Under One Person: Starting from the Inheritance of Gods

Chapter 70: Conferred God (Please collect, please vote for monthly tickets, please recommend tickets)
As the saying goes, the most important affairs of a country are sacrifices and war!

In ancient times, sacrifice was an extremely solemn matter, and the person who presided over the sacrifice, who could also be called the spokesperson of God, was called a priest!

These priests were often people with special abilities, such as the ability to summon water and fire, or to drive away beasts and insects.

These techniques caused ordinary humans to feel awe and worship them as some kind of miracle. In the development of sacrificial rituals, these strange people gradually figured out a kind of inheritance.

That is the way of sacrifice!

The essence of it is actually the same as the divine aspect. The priest can draw on people's faith in certain beings and turn it into his own "divine power".

The scope of this sacrifice is very wide!
Those who worship the sky receive help from the sky; those who offer sacrifices to the earth receive favor from the earth; those who offer sacrifices to the gods and summon spirits and ghosts can create gods, summon spirits and serve ghosts at their command.

The "spirit" here refers to elves. People in primitive society believed that there are elves in everything in the world.

Of course, according to modern terms, it can also be one-sidedly understood as a spirit transformed from an animal.

With the means of priests, animals can be enlightened, or their intelligence can be awakened, and then turned into one's subordinates or pets.

The god here is different from the innate god of the concept of heaven and earth, and can be called an acquired god.

Acquired gods are concepts created by human beings themselves. They have no innate things to rely on. If humans forget them, or if humans disappear one day, they will disappear together.

Such as Houyi, Guan Yu, Kitchen God, Rabbit God, Bodhisattva, and even Western demons and angels.

These gods only have meaning and effect on humans. They are concepts created by humans, not innate objective existences.

Priests can draw on relevant incense and beliefs to fabricate a "false god" to perform miracles for people to believe in and strengthen their own power.

As for ghosts, or sad ghosts, the word "Shang" is deliberately used in sacrifices. It is an ominous word, as well as expressing sorrow and sympathy for the ghosts.

Ghosts are the spirits of dead people. Priests can worship them upon request of the living, collect incense and keep their souls intact, and use them as thugs when appropriate.

In fact, from this point we can see that, apart from having some reverence for heaven and earth, priests have less reverence for the other three categories: gods, ghosts, and spirits.

And the art of sacrifice, over the course of history, has gradually divided into several branches, such as Wuxian, Shamanism, and certain Taoist traditions.

The most famous one is the List of Gods in the Battle of the Gods!

The List of Gods was jointly drawn up and discussed by the leaders of the three religions, and Jiang Ziya was in charge of it, which was used to divide the eight divisions of heaven into 365 main gods, 2,000 deputy gods, and 84,000 evil spirits.

As I just said, through sacrifice, "fake gods" can be created, and the List of Gods can collect the souls of extraordinary or ordinary people after their death, confer them with titles, and make them gods!
The teaching of Chan is to explain the Way of Heaven!
Complying with the Way of Heaven and acting in obedience to Heaven, this is so similar to offering sacrifices to Heaven in the way of worship!
Meng Fan had reason to suspect that Yuanshi Tianzun was the master of sacrifice. Coincidentally, among the Three Pure Ones, Daode Tianzun was good at refining elixirs, Lingbao Tianzun was good at setting up formations, and Yuanshi Tianzun was good at refining weapons!

If one combines weapon refining with sacrifice, it is not impossible to forge a list of gods and a divine whip.

Of course, as the master of the three religions, Hongjun is naturally proficient in alchemy, formations and weapons, so it is not surprising that he was able to refine the Investiture of the Gods.

Why do Jiejiao disciples not want to be included in the Conferred God List? Because once they die, they are truly dead, and can only be driven by their souls. Conferred God with a physical body is equivalent to being alive, but still enjoying the benefits brought by incense and faith, which helps in cultivation.

Meng Fan had reason to suspect that the original Battle of Conferred Gods was a war to divide up the resources of incense and faith between heaven and earth and to rearrange the positions and names of gods.

What could be a more powerful way than to overthrow a dynasty?

Before the Conferred God Ceremony, ordinary people had complicated beliefs and it was difficult to unify their faith and aspirations. But after the Conferred God Ceremony, starting from the Zhou Dynasty, people called themselves the Son of Heaven, upheld the Way of Heaven, and worshipped various gods.

The incense and vows between heaven and earth became unified and orderly.

The Heavenly Court, this force became the biggest beneficiary, and the Battle of the Gods ended with the victory of the Orthodox Sect. The disciples of the Demonic Sect became the thugs of the Heavenly Court, and even became the mounts of the disciples of the Orthodox Sect. The Demonic Sect has since perished.

If you look at it from another angle.

If Hongjun really existed and was willing to support the power of Heaven and redivide the structure of heaven and earth, then Yuanshi Tianzun of the Chanjiao, as a priest, would definitely be the victorious party.

If the Chan sect does not win, who will be the god and who will take charge of the overall situation?

According to relevant records and Meng Fan's personal guess, the Lord of Dao and Virtue followed the path of the Golden Elixir, seeking a person's life, which is the Tao, and the human body is the foundation, so it is named the Human Teaching.

Yuanshi Tianzun follows the path of sacrifice, seeking to make external objects come true, which is the Dharma, and he reveres the Heaven and Earth, so he is named the Chan Sect; while Lingbao Tianzun follows the path of killing and destruction, seeking to make various means come true, which is the Technique, he does not believe in external objects, does not seek fundamentals, is strong and aggressive, so he is named the Jie Sect!

These are equivalent to three concepts in a sense: the hermit, the person who worships heaven and respects Taoism, and the person who lives a carefree and happy life.

As the most powerful alien at that time, and even a "Taoist" figure, Hongjun would naturally see how the situation would change in the future, so he would suppress the Jiejiao and bring the world back on track. These are the three main reasons why the Battle of the Gods began.

First, support the power of the Heavenly Court and form a management system for heaven and earth.

Second, suppress those evil people in Jiejiao and clear up the chaos.

Third, deify the alien and elevate him to an unshakable position.

Emperor Xin, who was originally a wise monarch, may have opposed the abolition of the practice of human sacrifice. The strange man who replaced the pillars and dragged nine oxen backwards became the infamous King Zhou of Shang in history.

Of course, there are most likely other reasons that Meng Fan has not thought of. In any case, this is just Meng Fan's guess.

Meng Fan let out a long sigh, looked at the five bronze engravings in his hands, and began to organize his thoughts.

As for the cultivation methods of the five major immortals in the Northeast, only part of the three volumes of Summoning Spirits, Sad Ghosts, and Feasting on Gods have been figured out. As for the two volumes of Worshiping Heaven and Offering Sacrifice to Earth, they are too complicated to be analyzed.

If I didn't have this kind of means, even if I gave it to scholars in Shenzhou to interpret, I'm afraid they wouldn't be able to understand the meaning of even half a word.

Meng Fan slowly stroked the carvings with his fingers, muttering to himself, "Dragon seals, phoenix seals, tiger carvings, tortoise patterns, unicorn scripts, these ancient writings are really fascinating!"

(End of this chapter)