"Long sleep?"

Although Huo Quzhi and Shi Huangshi had heard of it, it was the first time that everyone else had heard of it.

Mrs. Zheng, in particular, was restless when she heard this. This kind of thing is the core secret of the Yongle Palace, is it convenient for a deceased ghost like himself to observe?

Ji Le: "Yes, the long is half a year, and the short is three months." This is a process that the national spirits must go through, so there is no need to be nervous. ”

The national spirit must keep a distance from the people, this is Tumu Guoling's admonition to Ji Le. Afterwards, Ji Le also chatted with Finity and Romu alone, and they also said something similar:

If you don't want to completely assimilate yourself and the people, let them completely lose themselves and become your fanatics. Then honestly retreating into the background and giving each other a reprieve is the best solution.

Otherwise, when the spirit of all the people is assimilated with Ji Le. He is no longer a nation, but a true God. At that time, the people as individuals will cease to exist and will only become cells in the body of the gods. Therefore, at that time, individual citizens no longer had independent thoughts, and the whole country had only one voice and one will.

This kind of case has already happened in the 800-year history of the national spirit. The spirit of the country ran the country diligently, united as one, and finally one day, the whole country disappeared completely. There is only one nation on that land. Even if the spirit of the country wants to be transformed into a state again, it is no longer possible.

Therefore, Ji Le must restrain his influence and follow the example of other national spirits, and hide behind the scenes as much as possible to manipulate.

At this point, the woman and Zhao Gao were not stupid people, so they quickly understood and helped Ji Le arrange how to guard the Yongle Palace.

Today, Ji Le's influence as a national spirit has truly penetrated the whole country.

The plague incident, the flood incident, the underworld incident, and the Yang blood sacrifice incident, one after another, have made Ji Le completely supported by the people.

Woman: "Don't worry about the people, it's just that the snake has some doubts. But General Huo guards the Yongle Palace, and a few of us take turns on duty, which should be able to ensure that there is no hindrance. ”

"In this matter, I need to communicate with the Spirit Palace and the royal court, so I will bother Sister and the old man. ”

This matter had a great impact, and soon the Yongle Hall was busy under Ji Le's will.

When only Ji Le and the ancient snake were left in the hall, the small silver snake crawled out from under the table.

"What should you do with Uncle Ben?"

"I will hand you over to Huo Quai, and he will take care of you. ”

Ji Le stared at the ancient snake, thinking about the "snake plague" mentioned by Di Yuan. Could it be that the snake plague refers to him?

"Hey, do you doubt Uncle Ben?"

"What, you have a weak heart?"

"Cut- Uncle Ben doesn't know that woman at all. With that woman's knowledge, how could she know about Uncle Ben's existence? Moreover, can Uncle Ben be the same as those lowly people who can't blink?"

"I've cut your eyelids and your horns, and they're no different from ordinary snakes. ”

The ancient snake is different from ordinary snakes. Strictly speaking, ancient snakes are more similar to dragon species. The powerful ancient snake had wings, a head with a tumor, a crown and sharp horns, and its eyes could divide day and night.

Like the serpent of the starry sky, his wings are scales condensed with immeasurable starlight. When the eyes are opened and closed, it is like the light of the stars illuminating the universe.

"It's not Uncle Ben anyway!"

"Okay, whether it's or not, I can't take care of you after I fall asleep, and it's most appropriate to hand it over to Huo Quai. ”

After speaking, Ji Le stuffed him into the wooden box next to him and went to the Court of Nations by himself.

There weren't many people in the Court of Nations today, except for Finity and Luo Mu sitting together and chatting, only four half-human, half-beast national spirits gathered together to play mahjong.

Seeing Ji Le coming, Luo Mu and Finity stepped forward to greet each other warmly.

Ji Le was also not ambiguous, and directly explained his intentions: "You hurry up and shape the underworld, if you lack experience in this area, you can come to our Spirit Palace to find a helper through diplomatic means." As for me, I'm going into a dormant period. ”

The beautiful female Guoling frowned and said, "I just let you retreat into the background, and I didn't plan to force you to sleep." Like us, it's nothing to go without sleep for a few years. Don't take that guy's word too seriously. ”

Tumu hopes that Ji Le will be dormant for a while, in addition to reminding Ji Le not to get too close to the people, he also does not want the Xia Kingdom to be too popular and overwhelm the Tumu Kingdom.

Rome understood what Ji Le was planning, and he asked, "You really don't plan to try 'scapegoat'?"

"A scapegoat case has just been solved in China, and I don't want to continue to get caught up in it. ”

This hibernation and avoiding close contact with the people are only one thing, and on the other hand, Ji Le wants to remove the "toxins" from his body.

The national spirit is like the human body, mortals will periodically accumulate toxins, and the national spirit is naturally no exception.

The conflicts that erupt between the people form resentment, resentment and anger from unbalanced interests, as well as all kinds of garbage and waste generated by the people's lives, and even evil spirits that accumulate under the earth. These things are all "toxins" in the body of the national spirit, and they need to be cleaned up periodically.

This is the true intention of Ji Le's dormancy.

Rome: "If you're worried about killing, try my plan." My scapegoat, I don't need to hurt my life. ”

"But—that's also an injustice, isn't it?"

The so-called scapegoat ceremony refers to the collective selection of an innocent person to bear the sins of the entire collective in order to eliminate the crisis and maintain the stability of the community. That is, "the death of one man in exchange for the peace of all."

This can also be regarded as a kind of sacrifice, the two major divine veins of wind and thunder transfer the sin of killing the mother god through Yuan Xi and Pei Lei. The Yang lineage exchanged for the healing of national fertility through the sacrifice of children, which is a similar "scapegoat" ritual.

And most of the ways in which countries alleviate the "toxins" in the body adopt the ritual of "scapegoating".

Within the Tumu Kingdom, a group of unemployed vagrants were raised in the treasury. A man and a woman are sacrificed every year, transferring all the sins of the nation for the year to this pair of sacrifices, killing the sacrifices in exchange for their own cleansing. Even when there is a plague or other disaster in the country, these unemployed vagrants will be sacrificed in exchange for the removal of their sins.

The kingdom of Toya, on the other hand, was more elegant, and she divined a nation every year, letting him live in the most exquisite palaces, and enjoy the most delicious food, and the treatment was equivalent to that of the spirit of the country.

And he is the stand-in for bearing the sins of the country. At the end of the year, he expelled the people from the kingdom and threw him into the abyss and fell to his death. With his death, he symbolizes sins and sinks into the abyss to ensure the innocence of the kingdom of Toya.

The Yuanmeng world worships blood sacrifice and respects human sacrifice. The scapegoat ritual is a common ritual in the earth.

Even the Roman kingdom followed a similar approach, and it was not influenced by native influences, but brought from the homeland.

The scapegoat ritual is not only in the Yuanmeng world, but also in the major religious myths of the earth.

Ancient Greece, for example, had a scapegoat ritual similar to that of Toya and Tumu. Choose a citizen to come out and take the blame and maintain peace within the country.

And in ancient Roman times, influenced by the surrounding religions, there were similar rituals. They chose a national to put on the animal skin at the reception parade. This "scapegoat" was struck with a wooden stick and expelled from the city, symbolizing the departure of the sin from Rome.

Coming to another world, this custom of Rome is still preserved. Compared with the local blood sacrifices, the Roman scapegoat ritual can already be called mild.

"Then you plan to slowly dissipate the toxins in your body through sleep?" Rome reminded, "This is not my homeland. ”

In the homeland, this meaning is more of a psychological comfort, to stabilize the social order through collective violence and the sacrifice of an innocent person. But in this age of mythology, this ritual has real power.

Whether it is the negative emotions of the human heart or the waste gases produced by the land, it will form evil after a long period of accumulation. The scapegoat ritual is to expel evil spirits from the body of the national spirit through a stand-in.

"Let's take a look, maybe it will work. And, I have a backup plan. ”

Ji Le had to sigh at this time, it was indeed useful to accompany his friends to collect mythological materials in his previous life. At least in the religious myths of previous lives, there are two similar resolving aversions.

One is the origin of the word "scapegoat", which in ancient Judaism used animals to bear their sins by replacing "human sacrifice" with "lamb".

According to Ji Le's idea, it is a big deal to choose to use the divine beast to perform a scapegoating ceremony every year to ensure that his people are not treated unfairly.

The other is from the "Year Beast" unique to the Zhuxia civilization.

If we regard the negative emotions of the human heart and the evil spirit generated by the land as "evil". So once a year, the ritual of removing the evil is put into the family, isn't it the New Year?

The reason for the New Year's money is to target the so-called "ghosts".

This method is also what Ji Le is most inclined to.

Condense the toxins accumulated in a year into monsters, and then let the monarch lead people to eradicate them. The disappearance of the monster means the cleansing of sins and the beginning of a new year.

"Anyway, I'll take a nap first, and if I can, it's best to solve this problem by detoxifying myself. ”

If you really can't do it, you can only make the "Year Beast" every year.

After communicating with the two companions, Ji Le returned to the Yongle Palace.

At this moment, the outside of the Yongle Hall was already heavily guarded.

In addition to Huo Quai's military spirit, there are also the slave army he trained and Yu Yuan's witch group. Everyone is on duty in shifts to ensure the safety of the national spirit during its sleep.

"Does that need to be so troublesome?" Ji Le was speechless, and under the leadership of Su Yu and Xi Shi, he came to the big bed carefully prepared by Yu Yuan.

This large bed, which is five meters long and wide, is placed in the main room behind the atrium of the Yongle Hall, and is sprinkled with clean flower petals and feathers.

"You guys, it's all too much of a fuss. I'm just going to get some sleep, so why bother?"

Yu Yuan: "It's better to be careful." She pointed to the dragon stakes around the dragon bed: "The spell is carved here, as long as His Highness is asleep, the curtain will be automatically raised, forming an isolated space to avoid anyone's disturbance." The switch is only in the hands of His Highness, and when His Highness wakes up, he can raise the curtain on his own. ”

At the same time, the Spirit Palace will also notice Ji Le's awakening and rush over to see him.

As for the dragon bed, there are eight crane beak copper furnaces and sixteen Changming Palace lamps around the dragon bed.

"Okay, so be it. As for those big spirits in the Spirit Palace, Yu Yuan and Cui Jing, pay more attention and don't let them cause trouble. ”

After speaking, Ji Le washed and bathed and climbed into the big bed.

He was the only one on the empty dragon bed, grabbed the petals and sprinkled them into the air, and the delicate petals fluttered and fell again.

"It's so exquisite, I'm a little unaccustomed to it. Looking out through the curtain, Yu Yu and the others all withdrew from the palace, leaving only Ji Le alone.

"Forget it, get some sleep. Speaking of which, traveling through to the present, this can be regarded as a truly reassuring sleep!"

Gradually, Ji Le's eyelids fought, his mind gradually relaxed, and his consciousness re-dispersed into the land. He lay down on the dragon bed and fell into a deep sleep......