The Shrine Keeper, the Miao King Subdues the Bull

The sky was blue, and the grass was green.

Humming a song from the stronghold, A Bang made her way to the ancestral shrine.

A Bang meant "flower" in the Miao language. Under the customs of the Wu Clan Stronghold, her full name was actually much longer.

But she had loved flowers ever since she was a little girl, so the people in the stronghold had grown used to calling her by that part of her name.

Her older brothers hunted deep in the mountains, and her older sisters gathered fruit in the woods. Whenever they came across flowers that were lovely, delicate, beautiful, or even a little strange, they were happy to bring them back for her, as long as they were not too common.

Some they picked, while others they dug up whole so they could be transplanted.

A Bang grew all those flowers beside the shrine. She often came to visit them and asked the old woman who guarded the shrine to help look after them as well.

That way, if any of the flowers fell sick, the old woman could send someone to let her know.

When A Bang arrived today, the old woman was sitting in a bamboo chair outside the shrine.

The old woman was very thin, with a sallow complexion, and looked to be in her sixties. Fine blue cloth embroidered with flowers wrapped her hair. She had faint eyebrows and long eyes, with plenty of wrinkles on her forehead and at the corners of her eyes. Yet she still seemed in good spirits, her back fairly straight as she stroked a bamboo flute in her hands.

Only when she heard A Bang's cheerful greeting did she raise her eyes. Unhurriedly, she said, "You're here. The flowers are all doing well today. None of them are particularly wilted."

"Why was it a little noisy halfway up the mountain this morning? It was noisy all last night, and now it's started again today?"

As she spoke, the old woman shook her head, looking a little displeased.

The old woman liked peace and quiet and disliked joining in the excitement. When A Bang had come to invite her to the bonfire singing and dancing the night before, she had sent her away after hearing only half a sentence, unwilling to go.

A Bang had not come to disturb her about this morning's events, but once the old woman asked of her own accord, she could not hold back.

"They're taking on the three trials today! Grandpa had Brother Zewa compete with someone from outside. That uncle was amazing! He didn't look very strong, but he could make such a huge whirlpool on the water..."

The old woman abruptly raised her eyes and interrupted her. "Outsiders are taking on the three trials? Has someone come to borrow a treasure? What are they borrowing?"

A Bang answered, "The Rainbow Cloud Flute."

The wrinkles on the shrine keeper's forehead deepened. She paused for a moment, then said, "Our ancestors' possession was lost for so long, and it's only been a few years since we found it again. How can they lend it out?!"

A Bang smiled and said, "Uncle Shanjun was the one who found the flute in the first place, and we hardly ever use it. Grandpa, Brother Zewa, and the others all agreed to lend it to them if they pass the three trials."

"Nonsense!"

The shrine keeper swore and rose from her low chair, but after taking a few steps, she stopped, her gaze wavering.

"Forget it. Since the clan chief and the others have already agreed, let's see whether these people can pass the three trials."

"A Bang, from what you're saying, did the outsider already win today's trial?"

A Bang nodded. "Yes! That uncle's fist art was incredible. It was like dancing, but completely different from any dance I've ever seen."

"I wonder what new and unusual things there'll be in tomorrow's contest. Granny, will you come watch with me?"

The old woman sat back down, her fingers pressing the holes of the flute in turn. With her head lowered, she said rather stiffly, "Hmph, I'm not going. A shrine keeper should stay and guard the shrine."

A Bang knew the old woman had a somewhat odd temper and paid it no mind. She went to the flower bed to look at the flowers she had planted, saying with a clear, bright laugh, "Then, Granny, can I stay here tonight?"

The shrine keeper said faintly, "As you wish."

The shrine keeper's house was built with some of the best materials in the stronghold, much like the stronghold chief's house.

The chief's house, however, was decorated with deer heads and animal hides, giving it a rather rugged look.

The shrine keeper's house was much more refined. Every inch of the wooden boards inside was carved with patterns, and the jars and pots were lovelier than those elsewhere. The silver teapot was neatly shaped, and the bottles were slender enough to fit in one hand. Most were probably fine things brought in from outside the mountains by ancestors of some past generation.

A Bang especially liked staying here overnight.

Unfortunately, the old woman went to bed late, and the older she got, the later she stayed up. She always made little noises during the first half of the night, and in recent years, she had grown even fonder of playing the flute in the middle of the night.

The sound was not especially loud, but A Bang, who slept in the same room, had long since prepared cotton earplugs for herself.

Around midnight, A Bang tossed and turned inside the house.

For some reason, even with her earplugs in, she could not sleep soundly tonight.

The old woman sat on the threshold playing her flute, looking at the shrine not far away. Her expression was complicated, the corners of her eyes tilted upward as a ruthless look gradually emerged, though the flute's notes were so low as to be inaudible.

The darkness of night gradually gave way to light.

The morning glow first spread among the mountains, filling half the sky. Roosters crowed from several households in the stronghold, voices grew louder, and cooking smoke rose everywhere.

Only then did the sun make its leisurely appearance.

Amid the colorful clouds, the great red fireball in the sky was as flat as an orange.

Chu Tianshu stepped onto the bamboo walkway of the stilt house and began the first thing he did every morning, clutching a jar and drinking like a cow.

Only after he had downed an entire jar of water, a faint mist gathering in his eyes, did he let out a burp.

"The morning sun in the mountains really is soft."

Looking at the sun through the mist in his eyes made him wonder all the more: if that flat sun shifted its position just a little, would a mountain peak prick it and burst it?

Chu Tianshu could feel that, after guzzling down a jar of water, his stomach was like the sun as well.

At first it was swollen and full. Soon, a surge of heat rose and spread from his stomach as the water was rapidly converted and absorbed.

The heavy feeling in his stomach and intestines eased, and the parched discomfort in his flesh and muscles was greatly relieved.

Such an exceptional ability to replenish water could only be attained through considerable accomplishment in both Eating Makes an Immortal and Dragon Coils Around the Body.

Before his battle with the old eunuch, Chu Tianshu had already brought Dragon Coils Around the Body to ninety percent mastery, while Eating Makes an Immortal was at around forty percent.

Over the past few days, he had recalled how he had urgently driven his strength during battle and examined himself inside and out, sensing the different ways his muscles exerted force with every step he took.

Dragon Coils Around the Body had finally reached full mastery, truly attaining that realm.

By contrast, the medicinal power of the Spirit Yang Gallbladder had been exhausted, and he had only spent a short time combining the witch doctor's needle technique with training, so there had been no obvious improvement in his realm of Eating Makes an Immortal.

But with the guidance of Toad Art Palm Thunder, although his Eating Makes an Immortal was still at forty percent mastery, he could now use his internal organs to exert force with considerably greater finesse than before.

After breakfast, Chu Tianshu met up with Cai Shanjun and the others, and the people of the stronghold led them to see the site of the second trial.

It was a large earthen pit on the other side of the stronghold.

The entire pit was about thirty meters square and three meters deep. Its bottom had been made very level, and there were drainage channels around the edges to carry away water during the rainy season.

There was no telling how much manpower or time the ancestors of the Wu Clan Stronghold had spent digging this pit.

When Chu Tianshu arrived, dozens of men were trying every way they could to get a bull down into it.

First, they used two long ladders to climb down. Then a full eight men below raised a large, thick wooden plank.

The people above worked together to hoist the bull with poles and slowly lower it.

With people coordinating above and below, it took quite an effort to get the bull into the pit.

The bull appeared very docile from beginning to end. Its eyes were covered with coarse cloth, and it lay there without moving.

Even so, the men still seemed somewhat apprehensive as they worked.

Chu Tianshu and the others understood their caution.

The bull was nearly three meters long. If it stood up, its shoulders would probably be around 1.7 or 1.8 meters high, and it surely weighed over a thousand jin.

Compared with the yellow cattle and water buffalo that children could ride on, the bull before them was practically a huge, muscle-bound monster.

Its enormous horns with their sharp tips, its glossy black coat, its pale legs and hooves, and the sound of its snorting and lowing were enough to make anyone's heart tremble.

"This is a wild bull."

Stronghold Chief Wu stood at the edge of the pit and kept his voice fairly gentle as he told everyone, "Legend has it that a mountain god once felt disturbed by the sons and daughters of the Three Miao. He took the form of a bull and came down the mountain, goring houses to the ground and trampling crops. A Miao king stepped forward and, with his bare hands and matchless valor, subdued the mountain god's incarnation."

"From then on, not only did the mountain god stop harming the people, he was also willing to point out the more fertile land on the slopes that could be cultivated into terraces, so the people could fill their stomachs."

"The second trial of the Wu Clan Stronghold is a reenactment of the Miao king subduing the bull."

Yi Province was warm and humid, with many jungles and thousands upon thousands of kinds of wild beasts in its mountains. There were even elephants, so wild bulls were nothing unusual.

This wild bull of the Wu Clan Stronghold was the strongest in its herd, and its breed was rather unusual as well.

When its eyes were covered, it became extremely docile. But if the blindfold was removed, it would fixate on the first living thing it saw and chase it relentlessly.

To make the bull look more like an incarnation of the mountain god, the men were also tying strips of cloth and draping leaves over it.

They carved wood into the shape of deer antlers and fitted them onto the bull's back, five or six sharp antlers branching out in every direction.

"In the contest between warrior and bull, you must be barehanded. You may not pull on the antlers on the bull's back, and you may dodge only ten times. If you still cannot subdue the bull after dodging ten times, you fail."

Once Stronghold Chief Wu had finished explaining the rules, Wu Tugu took off his outer garment.

His outfit today was also modeled after the legendary Miao king's. Several colored streaks of dye marked his face, and numerous strips of colored cloth were tied around his arms and belly like skirts.

Dressed as the Miao king, Wu Tugu, who was usually quite talkative, did not say a word today. He merely nodded in the direction of Chu Tianshu and the others, then climbed down the ladder into the pit.

The men who had brought in the wild bull all climbed out by ladder on the other side. Once they were sure Wu Tugu was ready, they used a long bamboo pole to pull off the bull's blindfold.

The wild bull opened its eyes. Its lashes were long and thick, and its eyes were round as bronze bells, reflecting Wu Tugu's figure.

The spectators gathered around the pit were fairly quiet, and Stronghold Chief Wu gave no signal to start.

The contest between man and beast had begun the moment the wild bull opened its eyes.

"Moo!!!"

The wild bull pushed itself up on all four hooves, its eyes fixed on its opponent.

Wu Tugu spread his arms and swayed as he approached the middle of the arena, staring back at it in direct confrontation.

The wild bull began pawing at the ground. It shook its head, making all the antlers tied to its body sway wildly.

Wu Tugu took a deep breath, then suddenly slapped his own belly.

Roar!!

The wild bull let out a sudden bellow and charged headlong, its pounding hooves like war drums.

The larger and heavier something was, the harder it was to accelerate from a standstill.

Yet with its massive size, this bull could accelerate into a smooth, full-speed gallop in a mere dozen meters or so.

Catching this, Chu Tianshu immediately understood that the wild bull's physical prowess was slightly greater than he had estimated.

A charge from it carried a force of many thousands of jin.

Wu Tugu reached out for its horns, but suddenly realized that at this distance and in this posture, he could not exert his strength properly. Afraid he would not be able to hold it back, he hurriedly leaped a long step to the side.

The wild bull missed him. As it neared the edge of the pit, it slowed and turned, rounding the bend close to the wall before charging again.

Wu Tugu tried twice more.

On one attempt, he reached for a horn with his right hand and tried to scoop his left hand under the bull's belly.

His arms and legs were long, so although the antlers hindered him somewhat, he could still reach beneath the bull's belly with his left arm fully extended without touching them.

But the bull jerked its head against his right hand, preventing him from securing his grip on the horn, and he hurriedly retreated.

Including that attempt, he had now dodged three times.

The contest had barely begun, and he had already used up a third of his chances.

Chu Tianshu asked in a low voice, "During the usual New Year performances, do they leave off the antlers?"

Stronghold Chief Wu nodded, his eyes never leaving the pit.

In the past, without the antlers, Wu Tugu needed only two or three attempts to find an opening and overturn the bull from the side.

But with things as they were today, even Stronghold Chief Wu could not say how many chances he would need.

The wild bull reached the edge of the pit once more and ran along the wall to turn around. Once it had swung its body about, it was ready to charge toward the middle of the arena again.

"Hah!!!"

Wu Tugu actually charged straight at the wild bull.

The wild bull's hindquarters were still less than five meters from the pit wall, and it had not finished accelerating when Wu Tugu's great hands clamped firmly onto its horns.