Chapter 131 — Parting
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 2 of 6
The Great Shaman sighed softly. "Did I not tell you just now?"
Tu Magu said bitterly, "The Li stole our sacred vessels, and we risked our lives to win them back. Why must we go begging help from outsiders?"
The Great Shaman shook his head. "You are mistaken."
Tu Magu started. "What?"
The Great Shaman was silent a moment, then said in a low voice, "If it truly were the Li who stole our sacred vessels, I would not be so anxious. What I fear is... ah!"
Tu Magu did not understand. "Great Shaman, what do you mean by that?"
The Great Shaman said, "Do you still remember the legend of the beast demon that our Miao people have handed down from generation to generation?"
Tu Magu's face changed greatly. "Can it be that the legend is true?"
The Great Shaman smiled bitterly. "It was true all along. In those years Lady Linglong sacrificed herself to seal the beast demon within the Demon-Quelling Cave, and her dying command was that her descendants must never let the five sacred vessels of the beast demon return to the Demon-Quelling Cave at the same time. But to this day, all five sacred vessels have been lost, and I fear this is truly a sign that the beast demon is reviving."
Tu Magu's expression shifted through many changes. As chieftain of the Miao he naturally knew the weight of that legend, yet after a long while he could not help saying, "Great Shaman, if that is so, then all the more you must not leave this place. If anything should happen... with you here, our people would be a little more at ease."
The Great Shaman shook his head silently. "This old life of mine has at most thirty days left to it."
Tu Magu's body trembled.
The Great Shaman sighed. "Do you think I am willing to leave? Once I go, I fear I shall die a stranger in a foreign land. But the five tribes of the Southern Frontier are divided among themselves, and men of talent have withered away; if my guess is right, no one may be able to meet the crisis. That young man from the Central Plains is not old in years, yet he carries strange arts, and the black staff at his side holds a murderous aura and a malevolence such as I have never seen in my life. But the most important thing is..."
He cast a meaningful glance at Tu Magu and lowered his voice. "The most important thing is that the 'Xuanhuo Mirror,' said to be the essence of ten thousand fires, is on his person."
Tu Magu was greatly shocked. "What? Is that thing not at Fenxiang..."
The Great Shaman silenced him with a look. Tu Magu understood and said no more, but the astonishment in his eyes only deepened.
The Great Shaman went on slowly, "That day, when he first met me, the stone hound-god behind me showed strange signs, the sacred fire gave warning, and both of the beast demon's sacred vessels—the Black Staff and the Bone Jade—grew restless. If not for the Xuanhuo Mirror, the supreme sacred relic that once suppressed the beast demon, there could be nothing else. As for how that relic came to be lost from Fenxia Valley, that I do not know."
Tu Magu was silent.
The Great Shaman paused, then continued, "Afterward, as we spoke, I deliberately let fall the origin of the Xuanhuo Mirror, and indeed those two were startled and astonished. Especially when I spoke of the 'Eight Ferocious Xuanhuo Formation'—their faces changed greatly. I think they must have a close connection with that treasure and that formation."
Tu Magu let out a long breath, plainly having never anticipated any of this.