War of the Supreme Mysteries

“Does the whole clan only have three, or is it just this tribe that has three?”

Donford Wu asked.

Yaara Ming opened up the swaddle to take a look at the baby.

“The whole clan only has three surviving babies, all of them are here in this tribe.”

“How is it such a coincidence?”

Donford Wu asked.

“Well, our tribe is the farthest away, and all the people from the Earth clan were in a hurry, so they didn’t have a chance to double check.”

Yaara Ming stated.

Donford Wu nodded his head, not asking anymore questions.

Going past two streets, the three people, more accurately, if you counted the baby in the swaddle, the four people, arrived at the gates of a courtyard. This was the only structure with a courtyard in this city, taking up a lot of space. The area was about the size of a football (Europe) field, inside were three independent lines of houses side by side, each house not all too big.

After entering the courtyard, Yaara Ming walked towards the west.

“This is the shaman’s place. Tonight, we’ll be staying here.”

“There doesn’t seem to be a lot of people living here.”

Said Donford Wu. There was three lines of houses, each line having five houses. In all there were fifteen, but right now, only two houses were lit.

“We normally don’t live here.”

Yaara Ming went to the house at the south western corner. Opening the doors, they went in.

The room was around twenty square meters. Inside was very spacious, next to the window, was a bamboo bed. On top was simple bedding. In the middle was a square table.

“Is the place frequently cleaned?”

Donford Wu sized up the room. The south side had serious humidity to it, if there wasn’t a person living in the room, it would easily produce a musty smell. But there such smell, and the floor didn’t collect any dust.

“Yeah.”

Yaara Ming took out a fire sparker and lit the oil lamp inside. The so called oil lamp was a small clay bowl filled with some kind of oil fat with a wick in the middle of it.

“We’ll be spending the night here, so you guys get comfortable first. I’m going to ask which Celestial Master is coming tomorrow.”

Yaara Ming turned around to leave.

After Yaara Ming left, the woman holding the child walked over. Smiling at Donford Wu, she said.

“Congratulations.”

“Do I HAVE to marry a lady shaman if I know their name?”

Donford Wu took Food Dump out of its pouch.

“Do you not like our shaman?”

The woman was very surprised.

“I was just asking for the sake of it, you should put the baby down first.”

Donford Wu pointed at the bed.

They walked in a hurry today, the woman was already tired out early on. But she didn’t put the baby down on the bed, but held the baby and sat in a corner. No matter how much Donford Wu urged her, she wouldn’t sleep on the bed, saying that the bed was the shaman’s, she couldn’t sleep on it.

Half an hour later, Yaara Ming came back, bringing a pot of congee with her.

“Any good news?”

Donford Wu asked. Everything that Yaara Ming did and said indicated that her mood was better than when she left.

“Nothing important, we should go to sleep early. The Celestial Master is coming tomorrow early in the morning.”

Yaara Ming gave the bed to the woman, her face filled with fear, and her child. Moving a chair, she brought it to the west side of the entrance to sit down.

“How many Celestial Masters are there in the Gold clan?”

Donford Wu went over.

“Three.”

Yaara Ming casually said.

“Are you familiar with the Celestial Master coming tomorrow?”

Donford Wu asked.

“Yeah, what about it?”

Yaara Ming questioned back.

“Can you ask him to test me?”

Donford Wu smiled.

“Why?”

Yaara Ming laughed.

“I want to see if I can learn how to control the laws.”

Donford Wu said. The Fire clan Celestial Master’s Fury Blaze Dance left a deep impression in his mind.

“Yeah I can, I’ll ask him tomorrow.”

Yaara Ming happily promised.

Donford Wu joyfully nodded his head. He didn’t hold too much hope, but testing was still the best. If he could learn to control the laws, then that’ll be for the best. But if he couldn’t, then he would completely give up on it.

Food Dump had enough rest in the day, so it started his nightly activities. Since the door was closed, he couldn’t go out. After ‘Hn’ing for a period of time, it started to look for things to do. Thus, it started gnawing on one of the bed legs.

Three in the morning, Donford Wu was woken by chatter outside the courtyard. Waking up, he discovered that Yaara Ming already woke up and was sitting on the bed combing her hair.

“Why didn’t you lit the place up?”

Donford Wu was scared by Yaara Ming for moment. Seeing a woman combing her hair in the dark was already scary enough, and this woman was wearing a mask.

“There’s some water at the door, you can comb and wash up a bit. Everyone in the tribe would be coming over, you’re going up with the Bear King.”

Yaara Ming continued to comb her hair.
　　
“But you still didn’t have to wake up so early.”

Donford Wu sneezed.

Yaara Ming stood up to light up the oil lamp. Walking over to Donford Wu, she passed her wooden comb to Donford Wu.

“Tie up your hair and shave that beard. Then have a change of clothes.

“What they want to look at is Food Dump, not me.”

Donford Wu waved his hand and didn’t take her wooden comb.
　
“You, you don’t want to use my comb?”

Yaara Ming was a bit sad.

Hearing this, Donford Wu quickly took the wooden comb. But what Yaara Ming said was right, he really didn’t want to use Yaara Ming’s comb. He felt that the matters between himself and Yaara Ming was a bit too sudden. Right now, he only saw Yaara Ming in a good light, but he hasn’t thought about marrying her.

His hair was too short, so he couldn’t tie it up. His beard could be shaven off using his dagger. Since he only had this one set of clothes, he didn’t change it. If he’s dirty, then he’s dirty.

More people gathered outside the courtyard, the volume of their chatter growing louder and louder. At seven in the morning a bell rang. Yaara Ming held the baby and brought Donford Wu outside into the courtyard. In the middle of the courtyard was a rather large paved path. On the paved path was six people, all of them were shamans holding copper poles in their hands. The four in the front were older, all of them male shamans. The other two at the back was the lady shaman that greeted Yaara Ming last night, and the other was the male shaman that was scratched by Food Dump. Both holding babies in their arms.

Yaara Ming held the baby and stood next to them. Donford Wu didn’t know where to go, so he just hugged Food Dump and sat by a stone pillar on the side of the road.

“Stand, that’s for tying up horses.”

Yaara Ming said in a low tone.

Right now, the gates of the courtyard were open. A lot of people squeezed themselves towards the entrance. The people who weren’t able to squeeze to the entrance surrounded the courtyard walls. Stepping on stones, they were barely able to see over the walls. There was also people on top of the houses and trees surrounding the courtyard.

The male shaman that was clawed smiled at Yaara Ming and waved. Yaara Ming pretended not to see it, not caring about him.

The male villagers that Yaara Ming let out for whatever activities they wanted yesterday night must have spread the news. One to ten, ten to hundred, a lot of people all knew that in Donford Wu’s embrace was their Gold clan’s next mount of the Celestial Master of the White Tiger. Before the Celestial Master arrived, Food Dump became their center of attention.

The clansmen all recognized that Food Dump was a Pi Xiu, but they didn’t seem to be surprised. Because in their eyes, black bears and Pi Xius were both bears, and Pi Xius were even fiercer than black bears.

“When’s the Celestial Master coming?”

Donford Wu silently asked Yaara Ming.

Yaara Ming shook her head, swaying her hand to say that he shouldn’t speak.

Waiting until he was bored, he placed his gaze on the four shamans in front of them. The youngest shaman of the four was about to turn forty, the oldest should be over fifty. The robes they wore had the same design of the three young shamans behind them, but their robes had a blue color. On top of their copper poles wasn’t an Ox head, but rather a curved horned goat. This might be a symbol of their Sage status.
　
After waiting for more than half an hour, the sun exposed itself from the east, at the same time, Donford Wu heard from the skies of booming thunder. Hearing the thunder, everyone in the city started cheering.

Before this, Donford Wu once heard about the bodily technique Lightning Movement of the Winds and Clouds that the Gold clan Celestial Masters used. While moving at quick speeds, they’re would be a thunderous boom. When Donford Wu heard this sound, this meant that the Celestial Master that came to test the babies was about to arrive.

With curiosity in his heart, Donford Wu turned his head to look at the eastern skies, but he didn’t see anyone there. This meant that even though the bodily technique of the Gold clan was quick, but it didn’t seem to be like that of a supersonic aircraft that was even faster than sound. The sound first came, then the person came behind.

The thunderous sound became more and more clear, it wasn’t long before a small dot appeared in the eastern skies.

“This bodily technique is good in its own ways, but the noise, the noise is too loud, not suitable for ambushes.”

Donford Wu said, biting his lips.

Hearing someone talk, Yaara Ming turned her head, Donford Wu quickly placed his gaze back onto the sky.

Following the shortening distance, the black dot also slowly became larger, a vague outline of a human could already be seen.

Now that the distance was even shorter, he could see that the person’s robe wasn’t black, but rather a very dark purple.

Waiting until the Celestial Master arrived above the tribe city, the thunderous sound slowly vanished. At this moment, it was visible that the Celestial Master was a sixty, seventy year old elder. With both hands behind his back, he was stepping on top of a copper pole.

Even though the thunderous sound vanished, the Celestial Master was still moving in midair, but the speed was greatly slower than before. At this time, Donford Wu suddenly realized something. The thunderous sound of the Lightning Movement of the Winds and Clouds would only be made while moving at full speeds, when he slowed down, the thunderous sound would not be there.

When the Celestial Master arrived above the courtyard, he started to slowly descend. This scene greatly amazed Donford Wu. He couldn’t get his mind around how he could offset the force of gravity. The only possibility was that through cultivation, they could uncover hidden potential. Following the development of science and technology, human kind relied more and more on tools and machines, instead of using their own potential.

At this moment, he could clearly see the Celestial Master’s shape and face. This Celestial wasn’t very tall, he was about a meter seventy, an oval face, his shape was to the skinny side, under his chin was a goatee, making him seem dignified. Even though is age was rather old, but it wasn’t hard to see that when he was young, he was an extremely handsome man to the point of beauty. The copper pole that the Celestial Master stood on had a ferocious beast skull on the tip of it. The shape of the beast skull looked familiar, thinking about it carefully, that kind of beast head always showed up on bronze made materials in ancient times. It should be a Taotie. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taotie )

About four or five meters away from the ground, the Celestial took back his copper pole and drifted to the ground.

Waiting for him to get his posture, all the shamans knelt down on one knee with their copper pole propped up.

“Welcome Celestial Master.”
　　
This sentence was just Donford Wu’s understanding of the language. In reality, what the shamans said was much longer and even had modal words in them.

“Esteemed Celestial Master, please accept out humble welcoming and our honest respects.”

The Celestial Master didn’t reply, only slowly nodded his head.

“Wow he’s arrogant.”

Donford Wu secretly said.

The Shamans and Sages seeing the Celestial Master nod his head, stood up.

　　Before this, there was still a light atmosphere, but now, there wasn’t any nonsense. After standing up, the four Sages at the front separated into left and right, the lady shaman closet to the front carried the baby and walked over.

Receiving the swaddle from the lady shaman, the Celestial Master took out his right hand and placed his palm on top of the child’s forehead, at the same time, he closed his eyes.

After a few seconds, the Celestial Master opened his eyes. Shaking his head, he gave the swaddle back to the nervous lady shaman.

Dismayed, the lady shaman stepped down, letting the male shaman that was clawed to walk over. But after the test, the Celestial Master still shook his head.

Yaara Ming was the last person to take the child over. The amount of time the Celestial Master placed on top of the child’s forehead was twice as long as the ones before.

Only until a full three minutes did the Celestial Master open his eyes.

Inside and out the courtyard there wasn’t a single bird cry or noise to be heard, everyone’s line of sight rested on the Celestial Master.

After a moment of silence, the Celestial Master slowly nodded his head.

Thousands of people screamed in happiness, tens of thousands celebrated……