Chapter 15 (1/2)
After the long ordeal, the line of people didn’t move far before the sky turned dark. When the sunsets, large quant.i.ties 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, pa.s.sing 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 s.h.i.+ 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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sed his ways of law to the first Celestial Master of the White Tiger. Apart from the Celestial Master of the White Tiger, he also pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.s 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?”