Shi Feiyang had come to White Yang Mountain to find Mo Zhui and his two brothers.
A community of little people lived among the crisscrossing ravines, hills, and valleys at the foot of White Yang Mountain.
They stood only about two feet tall and resembled dwarfs, but their heads, faces, hands, and feet were all proportionately smaller, so they did not look strange. Running through the mountains, they looked like spirits cultivated from plants.
More than ten thousand years ago, they too had been descendants of Empress Wa, no different from ordinary humans. Later, they began farming, entered a patriarchal age, and established a vast nation. Civil governance, military achievements, rites, music, and education all flourished.
Later, their customs declined by the day, human kindness grew thin, and they became selfish and increasingly narrow-minded. Their innate capacities dwindled. Never mind the Nine-Foot Body of ancient times—even a Seven-Foot Body became exceedingly rare.
Eventually, their bodies shrank to less than three feet tall. They could no longer compete with other great nations, and when survival became impossible, they retreated into the deep mountains.
Only a thousand years ago did a wise ruler arise. He fathomed many profound mysteries, fostered his people's prosperity and education, and strove tirelessly to strengthen the nation. Leading all his Little People in turning Heaven and Earth around, he finally halted their continuing decline in size.
When their nation fell and they fled into the mountains, they designated that day the Restoration Festival so they would never forget their roots. Every year on that date, they offered sacrifices to Heaven and prayers at their ancestral temple.
The wise ruler of a thousand years ago calculated something of his nation's destiny and left a prophecy: after another thousand years, they would still be able to grow tall again