War of the Supreme Mysteries

After the long ordeal, the line of people didn’t move far before the sky turned dark. When the sunsets, large quantities of ferocious wild beasts would come out of their caves to hunt. To move at this time was not a good idea. The lady shaman led the crowd to a more open place with fewer trees, deciding to spend the night here.

The mountain had lots of dried out trees, allowing almost unlimited firewood. The bonfire they lit was huge, the people surrounded the bonfire eating their rations. Donford Wu took out his raw meat and started roasting it.

No matter how high the quality of food is, if you eat too much, you would get a stomach ache. Right now, Food Dump had a hurting stomach. Lying down next to Donford Wu, it whined a “Hn” noise. While Donford Wu was roasting the meat, he slowly caressed Food Dump’s head to comfort it.

The lady shaman came walking over, passing a sheep skin water pouch over to Donford Wu.

Donford Wu received it. Drinking a few mouthfuls himself, he poured some into his hand to feed it to Food Dump. Emptying his hands several times, Food Dump stopped drinking.

“When will we reach the tribe?”

Donford Wu gave back the water pouch to the lady shaman.

Taking the water pouch, she sat down beside him.

“Another two days.”

“How many tribes does the Gold clan have?”

Donford Wu questioned.

“Six, two for mining, two for logging, and the last two for refining metals.”

The lady shaman stated.

“Since everyone’s busy, where does the food come from?”

Donford Wu asked.

“The capital and the tribes all have farmland, every month, they’ll give us some rations. We, ourselves have some farmland, which the women take care of.”

The lady shaman stared into the fire, pondering something,

“Refining so much metal, is it all to pay tribute to the Earth clan?”

Donford Wu asked yet again. His basic understanding of this period of time came only from Walda Ming. Through the lady shaman, he could understand even more about this period.

“They get ninety percent, the rest is for us to trade for food, cloth, and other things.

“Ninety percent? That’s even more unlucky than Samuel Huang (Huang Shi Ren, a fictional character who loses his business). Are the other three clans ninety percent too?”

The tribute percentage really startled Donford Wu.

The lady shaman shook her head.

“Not that much.”

“What do they give the Earth clan?”

Donford Wu questioned once again.

“The Water clan gives horses and large dogs. The Wood clan contributes salt and sea fish. The Fire clan only gives dyed elephant tusks and rhino horns. Hey, your meat is roasted black.”

The lady shaman pointed at the stick in Donford Wu’s hand.

“Why can the Fire clan pay so little tribute?”

Donford Wu eyed his blacked meat, seeing it charred to such an extent, he threw it away into the fire.

“Because their shamans are really powerful, and they have extremely violent natures. The Earth clan doesn’t dare to bully them.”

The lady shaman untied the pouch by her waist and passed it over to Donford Wu.

“I’m not hungry, but thanks.”

Donford Wu shook his hands. Right now, he could determine that the lady shaman had interest towards him. When did this start, he didn’t know, because the lady shaman hid it deep within her heart. But ever since the lady shaman went between him and the giant beat, she exposed her true emotions. From then on, she didn’t try to deliberately evade or hid it.

“Is it because the Gold clan is missing the Celestial Master of the White Tiger that they are bullied so much?”

Donford Wu asked.

“That’s the main reason.”

The lady shaman nodded her head.

“Then can’t the other Celestial Master’s replace him?”

Donford Wu pushed aside the Food Dump that was sniffing a rations bag.

“No.”

The lady shaman shook her head.

“Why is that?”

Donford Wu asked.

This time, the lady shaman didn’t immediately reply, only after hesitating for a long time did she answer.

“Because our Celestial Master of the White Tiger is missing, and our Spiritual Turtle had been killed, the most mysterious and powerful ways of controlling the laws have already been lost.”

“You want to ask what a Spiritual Turtle is?”

The lady shaman tilted her head towards Donford Wu.

Donford Wu slightly smiled, agreeing silently. To understand a person not only needs time, but needs to have experienced things together. Only just a few hours ago did he hate the lady shaman to death.

“To talk about the Spiritual Turtle, we must first talk about my ancestors first. The Gold Deity, Rhys (Ru Shou) was my Gold clan’s ancestor. All the ways of controlling the laws of the Gold clan were created by him, before giving back his control over the laws to the heavens and earth, he passed his ways of law to the first Celestial Master of the White Tiger. Apart from the Celestial Master of the White Tiger, he also passed his ways to a loyal Spiritual Turtle. This Spiritual Turtle has already lived for a long time, it could speak in human language. The reason for its existence is so that just in case the Celestial Master of the White Tiger had an accident and couldn’t pass down the the ways of the law, then we could still learn the ways of the law and cultivation method from it.

Donford Wu silently nodded his head. Saying it crudely, the turtle was insurance. Right now, not only is the Celestial Master of the White Tiger of the Gold clan dead, but also the insurance is dead, the most mysterious and powerful ways of controlling the laws has all but been lost.

“You guys……”

He originally wanted to ask why the Gold clan ancestor didn’t just use writing to record the ways to control the laws, but just when he wanted to say it, he remembered that the Xia dynasty didn’t have any kind of written language, so everyone right now was illiterate.

“You said that your ancestor gave back his control over the laws to the heavens and earth, what does that mean?”

Donford Wu asked.

“Let me think how I should say it so you can understand.”

The lady shaman stated.

After the conversation stopped, Donford Wu noticed that Food Dump already bit open the lady shaman’s ration pouch, the rice patties inside were almost all eaten by it.

“If you dare ‘Hn’ again, I’ll give you a kick.”

Donford Wu slapped at Food Dump that was ‘Hn’ ing.

Food Dump didn’t even take notice of it. But except for the lady shaman, all the Gold clan clansmen stood up, staring at him with a discontent expression.

The lady shaman waved her hand at the crowd, indicating to them that there was no need to be nerves, following, she opened her mouth to speak.

“Giving back the control over the laws to the heavens and earth means to forever not here, but forever here at the same time.”

“What?”

Hearing this, Donford Wu was in a daze, what’s forever not here, but forever here at the same time? This was like saying he needed to eat to have enough energy to go on a diet.

Seeing that he didn’t understand, the lady shaman didn’t try to keep explaining.

What Donford Wu really wanted to understand was the situation the world was in, skipping this question, he asked a different one.

“Do the other four clans have Spiritual Turtles?”

“They all have long living, way of law passing shamans, but that doesn’t mean they’re Spiritual Turtles.”

The lady shaman said.

“Then who are the ancestors of the other clans?”

Donford Wu asked again.

“The Wood Deity Jum (Ju Mang), the Water Deity Gongo(Gong Gong), the Fire Deity Zur(Zhu Rong), and the Earth Clan ancestor is the Emperor Xuan Yuan(Xuan Yuan).”

The lady shaman popped out the wooden cork and started drinking a few mouthfuls of water.

This action made Donford Wu extremely surprised. He used this water pouch before, two people drinking from the same bottle in modern terms meant a very intimate action, he wasn’t sure what this meant in this period of time, but since the lady shaman was wearing a mask, he couldn’t see her expression. With suspicion in his heart, he turned to look at the Gold clansmen. A few of them were eating something, they weren’t looking this way, the remaining had startled expressions on their face, this meant that two people drinking from the same water pouch was a very intimate action.

“Did their ancestors also give their control over the laws back to the heavens and earth?”

Donford Wu keeping his composure asked again.

The lady shaman nodded her head.

“I once saw a long time before a human shaped flame flying in the air, inside the flames seemed to be a person.”

Donford Wu was a bit hungry, he picked up a rice patty and started gnawing on it.

“That’s the Fire clan’s Fury Blaze Dance.”

The lady shaman stated.

“Is it the most powerful way of controlling the laws of the Fire clan?”

Donford Wu casually asked.

“Not really, all the Fire clan’s Celestial Masters can use it, it’s a kind of bodily technique.”

The lady shaman said.

“Does the Gold clan have any ways to control the laws to fly?”

Donford Wu asked again.

“There is, our Gold clan has the Lightning Movement of the Winds and Clouds.”

The lady shaman nodded her head, not waiting for Donford Wu to ask again.

“The Water clan has the Weak Water Dragon’s Twirl, the Wood clan has the Bottomless Upward Spreader, and the Earth clan’s Returning To The Heavens And Earth are all bodily techniques that can rise into the air.

“Keep going, keep going, but please more detail, I have seen the Fury Blaze Dance before, so start from the Lightning Movement of the Winds and Clouds.”

Donford Wu was greatly interested in this.

“The Gold clan Celestial Masters can control metals to fly through the air, when moving at quick speeds, thunder would sound, so that’s why it’s called the Lightning Movement of the Winds and Clouds.
　　
The Water clan Celestial Masters can shift and drive the waters of rivers, lakes and oceans to form a rapid swirling water column to rise into the air. Because the water column’s shape looks very similar to a tornado, that’s why it is called the Weak Water Dragon’s Twirl.
　　
The Wood clan Celestial Masters can make the grass and trees around them to quickly grow, rising them into the air. Upwards Spreader is a name of a deity tree to their east side, it can grow really high. So that’s why this kind of way of controlling the laws is called the Bottomless Upwards Spreader.

The Earth clan Celestial Masters don’t need anything to go into the skies and escape from the earth. This kind of way of controlling the laws is called by them Returning To The Heavens And Earth.”

The lady shaman carefully explained all of them one at a time.

“The Earth clan’s way of controlling the laws seems to be a lot more powerful than the other four clans.

Donford bite into a rice patty.

“The Earth clan is the descendent of Emperor Xuan Yuan, the Emperor passed down a lot more ways of the law than our four clans.”

The lady shaman stated.

“When can you become a Celestial Master?”

Donford Wu gave the ration pouch that Food Dump bit open back to the lady shaman.

“Shaman’s have three ranks, their subdivisions have nine grades, to me, Celestial Master is too far away.”

The lady shaman tied the empty ration pouch back to her waist.

“I only ate one, the rest was eaten by it.”

Donford Wu laughed while he pointed at the already sleeping Food Dump.

“No problem.”

The lady shaman’s eyes slightly closed, without asking, she was smiling.

“That’s right, how did these names come to be?”

Donford Wu added more firewood to the bonfire. Everyone was laying down resting right now, only the two of them were still talking.

“The name Shaman has been pasted down since ancient times. Sages means a shaman that has high understanding in the laws. The name Celestial Master was what the Emperor called his master Qibo.”

The lady shaman stated.

“Won’t you get tired of wearing a mask all day?”

Donford Wu sneezed.

“All shamans of the female gender must wear masks before marrying.”

The lady shaman said.
　　
“You’re always wearing a mask, how would they know how you look? If they don’t know how you look, who would marry you?”

Donford Wu looked around to find a place to lay down.

“Marrying is seen on proper conduct, morality and virtue, what does that have to do with looks?”

The lady shaman squinted her eyes, this time surely wasn’t a smile, but should be a frown.

“Okay, Okay, Okay, you’re right, it’s late, time to sleep.”

Donford Wu said.

“You asked me all these questions tonight, and I answered all of them, right now, I have one question for you.”

The lady shaman said.

“Go to sleep, we’ll talk tomorrow.”

Donford Wu said.

“It’s only one question, we can sleep after it.”

The lady shaman said.

“Don’t tell me you want to ask where I come from?”

Donford Wu titled his head towards the lady shaman.

The lady shaman nodded her head.

Donford Wu covered his face and sighed, it’s over, he shouldn’t think about sleeping tonight……