Chapter 63 – Sword Cleansing Ritual
Translated by Sunyancai
After they arrived at the end of the Path of Glory, all the warriors of the hunting team put down their game aside, for they had a ceremony to attend before they could call it a successful conclusion of the hunting mission.
The Shaman asked the bearers to place the wooden palanquin down inside the fire pit. Since there was only a small ball of flame in the fire pit, there was enough space for the palanquin.
Those legs of the four bearers almost gave out when they finally put down the palanquin. They were neither afraid nor nervous. In fact, they were too excited. From their perspectives, it was a great honor, and serving as the ancestors bearer was an experience that they could share with their sons, and grandsons in the future.
After carefully laying down the palanquin in the fire pit, those four warriors left, while the Shaman came in to prostrate himself in front of the ancestors.
Shao Xuan had no idea about the status of the ancestors, but judging from the Shaman’s behavior, he guessed that the one with the bone ornament was the most important person among those four. The Shaman made a careful salute towards him especially.
After the salute, the Shaman left the fire pit, for he still needed to host the Sword Cleansing ritual for the warriors that had just returned from the hunting mission.
The Shaman commanded some people to help him carry out a long stone trough, filled with gray water. It had a fresh smell, like the plants in the forest, but Shao Xuan didn’t know how it was prepared.
Every leader of a hunting group would take his members to cleanse their weapons. The Sword Cleansing ritual’s purpose was to remove the blood’s contamination from the sword after a hunting mission, and to take away the ferocious killing spirit which had been brought back from the mountains. By doing so, it could calm down the warriors who were still immersed in the killing and hunting mindset, and ease their minds of the surging killing thoughts.
When you say Sword Cleansing, in fact it not only referred to swords but the stone spears, axes, and other hunting tools also needed be washed.
Naturally, the first batch of warriors to do the cleansing were the main leader and warriors from the advance party. Then other hunting groups would approach.
The stoneware that Shao Xuan found beside the ancestors were turned over to the leaders once their hunting team had assembled, and now all the stoneware was in the hands of the main leader. Indeed, those were made from really fine stones, but it was impossible for Shao Xuan to keep them. The tribe was the tribe, and with so many eyes fixed on him, he would be an idiot to secretly embezzle them. It was a better option to turn over the tools, for he trusted the Shaman and the Chief would certainly reward him according to his effort, and then he should have his part of the fine stones.
In fact, Shao Xuan could be considered as the main contributor to the hunting team, since he had slaughtered a Thorn Black Wind, and found the ancestors to bring them back.
Because of that, when it was Shao Xuan’s turn to cleanse the weapons, the Shaman specially arranged his position in front of the stone trough. In general, only the best performer during the hunting mission could get to stand behind the middle part of the stone trough and cleanse his weapons there. It was the position right in front of the Shaman, and on most occasions in the past, the leaders of those hunting groups were the ones in that position. However, this time it was Shao Xuan, but neither Mai nor the others had any problem with that.
Staring at Shao Xuan in front of him, the Shaman looked extremely gentle and kind.
Since Shao Xuan had such an eye-catching performance during the hunt, and the discovery of ancestors gave a powerful shock to everyone in the tribe, Shao Xuan had almost every warrior’s attention when he was walking towards his Sword Cleansing place. When they met the other hunting groups in the forest, he didn’t get much attention due to limited time and tight schedule. Now since everyone was home, they decided to take a closer look at the legendary kid, even the Chief and the main leader were staring at him.
When everyone in his hunting group took up their positions behind the stone trough, the Shaman lifted his hands to indicate that warriors might start cleansing their weapons.
Shao Xuan had observed on how others were cleansing their weapons earlier, so now he knew what to do.
Shao Xuan took out all the spearheads and stone swords that he had taken with him, and placed them inside the stone trough carefully one by one. After he had done all that, he thought for a while, before he took out the very last one.
When Shao Xuan pulled out the tooth sword he got from old Ke, he took out the broken sword-point as well.
Among the warriors staring at him, many of them had recognized that sword made out of a ground komodo’s tooth. Even if they did not know who it belonged to in the past, they knew the material of the sword. Some elite warriors in the tribe also had similar swords of the same materials, but they all inherited those swords from their elders.
It was such a fine sword made out of a ground komodo’s tooth, but it was broken just like that! The user was merely a kid, did he really have the strength to cause that?
What the fuck!
What the hell happened?!
Some warriors were glaring at the broken sword-point and their eyes almost poked out.
Not only the warriors, the Shaman’s gentle face also froze. A second later, he thought about the kid pretending to sing the Song of Hunting in the crowd before. He was really not the same as others!
Shao Xuan felt the gazes of people on him but he chose to ignore them. With two hands, he placed the tooth sword into the stone trough, and soaked the sword in the gray liquid.
There was red blood of the Thorn Black Wind and brown liquid of that insect from the cave on the sword, which wasn’t completely cleaned away before when Shao Xuan used water to clean it. However, when the Shaman finished with the spell and told them to take out their stoneware, Shao Xuan was surprised to find that there was no mark on the sword anymore, and all the stoneware continued to shine brightly as if they were never brought to a hunting mission.
When the Sword Cleansing ritual was over, all the warriors felt relieved and their minds too seemed to be cleansed.
Considering that Shao Xuan wasn’t strong enough, and given that he had hunted a lot of game, the Shaman told Shao Xuan to go back first, and that he would send someone to help deliver the meat to his place later.
Without having to carry the meat by himself, Shao Xuan could save his strength. He didn’t worry that someone would be greedy for his share.
At Shao Xuan’s departure, Keke carefully poked the main leader of the hunting team, and glimpsed at Shao Xuan’s back before he looked up at the main leader.
The main leader looked very serious, but gave a small nod.
Keke got the permission and suddenly had a big smile on his face. He paid no more attention to the game, and asked Tuo to help him take care of his part, while he ran towards Shao Xuan.
The main leader was contemplating, but he felt something and looked up, only to find his father looking at him. Immediately he smiled subserviently at the Chief, unlike his usual behaviour as the main leader of a hunting team.
The Chief frowned, thinking about what his son was up to… He glanced at Mao standing aside. Perhaps it concerned Mao? He knew a little bit about Mao having some problems with Shao Xuan, but he also considered it as a harmless competition within the tribe. According to the tradition, no elders in the tribe should interfere with harmless competitions, let alone that this time Shao Xuan had repeatedly distinguished himself in the tribe, he couldn’t be bullied.
As he was about to approach his son about it, the Shaman summoned him. It was something about the ancestors.
Now that it was about the ancestors, naturally the Chief couldn’t afford any delay. But before he left with the Shaman, he glared at his son, warning him not to do anything stupid.
The main leader of the hunting team didn’t pay any attention to his old man’s glare, but continued his contemplation.
Meanwhile, Shao Xuan went down the mountain empty-handed. He didn’t take the Path of Glory, or any other crowded places. Instead, he specifically picked those secluded routes to go down the mountain.
At that time, almost all the families were busy greeting the hunting warriors who returned home, or dealing with the food they brought back. On Shao Xuan’s way, there were only a few people wandering around.
Shao Xuan was still trying to figure out what he should tell old Ke about the tooth sword, but he suddenly felt something behind so he stopped. Cold glint flashed in his eyes, and without looking at the approaching fist, Shao Xuan crooked his neck and moved his legs. He dodged easily and avoided the sneak attack from behind.
Despite his first attack missing, the man didn’t stop and continued attacking Shao Xuan. It was no slower than the first strike, and almost at the same time Shao Xuan avoided the first one, the others followed.
There was no room for Shao Xuan to dodge, so he put up his arms so as to block the fists. His tiny body was forced to step back because of the fierce strength of his opponent. For every step he withdrew, the stones under his feet cracked. The sound it created was like the rumbling of thunder before a storm.
However, the other side still pressed on against him step by step. When Shao Xuan took a step back, his opponent would take a step forward, and for every step he took, he would punch Shao Xuan’s arms for one more time. So many strikes allowed Shao Xuan no time to dodge the hits. A moment earlier, the dust was floating up in the air, yet a moment later, it was scattered due to the punches.
The other side was much stronger than Shao Xuan, and his skill was of course higher. Also, with his dense strikes, he basically suppressed Shao Xuan with his strength.
Shao Xuan felt a surge of blood in his throat, and finally, there was a cracking sound coming from his arm. With that sound, Shao Xuan flew back and stumbled backwards after he landed. It took him some effort to remain standing there, and swallow down the blood he had in his mouth.
This time, the other side didn’t continue to attack.
When both sides calmed down, the totemic patterns on their bodies faded away.
When he managed to stand still, Shao Xuan breathed heavily. He paid no attention to his broken arm, anyways it was not a severe wound. He fixed his eyes on his opponent – Keke.
Although Keke had no killing intent, and earlier he just went through the Sword Cleansing ritual. But due to his long hunting career, his every act and every move was filled with a ferocious air.
“Good!” Seeing that Shao Xuan could still keep standing there after he suffered so many strikes yet showed no painful expression, Keke was pretty satisfied. Shao Xuan didn’t even seem to care about his broken arm.
However, at the voice of “good”, Keke was kicked down.
It was Tuo that kicked down Keke, he was checking on the situation under the main leader’s command. However, the first scene he saw was Keke breaking that kid’s arm.
What the hell, Keke!
The main leader asked you to test him, and that was how you test him?
You are at least an adult warrior, with much higher strength than him, why did you bully such a kid by attacking him that way?! To prove that you were good? Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?! The Shaman and the Chief would punish us hard if they knew!
Tuo was furious and he stepped on Keke again, seeing that he was about to get up.
“You are such a tactless moron!”
Tuo retrieved his foot from Keke’s back and looked at Shao Xuan with a smile, “He did not mean harm.” Tuo was trying to seem nice.
Shao Xuan looked at his arm which had just cracked and looked up at Tuo again, poker-faced, as if saying: What, he did not mean harm, but he broke my arm?
Tuo had cursed Keke in his heart for a thousand times, but on his face, it was still a smile full of apologies. He searched his animal skin bag, and pulled out a bag of herbs wrapped in tree leaves, “These are fine herbs. Your arm will be okay in a few days if you drink it.”
Shao Xuan still stared at Tuo, poker-faced. When Tuo was feeling creepy from the stare, Shao Xuan looked down at his own animal skin bag.
Tuo immediately knew what Shao Xuan was suggesting. He silently blamed himself for being so careless. Keke had just broken his arm, so how could he receive the herbs from Tuo?
Placing the herbs inside Shao Xuan’s animal skin bag, Tuo smiled at Shao Xuan regretfully again, “He’s a moron who knows nothing. Please, kindly forgive him, okay? Given that we are in the same hunting team, haha.”
Fuck your sister! Shao Xuan thought as he continued staring.
Tuo was too embarrassed to face Shao Xuan’s stare, so he went towards Keke, and dragged him away.
Shao Xuan looked at their backs, and wondered why they acted the way they did…