Chapter 11: Shaman
It was not the tree that spoke, but a person.
From behind the tree appeared a face wearing a leather hat. It was cold on the mountain, and that smiling face was frozen red—it was that child of the Ximu Clan.
Li Jun looked toward the stone platform, where traces of the recent ritual still remained.
However.
The Great Mother had already completed the ritual and left, yet she had secretly stayed behind.
After the coldest season had passed, she had followed the Great Mother and the entire clan back to the foot of Mount Kunlun once again.
It had been a long ti since she had seen the Emperor who stood tall at the summit of Mount Kunlun.
And also that Blue Bird soaring above the sea of clouds.
When they returned to Mount Kunlun and saw that the tree had grown taller and more luxuriant—
Looking up at the canopy that covered the mountain peak and the lake, it made the ritual beco even more fervent.
“Wow!”
Thus.
When she saw the Emperor once again, she beca sowhat excited.
The joy within her body could not be suppressed, and in the end, it transford into her lively appearance as she leapt out from behind the peach tree.
The Emperor asked her: “What is your na?”
She had no na.
In the entire Queen Mother of the West’s tribe, nas were less like nas and more like titles tied to one’s duty. Only the most important mbers of the tribe would possess them—children naturally did not belong in that category.
But when the Emperor asked her like this, she suddenly wanted a na.
The Great Mother was called the Great Mother, she thought to herself.
“I am called the Little Mother!”
The Emperor did not speak, as if accepting that she would be called by this na.
She beca a little happy, thinking that from then on, she would be called that.
A child’s heart was fickle.
She reached out her hand, wanting to touch that tree.
But at that mont, the Blue Bird suddenly spoke, its calm voice carrying a faint tone of rebuke.
“Do not touch!”
Ever since Li Jun had returned to this primordial era from later generations, he had co to understand that the danger here was not only from that stone, but also from the peach tree beside it, and even the Blue Bird soaring in the sky.
Each one of them possessed power capable of causing unimaginable disaster and destruction.
“Hm?”
The little girl was startled, and so she obediently sat down.
But then.
She quickly gave up the idea of touching the peach tree, yet her gaze was drawn to the Blue Bird instead.
Suddenly, she stretched out her hand and touched the Blue Bird’s body. Li Jun wanted to say sothing, but it was already too late.
However, after she touched it, nothing seed to have happened.
Unlike the peach tree that Li Jun could not control, the Blue Bird was a being he could control, a power he could command.
At that mont, Li Jun suddenly recalled the ritual he had previously discovered. Through that ritual, ordinary people could borrow the power of demons.
He faintly rembered—
In the mouths of those Wood Guests, such a being was called a Shaman.
Li Jun thought that perhaps he could use the Blue Bird’s power to create a true Shaman in this era, and also co to understand what exactly the power of Shaman and demon was like.
At the foot of Mount Kunlun.
With the changing of seasons, a new tribe had migrated here.
They ca from a bitterly cold land, and their na was the Hanhuang Clan.
The leader of the Hanhuang Clan was called Nüji. She was responsible for conducting sacrifices to Heaven, Earth, and the Four Directions. Within the tribe there was another person responsible for warfare, called Nüjue.
They had not co here by accident. Rather, during the Ximu Clan’s previous migration, when they traded and exchanged with other tribes, word had spread that years ago they had discovered that great fireball which had fallen from the sky.
It was not only the Ximu Clan.
All the tribes across the northwest had similar tales.
After all, this was an earth-shaking event. When that colossal fireball tore through tens of thousands of miles of layered clouds and descended upon the mortal world, passing through the entire northwest land, such a sight had naturally been witnessed by every tribe dwelling upon this land.
In their eyes, this was the might of Heaven and Earth.
They just did not know whether it was Heaven and Earth expressing anger, or whether the Heavens were casting down disaster.
The Shamans of the tribes recorded this matter and passed it down by word of mouth.
Nüji stood on a tall wagon laden with goods, surveying the surrounding terrain. As the one responsible for sacrifices, she naturally possessed much of the crucial knowledge within the clan—especially maps and routes of migration.
“We should be close now?”
Nüjue carried an axe and a bow upon her back. She looked up at Nüji, still sowhat doubtful, and asked.
“The Ximu Clan really discovered that… what they call Heaven?”
“Or was it the Sun?”
Every tribe’s language contained differences, especially when it ca to unique existences or newly discovered things. They might even create a new sound to na such a being.
Nüji still gazed into the distance: “I do not know. They would not say. But it does not seem false. They must have discovered what the previous generation’s Nüji spoke of.”
At this, Nüji lowered her head: “When we were small, did we not also see it?”
Back then, they had been too young, and their mories were sowhat blurry, almost unreal.
But.
That enormous fireball tearing open the heavens and falling still left behind a fierce shock and an indelible impression in their hearts.
Nüjue recalled that feeling, and could not help but ask:
“What exactly was it that fell from the Great Sun?”
Nüji had only heard: “I heard so say it was a piece of the Great Sun that fell. But according to what the Ximu Clan said, it seems not only that.”
Nüjue could not help but ask again: “Why have we co here? To find that which fell from the sky—and then what?”
Nüji countered: “If a part of the Great Sun and Heaven has fallen upon the earth, is that not reason enough for us to co here?”
Nüjue could not openly oppose Nüji and the tribe’s belief, but in her heart she felt that even if sothing had indeed fallen from the sky, that thing could neither be eaten nor drunk.
What use could it be?
Not only Nüjue—within the tribe, there were also those who questioned Nüji’s decision this ti.
“What if what the Ximu Clan said was false?”
“And they did not even say it clearly, hiding things—who knows what the true situation is?”
“Traveling thousands of miles to co here—we have seldom co to this land. If sothing goes wrong, who knows how many of the tribe will die?”
“Even if it is true, a fireball falling from the sky only brings calamity.”
“What if we end up in conflict with the Ximu Clan?”
Standing atop the wagon, Nüji finally seed to find the right direction. She pointed toward it and said to Nüjue below:
“Go that way. We should be there soon.”
Seeing Nüjue’s worried expression, Nüji finally revealed sothing.
“I secretly gave a sheep to one of the Ximu Clan. From him, I heard sothing—because that existence gave them guidance, they avoided a certain death disaster.”
“That being knows what will happen in the future, knows upon whom Heaven and Earth will bring disaster, and upon what land it will fall.”
“At the very least—”
“From its mouth, we will learn what the future of our Hanhuang Clan will be.”
After hearing this, Nüjue finally obeyed Nüji’s order, driving the horses forward in that direction.
And standing high upon the wagon, Nüji was like a banner. Wherever she moved, the entire tribe and all the herds would follow.
After several more days of travel—
They finally found Mount Kunlun.
Looking up into the distance, the sacred mountain glead like jade, as if it towered above all the mountains of the northwest land.
More importantly, they saw the massive tree atop the mountain, already beginning to take on the appearance of a Divine Wood.
In an instant.
All doubt in the hearts of everyone in the Hanhuang Clan vanished.
“Is that… a tree?”
“How could a tree possibly grow in a place like that?”
“Have you noticed? We can see it from so far away. How enormous must that tree be?”
“What kind of conditions would allow a tree like this to grow in such a place?”
In this bitterly cold land.
At the summit of the plateau.
A tree like this was so conspicuous and incredible that even seeing it from afar inspired reverence, let alone for those who had migrated from the harshest, most primitive tribes of the wilderness.
At first, so thought they had been mistaken. But when they confird it really was a tree atop the mountain,
One person prostrated and bowed repeatedly, unable to stop.
The Hanhuang Clan found a place to settle, and most of the tribe began to rest there, while a small group set out toward the massive peak of Mount Kunlun.
As they gradually approached the foot of Kunlun’s main peak, they began to notice another large tribe grazing there.
It was likely the Ximu Clan.
Nüjue looked sowhat worried: “They won’t allow us up the mountain. If they discover us, they’ll surely fight us.”
But the female priest had already made up her mind: “The others stay here and wait. The two of us will travel by day in hiding, by night in stealth, and ascend the mountain quietly.”
The Divine Wood sat atop the mountain, visible with a single glance upward.
It drew them like the bright moon in the sky.
How could they give up?
So, under the cover of night, the leader of the Hanhuang Clan, the female priest, and Nüjue quietly left everyone behind and ascended Kunlun Mountain toward the summit.
At first, while still at the base, nothing seed unusual, but once they reached the peak, strange occurrences began.
The Divine Wood grew taller and more majestic.
Recently, so of its instinctive traits had been awakened, just as Li Jun had seen before.
Layers of thick fog descended from above, covering the mountain paths barely cleared by the Ximu Clan.
Unknowingly, the female priest and Nüjue beca lost, especially Nüjue, wandering along the winding paths that seed endless.
“What are you doing?”
“Where are you going?”
“Co back!”
“Co back!”
But no matter how much the female priest called her, she seed unable to hear and refused to turn back.
The female priest, however, was far more determined. When she caught sight of the Divine Wood on Kunlun from afar, she pressed on recklessly, determined to see it up close.
At that mont, the shadow of the Divine Wood lood high above.
Its trunk was as majestic as a divine dragon, and its canopy spread wide like a giant parasol.
With that steadfast resolve,
She gazed at the shadow of the Divine Wood piercing through the mist, following the mountain path step by step toward the summit.
Yet, even so, mortal will could not resist the power of the Divine Wood.
She felt her body increasingly uncontrollable, and the mountain paths before her seed like an infinite loop, never reaching an end.
Suddenly, a bird cry rang out from the sky.
“Chiu!”
Through the fog, the female priest looked up.
She saw a massive bird flying high, skimming along the peaks toward the summit of Kunlun.
The fog blurred her view, but its tail feathers glimred with a greenish light.
So divine.
She absolutely refused to believe it was an ordinary mortal creature, which further strengthened her conviction that an even mightier, grander, more unfathomable existence resided atop the mountain.
Perhaps.
It was the will of heaven, the embodint of the firmant.
Her steps quickened, and she finally broke through the mountain mist.
When she slowly reached the summit and saw the tree, tears filled her eyes with emotion—she could not believe such a Divine Wood existed in the world.
But,
She was quickly captivated by sothing else beneath the tree.
It was a stone, or rather, a piece of jade.
Within the jade was sealed a figure that ti and eternity could not erase. The female priest suddenly understood—this was the being that had fallen to the mortal world from the sky and the sun.
Both the Divine Wood before her eyes and the bird soaring across the nine heavens existed because of it.
She tried to call it by the oldest words from ancient myths, but no matter how she racked her brain, no such term ca to mind. Yet its posture and majestic form were deeply imprinted in her vision.
At that mont, a voice descended from above.
“You are not of the Ximu Clan.”
The female priest trembled and knelt on the ground.
She said, “We are from the Hanhuang Clan. From afar, we saw this Divine Tree and ca to pay our respects.”
The voice said, “If you ca upon seeing the tree, should you not worship it?”
The female priest’s voice choked, unsure whether from fear or panic.
She said, “That is because we did not see you here.”
The voice said, “Ah, you wish to worship the strongest one.”
The female priest was speechless.
Was that not self-evident? If it were not the supre being,
Strong as the thick earth, tall as the vast heavens, radiant as the blazing sun,
How could all beings jointly worship it?
At this mont, she believed she had found that existence comparable to thick earth, sky, and the sun.
Guided by the Blue Bird.
The female priest descended the mountain with a heart full of excitent, feeling as though her entire body was on fire, burning intensely.
Although she had spoken only a few words with the being atop the mountain and gained nothing,
She felt it was enough, even forgetting the original purpose of her journey.
“I really saw it!”
“The embodint of the heavens.”
“The being fallen from the great sun.”
On the path, she found the lost Nüjue and led her out of the mist.
At the foot of the mountain, they passed the Ximu Clan’s settlent.
There, she saw people bowing in reverence toward the summit.
For the first ti, she heard the Ximu Clan’s na for the existence atop the mountain.
“Emperor!”
At that mont, the female priest was overjoyed, for she had found the perfect word to describe it.
Yes.
Emperor.
This word represented the heavens, symbolized divinity, and described the sun, the sky, and the four corners of the world.
But at this mont, the female priest and Nüjue also heard another piece of news.
The Ximu Clan was preparing a grand ritual to worship the Emperor, a ceremony of world-opening significance.
More importantly.
During this ritual, the Ximu Clan would receive the power granted by the Emperor, becoming what was called a true Shaman.
They would transcend the mundane and undergo a rebirth; those with this power would no longer be mortal.
As the Ximu Clan perford their worship, they naturally discussed this, each filled with joy and anticipation.
Their excitent showed in their words, and all mbers of the Ximu Clan felt honored.
“A Shaman… wasn’t the Great Mother a Shaman before?”
“That was not a true Shaman.”
“What does a true Shaman look like?”
“A Shaman can run faster than the finest horse on the plains, stronger than an ox.”
“That’s nothing. I’ve heard a Shaman can divine fortune and misfortune from the heavens, from the Emperor.”
“They can also traverse the heavens and the earth.”
“Traverse the heavens and the earth? What does that an?”
“I don’t know. That’s what they said, seems to have co from the Blue Bird, probably spoken by the Emperor.”
“It ans they can fly in the sky like an eagle.”
“So powerful?”
In the darkness.
From afar, the Ximu Clan continued to worship the Emperor, singing and dancing, their joy filling the air.
Hiding in the shadows, the female priest and Nüjue listened to the power of the Shamans.
Both were deeply moved,
And soon, a fierce jealousy erged from their hearts, impossible to suppress.
Directed at the Ximu Clan.
Why, why could they worship the Emperor?
Why were they granted the power of the Emperor, and not them?
Was it simply because they had arrived one step too late?
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