The Prodigal Son

With the arrival of this inexplicable "shaman" Nan Que'er, the villagers abandoned their previous wariness and warmly welcomed them into the valley village.

The beautiful woman also took Nan Que'er and the others to her home and prepared delicious food for them.

After asking around, Nan Que'er finally figured out what had happened.

This beautiful woman is called Magu, the shaman of this tribe, and is revered as a holy maiden.

Nan Que'er became the so-called witch master simply because she was stronger than Nan Que'er.

The reason why those children flocked to them before was that whenever the villagers risked their lives to go out of the mountains to buy things like salt and cotton cloth, they would bring back some maltose for them.

At first glance, the children thought they were from the village and wanted to run up to them to ask for candy.

When they realized they didn't recognize them, they all ran away and went back to tell the adults at home.

They thought that a foreign enemy had invaded, so they quickly rallied their people to defend against it.

"So that's how it is."

Nan Que'er smiled knowingly, then asked curiously, "When did your ancestors come here?"

Magu gently shook her head, "I don't know about that, it was a long, long time ago..."

It is said that their ancestors fled into the mountains to escape being hunted down.

After several migrations in the mountains, they finally found this place and settled down here.

After many years of reproduction, their population has grown somewhat again.

As the community grew, the resources in the mountains gradually became insufficient.

In the past, when they went out of the mountains to buy supplies, it would take at least half a month to go back and forth. People would often get lost in the mountains or be attacked by poisonous snakes or wild animals.

More than two hundred years ago, their people began to carve out paths in the walls to build their own.

It took several decades to finally complete the mountain road.

However, despite having mountain paths, they rarely contact the outside world, only leaving the mountains when they need to purchase supplies or barter.

Besides their village, there are several other villages in these mountains.

However, their village is the largest, with the most people, and only their village has people who possess the skills of Gu poison and witchcraft.

Intermarriage and bartering occurred between the villages.

For many years, they have relied mainly on fishing, hunting, and farming.

They are self-sufficient in most resources.

But for things like salt, cotton cloth, and refined iron, they had to go out of the mountains to buy them.

As a witch, Magu held the highest position among her clansmen.

Like Nan Que'er's tribe, they have always followed the rule of passing on witchcraft to women, not men, for generations.

In fact, their ancestors had established an ancestral rule that they should not have contact with the outside world.

But in order to survive, they had to break their ancestral precepts and contact the outside world.

After listening to Magu's words, Nan Que'er had a general idea of ​​what was going on.

Magu and her group were probably part of the group that fled north back then.

Most of them got separated from the main force while fleeing for their lives, or for other reasons, and eventually ended up here.

Their mastery of witchcraft was clearly weaker than that of the two main branches: the Feng tribe of Southern Xinjiang and the shaman priests of Northern Qi.

They didn't even know that their ancestors were from the Wind Clan.

By all accounts, they should be considered a branch of the family.

Afterwards, Nan Que'er told Ma Gu about the situation of their branch and what happened to them afterwards.

After hearing Nan Que'er's words, Ma Gu suddenly grabbed Nan Que'er's hand and asked expectantly, "Does the Witch Master still recognize the characters of our ancestors?"

"I recognize it!"

Nan Que'er nodded. "What, you no longer recognize your ancestors' writing?"

"I don't recognize it."

Magu shook her head and smiled bitterly, "Our branch has intermarried with the earliest mountain people here many times, and we have gradually integrated with each other. Many things of our clan have been lost, including the characters of our ancestors! Our current Gu techniques and witchcraft are also passed down through existing written records..."

"No wonder!"

Nan Que'er suddenly realized, "Why are you suddenly asking this?"

Magu replied, "I have things passed down from my ancestors in my hands and in the village, but I don't recognize the characters on them, so I would like to ask the shaman for help."

"sure!"

Nan Que'er readily agreed, "I also want to know what our ancestors went through."

They had previously discovered their clan's territory in Yuwang Mountain.

However, the tribe's territory has been severely damaged, and no one lives there anymore; only a limited amount of written language remains.

Now, having unexpectedly encountered her clansmen again, even if Magu doesn't ask, she will still search for the writings left by her ancestors here.

"Please wait a moment, Master Shaman, I'll be right back!"

Magu stood up and ran away excitedly.

"Not bad! You've even become a Wizard Lord."

As soon as Magu left, Qin Yu started teasing Nan Que'er.

He thought the mountain road was a passage built by the government to transport troops or grain!

It turns out that these mountain people carved it out over several decades.

No wonder this mountain path is so treacherous.

"You talk too much!"

Nan Que'er gave Qin Yu a reproachful look.

Before long, Magu came running out of the inner room with two ancient animal skin scrolls and respectfully presented them to Nan Que'er.

Nan Que'er took it and, after only a cursory glance, knew what it was.

A moment later, Nan Que'er picked up two animal hide scrolls. "I can tell you what's on this one, but not this one!"

Why?

Magu looked at Nan Que'er with a puzzled expression.

Nan Que'er said seriously, "This contains harmful things."

"Isn't Gu poison also a harmful practice?"

Magu frowned slightly.

"no the same."

Nan Que'er shook her head and said, "The things recorded here require a three-month-old fetus as a medicinal ingredient!"

"Understood!"

Magu suddenly realized what was going on and immediately abandoned the idea of ​​having Nan Que'er tell her.

Nan Que'er stood up. "Let's go to the inner room then. I'll tell you what's on this! It records a kind of exercise to strengthen your body, which will be useful to you."

"Thank you, Master Wizard!"

Magu was overjoyed and quickly welcomed Nan Que'er into the inner room.

Ning Huang casually ate the coarse flatbread in his hand, then whispered to Qin Yu, "Later, have Que'er ask that Magu if they have any altars or similar things here that we saw before."

Nine Dragons Pendant!

Xu Heng!

They had gained too little from their previous work in Yuwang Mountain.

All I know is that the Nine Dragons Pendant is the Xu Heng.

As for the idea that the hot spring was formed from the divine power of the gods, it all sounds like utter nonsense.

He had always suspected that Nan Que'er was deliberately hiding something, but unfortunately he couldn't read the words on it.

"I definitely have to ask!"

Qin Yu nodded slightly, "Let's fill our stomachs first, and talk about it after they're done!"

They have only obtained some scattered information about the Kowloon Pendant so far.

He also wanted to figure out what the Nine Dragons Pendant was for.

What does this have to do with the far north?

And then there's that abyss, and that thing about never touching the taboo.

These scattered pieces are impossible to piece together.

At least this place is inhabited, and at least this branch of the family has survived.

Hopefully, we'll find something new here!