Chapter 129 — Legend
劍問蒼天 · Page 4 of 6
Here the Great Shaman's voice gently fell still, and Ming Li and Xiao Bai each held their breath. That bloody slaughter of ages past seemed, in the darkness all around them, in the Great Shaman's desolate and aged words, once more to rise faintly before them.
"That dreadful battle is beyond anything we could imagine. What my Miao forebears passed down from generation to generation was no more than a few scattered fragments, a scale here and a claw there, that painted that war. In sum: after blood had dyed red all the land beneath their feet, after countless warriors of the Wu Tribe had perished together with the monsters, the beast demon at last broke through with a few of his monsters into the Shaman God's altar, where the Maiden of the Wu made her final stand. And outside the altar the slaughter still went on..."
"Only then did the great Shaman God at last begin to shelter his people, and the Maiden of the Wu of that generation was, by the common voice of all generations, the mightiest in shamanic arts of them all. After a battle of arts that shook heaven and earth, the beast demon and those few formidable monsters under his command were at last trapped by the Maiden of the Wu within the Eight Fiends' Dark Fire Formation, passed down from the ancient Shaman God within the altar..."
"What?" Ming Li and Xiao Bai both blurted out at once.
The Great Shaman turned his head and gave them a curious look. "'The Eight Fiends' Dark Fire Formation'—what of it?"
Ming Li and Xiao Bai exchanged a glance. After a moment Ming Li said, "The name is rather strange."
The Great Shaman sighed. "That formation was passed down from the ancient Shaman God and is set in motion by the peerless treasure the Dark Fire Mirror, the essence of ten thousand fires. Its power is supreme. In those days even the beast demon, whose demon arts reached the heavens, was held fast within it. The people of the Wu Tribe were greatly heartened, while the monsters' ranks fell into confusion, and at last they were gradually driven back."
"Yet though the Eight Fiends' Dark Fire Formation's power was boundless, the beast demon's demonic force was truly no small thing. Though scorched day and night by those eight fiery dragons and gravely wounded, it still survived and held its ground against the Maiden of the Wu without cease. Within the whole altar at that time, because the formation's own power was too great, none of the other shamans of the tribe could come near to help; the Maiden of the Wu alone sustained that vast formation with her own shamanic power. Thus three days and three nights passed, until—when the whole Wu Tribe was all but driven mad by it—the beast demon broke free of the formation and came out."
"Yet though the beast demon escaped, the formation had scorched it to the brink of death. It dared not linger a moment longer, but flew straight back to its lair in the hundred thousand wild mountains. And when the others rushed into the altar, the Maiden of the Wu was already utterly spent, her strength all but burned away. Yet she was a figure truly worthy of reverence: after but a single day's rest, though her vital force was gravely wounded, she resolved to enter the hundred thousand wild mountains alone and put the beast demon to death. For if the beast demon should recover, the doom of the Wu Tribe would truly come."
Xiao Bai sighed softly. "This Maiden of the Wu was truly a heroine among women, with the heart of a Bodhisattva, so selfless in sacrificing herself for others!"
The Great Shaman said mildly, "Here in our Southern Border, we do not believe in Bodhisattvas."
Xiao Bai smiled and said no more.