Chapter 129 — Legend

Qili Tong, the Miao altar.

The great battle of the previous night seemed not to have disturbed the stillness of this place. Led by the young shaman, Ming Li and Xiao Bai walked through the altar in silence. Xiao Hui, perched on Ming Li's shoulder, seemed quieter than usual as well, as though the solemn air around them had subdued even it.

Through the long corridor they came to the stone chamber deep within the altar. The young shaman gave a slight nod, spoke not a word to them, turned, and walked away, vanishing into the darkness in a moment.

Only the two of them remained. Ming Li and Xiao Bai exchanged a glance, and Ming Li said mildly, "Let us go in."

Xiao Bai nodded, and the two of them entered together.

The room was dim as before. Deep at the far end a fire still burned, and before the flames a stooped figure still sat with his back to them.

In that familiar scene, for a fleeting moment the events of the previous night seemed unreal—perhaps only a dream...

A fit of light coughing rose from the old man. His back, lit by the firelight, trembled violently, shattering the silence and drawing them back to reality.

"You have come," said the Great Shaman, when the coughing had ceased, his voice grown somewhat hoarse. Slowly he went on, "Come closer."

Ming Li and Xiao Bai walked up behind him and sat down quietly. Before this frail old man, somehow both of them felt at a loss for what to say.

The Great Shaman seemed to sigh softly. "My people were rude to you just now. Do not take offense."

Ming Li nodded slightly. "We would not dare."

The Great Shaman coughed twice more, then fell silent and said nothing further. Ming Li and Xiao Bai had no choice but to wait patiently—but this wait stretched on for half a day. The Great Shaman seemed to have fallen asleep, motionless, without the slightest reaction.

Anxiety grew in Ming Li's heart. For one thing, he could not tell what the Great Shaman was thinking; for another, the sudden upheaval of the previous night had left him with a regret that might last a lifetime. If through his own fault Bi Li were harmed, a hundred deaths could not atone for it.

Having waited so long now, and seeing that the Great Shaman still seemed disinclined to speak, he noticed that Xiao Bai beside him remained patient and not in the least anxious—but Xiao Hui had long since run out of patience. Monkeys are fond of play, and it could no longer endure the solemn atmosphere here. Grabbing at this and slipping off to that, it quietly slid down from Ming Li's body.

Ming Li's heart burned with impatience; he truly did not wish to delay any longer. At last he spoke: "Senior, that matter I asked of you..."

Before the word "matter" had left his lips, the Great Shaman suddenly cut in: "Young man, let me tell you a story."

Ming Li started and glanced at Xiao Bai beside him. He saw her frown as well, her eyes full of puzzlement—clearly she too could not tell what the old fellow was thinking. But since they had come to ask a favor, Ming Li could only sigh inwardly, suppress his urgent impatience, and say with forced patience, "Senior, please go on."

In that hoarse voice, deep within the dark altar, the Great Shaman began to speak, faint and distant, as though a thousand years had passed and now quietly turned back again...

"Our Southern Border lies in the south of the vast land of Shenzhou. It has never been as prosperous as the Central Plains, yet it has its own unique roots..."

Ming Li nodded silently. The customs here in the Southern Border were indeed unlike those of the Central Plains.

"Now all under heaven know that in our Southern Border five tribes stand side by side, dwelling together on this land. But in truth, long, long ago, the five tribes—Miao, Li, Zhuang, Tu, and Gaoshan—were in fact one ancient people, called the Wu Tribe."

Both Ming Li and Xiao Bai were taken aback. Not only had Ming Li never heard of such things; even Xiao Bai had no recollection of them.

The Great Shaman's back cast a faintly twisted shadow on the ground, refracted by the blazing flames, and in his voice there mingled the crackling of the firewood splitting in the fire—

a sound faint and distant, bearing the vicissitudes of times long past.

"The tribe's legends say that in ancient days the ancient Wu Tribe held the far southern frontier, mighty in power, and from their ranks arose generation after generation of strange ones deeply versed in shamanic power. Among them, the Maidens of the Wu who served the Shaman God in each generation possessed the greatest shamanic arts of all."

"The so-called Maiden of the Wu was a virgin of the highest innate spiritual power, chosen from the ancient Wu Tribe in every generation, to serve the Shaman God within the altar, to delve into the shamanic arts, and to command all the people of the Wu Tribe. Thus the years passed, many years, many years..."

Ming Li and Xiao Bai both raised their heads slightly. Both were clever people, and they knew that the crux of what the Great Shaman was telling them was about to emerge. As for Xiao Hui, no one knew where it had quietly slipped off to in the darkness.

"But in the third year after the eleventh Maiden of the Wu of the ancient Wu Tribe ascended, deep in the hundred thousand wild mountains of the southern frontier, a strange change suddenly came to pass." The Great Shaman's voice was still hoarse, but his tone had quietly risen, as though the faint excitement in his heart were slowly revealing itself.

"In the hundred thousand wild mountains there appeared a monster calling itself the Beast Sovereign. No one knew whence it came; it was as though it had appeared out of thin air amid those steep and savage mountains."

"At first no one noticed the monster's existence, but gradually the forebears of the Wu Tribe sensed the change. Though the rolling ranges of the hundred thousand wild mountains were steep and perilous, their forests were lush and their beasts plentiful, and skilled hunters of the Wu Tribe had always been able to go in to hunt. But from that time on, venomous miasma suddenly bred within the hundred thousand wild mountains; a single breath of it and a man's whole body would rot and he would die. Stranger still, the beasts that had been ordinary began one and all to undergo uncanny changes—some became monsters with the heads of beasts and the bodies of men, savage beyond measure, killing all they saw and tearing apart the dead to eat them, a sight to make the flesh crawl. Within the Wu Tribe, for a time, every heart trembled with dread."

Ming Li and Xiao Bai could not help exchanging another glance. The things the Great Shaman described were indeed profoundly strange, such as they had never heard.

The Great Shaman paused a while, as though he too were immersed in those bygone matters buried in the distant past. After a moment he slowly continued: "At that time the Maiden of the Wu summoned the leaders of the tribe's shamans to deliberate, and at last dispatched a company led by three shamans and a band of elite warriors to go into the hundred thousand wild mountains and see what strange thing had happened, what had caused the venomous miasma to rise suddenly in the mountains and the beasts to change.

But on the tenth day after that company entered the mountains, only one of the shamans—the one of highest shamanic power, who led them—came fleeing back, his whole body rotting, and even with the Maiden of the Wu's utmost efforts to heal him it was of no avail. At the very end, on the verge of death, he uttered only two words—'beast demon'—and so died."

"Beast demon..." Ming Li and Xiao Bai each repeated the name silently in their hearts.