Chapter 138: People Like Zhou Wuwang Ji Fa

"Besides, I've been wondering whether India's Huayang Tian might actually be Su Daji—if so."

As Director Takahashi said this, everyone understood his meaning.

"The histories of Su Daji, Tamamo-no-Mae, and Huayang Tian are nearly identical—very thought-provoking." Professor Zhongtian sighed. "If that's truly the case, there must be some secret hidden within. The truth can basically be confirmed: either it's hidden in history, or it's connected to history."

Everyone fell silent, lost in thought.

Three identical histories—setting aside the original Su Daji, since she's the source of everything—just look at India's Huayang Tian and Japan's Tamamo-no-Mae later on. Why would their histories be the same as Su Daji's?

"…It couldn't be just for the sake of remembrance, could it?" Director Saito offered another unorthodox view, the corner of his eye twitching.

Everyone: "…"

Damn! Remembrance?

It's not impossible—after all, Su Daji was originally from Hua Country. Judging from her history there, she should have escaped and couldn't return to Hua Country.

So, out of remembrance and homesickness, missing her homeland and all the past, every time she arrived somewhere she left behind the same Hua Country historical experience, as a way to commemorate.

"The likelihood is small. No matter how much you want to commemorate, you wouldn't need to smear your own history."

Professor Zhongtian denied it.

But was immediately denied by Saito in turn.

"Indeed, the history of Tamamo-no-Mae that Tamamo-no-Mae altered looks like self-smearing to us, but think carefully—Tamamo-no-Mae's history when she was still Su Daji was already like that. She merely left behind the same Hua Country history; where is the self-smearing? The smearing is only what we perceive…"

I don't need what you think, I need what I think???

Everyone froze.

Oh my great god Amaterasu, Director Saito's analysis is damn well-reasoned.

To us outsiders it looks like Tamamo-no-Mae smeared herself, but she was just copying her own past history like drawing a gourd from a template—after all, Su Daji's history was already full of dark spots, so copying the old history would naturally be dark.

Involuntarily, Director Takahashi and the others looked toward Director Saito.

Has Director Saito, stuck in Tochigi Prefecture day after day tediously watching the site to prevent others from stealing the golden skeleton, gone stir-crazy—and now that he's finally left today, he's exploded, each one thinking more ahead than the last?

The key is the idea can't be refuted—it's quite logical.

In fact, that's exactly how it was. These past days, as the excavation lead, Director Saito had to watch constantly to prevent others from stealing the golden skeleton, so he couldn't play games to pass the time, nor could he keep fiddling with his phone, afraid of being accused of dereliction of duty.

All he could do was zone out and think.

To pass the boring time, Director Saito came up with a way to relieve his boredom: standing over there, thinking about the recent extraordinary events from bizarre angles and perspectives, generating all sorts of topics.

Like what "the return of the gods, reckoning approaches" means, what the original battlefield was, and so on—approached from alternative, bizarre angles.

After several days of this "training," when Director Saito looked at extraordinary problems, beyond normal ideas he would also sprout many bizarre ones, just like now.

Just then.

"I have a view on why Tamamo-no-Mae altered history—to convey something to certain people."

Director Saito interrupted everyone's thoughts.

"What view?" everyone asked in unison, eyes brightening.

They were very curious what view Director Saito's sharp thinking angle today would produce.

You know, often the more outlandish the idea, the closer it is to the truth—or might even be the truth itself.

Director Saito began:

"Earlier Director Takahashi said that Tamamo-no-Mae let certain people know about the altered history in order to convey something. That meaning is hidden within the altered history—if the content weren't hidden in the altered history, then letting certain people know would be meaningless. The meaning she intended to convey must lie within the altered history.

I compared the altered historical content with the real historical content. The biggest alteration is the change in the war's outcome—what should have been a victory was rewritten as Tamamo-no-Mae's defeat and suppression.

Do you still remember the first words of Tamamo-no-Mae's final price to Abe no Nakamaro—namely, the altering of history?"

In an instant.

Everyone's expression jolted, as if sharing the same unspoken thought, and they cried out together.

"Suppress me!"

That's right—Tamamo-no-Mae's first words mentioned suppression.

The biggest difference between the altered history and the real history also relates to suppression—the war's outcome was directly rewritten.

"Has anyone thought about why the history Tamamo-no-Mae altered was about suppression, not complete annihilation?"

Thinking carefully.

In the Tamamo-no-Mae history everyone knows, Tamamo-no-Mae appears to have been killed, but actually wasn't completely destroyed—because her ambition and obsession transformed into the killing stone, preserved at Nasuno, present-day Tochigi Prefecture, waiting at every moment for the chance of revenge.

Judging by history, Tamamo-no-Mae wasn't killed—merely suppressed at most.

At this point Director Saito spoke.

"The histories of Tamamo-no-Mae and Su Daji look very similar, but there's a subtle difference—in the ending.

Su Daji was ultimately beheaded and died; Tamamo-no-Mae was killed but didn't die completely.

If it were remembrance, why not just write the same ending as Su Daji's—simply kill her—instead of making up one where she didn't fully die and was suppressed?

But!!

If we think from this angle about the true historical truth, the two endings are actually the same.

Because Tamamo-no-Mae is Su Daji, meaning Su Daji didn't die—Su Daji's ending was also that she didn't fully die."

"Director Saito, you mean…" Everyone already understood Director Saito's thought, their expressions all horrified.

Director Saito seemed to already know what everyone was thinking and spoke directly.

"Exactly. My meaning is, to those who don't know the truth of Su Daji's history, the two endings look different, but to those who know the truth of Su Daji's history, the two endings are the same.

You could say the histories of Tamamo-no-Mae and Su Daji are almost indistinguishable—whether the beginning of bewitching the Emperor, or the ending of not fully dying.

Earlier it was said that Tamamo-no-Mae wanted to pass the altered history not to us later generations, but to specific people. Could those specific people be precisely those who know the truth of Su Daji's history?

Because only those who know the truth of Su Daji's history, upon seeing Tamamo-no-Mae's history, would realize the two are identical—and that Tamamo-no-Mae must be connected to Su Daji."

He let out a deep breath.

Calming his emotions.

Director Saito's voice sank low.

"If the past scenes imprinted by Heaven and Earth hadn't surfaced, we wouldn't have confirmed that Tamamo-no-Mae and Su Daji are the same person. Although online there had already been speculation that Su Daji and Tamamo-no-Mae were the same, it was only speculation — no affirmative evidence could be given.

Therefore, without today's events, we would have remained forever at the stage of guessing, only suspecting Tamamo-no-Mae was Su Daji, but never confirming it."

Everyone felt as if the air had been sucked from the room.

Director Saito's conjecture was too terrifying.

Director Saito continued: "So, isn't the message Tamamo-no-Mae wanted to convey to those specific people precisely that she, Tamamo-no-Mae, is Su Daji!"

"To let specific people know that she, Tamamo-no-Mae, is Su Daji? Why would she want to convey such a message?" Professor Beidou asked.

Director Saito answered without hesitation: "Because those specific people, since they know the historical truth about Su Daji, must be deeply familiar with Su Daji, and may even have some connection to her. I'll venture a bold guess — for Tamamo-no-Mae to convey herself in this way, she must be unable to meet those specific people face to face.

Then, is it possible that these specific people are in an adversarial relationship with Su Daji?

Because of the opposition, she dares not meet them.

Who are Su Daji's enemies?"

Director Saito looked toward Professor Beishan — such a historical question was something only Professor Beishan would know.

"Su Daji's enemies are precisely the people who killed her — the Zhou dynasty that overthrew the Shang, people like Zhou Wuwang Ji Fa."

The words rang out.

Everyone felt as if nuclear fusion had ignited inside their brains, producing a massive explosion, their minds blown apart in an instant.

Shocking!!

Director Saito and Professor Beishan's words left people suffocating, blood surging upward, on the verge of fainting.

They remembered.

Abe no Nakamaro's very first words to Tamamo-no-Mae — that line, "Aren't you afraid of being discovered by the Eastern side?"

Was that single sentence enough to prove Director Saito and Professor Beishan's conjecture?

The Eastern side — that referred to Hua Country, and even more so to Su Daji's enemies within Hua Country.

At that very moment, following Professor Beishan's answer, Director Saito picked up the thread.

"For Su Daji's Shang dynasty to be destroyed, it must have been by someone extraordinary — someone immensely powerful.

Since Su Daji is still alive, those people may well still be alive too. So my conjecture is that those specific people are people like Zhou Wuwang — they are still, to this day, tracking down Su Daji's whereabouts, intending to kill her."

"Then why would Su Daji want to reveal to Zhou Wuwang and the others that Tamamo-no-Mae is her? Wouldn't that be walking right into their trap?" Director Takahashi asked, visibly puzzled.

……