"Please, my lord..." Elder Wu respectfully invited Xiao Mao to the seat of honor, while Ji Man asked Xiao Hua and the others to sit beside him.
Xiao Mao did not stand on ceremony. At Elder Wu's indication, he sat upon the uppermost animal hide. Once Xiao Hua and the others had also taken their places on the hides beside him, Elder Wu and Ji Man stepped before Xiao Mao and began to chant. Their voices were low and drawn-out, and at the same time, the two began to dance with raised hands and moving steps!
As the two danced, among the several hundred people who had previously welcomed Xiao Mao outside the wooden house, another hundred or so elderly men and women respectfully entered. Following the pair's dance steps, they began to dance as well. Though every movement was strenuous and their arms and legs somewhat stiff, joy filled every one of their faces...
A full cup of tea's time later, the crowd finally stopped. Elder Wu and Ji Man waved their hands, and a faint jade-green radiance flashed. The wood before Xiao Mao caught fire, crackling and popping.
Then those hundred or so people all moved at once. Not only did the wood before Xiao Hua, Li Zongbao, and the others ignite, but all the remaining wood was set ablaze as well. Elder Wu, Ji Man, and the hundred or so people slowly walked behind the bonfires, saluted Xiao Mao once more, and slowly sat down upon the animal hides.
The wood burned slowly, and the entire wooden house gradually grew warm. Fine wisps of smoke slowly filled the room, while the flames stretched and shrank, casting everyone's faces into shifting light and shadow.
"My lord~" Elder Wu, seated to Xiao Mao's left, spoke a sentence in the