Feiyun channeled his phoenix gaze clandestinely, wanting to see if these tribe members were actually hidden masters. However, he found that the young and old of this village were all regular Jiangs.
Of course, a few middle-aged men here could punch with the force of tens of thousands of pounds. This was rather normal for the Jiang due to their innate physical prowess. Just a bit of training would have this result.
But if they were normal people, then how did they survive in this area for generations?
Feiyun curiously asked the old men here to see if they have ever been attacked by the beasts.
“Of course not, we haven’t seen a powerful beast within a hundred miles of our village.” One old man said.
A different one added: “Our men just need to hunt within this radius and they won’t meet the big ones. None have attacked our village either.”
His curiosity increased. He released his divine intents and covered an area of several hundred miles radius. Sure enough, the strongest ones around have only cultivated for a hundred years or so. Not a single three-hundred-year and up beast could be found.
Meanwhile, beasts continued to travel the long way around the village, even the ones towering at more than ten meters.
This was a very strange phenomenon. Was there something or someone monstrous in this place? The beasts could sense them and didn’t dare to get close.
This had to be it.
“Seniors, may I ask for your village’s background or was any of your ancestors an amazing master? Of course, no need to tell me if you don’t want to.” Feiyun asked again.
The villagers were very simple and weren’t suspicious on top of being hospitable. One of the old men smiled and said: “It’s been too many generations so we have no idea. According to our ancestral list, my family has been around for more than 300 generations.”
“Mine has been around for 403 generations.” An old man smoking a tobacco pipe sat on a stone stool and let out a puff of smoke, taking pride in having an older lineage.
‘Damn! That’s older than the four great clans of Jin. People from Jiang live for a long time… let’s say twenty years for each generation, that’s six thousand years already. If twenty-five years, that’s ten thousand years or even older… What the hell kind of tribe is this?’
Luo Yu’er covered her mouth in shock, able to notice the peculiarities here.
The two old men worried about Feiyun’s skepticism. They loudly cried out for their wives to bring their ancestral lists here.
The lists were carved on tough pieces of bones connected by tenders and leather, spanning for more than ten meters long after unrolling.
One recorded 394 generations while the other had 403.
“People say that this tablet has been around at the start of our village, but none of us can understand it.” An old man brought Feng Feiyun in front of a tablet.
The four-meter-tall tablet was black from top to bottom. The writings became faint due to the years, requiring good vision to read.
Feiyun channeled his heavenly gaze and only saw one-tenth of the words clearly. These others have been weathered down and removed completely.
He frowned from not being able to recognize the language. Perhaps they looked like witch runes more.
“This is the language from the Witchcraft Scripture.” Yu’er quietly said.
He turned around hastily and asked: “You know about this?”
All the villagers came around with eager eyes. They have been wanting to know the content of the scripture.
Though many masters have visited, none understood the content and left in disappointment. However, this beautiful girl seemed to have recognized it so they became quite excited.
With sparkling lips, rippling eyes, and delicate eyelashes, Yu’er said: “Only the leader of each generation from Witch God Temple can read these runes. There are too many broken spots that can’t be read though, so I can’t make heads or tails out of this.”
Only one-tenth of the texts remained undamaged; the rest wasn’t salvageable.
According to her - a monstrous existence appeared a very long time ago. But as for what and from where? Those facts were missing.
During that period, massacres happened and the people wailed in agony. It didn’t say what happens next with this monster, only the words “depth of Endless Land”, “Heavenly Witchcraft Goddess”, “the destruction of the Buddhist faction”.
Feiyun’s frown intensified. He performed his Minor Change Art on the ground with the information given to him from Yu’er.
Sure enough, this land had suffered a calamity before, resulting in the near-destruction of the most prosperous culture at that time - Buddhism. This was very similar to the disaster written in Buddhist texts.
Before the founding of Jin was an even longer period of prosperity. Everyone ranging from mortals to cultivators worshipped Buddhism. Pagodas and temples were everywhere - the golden age of Buddhism.
However, a disaster virtually destroyed every single sect and ended this period.
Beastmaster Camp was the only Buddhist sect managing to survive the ordeal. However, their Golden Silkworm Scripture was lost.
So this place had records of it too, but why was it written using this special text? Could it be that the master of the Witch God Temple during that generation saw something important then?
Feiyun began to calculate. If this disaster was indeed the same one, then it should be around ten thousand years ago, several years earlier than the start of Jin. That was when the previous-generation Witchcraft Goddess came out, could she be the one who had carved this?
Yu’er looked silly but she was indeed a ninth-ranked wisdom master. The two of them glanced at each other at the same time, knowing that they came up with the same conclusion. His stare made her blush with awkwardness.
“What?! The Heavenly Witchcraft Goddess engraved this text?” The old men instantly kneeled and started kowtowing towards the tablet after finding out.
The rest of the tribe did the same thing with nothing but reverence in their heart. The goddess was viewed as a deity so this item was also sacred.
Feiyun checked the tabler again. It had no augmentation and special aura, meaning that it had nothing to do with the beast repellent.
‘Why do the beasts avoid this place then?’ Feiyun wanted to ask about other ancient items but was interrupted.
A quiet and elegant zither sounded in a pleasant manner, attuned with nature. People couldn’t help but take a deep breath in enjoyment.
The melody had no impurities. How could someone have a pure enough mind to play this tune? There was really a hidden master here?
Feiyun didn’t bother the villagers in worship and followed the melody deeper into the village. He made it to a creek surrounded by peach blossom trees and saw a monk in white immersed in playing his zither.
Yu’er walked behind him while carefully appreciating the song.
Numerous golden fish came to the water surface, seemingly wanting to listen. The butterflies and birds landed on the tree branches, causing pink petals to flutter down.
Just one song and the monk stopped.
“Clap!” Feiyun applauded and walked forward with a smile: “Haha! No place is too far for fate. We meet again, Master Formless. I didn’t expect to see such mastery of the zither. Your zither’s profundity and musical prowess… only one person in the world can match you.”
Formless sat cross-legged with his zithers on top of his thighs, looking as gallant and handsome as ever.
He placed his palms together and smiled with a profound glare: “There’s someone like that?”
“A friend.” Feiyun said: “But we’re focusing on you today. I thought you were heading east after we left Beastmaster Camp, why are you here now in Ancient Jiang and even the Endless Land. Haha, don’t tell me you got lost.”
“Amitabha, of course not. I’m here specifically to find you.”
“Why?”
“Someone is forcing me to do so or she will commit suicide in front of me.” Formless said.
Feiyun naturally knew who he was referring to. He got a strange expression on his face: “So you sold out a friend and brought her here?”
“Amitabha, Buddhists must be benevolent and save lives.” Formless closed his eyes. A white glow existed around him in a holy manner, making him look like a bodhi tree.