The Second Mother put her hands onto Chi Maojiu’s shoulders as she looked at Wen Leyang’s group and spoke in a gentle voice, “Right now, the Qing Miao clan living at the foot of the Seven Maidens Mountain are no longer the descendants of Grand Master Tuoxie’s sect. The Big Dragon’s Root had been murdered by a wicked person four years ago. The few of us who remained here are the Qing Miao who were descended from Tuoxie’s disciple.”
Wen Leyang was not too surprised to hear that the Big Dragon’s Root was dead. He chuckled as he asked, “The disciples of Tuoxie? Show me your bamboo talisman to prove it.” The bamboo talisman that had belonged to the Qing Miao clan was now in Grand Elder Wen’s hand back at the Nine Peaks Mountain, Wen Leyang was waiting to catch them in a lie.
The Second Mother glanced at him once with a faint smile on her face before she began to write a few words on the ground. She did not hold a thing between her fingers but the words on the ground had been drawn in red and spelled out: The, Nearly, Here!
The three big words had been written with vigorous strokes. It contained an arrogant rage akin to wounds on a deceased person. The words surged directly from the eyes all the way to the heart. Regardless of the body, or shapes or the meanings of the words, they were exactly the same as the bloody words Wen Leyang had seen. However, there was one word missing and when he wrote it down, the Miao woman looked at Wen Leyang with a smile, “At last, there’s a verification.”
Without saying a thing, Wen Leyang had added an ‘End’ word after the word ‘The’. His writing style was not as garish yet when his fingertip had touched the rock the strokes sank deeply into the stony surface as if it had been made of clay. There was not even any stone shavings produced.
The Qing Miao clansmen appeared dumb-struck with amazement and when they looked at Wen Leyang their gazes were filled with an extra sense of admiration.
The Second Mother’s eyes glowed with a trusting brightness as she exhaled deeply and laughed, “All these effort of ours has not been wasted!” She did not wait for Wen Leyang’s inquiry but instead started to push lightly on little Chi Maojiu’s shoulders as she took two steps forward. She then raised her head and said, “The disciple of Tuoxie from the Qing Miao lineage, the Big Dragon’s Root is here.”
Little Chi Maojiu raised his head, his eyes were brimming with pretentious reservation and confidence as he looked at Wen Leyang in an awe-inspiring manner, “Where is the carrot?”
Second Mother was stunned before she laughed soundlessly, “It’s the letter!”
Mumu did not know the sequence of events and she also did not understand what this group of people was doing here. But she didn’t speak and had only been watching silently from the side. Wen Buzuo, his face full of pride, winked and signaled to her. It roughly carried the meaning of ‘ask me if you have anything you don’t understand’.
Wen Leyang took out the carefully wrapped letter from his eldest grandfather. He hesitated for a moment and Second Mother smiled confidently at him, “It’s safe.”
Little Chi Maojiu received the letter with delightful joy and Wen Leyang conveniently threw in a stick of carrot with the letter.
Wen Leyang, upon delivering the letter into the hands of the Big Dragon’s Root, felt a sense of honor in his heart joyously. From today onwards, he will be able to officially announce that he was a disciple of Tuoxie. To try it out, he immediately puffed out his chest as he looked at the Miao clansmen and declared, “The disciple of Tuoxie, Wen Leyang.”
“Oh.” A kind Qing Miao clansman answered once without thinking while the rest of them were utterly too preoccupied to acknowledge him. They gathered around their Big Dragon’s Root to read the letter. The Second Mother read the letter out in a soft voice to the illiterate child. The letter was originally not meant to convey any proper business but to inform them about the revelation of the trace their Grand Master had left behind in the ancient cave on Zhanyan Peak. It also mentioned that the Grand Master was, in fact, an erudite person with remarkable magical powers and that the ancestor had not disappeared using a ‘thunder escape’. The letter then noted that the current whereabouts of the Grand Master was still a mystery and so on and so forth. The group of Miao clansmen had excited expression on their faces, while the Old Qing Miao’s face was trembling continuously.
The Miao people have the disposition of being stubborn and persistent, ‘Our Grand Master walked to this spot. He then moved the mountains and filled the ponds. He scattered the soil and made the land fertile. He slew the demons, punished the evildoers and moralized the barbarians…” This phrase was regarded as a joke in the Wen and Luo family but the Qing Miao clan believed in it firmly. They passed it from mouth to mouth as an heirloom and were sincerely fixated that the grand master was still alive and that the master was still flying around in the sky to peer down on them occasionally.
Wen Leyang too has a head full of questions right now. It turned out that the Big Dragon’s Root was dead and the new Big Dragon’s Root was just a child. These Qing Miao clansmen who were still continuing the legacy of Tuoxie had been hiding in the broken temple. They appear to be trapped there but who were those people that had been chasing after him and why did the heavens split and the earth crack when the green bonfire was extinguished…
He waited until the Qing Miao clansmen were done reading the letter. Wen Leyang looked at the Second mother, “He…if he’s the Big Dragon’s Root, then who are you?” The woman appeared to have a prestigious position in the Qing Miao clan. The Big Dragon’s Root was still a young child while the old Qing Miao man had an unpleasant face. Moreover, this Miao woman knew of the matter about ‘The End (is) Near(ly) Here’.
The Miao woman watched with tender affection as the Big Dragon’s Root Chi Maojiu chomped on the carrot, “My name is Chi Hui, I’m the sister of the former Big Dragon’s Root. I’m also his second wife.”
Wen Leyang gulped nervously. Even though he was aware that regular matrimony laws may have no place in the Qing Miao clan, yet this matter had violated that law greatly. The remaining survivors, upon hearing the Miao woman’s introduction, simultaneously turned their gazes towards Chi Maojiu. The child had originally seemed like a clever and quick-witted boy but now they seem to be able to see some aspects of the ‘international feature’ in his appearance.
Second Mother Chi Hui shook her head hastily, “I’m his Second Mother. He’s the child of my elder brother and the First Mother.” She then pointed at the old Qing Miao man, “He’s my uncle, Chi Shuilie. The four messengers who had sacrificed their lives to deliver the letter to the Wen Bucao were all his sons.”
Wen Leyang’s expression turned solemn and he gave a respectful bow in salutation to the old man. The old Qing Miao Chi Shuilie’s expression became slightly kinder towards them as he too nodded lightly in acknowledgment.
“All along your journey, the person who was after you was not us.” The Second Mother knew that Wen Leyang’s group must be clearly confused about the situation now. She no longer rambled about and instead cut straight to the point and started telling them about the past.
Little Chi Maojiu’s father was the previous generation’s Big Dragon’s Root to the disciples of Miao Bujiao. He had been married to two wives; his first wife had a difficult labor and died during childbirth. After that, the Big Dragon’s Root became depressed all day long and Chi Hui couldn’t bear to see her brother being sad, so she made another wedding arrangement in the stockade village for the Big Dragon’s Root.
Little Chili Pepper wrinkled her eyebrows when she heard this and interrupted, “Those in the stockade village, aren’t they all his relati…” Halfway through saying that she shut her mouth and her face was blushed scarlet. If the Big Dragon’s Root could even marry his own sister, needless to say so about his cousins.
Second Mother Chi Hui chuckled, “Our particular group of Qing Miao was considered rather peculiar within the Miao clan but we do not devote particular attention to that.”
With the passing of the Great Mother, Second Mother helped her husband in selecting the third wife. It had not been strange at all in the beginning for the Third Mother was also a fellow kinsman. She was only sixteen years old back then and her witchcraft skill was considered ordinary. But as she was a dainty and exquisite woman who behaved in an extremely virtuous manner, the Qing Miao clansmen all had a jolly time in making arrangements for their wedding. It was supposed to be a satisfaction for all, for the Big Dragon’s Root had found a new wife and he could finally forget about his old wife.
Though this group of Qing Miao clansmen had also started to worship Mara the Devil, they still believed more in Grand Master Tuoxie. Their worship of Mara the devil had slowly turned into a social custom during the past two thousand years. However, following the rise of the Third Mother Chi Liang’s status, she gradually revealed her fanatical level of worshipping Mara the Devil. She would receive the Devil’s Incantation and during that year, almost every major happenings on the Seven Maidens Mountain had been predicted according to the Devil’s Incantation.
Mara the Devil repeatedly made its apparition and the disciples of the Miao Bujiao continued to manipulate the practice of witchcraft for many generations. They refused to make contact with the outside world for they were originally rather superstitious. In addition, the Big Dragon’s Root himself also prayed devotedly to the devil every day so all of a sudden the young and old of the entire clan started to worship Mara the Devil again.
“Back then, even for myself and the elders in our clan, we had all started to worship the devil earnestly again. The especially intriguing part was…” The Second Mother paused for a moment before she continued speaking in an almost infatuated tone of voice, “All those who had worshipped Mara the Devil would find the power of their witchcraft increased exponentially. It only took a few months’ time for my witchcraft power to increase threefold!”
Little Chili Pepper watched with bright and shimmery eyes, she then questioned closely, “What happened after that?”
