Chapter 111 – Qualifications to join
Translated by Sunyancai
Now, the first Flame! The Soaring Flame! The totem appears!
The totem power in his body became active, even without him deliberately stimulating it. Totem patterns appeared on every totem warrior’s face.
The blue and white colors in Shao Xuan’s mind danced together with the flame.
Perhaps it was his illusion, but Shao Xuan felt that the flame in the fire pit grew higher than last year, and it was also dancing more violently, as if it was trying hard to get out.
Those standing beside the timber piles shouldn’t move willfully, so now, Shao Xuan was unable to watch the others’ facial expressions. Perhaps, the others were sharing similar thoughts, but he could not sense any abnormal situation from the Shaman’s voice. He could only have his suspicions.
At that time, everyone at the scene was already void from other thoughts. All they could see was the totem in the center above the fire pit.
It lit up the surroundings, and the whole mountaintop was covered in a layer of red.
The Shaman’s singing grew more and more sonorous.
Duh! Duh! Duh!
The drums suddenly rang in a specific rhythm, together with the sound of clacking bones and beating rocks, which meant that Shao Xuan and the others had to start dancing.
Together with the Shaman’s singing, people by the timber piles began to move around the fire pit.
The ritual dance was passed along many generations since the foundation of the tribe, and Shao Xuan had underestimated it after all.
The moves were of no difficulty at all. Nor was he feeling awkward by “washing dishes”, “digging carrots” and “waving rags” in front of so many people. The real situation was that, Shao Xuan finally learnt the essential secrets and wonders contained in the ritual dance, once he soaked himself into the moves. Gradually, he stopped feeling embarrassed at all.
The sounds of fifty people stamping on the ground and waving arms gradually unified into the surrounding percussions.
The rhythm was a little weird at first, but with the rhythm and sound created, together with the ritual dance, it became quite harmonious. The special beats and rhythm rang through the peak, one sound after another.
Shao Xuan had been practicing this ritual dance at home, repeatedly, so he had already memorized every single move. He was well aware of what move came after the other, and when he should deliver them. He did not black-out at all.
When dancing, Shao Xuan paid extra attention to do as the ancient teachings’ commanded, as Tuo had said to him. He used the special way of breathing while dancing, so as to feel the connection between him and the totem.
Soon, Shao Xuan had the feeling that he seemed to relate to everything around him.
The totem in the fire pit seemed to have gradually emerged with the totem in his mind. Shao Xuan was not sure whether the totem in the fire pit influenced the one in his mind, or if it was the other way around. He did not know what the circumstances were with the other warriors, but he decided to carefully experience that change.
If you must distinguish the difference…then the only difference was that the totem in his mind had blue flames at the edges, but the totem in the fire pit had no such blue edges.
The ancient teachings indicated that, one should “try his best to create a connection with the totem in the fire pit”. Shao Xuan thought that he was not connected with the totem in the fire pit completely, so he tried to stimulate his blue flames in his mind, to communicate with the totem in his mind. With the accumulation of blue flames in Shao Xuan’s mind, the whole totem in his mind suddenly grew bigger.
At the same time, the flame in the fire pit suddenly grew higher as it grew towards the sky. The body of the flame almost instantaneously doubled its original size, which scared an old experienced warrior so much, that he almost made a wrong move during the ritual dance. He had never experienced anything similar during the ritual ceremony. Fortunately, he had a silent reaction, he calmed himself down and continued the dance.
All the other things kept moving forward as usual. However, deep down in their hearts, people felt that something was not as usual, seeing the fifty performing the ritual dance.
It was like these people were no longer ritual dancers by the fire pit, waving their arms and legs. They no longer seemed to be dancing in the moment. Instead, they gave out an atmosphere that they were some prepared warriors with stone tools and spears, ready to go hunt at any moment!
Even those experienced ritual dancers sensed that this time was not as any time in the past. They felt as if their blood was boiling, and the excitement didn’t easily wear off.
The momentum of the fifty becoming one was full of a strong and fierce power, spreading out some invincible majestic spirit.
If Shao Xuan had to make a metaphor, he would say that even the moves of washing dishes would make people feel magnificent and valiant.
Without anyone noticing, the flame in the fire pit entered the second phase. Balls of flames flew out of the fire pit and drifted towards the surroundings. Since the flame grew a lot, the balls of flames flying out seemed to be bigger than usual.
With the special way of breathing, and the meditation on the perception of totem, Shao Xuan could feel balls of flame flying towards himself.
They touched him, and then he absorbed them.
Inside his body streamed some new energy, and it was brought by those flying balls of flame. They congested together along his meridians.
The totem flame in his mind grew quickly with the absorbed balls of flame.
If we say that others were absorbing energy from the balls of flame like thin streams coming together, then people dancing by the fire pit would be collecting energy like rivers flowing into the ocean. Perhaps that was the merit of being one of the ritual dancers, Shao Xuan thought.
When Mai and the others were talking, Shao Xuan had heard them saying that the situation of the flame in one’s mind was closely related to one’s speed of progress. As such, it was predictable how beneficial it would be to have the privilege to stay beside the fire pit during the ritual ceremonies. No wonder that both team leaders would try their best to strive for the opportunity to arrange more warriors from their hunting team to be one of the fifty. But no matter what, there were only fifty spots.
The ritual ceremony was continuing, and Shao Xuan was not allowed to be distracted.
By the end of the third flame, the ceremony was coming to an end.
Shao Xuan had no idea to what extent the third flame went, but a loud shout of “Great blessings” from the Shaman aroused everyone at the mountaintop.
The awakening ceremony of the eighty kids was also completed.
Shao Xuan stopped moving and looked around, finding that every kid here had totem patterns on their faces. With a closer look, he confirmed that no one was left out.
In the past, there would be a few that failed to be awakened among every batch of kids. They would have to wait for another year. However, this year, all kids were awakened.
Not only Shao Xuan, even the Shaman had not expected such circumstances. Four of them were speculated not to be awakened this year when they were brought to the Shaman’s place. However, to everyone’s surprise, they had still awakened after all!
The Shaman stared at Shao Xuan’s back as he was leaving, and then looked down at the ground. He heard the Chief Ao talking about his idea about the ritual ceremony, and then decided to prepare for other things accordingly.
The ritual ceremony ended. People decided to go back down the mountain to celebrate after that. The Shaman had claimed the next year to be full of “Great Blessings”.
Shao Xuan intended to go down the mountain together with Old Ke after he spoke to Tuo and Jie Ba about something.
Turning around, Shao Xuan encountered Mai and Qiao, who had just spoken to their twins.
“Hey, Ah-Xuan, the thing about Caesar. You have about twenty days.” Mai said, “But since you are now one of the fifty, Caesar’s thing might be easier to handle, given the current circumstances.”
Last year, Ta’s hunting team was the first to go out hunting. Since the tribe had a policy of the two hunting teams taking turns to go out, this year, Gui He would lead his hunting team for this year’s first mission, and Ta’s hunting team would go on the second mission. So, after the ritual ceremony, Shao Xuan still had about twenty days to convince the others in his hunting group. He also had to inform Ta about it, for Ta was the one who finalized the name list in the different hunting groups under his command.
Well, the Shaman was also supposed to know about it.
Shao Xuan intended to take Caesar on a hunting mission this year. He had spent nearly one year in the hunting group, and had done assessments about risks and potential gains if he brought Caesar on board. Of course, they were only in theory, and anything could happen in the real forest. No one could ever guarantee anything, and it was always better to be more careful.
So, Shao Xuan made a safe plan. If Caesar did not behave well after he was taken out in the wild, he would stay in the first location with Caesar, in order to not be the others’ burden later.
In the following days, Shao Xuan took Caesar to the Shaman’s place to share his thoughts with the Shaman. The result was just the same as Shao Xuan predicted, the Shaman did not reject his proposal. Instead, the Shaman was quite looking forward to it. He gave a special pardon to Shao Xuan that he could stay in the first location with Caesar if there was anything wrong.
Since the Shaman was positive about the proposal, Ta did not say anything about it. Moreover, in private, he was a little excited about Shao Xuan’s theory that “A good hound might be the eyes and ears of the huntsmen”. He wanted to see how Caesar would behave himself, and whether the wolf could turn out to be a surprise, even though he had been kept in the tribe since childhood by Shao Xuan and was tame.
After setting up things with the Shaman and Ta, Shao Xuan asked all the others in Mai’s hunting group to gather together at the training ground, so that they could see Caesar during his training, and thus learn about Caesar’s behavior.
The others were thinking that they wouldn’t reject Shao Xuan’s proposal anyway, since the Shaman, the team leader, and Mai all agreed in the first place. Plus, Shao Xuan was one of the fifty during this year’s ritual ceremony. That was not someone that they wanted to displease.
After watching Caesar in the training, some of them were talking about getting their own wolf cub in the future. Anyway, wolf packs in the forests constantly fight against each other, and the pack that lost the fight would hardly have any members surviving. They had encountered a few fights themselves, and it shouldn’t be too hard to steal a cub or two during the mess.
After handling things with the hunting group, Shao Xuan began to prepare for the coming hunting mission. All the stone tools had been prepared during winter time, so now he did not need to spend more time on stone crafting. The training for Caesar went on day by day, and Shao Xuan had changed some of the traps to see his reactions.
Caesar was very smart. Aside from those that were too complicated, Caesar could manage most of the skills and tasks that Shao Xuan taught or assigned him.
“Have you ever thought about what would be Chacha’s future?” Asked Old Ke.
“Chacha is not as gentle as Caesar, and who knows whether he has already flown outside the tribe’s territory without us even knowing about it?” Said Shao Xuan. He once found some grass residue on Chacha’s beak which did not belong to any plants in the tribe. It only existed in the forest where they went hunting.
At that time, Shao Xuan rebuked him harshly, and so he behaved quite well in the following few days. However now, he was probably turning back to his nature. Chacha had grown a lot in size, and perhaps Shao Xuan’s arm won’t be secure enough for him to land on after half a year. According to the Shaman, the naughty bird was still in his youth. It had so much curiosity, that no one would ever manage to control him. He could just fly up to the sky. Who could compare with that?
Now, Chacha had already gone to the riverside to play. Sometimes he would suddenly fly over the river in a pretty fast speed, and catch some fish swimming in the upper layer of water. He would just rip the fish into pieces, and then toss it back into the water, to watch the piranhas fight over the flesh.
That bird was not easy to tame. No one knew how long it would take to tame it into the level that could be brought out into the wild like Caesar.
After twenty days, though Gui He’s hunting team hadn’t returned, Ta already completed the name list of the second hunting mission, and announced it.
Seeing Caesar following Shao Xuan up to the mountaintop, Old Ke suddenly felt that he was a little reluctant. How time flew, within the blink of an eye, the little fussy cub brought back by Lang Ga had turned into a handsome young wolf.