Chapter 129 — The Legend

"All along the way they cut through thorns and brambles, slaying countless monsters, and on the sixth day they came at last before the ancient cave where the beast-demon dwelt. But then the Holy Maiden made a decision none had foreseen: she bade the other seven wait outside the cave, and she alone entered."

"The seven warriors naturally refused, but the Holy Maiden's will was absolute, and she told them plainly that their going in would be of no help and would only burden her. In the end the seven had no choice but to agree."

"After the Holy Maiden entered the ancient cave, no word of her ever came again. The seven warriors waited outside the whole of two days and two nights, until at last two of them could bear it no longer and would rush into the cave to seek her. But the other five held that they should keep waiting and obey the Holy Maiden's command.

Thus the seven warriors fell to quarreling among themselves, and in the end those two went into the cave—and from that moment, no word of them ever came again."

"So it went until the fifth day, when the remaining five were beginning to lose heart, and then—miraculously—the Holy Maiden came stumbling out of the ancient cave. By then she looked as though all the blood had been drained from her, her face frighteningly pale. But in their great joy the five warriors never noticed. The Holy Maiden called the five to her side and gave to each a vessel gleaming bright and brimming with eerie witch power, telling them that these five sacred relics she had refined from the beast-demon's own body after destroying it. But the beast-demon was a peerless demon born of the foulest, most savage qi between heaven and earth; its body might perish, but its soul would not scatter."

"The five warriors turned pale with horror, and the Holy Maiden told them further: so long as these five sacred relics never returned to this ancient cave, the beast-demon could never be reborn! Having spoken, her body shook violently, and suddenly blood streamed from all seven of her orifices. The five warriors were greatly alarmed; with her last strength the Holy Maiden charged them that the whole Witch Clan must forever guard these five sacred relics and never let the beast-demon revive, for otherwise would come the final day of the Witch Clan and of the world. And she herself would keep eternal watch outside this ancient cave, using her own soul to subdue all demonkind and lock them within. Having barely finished, the Holy Maiden could hold on no longer, and passed from the world standing upright; and a moment later, her body, facing the depths of the ancient cave, turned to stone!"

The Great Shaman's voice slowly sank low.

In the firelight, everyone's face wore a strange look, a cast beyond words. After a long while, Xiao Bai let out a long breath and said, "What a Holy Maiden! But, Great Shaman, why tell us this story?"

The Great Shaman's back seemed bowed beneath an invisible burden, desolate beyond measure. He did not answer Xiao Bai's question; instead, as though speaking to himself, he went on: "After weeping and grieving, the five warriors returned to the Witch Clan. Though the Holy Maiden had died a bitter death, the beast-demon—that foe without peer in all the Witch Clan's history—was at last suppressed within that ancient cave. The Witch Clan folk, amid their sorrow, could not help but feel some joy and relief. But just then, the five warriors, whose fame had soared with the slaying of the demon, fell to fighting among themselves over the leadership of the Witch Clan."

"Most lamentable of all: each generation's Holy Maiden was named by the one before, and this Holy Maiden had left no instruction at all—and at such a time, the five warriors had all forgotten to ask. And so the Witch Clan, once so thriving and strong, slowly split apart amid the five warriors' quarrels, the people each backing one of them, until at last they divided into the five clans of today's southern wilds—Miao, Li, Zhuang, Tu, and Gaoshan—and those five crucial sacred relics were held, one by each."

As this ancient and yet soul-shaking tale at last drew to its close, Ming Li drew a deep breath, gazed at the Great Shaman's back, and said slowly, "Elder, you have told us so much—can it be that you wish me to help recover the Miao's sacred relic?"