Chapter 129 — Legend
劍問蒼天 · Page 2 of 6
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.