Lecture on Ancient Times

  On this day, with nothing better to do, Lin Xu suddenly felt curious and immediately summoned two deputy generals to drink tea and chat together, saying:

  "Come, tell me, what's the situation outside this mountain? Which dynasty and which emperor is in power?"

  Suddenly hearing this question, the two subordinates looked at Lin Xu's eyes with an increasingly strange gaze. They didn't dare to directly criticize their own superior for being extremely ignorant. The two deputy generals were silent for a moment, and the white-haired Wang deputy general was afraid of delaying time, fearing that Lin Xu would blame him, so he coughed and said:

  "I report to the great lord, since the Qin Shi Huangdi's conquest of the six states and unification of the world. To date, it has been passed down for eighty-four generations, and the current ruler is the eighty-fourth generation Emperor of Qin."

  Recently, the enormous survival pressure he faced made Lin Xu dare not to be distracted for a moment, and he didn't have time to worry about trivial matters that had nothing to do with him. This was still his first time hearing such strange news. Of course, for those who originally lived in this realm, these things could only be considered common sense.

  Luckily Lin Xu's body had transformed into a Golden Body, otherwise with the current amplitude of his emotional fluctuations, it was entirely possible that he would burst a blood vessel in his brain.

  Despite this, Lin Xu still couldn't suppress the astonishment deep within his heart, and he raised his voice to say loudly:

  "Impossible! I'm asking you, what was Qin Er Shi's name?"

  At this time, Duan sat beside him and nodded to Zhang Xin, saying:

  "I report to Your Excellency, the Second Emperor of Qin is indeed Fusu, this is something even a 7 or 8 year old Mongolian child would know, could it be that you..."

  This Zhang Bi's temper is more straightforward than his old partner Wang Liang, or it can be said that he is even less capable of being a good person. When Zhang Xin said this sentence later, it was almost like slapping him in the face publicly.

  Needless to say, if a leader with a slightly narrower mind had encountered this kind of thing at this moment, even if he was embarrassed and didn't dare to lose his temper in person, the small shoes Zhang Xin received on this day would be enough for him to wear until next life.

  Lin Xu's emotions calmed down a bit, and he tried to think calmly. Could it be that the history of different fragments has developed differently because of the fragmentation of the Honghuang?

  After a long time of thinking, Lin Xuan rubbed his nose in distress, and the absurd ideas in his mind completely ignored Zhang Xin's unintentional sarcasm, and followed him to say:

  "Oh, so that's how it is. Then you two also know about Hu Hai and Zhao Gao?"

  Taking advantage of Lin Xu's brief absence, Wang Liang fiercely trampled on Zhang Xin's foot under the table and warned him with his eyes not to speak so recklessly to his superior again. Then, Wang Liang said with a smile and an extremely respectful attitude:

  "In response to the old master's words, the inner servant Zhao Gao was accused of plotting against the Second Emperor in his third year and was searched by the Tingwei Fu in his mansion, where a large number of weapons, armor, and treasures were found. He was sentenced to death according to law and punished with the crime of being torn apart by carts and abandoned in the market. After the First Emperor's funeral, Prince Hu Hai went out to search for the trail of the immortal, heard that he had gone out to sea to seek immortality, and later disappeared without a trace."

  When he heard this, Lin Xu's face was solemn and nodded. Anyone who has read the Records of the Grand Historian written by Sima Qian, a disabled but determined historian, would know that during the time of Emperor Qin Shi Huang, his eldest son Fusu's reputation for being wise and virtuous had already spread throughout the land. Even later, when Er Shi Hu Hai was in power, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang led the soldiers to rebel in Daze Village, they also remembered to use this famous tiger skin to boost their morale. From this, it can be seen that Fusu's accumulated reputation at that time was far superior to that of the hated Hu Hai.

  It can be inferred that an heir with such good interpersonal relationships, even if Fusu's governing ability is not as good as Qin Shi Huang Zhao Zheng, it would have been no problem for him to take over smoothly. Moreover, in terms of governance capabilities, Fusu, no matter how bad he was, must be a hundred times better than Huhai, a top-notch failure who appears once in a thousand years.

  According to this calculation, the Qin Dynasty was able to avoid the disaster of the Second Emperor and continue its rule, which is not surprising. However, it is indeed a supernatural phenomenon that the Great Qin Empire could last for more than 80 generations without being destroyed.

  It is well known that the Zhou Dynasty of the Three Dynasties of Xia, Shang and Zhou in ancient times, despite its claim to have enjoyed eight hundred years of dominance, had a total of only thirty generations from Western Zhou to Eastern Zhou, with just thirty-seven emperors.

  There is no need to doubt that this number has already become the ultimate record that any dynasty of China in later generations cannot surpass, and later generations can only admire it, with absolutely no possibility of surpassing it.

  The Qing dynasty's Qianlong Emperor had secretly ordered the creation of twenty-five jade seals, with which to pray to heaven for the Great Qing dynasty to last for twenty-five generations. However, from the first generation Shunzhi Emperor who entered the pass, until the last generation Xuantong Emperor was forced to abdicate by revolution, the Qing dynasty only had ten emperors in total. Only by comparing both sides can one see that this alternate version of the Qin Empire's national destiny is exaggerated to what extent, truly worthy of being a freak among freaks.

  He filled a cup with tea and slowly drank it down, then Lin Xu asked another question that his subordinates didn't think was unexpected, saying:

  "What's the current state of the Great Qin Empire now?"

  After receiving unexpected assistance from the underworld, the situation in Huo Mountain stabilized. Lin Xu ordered two of his generals to take some time off to contact their old acquaintances and gather information about various parties' movements. Although they had not left the mountain for 300 years, after all, their understanding of the outside world was still more familiar than Lin Xu's, a thorough outsider.

  Zhang and Wang, two deputy generals serving at the Temple of the Mountain God, were once members of the Qin army and had deep feelings for the Great Qin Empire.

  At this time, after listening to Lin Xu's question, Zhang Xin sighed and shook his head, with a seemingly melancholic expression. In the end, it was Wang Liang who took over the conversation, saying:

  "The eighty-fourth Qin Emperor is old and muddle-headed, only listening to the heretical words of those sorcerers who deceive him. He spends his days concocting elixirs in the palace, completely ignoring state affairs and the people's livelihoods. If it weren't for the rich foundation accumulated by generations of emperors over a thousand years since the founding of the Great Qin Empire, the hearts of the people would have been lost long ago, and now there would be rebels everywhere. Alas, even if no one dares to openly rebel, bandits roam freely in all regions, and the people's lives are already hopeless. In my opinion, this great Qin dynasty is declining, its days are numbered."

  Listening intently to the vague messages from outside the mountain, Lin Xu once again thought of the classic horror movie "A Chinese Ghost Story" trilogy.

  In that movie, everywhere can be seen the chaotic scene of the end of a dynasty, with rolling heads and ghosts roaming around in a chaotic world. How similar is it to this declining dynasty today? Although the dynastic background set in the film is different from reality, for those who are in it, the situation is still equally terrible!

  As he indulged in fanciful thoughts, Lin Xu suddenly had an idea - should he go out of the mountain and take a look at the world with his own eyes?

  Gods walk among mortals in no more than three forms: true form, avatar and incarnation.

  The main body is not to be said much, the value of the main body is equivalent to the flesh and blood of human beings. Even if the strength is the strongest, it also needs to be protected with extra care. The incarnation is a materialization of a part of the divine power, equivalent to the limbs of human beings. Although the carried power is strong or weak, it mainly depends on the actual demand. Buddhism claims that Buddha has many transformations and Vajra bodies, which all belong to this type of incarnation mode. If the incarnation is unfortunately lost in battle, the power of the deity's main body will also be reduced accordingly, so when using the incarnation, it is also necessary to consider the risk issue.

  Incarnations belong to the lowest level of existence, equivalent to human hair, and the power that can be attached is extremely limited. No matter how much loss is lost, the gods will not feel too heartbroken, after all, it's just a consumable item.

  Like Sun Wukong in Journey to the West, plucking a hair from his body and blowing on it, he instantly transforms into thousands of divine powers, which is also a manifestation of transformation.

  It's just that Sun Wukong's actual combat power is too strong, the heavenly soldiers in front were already killed by him and were terrified, suddenly seeing a big pile of monkey heads popping out, they didn't even need to fight, just being scared half to death, rarely having the chance to see through the true nature of these fake yet powerful clones.

  There were countless enemies lurking around the Temple of the Mountain God, waiting for an opportunity to destroy themselves at any time. Lin Xu dared not use his true body to travel, which was no different from asking for death. The strength of his split body was not worth showing off either, and it was not much stronger than his transformed body. Therefore, after Lin Xu made up his mind, he went through a series of preparations and immediately activated a new transformed body to embark on the journey out of the mountain.

  The divine avatar doesn't have many magical powers, and is even inferior to slightly stronger mages. However, not getting tired is also a significant advantage.

  Lin Xu attached a thread of divine consciousness to Huaxiang's body, setting out from the Mountain God Temple at dawn. He traveled with a technique that shrunk his strides to inches, covering forty zhang with each step. By mid-morning, he had already traversed more than half of the several hundred li mountain road.

  Walking on the winding path overgrown with weeds, white bones and newly piled up yellow earth tombs can be seen everywhere in the grass along both sides of the mountain road.

  People living in peaceful times can hardly imagine how to survive in such a chaotic world. Witnessing this scene, Lin Xu sighed and said:

  "...Bare bones exposed in the wilderness, for a thousand miles no crowing of chickens. Of the people who lived, only one in a hundred remains, thinking about it cuts off one's intestines. Cao Cao's poem 'Grassland', depicts the desolate atmosphere of a chaotic world vividly!"

  All great talents and heroes are born with the spirit of the times, and they will not be unknown, no matter whether they were born in a prosperous dynasty or in a world of war and smoke. They will achieve brilliant careers with their extraordinary abilities, and will not die without leaving a name.

  This vast empire of Qin is different from the short-lived dynasties that have risen and fallen on Earth, its reign has lasted for thousands of years.

  Although the Great Qin Empire also experienced many ups and downs during this period, none of them caused devastating destruction to civilization like the Three Kingdoms War and the Five Barbarians' invasion. Many cultural treasures were preserved intact. However, every advantage has its disadvantage. Without the desolation of the late Han Dynasty's Three Kingdoms era, even if Cao Cao was born in this realm, he would definitely be living a happy life with attendants surrounding him, and he wouldn't have been miserable enough to write "The Ballad of the Wild Chives". It is precisely because of this that this poem filled with lamentation can only be left for Lin Xu to appreciate alone.

  "Excuse me, sir, may I ask, is Jiangjia Village in this direction?"

  Suddenly, on the desolate mountain ridge, he heard someone speaking behind him. The old man with white hair and beard was startled, and he rubbed his hands, which were stained black from burning charcoal in the kiln, back and forth on the patched hemp garment. He looked up and down at the newcomer, his turbid eyes filled with suspicion and apprehension.