Chapter 102 – Drawing a Shaman Volume
Translated by Sunyancai
Early next morning, Shao Xuan came to the Shaman’s stone room.
The animal skin roll that the Shaman passed onto Shao Xuan described the processing methods for ten rare animal medicines.
Shao Xuan assumed that the Shaman would only let him start with a few volumes pertaining to plants. But unexpectedly, when he was done with the volume, the Shaman asked: “Have you read it thoroughly?”
“Yes. I’m confident that I can harvest the entire medicinal part if I ever encounter these animals.” Answered Shao Xuan.
“Um.” The Shaman responded with that, and then said to the warriors guarding his door: “Don’t let anyone in unless it’s urgent.”
Seeing the Shaman’s behavior, Shao Xuan couldn’t help but become serious as well. It seemed that the Shaman had something important to talk to him about.
“Sit over there.”
The Shaman pointed to a short desk besides him, and took out a piece of blank animal skin roll, as well as a stone plate that had special pigments that could only be used by the Shaman.
Well, in this situation…
Shao Xuan probably understood what he meant.
“Do you know how the Shaman Volumes are made?” Asked the Shaman.
“No, I don’t.” Shao Xuan was a little confused, maybe the Shaman was not the only one who could make the Shaman Volumes?
Seeing the curiosity and confusion within Shao Xuan’s eyes, the Shaman explained slowly: “The totem power isn’t the only power.
totem power is a combination of the body and the spirit. Becoming a totem warrior is only the reflection of the body’s part. As for the spirit… Everyone has it within them, but the amount is very little.”
“Then… What is the other one?” asked Shao Xuan.
“The other one is the power of inheritance. The inheritance of spiritual consciousness.” Said the Shaman.
Every Shaman would inherit his or her predecessor’s ability, and one of the things that got passed down was enough power of inheritance.
“Since you can understand the contents of the Shaman Volumes, I believe that you’re not like the other normal ones. You should have more power of inheritance than others.” Explained the Shaman.
“The power of inheritance…how do you find it?” Shao Xuan asked.
The Shaman stared at Shao Xuan, and pointing one of his bony fingers between Shao Xuan’s eyebrows: “Ask the totem, and you’ll find the answer naturally.”
Shao Xuan closed his eyes, and began to feel the totem which existed in his mind.
Besides the two horns that were surrounded by dancing flames, he saw nothing else.
Just when Shao Xuan was feeling confused, he heard the Shaman whispering into his ears: “Look carefully.”
Shao Xuan continued to observe the totem, and this time he paid extra attention to the details.
Suddenly something caught his attention when Shao Xuan looked at the bottom of the flames. He fixed his sight onto a pale blue flame.
There was more than one layer of flames.
Shao Xuan opened his eyes and asked tentatively: “Is it blue?”
The Shaman nodded with satisfaction. It’s good that he could see it. As for how and where on earth Shao Xuan gained the power of inheritance…the Shaman had no idea, and he decided not to pay too much attention on that.
“How much inheritance did you see?” asked the Shaman.
Shao Xuan looked at the brush pen beside him and looked at the Shaman, “May I?”
The Shaman passed him a thin brush pen.
The brush pen was not exquisite in Shao Xuan’s eyes, and it was not easy to write with, not so easy as a carbonized branch. But where would he find a carbonized branch right now? He could only write a stroke or two at a time with such a brush pen.
Shao Xuan first drew the outline of the totem on the blank animal skin roll in front of him.
The Shaman watched Shao Xuan draw the totem, and his smile became increasingly bigger. It was a nice totem, well drawn. It was much better than most of the drawings made by other people in the tribe. However, whether a Shaman could draw well was irrelevant. The lines and curls had very little to do with being a good Shaman.
“Over here.” Shao Xuan drew a line around the flames that were covering the two horns. “This should be the power of inheritance, right?”
“Yes. This is the power of inheritance.” The Shaman said satisfactorily.
As the Shaman was about to say something, he heard Shao Xuan continue: “And here…here…as well, over here…oh, wait a second, over here there was a little…wait…let me recheck…”
The Shaman was completely stunned, and he forgot what he was about to say.
As Shao Xuan kept making strokes here and there, it caused the Shaman’s face to twitch over and over.
As Shao Xuan was drawing more strokes, the facial expression on the Shaman’s face became more and more stiff. He seemed to be happy and sad at the same time. There were also other emotions mixed in. It was quite complicated.
If he was talking with someone else, the Shaman might think that he made an error. However, it was Shao Xuan, and the Shaman knew it deep in his heart that Shao Xuan was telling the truth.
He had so much power of inheritance, and so much talent but he wanted to be a warrior!
The Shaman was bitter at heart, and he literally wanted to rush to the fire pit and make a sincere salute in front of all the ancestors.
“Distinguished ancestors, how could someone with so much power of inheritance and talent not want to become the next Shaman?!”
If the Shaman was a little younger and more hot-tempered, he would’ve probably raised his cane and chased after Shao Xuan.
After comparing the blue flames in his mind with the ones he drew on the animal skin roll, Shao Xuan looked up at the Shaman: “Well, that’s all I got.”
“That’s all you got?” The Shaman clenched the cane as a thousand different emotions mixed in his heart. All the mixed emotions went down to a deep sigh.
Shao Xuan thought that it was not much, because the blue flames only took a small percentage of the whole flame. Shao Xuan heard the Shaman say that most of the people in the tribe did not have much power of inheritance. However, he had no idea what he meant with “not much”, so he drew all of them out. If he had known the Shaman’s standards earlier, he would definitely keep some of them to himself.
The Shaman stared at the totem with all the strokes on it, silently.
As Shao Xuan was wondering what happened with the Shaman, the Shaman started talking in a serious tone, “Excellent. Now it would be easier for you to draw.”
Shao Xuan listened to the Shaman’s explanation carefully about the method to draw a Shaman Volume.
“All the drawings on the Shaman Volumes are a combination of power of inheritance, consciousness, and lines. When these three factors mix and reach a balance, it becomes the Shaman Drawing. If the reader can use the power of inheritance and watch the drawing with consciousness, he would be able to interact with the consciousness of the drawing’s creator. If one could precisely control the power of inheritance, he could even feel the creator’s emotions and other senses at the time….”
It was up to the reader’s and the drawer’s capacity when it comes to the depth of the interaction. The stronger they were, the clearer would be interaction become…
The Shaman shared the theory and Shao Xuan listened, because he had to know it if he wanted to make his own drawings.
When the Shaman had finished explaining, and Shao Xuan had memorized and understood most of it, he picked up the brush pen again to start making his first Shaman Drawing.
A beginner in the Shaman Volumes would always start practicing with copying the other Shaman Drawings. Because when you make a copy, there will be a guidance of consciousness that could walk you through the process.
After attentively having looked at one drawing in a Shaman Volume for a long time, Shao Xuan concentrated on the blank animal skin roll in front of him.
He raised his hand, and at the moment that his brush pen touched the animal skin roll, Shao Xuan stimulated all the power of inheritance he had, and began to draw in accordance with what the Shaman had told him.
At that point, Shao Xuan used all his power of inheritance, and all his energy was concentrated on the tip of his brush pen. It was the only thing that he cared about, and it was the only focus that he had in mind. With the guidance of the Shaman Volume, he slowly started drawing.
After one stroke, Shao Xuan was full of sweat, and it seemed that he had consumed all his strength. He almost collapsed, and heaved with heavy breaths.
Looking at the animal skin roll, he found that there was only a small circle painted on it.
Shao Xuan rubbed his sweat with his sleeve. He couldn’t help but think that drawing on the Shaman Volume was too difficult. It was only one stroke, and looked like a simple circle. However, it was extremely difficult from the very start, and did not become any simpler in the whole process.
Hmm, was it because that he had not enough power of inheritance? Shao Xuan wondered to himself.
If the Shaman had known about Shao Xuan’s thoughts, he would probably have hit him with the cane. When the Shaman himself had started copying, he made three stops to complete a circle. Shao Xuan finished his stroke without one single stop! It was rare, even throughout all the generations in the shaman history.