The initial scene held significant aning within the Trial Illusion instance.
It was not just an interface for selecting identity, but it also hinted at so underlying information.
For example, the initial scene for "Even in death, the matters are not settled" was atop the town’s city walls, while "Becoming a marquis was not my intention" took place at Lin Xiangmin’s Governor’s Office.
Both played a crucial role in linking the overall plot of the instance.
Analyzing the initial scene might not greatly assist in deciphering the instance, but it could help players grasp so core elents of the instance earlier.
Chuge said, "This initial scene is quite straightforward; it should represent the general state of affairs during that era.
"Emperor Taizu of Sheng lived in a rather unique region, and during his youth, he experienced several major disasters.
"These included droughts, locust plagues, epidemics, and later, the floods that caused chaos across the land.
"All these natural disasters were extrely lethal for the farrs of that ti.
"Just as depicted in this instance, during the drought, the earth cracked and vegetation died; during the locust plague, swarms of locusts blotted out the sky and devoured everything; during the epidemic, nine out of ten households were empty, with corpses littering the village outskirts; and when the floods ca, the Yellow River changed its course, turning thousands of miles into marshland, and countless people were swept away by the floods and perished.
"And this piece of land in the initial scene was a witness to all these tragedies, witnessing countless farrs’ miserable fates as they struggled and eked out a living on this land."
The other three were silent.
Goodness gracious.
It was initially thought that the appearance of drought, locust plague, epidemic, and flood in this initial scene was rely an exaggerated form of expression, representing the natural disasters of different places altogether.
Unexpectedly, they were all real, all occurring in the sa location.
According to common beliefs, disasters in different places should vary, like flood-prone areas suffering floods, and areas with little water facing droughts.
But in reality, often after a drought cos a locust plague, followed by flooding, never-ending.
The truly harmonious tis were few and far between.
Just like money flows towards those who lack it the least, and love gravitates towards those who lack it the least, hardships find those who can endure the most.
The rope always breaks at its thinnest point; misfortune only targets the suffering.
At this mont, the players saw the initial scene depicting the real-life setting of Emperor Taizu of Sheng’s youth.
"Since the identity is decided, let’s hurry and enter the instance to see the details."
Everyone selected their identity cards.
After distributing identities, each person entered different historical periods of this slice of history to begin their trials.
...
Chuge chose the identity of the "Emperor," which was Emperor Taizu of Sheng in his later years.
After selecting the identity card, the surrounding scenes started to transform rapidly.
Eventually, everything settled, and Chuge found himself in a grand imperial hall.
Before him, there were piles of morial tablets stacked like mountains.
Three talent cards appeared before Chuge.
[Jin·Vigorous Spirit (White):Your energy is abundant, allowing you to remain alert even after long hours of work. The effect doubles in old age.]
[Jin·Commanding Presence (Blue):Your authority is enhanced, making others more likely to panic in your presence.]
[Xin·Eloquent Speech (Blue):Your speech becos more infectious and persuasive.]
The usual talents offered in the Trial Illusion were not as generous as those in the Cavalry Trial instance; the talents given were rather ordinary.
Chuge imdiately ruled out the third talent; clearly, an emperor does not need to persuade many.
After hesitating between the first two talents, Chuge ultimately chose "Vigorous Spirit."
He was well aware that he was portraying Emperor Taizu of Sheng in his twilight years, already over seventy, with not much ti left.
In ancient tis, the average life expectancy was low, and it was not uncommon for emperors to die in their forties or fifties. Therefore, Emperor Taizu of Sheng being seventy was truly rare.
In this state, if he didn’t have enough energy, he would likely accomplish nothing.
Compared to that, "Commanding Presence" might be useful when interrogating officials, making it easier to spot their flaws, but it was not as high a priority.
Chuge touched the "Vigorous Spirit" talent and began his trial.
The proceedings in the Trial Illusion started.
There was a young eunuch beside him, attending closely; beyond that, there was no one else.
"What should I do now?
"Could it be... reviewing the morials?"
Chu Ge looked at the piles of morials in front of him, falling into deep thought.
He had chosen the identity of an emperor because he knew it was probably the most difficult among the four identities.
In terms of age, Emperor Taizu of Sheng had entered his later years, what was so-called "a hero at twilight." Every hero at this stage of life faced the most challenging tis.
There were too many unfinished tasks to tackle, and plenty of opportunities for petty crooks to stir trouble.
And in terms of status, ruling the empire was much harder than conquering it.
The role of emperor Chu Ge played was not one of indulging in pleasure and reaping the benefits, but rather the most perilous final stretch.
"From what I see now, there seems to be no necessary linear connection between different stages.
"That ans, regardless of whether the first three participants cleared their stages, I can proceed with the fourth stage of the ga as usual.
"But, I cannot rule out the possibility that outstanding performances by the first three could improve the starting situation of the fourth stage.
"I should focus on my part for now.
"Reviewing the morials.
"If I consider the historical situation, this is definitely not an easy task.
"I wonder if I can withstand it..."
As a history student, Chu Ge had not been idle during this ti; he had been preparing materials related to Emperor Taizu of Sheng.
Historically, it was clearly docunted that Emperor Taizu had reviewed over eleven hundred morials concerning over three thousand four hundred matters within eight days. If each morial was about a thousand words, he would read over two hundred thousand words and address over four hundred matters daily.
Of course, not all morials required detailed responses; so could be delegated to the Six Ministries, while only a few of major importance needed thorough personal deliberations.
Furthermore, replies didn’t need to be tangled in formality; Emperor Taizu liked to use plain language or issue imperial decrees directly.
For instance, in the early years of the Great Sheng Dynasty when Eastern Barbarian raiders occasionally invaded, Emperor Taizu issued a very concise imperial decree to the military and civilians in the southeast: "By the grace of heaven, the Emperor decrees: tell the people to prepare their knives; if these folks co, kill them and then talk. Mark this!"
Moreover, the ga "Dark Sand" itself ca with support chanisms; just as a player didn’t need to mimic ancient people’s speech when conversing with historical figures, reviewing morials in the ga didn’t require strict adherence to ancient practices either.
As long as the approximation was close enough, the ga’s chanics would automatically correct it.
Thus, for Chu Ge, reviewing the morials wasn’t particularly difficult.
The key was to discern and filter out so crucial information from such a vast amount of information.
He took one from the stacked mountains of morials and began to review.
After flipping through it, Chu Ge found that the content of the morial was rather clear, and the issues were explained comprehensively. Additionally, the more difficult parts automatically transford into modern vernacular or expository style in his mind, which further reduced the complexity.
This was reasonable, as there weren’t many players like Chu Ge.
Those who hadn’t studied historical materials or even recognized many traditional characters would have no chance of clearing this stage without so assistance.
However, by the third volu, it had already beco sowhat infuriating.
Rambling thousands of words off-topic, even trivial matters were hashed and rehashed.
This reminded Chu Ge of a humorous incident during the early Great Sheng Dynasty.
Once, a high official from the Ministry of Justice presented a morial that, after reading over six thousand words, Emperor Taizu still couldn’t grasp the essence—it was all empty talk; only after sixteen thousand words did it address the main issue, totaling five points.
And those five matters could clearly have been stated in five hundred words.
In anger, Emperor Taizu imdiately had the official summoned and physically punished in front of everyone, afterward cautioning all other officials that morials should only state facts without unnecessary verbosity.
This drastically cleared the air in the officialdom.
Chu Ge had found this story amusing when he read it, but now that he was in the situation himself, it wasn’t funny at all.
The morials he was reading were already in a reford state. It was hard to imagine the verbose and irritating morials Emperor Taizu had dealt with before.
Soon, it grew dark, and he had to read by lamp light.
The young eunuch serving him was clearly used to this state and waited quietly beside him.
Chu Ge, feeling dizzy and seeing stars, finally finished reviewing all the morials.
Just as he was about to get up and stretch, everything in front of him shifted rapidly.
A new stack of morials appeared.
Apparently, a new day had arrived.
Chu Ge froze completely, speechless.
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