The river wind of the Hu'erhai Mudan River blew past the tall three-hundred-year-old oak at the river mouth. Beneath this Divine Tree of oath-making, the able-bodied men of Hu'erhai Guard piled up a stone altar for the rite. The elders of the tribe wound deer sinew nine turns around the Divine Tree, set a ring of gyrfalcon tail feathers into it, and made an offering of a Nurha wild boar skull filled with Blood Wine. Then Shaman Zuwaro personally lit the fire pit, and together with the elders beat the Roe Skin Drum, calling out to the Main God, the Sky God, and the River God, inviting the Ancestral Spirits, the Tree Spirit, and the Snow Spirit.
"Aiya! Dong-dong-dong! Aiya! Dong-dong-dong!"
The desolate drumbeats rang out once more on the banks of the Mudan River. Hundreds of warriors and Battle-Ready Serfs all fell silent amid the clamor, until only the neighing of warhorses and the barking of hunting hounds remained in the field. Amid the vast, bleak White Mountain and Black Water, only rites concerning spirits and tribes could make feuds and slaughter subside for a little while, and give the tribes that rarest sliver of trust. This bitterly cold, chaotic, dark northeastern land followed the law of the jungle in its most thorough form. If tribes were not allies, they were by default treated as enemies; there was no neutrality to choose.
And at this moment, to avoid slaughter between the tribes, two chieftains of the Tame and Wild Jurchen were standing together before the Divine Tree, the altar, and the fire pit after a wrestling duel. The taller, burly one with the long braid was bare-chested, head raised, his chest covered in mud. The slightly shorter one with the rat-tail braid wore cloth clothes, his head lowered, his