Chapter 81: The Great Shaman Bude

My master and I looked at each other.

It can’t be said that the boy was rude, but it just felt a little strange.

Daxing the Great Shaman smiled wryly and whispered to us, “The most talented young people in this village all practice with the Great Shaman. Apart from practicing, they don’t understand human nature, and they are inevitably arrogant. Like Qiangzi, they will eventually have to go to the stone cave to polish their character, so it doesn’t matter. I went through the same thing at that time.”

Did Qiangzi also go to the stone cave? It was alright for him to be scared and stay inside every day, but the most important thing was that he could only face the blue sky and white clouds, the loneliness of the vast mountains… But, Qiangzi’s temper… is it really related to the shadow of the mythical beast?

My master and I were both silent. After all, it was someone else’s business. We just followed the Da Xing Da Wu and silently walked up the steps of the stilted house.

It was already afternoon… below the cliff, the distant mountains were inexplicably shrouded in mist… misty and indistinct, just like my journey to this day, but the more I look into my future, the less I can see.

In silence, we walked up the long corridor of the stilted house. The boy did not close the door after entering the house… and as soon as he entered, there was a large hall with no windows. In the dim hall, there was a strange totem portrait enshrined, and apart from two mats in front of the totem portrait, there was nothing else.

Then there were two doors at the back of the hall, one on the left and one on the right. As soon as the Daoist priest came in, he bowed respectfully to the totem.

As Taoist practitioners, my master and I obviously couldn’t pay our respects to such a totem, but we couldn’t just barge in either, so we could only wait quietly. In the boredom, I really wanted to see what this totem was. Was it another powerful monster from the Shan Hai Jing? But the room was dimly lit, and the Da Wu quickly finished his worship… and then turned and led us into the door on the left.

In the end, I still didn’t see what the totem portrait was.

Once inside the room, there was finally some light. The first thing I saw was the most powerful shaman in the village, the 21st generation shaman, Bu Deng.

He was a skinny old man with a sickly yellow complexion. He was wearing the typical robe of a great shaman, but it had been washed so many times that it had lost some of its color. He had a small braid on the top of his head, and apart from that, there was no hair on either side of his head.

He had no beard, but long eyebrows… The whole person had a kind of hazy look, but I could vaguely feel that he was extraordinary.

He was just extraordinary, without any sharpness or any sense of being formidable or difficult to deal with.

The only thing that gives him a sense of power is the complex bone chain he wears… although it is very simple and plain, it gives one the feeling of the cold light of the fangs of a ferocious beast.

After we entered, the Da Wu Da Xing first placed Qiangzi on the ground, then bowed respectfully to the Da Wu Bu Deng, and then stepped aside. My master and I greeted the Da Wu Bu Deng with Taoist etiquette and also stepped aside silently.

The great shaman Bugen closed his eyes and did not react. I stood next to my master and quietly looked around the room.

The furnishings of this room are very simple, except for a mat, there is not even a bed. The Budeen shaman sits on the only mat in the room.

But the furnishings of this room are complicated… because the room is full of many bottles and jars. At first glance, I felt a sense of familiarity. Wasn’t it the same in Ru Xue’s room in the Yueyan Miao village?

I didn’t dare to think too much about Ru Xue. Even if I wasn’t afraid of the pain of the soul, I was afraid of losing my temper in the room of the great witch. Besides, I was quickly attracted by the ‘differences’ in these jars and bottles. Because Ru Xue’s jars and bottles should have been filled with things related to the gu, possibly with gu worms, and various kinds of gu medicine.

But the jars and bottles in the witch’s room gave off a different feeling. I felt a sense of emptiness, but also a sense of life.

The only thing that could give me this feeling was one thing: spirit! Could it be that these jars and bottles contained spirits? I tilted my head and tried to feel it more carefully, but I found that the clay jar I was focusing on seemed to feel my attention, and there was a kind of rebound emotion inside, so I immediately dared not pay attention.

It wasn’t that I was afraid of the spirit in the jar, but I felt that it was somewhat rude to “peek” like this in the room of the great witch.

So I had to shift my gaze to the window in the room. Outside the small window was a blue sky with some light clouds floating by. In the distance was a stretch of distant mountains, and in the foreground were the swaying branches of the big tree… This kind of window view actually has a sense of tranquility, remoteness, and vicissitudes of life, which suddenly makes people feel relaxed and peaceful.

Just as I was admiring the view, the great shaman suddenly opened his eyes.

He didn’t say anything or do anything… he just silently opened his eyes, but everyone in the room noticed the change. What kind of aura is this? How can it have such an impact on people?

However, what I saw were calm and deep eyes. Not the kind of deep eyes that are outstanding in terms of mental power, but the kind of deep eyes that are truly calm, unusually calm, and yet full of many things.

In addition, I had a strange feeling that beneath these calm and deep eyes, there were other eyes looking at me.

The more I looked, the more I couldn’t take my eyes off them. Even though I knew it was rude, I was drawn to those eyes and wanted to understand what they were looking at me for.

“Sorry, I was just having a revelation, so I was studying for a while.” But the Bodhisattva didn’t seem to give me that chance. He suddenly looked at me meaningfully and continued to speak to me and the master in a calm and polite tone.

“I dare not, and it hasn’t been long.” Faced with such a character, Master also put away his usual uninhibited behavior and became polite and steady.

“Sit down,” said the great shaman Budeen, and he bowed to me and my master, then invited us to sit down.

There were no other mats in the room, only a simple floor with a rustic feel. My master and I did not refuse, and sat down on the floor, but Da Xing respectfully stood aside and did not dare to sit down.

Buden looked at Daxing and said, “You don’t have to be so formal. Sit down.”

When he said this, Daxing immediately sat down, sitting upright and looking uncomfortable. It was better to stand than to sit.

However, although I was thinking so easily in my heart, I somehow classified the present Budeon shaman as a person of the same level as Jenny, the head of the family. I don’t know why I made such a judgment after only seeing him for the first time.

After everyone had sat down, the great shaman slowly said, “Since you are our guest, we must entertain you. However, in such a hurry, we didn’t even prepare a cup of spring water. Forgive us.”

How could my master and I care about this? Even if he said not to… I could feel that although the Budeon Grand Master was polite in his speech, he also had the pride of a great man, and I felt that great men all had strange temperaments. How could we care about this? We didn’t even know what we had offended by accident.

“Is this your apprentice?” The thinking of the Budeen Grand Wizard seemed to jump around very quickly. Just now, he was still talking about the rudeness, but the next moment, the topic shifted to me, and he began to ask about my master.

“Yes, he is my apprentice.” My master answered directly.

“The spiritual awareness is very strong, but…” Bugen the Great Shaman frowned slightly, looked at me for a few moments, and then said, “It should not be a normal increase in spiritual awareness, and I can’t quite see it. But it’s a good seed, no matter which school you practice, this kind of talent is good.”

Of course it’s not normal. I have a Daoist child in my soul that will pop out at any time to take over. How normal can it be? It’s even more powerful than a personality split that splits into hundreds of personalities!

My master didn’t want to say anything directly about my situation, but he did say, “There are indeed some complicated things about your situation, but you are a good seedling. As your master, I am proud of you.”

Although it was a polite remark, I could feel that my master really had a hint of pride in his words. He rarely praised me so openly in front of outsiders. I was so moved by this simple sentence that it made my heart warm. My master was proud of me, just like a father would be proud of me. As a junior, what could be more affirming than this sentence?

However, the great shaman didn’t seem to care much, just nodding lightly, “Mmm,” and then his gaze fell on Qiangzi.

This time, unlike his usual casual glance at others, he looked at Qiangzi for a long time before turning to Daxing and asking, “How long has he been unconscious?”

His words were still calm, and I couldn’t even feel any hint of emotion, but for some reason, I saw that the Da Xing Da Wu sitting next to me suddenly had sweat dripping down his forehead, as if he was under extreme pressure.

After a long time, he reluctantly squeezed out a few words from between his teeth: “He’s been unconscious for less than a day.”