C355 – Is He Really a Shaman?
Posted on April 29, 2019 by AzureOrchid92
For the strong, people were always in awe. However, they also gradually backed off with slightly despising looks when they saw Shao Xuan was in ragged clothes.
As the sun approached the horizon, Shao Xuan finally saw where the Macca tribe was.
The stone wall separating the Macca tribe from the outside has a height that you could see past and the stone houses inside could be seen. Although it was not high, it was still orderly. Some homes also specially used stones to surround the yard.
Although Wanfu had brought back a stranger, the Macca tribe people did not intend to pay attention to him. However, Shao Xuan was noticeable in rags while carrying two wild animals. The impact was too contradictory. When they saw this scene, they couldn’t help but stare. Who exactly is this person? He’s weird.
On they way, Shao Xuan has learned that of the tribes here, many of whom were no longer bound by totems. They also have rituals, but most of it were just spiritual sustenance and not their main source of power. If a stranger was accepted by a certain family, as long as it did not interfere with the tribe, he could also be accepted and become a member of the tribe.
The closer he got to the Macca tribe, the deeper the doubts in Shao Xuan’s heart—he did not feel the presence of a fire seed in the Macca tribe.
When he asked about the fire pit, Shao Xuan was only told that, in the Macca tribe, they do have a fire pit. Perhaps it was a custom handed down by the ancestors. They also do rituals here, but, unlike the tribes known to Shao Xuan before, there was no fire in their fire pit.
Not only the Macca tribe, Wanfu told Shao Xuan that the rest of the tribes were the same. As for the fire seed, the ancestors would not mention it unless they tell it as a story to the younger children. But how the fire disappeared, no one could tell. A lot of it were just speculations because the stories were not clear. Nobody really knew as it happened a long time ago.
There were two old people and an elder brother living together with Wanfu. Wancha did not follow them to collect dew, but followed another team in another direction to find water. However, he only brought back some withered fruit, so it was not necessarily unproductive.
Shao Xuan temporarily lived in the Macca tribe. He spoke to Wanfu that it was only a temporary stay. He’s still going to leave in a few days.
Wancha was unlike his younger brother with a good temper. Upon seeing Shao Xuan, he also scanned him with discerning and guarded eyes as if looking at someone with bad intention. Even if Shao Xuan had brought two beasts, he didn’t change his attitude.
Shao Xuan in his ragged clothes already caused Wancha to disregard him. Then, to see Shao Xuan unexpectedly use a stone knife, Wancha had despised him even more. This man was still using a stone knife! No wonder there’s only rags that who knew how long he has worn in his person. A stone knife, tsk. That was what his grandfather’s grandfather’s grandfather had used. Although their tribe was only a little bit capable, a lot of them have metal knives. In the eyes of some people such as Wancha, Shao Xuan was a poor man with only his great strength.
Wancha also waved his somewhat deformed, scratched short sword in front of Shao Xuan. Not only the Wan brothers, majority of the Macca tribe have metal weapons on hand, or a combination of wood and animal horns with metal. Pure stone weapons were not used, with the exception of some old people.
Of course, some people thought they were smart. When they saw Shao Xuan’s extraordinary stone knife, they’d tell him, “Look at you. Let me help you.” Under the guise, they wanted to exchange their own rusty knife for Shao Xuan’s stone knife. Of course, Shao Xuan did not exchange. He just calmly look at the other person until the other became uncomfortable and took the initiative to give up and left.
Even if Shao Xuan’s eyes were calm, they had a feeling of being unable to breath while facing Shao Xuan. It’s like having a big hand covering the top of your head, which could crush you at any time.
Wanfu’s attitude has been very good. He took out his own set of intact old clothes and had Shuri slightly alter it a bit for Shao Xuan to wear. They didn’t have new clothes themselves, so they couldn’t share new ones to him.
Shao Xuan didn’t care about wearing old clothes. It was a lot better than this rags on his body.
Shao Xuan ate a large amount of food. Of the beasts he hunted, he gave one to the Wan family, the other ate himself. It only took one day to finish and he had to ran a little further out to hunt the next day. Every day, he had to go outside to hunt then return to eat one for himself, and the rest split to the Wan family.
Because of Shao Xuan’s frequent movements, some people who originally hated Shao Xuan now began to think carefully, especially the young girls of the Macca tribe. The frequency they had been walking around the door of the Wan family has increased. There were people dressed up every day, deliberately blocking Shao Xuan just to say a few words. If they found such a hunting expert, they won’t have to worry about starving for the rest of their life.
Seeing the rise in Shao Xuan’s popularity, the young people of the Macca tribe provoked Shao Xuan more. Shao Xuan adopted a strategy of ignoring them most of the time unless he could not hide quick enough. There were not many senior totem warriors in this tribe. Many among the young people were mid-level totem warriors like Wanfu, and he was not interested in bullying these people.
After understanding Shao Xuan’s strength, the number of people who challenged him gradually lessened. Instead, it was a few senior members of the Macca tribe who went to him. They were certainly open for those who were capable to stay. Knowing that Shao Xuan was only temporarily staying with them, they repeatedly sent people to persuade Shao Xuan to stay, promising some benefits. Unfortunately, they did not manage to change Shao Xuan’s minds. Because of this, they were regretting for several days.
Because Shao Xuan’s temporary residence, the living conditions of the Wan family have obviously improved a grade. The elderly and children in the family also appeared to have a lot of spirit, but the problem of water was still difficult to solve. Shao Xuan could not help them, and the rain stone in his hand was not efficient to condense water in such an arid place.
However, the water they had collected last time helped a lot and could carry on for ten days. In ten days, everything would be all right.
Seeing Shao Xuan provide meat day by day, Wanfu who still wanted to give his thanks, did not expect that they would receive too much themselves. After receiving a lot of benefits from the other, he could not help but feel guilty that Shao Xuan had not benefited a lot. He was becoming more and more guilty as Shao Xuan only asked him some things. If it was something he didn’t know, he would work hard to ask others. But this has helped Shao Xuan a lot.
On this day, Shao Xuan had been living in the Macca tribe for ten days and had a rudimentary knowledge of the place. Therefore, he did not intend to continue living here.
Walking to the door of the house, Shao Xuan looked up at the sky.
“Hey, Shao Xuan, you’re not going out today?” Wanfu just woke up and was surprised to see Shao Xuan unexpectedly did not go out.
This time of day every day, Shao Xuan has been out in the morning, waiting until the sun has skewed back. Wanfu’s family had been used to it. They also went out hunting, but would not go out every day. However, Shao Xuan was a special case. Sure enough, a real warrior was different from others.
Seeing Shao Xuan look up at the sky again, Wanfu thought of what Shao Xuan had said to them ten days ago about the rain. He also went to the door and looked up the sky.
The sun was still hanging high. There were some fluttering clouds in the sky, but in this place, sometimes, the clouds did not mean that it will rain. Looking at its shape or form was useless. Even during times when they saw clouds bringing thunder rolling, not long after, the sky would be clear again. It was not uncommon.
“I’m leaving today. Thank you for your hospitality during this time.” Shao Xuan turned and said.
“Ah? So you’re leaving?” Shuri was also surprised. During this time, she also knew about the changes in their family’s lives. Now, there was a lot of meat in the house that were not eaten yet, hanging outside the sun to dry and save up. Many people envy their home more for having such a person. Unfortunately, he was going to go. Moreover, such a person would not be trapped in a remote place like the Macca tribe. Even if he went to the city-state or go to those big tribes, he could also easily stay.
When Shao Xuan came, he did not bring much things, so when he left, he also did not bring much. The most obvious was only a change of clothes to not look embarrassing.
As Shao Xuan was leaving, he run into a Macca team that had come back from outside. The team went further afield to trade, and would help the tribesmen bring something back, like metal weapons and new clothes.
Among this long-distance team, there were three senior totem warriors, two middle-aged, their levels higher. But Shao Xuan was not afraid of them. Not mentioning that he was already leaving, he wouldn’t get to interact with this team much. It was the people in the team who saw Shao Xuan, a stranger, that glanced a few more times.
Wanfu sent Shao Xuan out of the tribe before going back.
“Wanfu, who was that man just now?” There were people in the traveling team who were familiar with him and asked.
“Oh, his name is Shao Xuan. He saved me and Shuri, then lived in our house for ten days. He’s good, he can go out hunting beasts every day!” Wanfu never hid anything about Shao Xuan when he met these familiar friends. His words also focused more on when Shao Xuan rescued them first. That situation was described in detail, while adding some words to polish it more to get the listener’s interest.
“Wow, that good?!”
“That’s right! He’s awesome!” Wanfu nodded hard. Every time he told the story, a lot of people didn’t believe it, saying it was too exaggerated. But he really didn’t exaggerate, and was telling the truth.
There were also people at the back of the line who heard all the words. They, like everyone else, felt that there were only three important points in Wanfu’s words, at best it was only five. They knew that the young people in the tribe would always exaggerate things.
However, as he heard more, the leader of the team thought about it. A spirited, hearty old man looked at the person next to him, asking, “Why do I feel that this direct move of smashing a beast with a big stone was a little familiar?”
“I think so too. I just can’t remember where I’ve heard it.” And so said the man beside the old man.
“Such a violent and insolent style of play. Indeed, I have heard of it. It should be when I went to the city-state before when I heard it.”
That was what the three highest-ranking people in the team said, so the others didn’t talk much. No matter what they thought, they won’t refute the three older ones anyway.
After a moment’s silence, the old man asked Wanfu, “What did he say to you just now when we saw him leave?”
Wanfu look at the old man awkwardly. This was the current tribal leader, and his relatives also had a very high status in the tribe and were treated respectfully.
Hearing this question, Wanfu only hesitated a little, then seriously replied, “Ten days ago, when we went out to collect water, Shao Xuan said that this afternoon, it will rain. Just now, he was reminding me that the big jars in our home full of dried meat should be washed, then wait and use it to collect water.”
When all his words finished, there were a few younger guys who didn’t hold back and laughed out loud.
“Ha! You believe that too? Who does he think he is? A wizard?”
On this side, these people do not collectively refer to such people as “Shaman”. Because of the gender, the male were called wizards, while the women were witches. Their names were not the same.
“Would a wizard be in this position? Someone who was born outside, not even knowing where his tribe is? He’s full of lies! Extremely preposterous!” Someone exclaimed.
“We should have beaten and thrown him out again.”
“And you believed that he’s such an important person, Wanfu. You’re so easy to be cheated.”
The young people kept spouting their words, but the highest-ranking people in the team remained silent. They did not speak out and seemed to be in contemplation.
After a long time, the old man smiled casually, “I’m probably thinking too much. All right, everybody, move the stuff back.”
Wanfu intended to defend Shao Xuan, but the leader of the team had spoken, so he could only swallow his defense. But when they returned, Wanfu and Shuri quickly cleared out their pots and jars that they had in the house.
Time gradually passed to noon.
The young men who returned to the tribe from the long-distance team were bragging with their tribal friends about what they had seen and heard along the outing, while the elders summed up the trip in the house.
Honglong!
Thunder seemed to tumble from a distance.
Whether it’s the young people who were bragging outside or the seniors who were talking about inside the house, they all stopped moving. The rest of the Macca tribe also stopped their work at hand and ran out to look up the sky.
The scorching sun in the sky, at this time, was rapidly being obscured by the clouds. The wind was blowing. The clouds were rapidly increasing at a speed visible to the naked eye, thickening, like an army arriving.
Honglong long—
Thunder rang in succession.
This time, its appearance was not like a trickle of rain, but a strong one really fell.
“Come on, come on! Clear the jar out of the house!” Cried someone.
“Oh no, everything in my house is loaded!”
“Take care of other stuff later and quickly clear it out!”
“What about the stuff in there?”
“Put it all out! Hurry up!!”
The weather here was changing rapidly. No one knew how long the rain would fall, hence if missed, they would certainly regret it to death.
Plop!
Plop! Plop!
The droplets of rain hit the ground and splashed a lot of dust.
The sky was no longer clear, but gloomy with horribly thick clouds.
Soon, the raindrops became dense, pouring as if someone was pouring water down from the sky.
The children screamed, barefoot and playing outside in the rain.
Then, those young people sitting at the door, bragging with their friends looked dully at the sky, murmuring, “It really unexpectedly rained down!”
The older people in the room, especially the old man, had the same idea. It was really predicted by that man!
Did this mean that man was really a wizard?!
The people who had persuaded Shao Xuan to stay before were now specially feeling remorse and regret! They knew they should not have let that man leave, even if they had to wrap their legs and arms to stop him. They also had shamans in the Macca tribe, but, among the shamans, there were high and low leveled, and their tribe’s would even be afraid to admit they were one if they went to the city-states. Their ability was too low that it would turn into a joke in the city-states. Hence, a person who could predict that it would rain in ten days would, of course, be even more powerful. If he didn’t leave…
By this time, Shao Xuan had already reached a far off distance from the Macca tribe.
In the area, the cactus around were desperately absorbing the water underground with their roots because of this rain. Their stems were deeply sunken with crease-like folds, but because of their water absorption, it had inflated a lot. They were like a machine that continuously stored water. The water saved up would then make them ready to spend the next dry day.
Shao Xuan walked under the downpour, wiping the water on his face. He looked at the thunder and lightning up in the sky, smiling softly as he continued his journey forward step by step.