Translator: Kuhaku
Editor: Risilo
Why did my ancestors place so many boxes here? This place is not just a day or two away from the tribe. If there were no dangerous creatures in the mountains, it would make more sense, but there are many dangerous creatures in the forest.
Shao Xuan walked over to the boxes with the torch. The boxes were tied with straw ropes, probably to keep the lid from falling during transportation. However, after a closer look, it seems that the knots that tied the boxes together were more complicated than he first thought. The bundled straw ropes are tied into knots, the paint was applied, and the knot in the middle position was the symbol of the witch. As for the others, the straw ropes used are relatively ordinary, but it cannot be said that the things contained in these boxes were of no value. Whatever is transported here by the ancestors were certainly of some value.
Shao Xuan intended to have a look at the boxes with rope knots that were different from the rest. However, he found that the knots were difficult to unravel and the ropes were much stronger. It was as if they hadn’t been there for a long time, they were still as strong as the day they were tied.
Cut them off?
Burn them.
Forget it, if the tribe knew that he was going to cut the ropes off, they would say that he was being disrespectful to the ancestors
Putting the few boxes with complicated knots aside, Shao Xuan turned to look at the boxes with more common bindings. Raising his hand he intended to undo the knot on a different box, but by just slightly touching it the straw ropes tying the box had broken. The broken parts had turned to dust.
This same occurrence happened to the rest of the rope tying the box. Perhaps due to the passage of time the grass ropes binding them had eventually turned to dust, but due to it being undisturbed all this time the image of the bindings had remained until he touched them.
The front of the boxes was high in density and the ropes used were different. Now, these densities are low, and Shao Xuan looks at the contents of the box without pressure.
Opening the box, Shao Xuan saw animal skins rolled neatly inside. Shao Xuan picked up a piece and looked at it, it recorded what happened to the Yanjiao tribe in that year such as the number of harvests, disputes, and other miscellaneous information. He picked up another one, it held records various wars the Yanjiao tribe and other tribes had been apart of at the time. it included the names of several tribes that Shao Xuan was familiar with such as the Qianbian tribe, the Weiba tribe etc. Several central tribes known to Shao Xuan were recorded on the animal skin
What made the Yanjiao tribe so hated by the others? However, Shao Xuan found his thoughts to be wrong, by looking at the other animal skins it was not that they were hated but that during the era it was a normal occurrence for wars between tribes to occur. According to the records on the animal skins, the tribes were not as peaceful as they were now. Perhaps for the tourists, the life outside is now very difficult, especially in the rest of the market, the long-distance teams of various tribes are killed every day, and then the pool fish.
However, compared to the records on the skin rolls, they were nothing. At best they were minor conflicts between distant teams from other tribes, the records on the animal skins however were of large-scale conflicts between tribes, full-scale wars. Three days and one small fight, ten days of a large-scale conflict.
Dislike someone?
Hit them!
Someone looked at you the wrong way?
Grab them!
See something you like?
Grab again!
Everything is based on strength, if you hit it and it it’s back? Kill it!
If you can take it? You can steal it!
If you rob it? Never give it up! Fight or die!
It could be said that once upon a time the survival of a small tribe was extremely difficult, according to these records many small tribes were destroyed in the conflicts.
The middle was even more chaotic. Because there were many big tribes, there were two wars in two days.
Today you raided my team? Tomorrow I’ll kill your whole tribe!
That mentality was extremely prominent from what Shao Xuan had already read.
Even the eight tribes that Shao Xuan had always thought to be good neighbors and close partners, used to be hated enemies of one another! It had reached the point that one couldn’t claim that the bamboo of their tribe was their own as it resided on the border of the another tribe!
Even if there is a green onion that does not belong to his own tribe, the people who were not a part of the 8 will be plucked out of the ground. And all the small tribes that hadn’t joined one of the big 8? as long as they were discovered, are either slaughtered or eaten. The weak tribes are not good? No problem, as long as people who are not a part of the 8 are unhappy, they would be happy!
Some of the notes, weren’t so solemn and had a lot of bad tastes. The notes also contained many other tribal scandals, such as who was dug in the corner, who was a cuckold, who was squeezed by the brothers. The position of the next leader… The words were slightly exaggerated, revealing gossip and excitement. Not all shamans were just as serious as the current shaman of the Flaming Horns Tribe.
The hatred of one family could easily become the revenge of a tribe, for such an era war is too easy a solution to not be used to solve problems. The Yanjiao’s physique and their dominant strength made quite a few people bite their tongue yet they wouldn’t dare take revenge, their impression on others were rude and arrogant. However, Shao Xuan could see from the words written on the animal skin the pride of the ancestor who had recorded these details. No matter what was recorded, this same pride could be felt embodied by these words. As one of the tribes which held immense power, albeit in their younger days, Yanjiao had the capital to be arrogant with such a rich history.
It was hard to imagine that the chaotic environment of that era had now become much more peaceful, although it was still filled with brutal violence and mindless killing – compared to what was recorded on the animal skins it was a different time indeed.
Why did the tribes which once hated one another, treating one another as enemies to be fought to the death now live peacefully however? When Shao Xuan followed the hunting team he had also inquired this same thing. The answer he received was as enigmatic,
For a long time, I don’t know how long – at least in the past two or three hundred years, there have been no big wars between the tribes. Instead the Wanshi tribe would always harass those smaller tribes in the central parts of the country yet no one in the tribes are really fighting each other like in the past.
Speaking of the Wanshi tribe, returning to the present, Shao Xuan had only seen the name of the tribe on two animal skin rolls – the witch witch who had recorded these had also predicted that the tribe would disappear within five hundred years, yet the facts proved this was wrong. Instead the tribe had become more arrogant than the Yanjiao tribe in the past few years, it had also become more violent and aggressive – becoming one of the central tribes in the process.
Between the major tribes, abandoning the former suspicion, letting go of hatred, not talking about peaceful coexistence, at least it seems that there is a cooperative relationship that allows them to change like this. Shao Xuan only thought of one of the most likely answers – they have common Enemies, this enemy makes them afraid. One or two tribes alone can’t do it.
Enemies that threaten Yanjiao tribe? Not that the Yanjiao tribe wasn’t strong, it was indeed strong but they were not so strong that they couldn’t be threatened.
There was another point that Shao Xuan found strange, there were no records of slave owners. During the time there were captives, these captives were dragged back to work for the tribes who had captured them however, there were no records of slave owners on the animal skins.
In addition to the information he found on these skins, Shao Xuan had opened several other boxes with time-worn straws and had learned a lot of information from them, they were not entirely of wars between the tribes but covered all aspects, such as records related to farming and animal husbandry. In addition to these, Shao Xuan had turned over several other boxes with unsound straws and learned a lot of information. The notes didn’t only include information about war between tribes but covered all aspects, such as records related to farming and animal husbandry.
The Yanjiao tribe of a millennium ago was mainly a tribe which relied on hunting for their food, after all they were so close to the forest it was only natural to to use such a primary food source, most of their food came directly from the forest. However, it was also planted – it was like the murals that Shao Xuan saw at the beginning they were planting, breeding and harvesting. These records contained all of these and mores – maybe these were part of the records that the tribes shamans held now, however he believed that these records were definitely more detailed than those of the shamans.
Thinking about it, when the ancestors of the Yanjiao tribe left their old tribal home, they had mainly tried to escape – there were not many records about planting and breeding that they could carry on their body. Maybe they didn’t bring them when they left because the ancestors had left and they didn’t expect to leave for so long. The records the shamans held may even have been written by those who left later than others.
There were simply too many skins in the box, Shao Xuan didn’t find it convenient holding his torch inside because he was worried that the torch would damage the animal skins, losing the knowledge of the ancestors due to his own carelessness would undoubtedly cause the tribe to cast him out in exile, or even kill him for his disrespect!
Shao Xuan didn’t doubt the authenticity of these records, the records were all created by shamans. On some of the animal skins were records of important facts, there were also some seemingly meaningless words at the beginning. Actually these words were the language of the shamans! Do you need something? It was recorded that if there was a contradiction within the tribe, the decision would be given to the fire in turn being given to the totem. These seemingly meaningless words were actually a more solemn tone of speech used by the shamans to indicate that these were decided by everyone or by sacrifice, without any falsification.
In addition to farming, fishing, hunting, animal husbandry, crafts, planetarium, architecture, medicine, war, politics and daily life, although many of the records were vague in these regards and not detailed – it could be seen from these that the tribe was not proficient in them at the time. For example there are many records of the sky and handwork, which could only be considered immature, but there are so many aspects to the record that it still shocked Shao Xuan at the sheer amount.
What’s important to the Yanjiao Tribe? The Fire Crystal? A variety of spar coins that act as property? Or other precious stones?
No, no! In fact, all had to be left behind.
The more he read, the more important it was for the shaman of the tribe to know of his discovery. Among the tribe, the first thing they need to know is their own members, their origins, totems, etc. Secondly, they need to know the customary rules, important weddings and mournings, past leaders and deliberations. However, the big things would be production, war, sacrifice etc. Undoubtedly these are the contents that the shamans need to record and pass on to the future generations!
These contents, popularly speaking, are what people call –
History!
In the values of the shamans, the longer the history of the tribe, the longer the tribe exists, the more powerful the tribe is. As for why the history of Yanjiao was preserved here, perhaps it was not taken away in the past and was simply forgotten. It was brought here to be hidden – after all few tribes dared to directly rush into the fierce Beast Mountain Forest, it was simply too good a place to hide such valuable records.
The people in the cave were long dead, the only thing left is the power that Shao Xuan had felt before. It was a devastating force to invaders, but for this cave it was like a guardian that had remained for thousands of years, silently waiting, guarding the history of Yanjiao and waiting for the future generations to return and find this cache of knowledge
However, one of Shao Xuans’ regrets it that there were no detailed records of the type of egg surrounding the fire in his mind in the things he had seen before. Perhaps such things were sealed in the boxes which couldn’t be opened by him.
Forget it, wait until the time comes to bring them back and the shaman will open them, as long as they were not contents which were secret and couldn’t be seen the shaman should allow him to read the rest contents of the records.
