overly simplistic "Turtle Shells" to the subtly mysterious "Zhou Yi", and the divining priest was Xiulote, who had long received "Divine Revelation"... Avit began to have so doubts and approached it with utmost seriousness!
"Five, eight, eight, one few and two many, this stands for the Lesser Yang. The Third Line is 'Yang'!..."
"Nine, four, eight, one few and two many, this stands for the Lesser Yang. The Fourth Line is 'Yang'!..."
"Five, eight, four, two few and one many, this stands for the Lesser Yin. The Fifth Line is 'Yin'!..."
"Nine, eight, eight, three many, this stands for the Old Yin. The Sixth Line is 'Yin'!..."
Xiulote dipped the ink in blood and solemnly drew the last line, marking it with an "x" for the Old Yin changing line. This entire process of "Yarrow Stalk Divination" was filled with mystique and ceremonial spectacle, instilling a sense of "divinity" in the nobility.
Afterward, Xiulote first interpreted the lower three lines' hexagram image, "Yang Yin Yang," as the "Li" Trigram, drawing a fla behind it. Then, the upper three lines' hexagram image, "Yang Yin Yin," as the "Zhen" Trigram, which he depicted as lightning.
"Thunder above, fire below; Thunderfire forms the 'Abundance' Hexagram!... With changes in the first line and the sixth line, it becos Fire above, Mountain below, a 'Traveling' Hexagram?..."
Seeing the primary hexagram of Thunder Fire Abundance, Xiulote's heart stirred, silently deducing the changed hexagram of Fire Mountain Traveling, though he did not draw it on the cloth. For a divination ant to inspire troops before a mission, the main hexagram was already enough!
Of course, more realistically speaking, Xiulote didn't know what the "Travel" Hexagram really signified either. Regarding these 64 hexagrams, he was simply forced to morize them as a child by a grandfather from a later generation. Even the aning of the "Abundance" Hexagram he could only barely rember to be an auspicious hexagram, and specific interpretations had to depend on personal intuition!
"Supre High Priest Xiulote! What does the on bestowed by the Chief Divine an?!..."
Seeing the blood-red hexagram image on the white cloth and the marked thunder and fire, God King Avit squinted his eyes at Xiulote's face with grave seriousness. The surrounding xica nobility were the sa, their eyes fixed unblinkingly as they imrsed into the mysterious atmosphere of the divination ceremony. Xiulote's expression remained unchanged; he rely bent slightly, pointed solemnly at the white cloth, and read aloud in a clear voice.
"Honorable God King, look! Thunder above, fire below—Heaven thunder, earth fire! This hexagram image predicts destruction bestowed by the Chief Divine, igniting the army's destructive fire, to completely annihilate the City-State of the Mistek people and their Divine Descendants!..."
"Blessed by the Chief Divine! This is a most auspicious on for the expedition! The Mistek people's Cloud Mountain City will definitely fall amid thunder and great fires, conquered by our Alliance's invincible army!..."
"Ah! Supre High Priest Xiulote has divined an auspicious on!"
"Thunder above, fire below? The Chief Divine's thunder and fire will aid us in breaking through the stronghold of Cloud Mountain City!..."
"Praise the Chief Divine! The upcoming Southern Expedition will surely succeed!..."
"Yes! Break through Cloud Mountain City, then sacrifice the Mistek Divine Race, to please and earn the favor of the War God!..."
"Haha! Good, very good!"
Upon hearing Xiulote's interpretation, the solemn face of God King Avit finally broke into a smile. He extended his hands, calming the excited and chaotic discussions around him, looking at the fierce faces bright with joy and exhilaration, loudly and decisively declaring.
"The solemn Chief Divine has decreed! Thunder and fire signify an auspicious on for the breach of Cloud Mountain City!..."
"All generals, return to your camps imdiately, to announce the results of the divine divination to each camp's Alliance Warriors, invigorating the warriors' morale!..."
"Blessed by the Chief Divine! Tomorrow morning at dawn, a vanguard of five thousand moves south! The main force will depart in succession, and before the rainy season of May arrives, we will surely break through Cloud Mountain City!!..."
"Yes! God King!..."
All kneeled in unison, paying respectful homage to the God King. Many nobles bowed visibly, nodding towards Xiulote, the responsible diviner. The commanders quickly returned to their respective camps, and the xica's massive encampnt, crouching like a beast, finally ca alive! It let out a low, clamorous roar, leaping towards the south of Cloud Valley, beginning a more ferocious hunt and pounce!
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