Devouring Evil Martial Arts, Eliminating Demons from All Heavens

Chapter 32 Three Kinds of Tea, Colorful Cloud Flute

"The husband of the Cave Goddess?"

Chu Tianshu looked at Cai Shanjun curiously, and found that Lao Yu and Xiao Huo also had inquiring expressions on their faces.

Obviously, although they were Cai Shanjun's guards, they were not aware of what was going on.

Cai Shanjun got off the donkey, looked helpless, and explained.

More than ten years ago, he and a group of friends accidentally entered Wujiazhai and found that the people here were hospitable, simple and cheerful. They were very hungry and tired after trekking in the mountains, so they rested here.

As it turned out, what they thought was a festival celebration during those days was actually a ceremony for the cave god to choose a husband being held in the village.

Because of a friend's recklessness, they had no choice but to wear wooden painted masks and participate in the ceremony.

After a series of processes, it was finally the outsider Cai Shanjun who was chosen as the husband of the Cave Goddess.

However, this is not a good thing.

The ceremony of the cave god choosing a husband is for the purpose of praying for blessings and warding off disasters.

Every ten or twenty years, the waterfall not far from Wujiazhai would stop flowing, revealing a cave under the cliff, from which colorful clouds would gush out.

At this time, Wujiazhai would hold a ceremony to select a husband for the cave goddess and send him into the cave. Otherwise, even if they moved to another place, the entire clan would suffer disasters and face all kinds of misfortunes.

Cai Shanjun's friends refused to obey and were detained. At that time, Cai Shanjun could be said to have been forced into the cave.

However, after two days and two nights, he successfully walked out of the intricate cave and brought out the colorful cloud flute left deep in the cave by the ancestors of Wujiazhai.

He claimed that it was the guidance of the Cave Goddess that allowed him to escape unscathed and return the Caiyun Flute to Wujiazhai.

The people of Wujia Village therefore believed that he was especially favored by the Cave Goddess, so they gave him generous gifts and sent them all away from the village.

"...At the time, I was about to join the army, but the relationships between officials and the military were complex and treacherous. This generous gift was of great help to me when I was getting started."

When Cai Shanjun said this, Chu Tianshu's expression became a little subtle.

This doesn't sound like there has never been a feud, it can only be said that it has been resolved.

Chu Tianshu looked at the waterfall on the mountain over there: "They were able to send you into the cave back then. What if you come back this time and the waterfall on the mountain stops flowing again?"

"Will not."

Cai Shanjun smiled mysteriously, then sighed, "After I left here, I actually collected a lot of local historical materials and folk tales. I learned that long ago, there was a rumor circulating here that the cave god married a wife."

"Whenever the waterfall stops flowing and colorful clouds appear, the most beautiful girl in the village will be chosen. She will be given the most precious Gu insect in the village, married off with music and drums, and then sent into the cave."

"Later, in an unknown year, the young girl could no longer appease the cave god's anxieties, so the village's warriors were chosen instead. From the cave god marrying a wife, it evolved into the cave god choosing a husband, but the result was the same: they both left and never returned."

"If they could work together when the colorful clouds erupt, gathering more warriors and witches to rush in together, perhaps they could appease the disaster without having to kill anyone."

Chu Tianshu seemed to be thinking about something, and said, "But if they do that, more people might die. They dare not change their old ways. What is inside the cave?"

Cai Shanjun pondered, "I'm not entirely sure either. The cave is filled with stone pillars, hanging upright and extending all the way underground. It's immeasurably vast."

"Given our current situation, we should not rush to explore the cave. At least the waterfall will continue to flow for the next few years, so we still have time."

When he said this, the Miao girl had already paddled the bamboo raft back to the village.

Then, continuous drum sounds were heard from inside the village.

In the stilt houses halfway up the mountain, almost every household has young and strong people going out.

Hundreds of people flocked to the foot of the mountain and beat drums to welcome them on the other side of the river.

Looking at those women, most of them wore head wraps and embroidered aprons. The men were wearing some animal skins and some cloth, and most of them looked rather simple.

Outsiders think that the Miao people in the village have a lot of silver jewelry. In fact, except for festivals and grand ceremonies when they dress up, they don’t dress too elaborately at other times.

Silver turns black easily. If you wear it all the time during your daily work and it gets stained with various stains, it will be difficult to restore it to its original appearance even if you clean and wipe it.

More than ten people were selected from the hundreds of people, all of them were bare-handed men, and they paddled five or six bamboo rafts across the river.

One of them was particularly eye-catching, and looked to be at least two meters twenty-three inches tall.

He had only a layer of stubble on his head, a hemp rope wrapped around his forehead, a square face, and long arms and legs.

For him, paddling across the river with a bamboo pole seemed like just paddling left and right three or four times, and the bamboo raft would reach the shore like an arrow.

"Brother Shanjun!"

"Utugu!"

Cai Shanjun laughed and said, "If it weren't for me, everyone in the village would have thought that he should have been sent to the cave."

Wutugu snorted, his voice resonating like it was muffled in a large wooden barrel. "You took away my glory, but you walked out of the cave. I admire you!"

He suddenly sniffed with the tip of his nose and showed a strange expression, "Why have you become so weak?"

Cai Shanjun said helplessly: "I should have been much stronger than I was back then."

Wutugu glanced at everyone, wrinkled his nose again, and said with a smile: "The people around you are more dangerous than those back then."

Chu Tianshu asked curiously, "My dear, did you see it, or did you smell it? Can you tell the strength of the smell?"

"A bear can smell an alligator, but a fool cannot."

Wutugu patted his chest and said proudly, "There are no more than five people in the village with such a nose, and I am the only one who stands the highest and smells the farthest."

Several other bamboo rafts have also reached the shore.

A man with narrow eyes, thick beard, dark skin and a dagger on his waist shouted.

"You're not the tallest, you're the tallest. When it comes to climbing a mountain, you can't compare to me."

The man with the short knife stepped forward and performed a village etiquette. "Uzewa, I am here to greet our benefactor on the orders of the tribe leader."

The title of benefactor was not because Cai Shanjun replaced someone from their village and entered the cave, but because Cai Shanjun found their ancestor's colorful cloud flute for them.

According to legend, it was once a treasure that could be ranked alongside the Barbarian King's Drum and Zhuge's Lute, but people in later generations, whether the direct or side branches of the Wu Family Village, had lost the method of making it.

Everyone was welcomed onto the bamboo raft, not even the donkey was left behind. Chu Tianshu turned around and looked in the direction they had come from.

All I saw was the boundless jungle, and the distant mountains, like giant bowls, pressing down on the earth.

The foot of the mountain is dark green, almost black, and from halfway up the mountain, it gradually turns white. It is unclear whether the top is snow or clouds.

Looking at it this way, there is no way to go anywhere.

Cai Shanjun was so familiar with the village when he led them here. He must have had a very deep impression of it and had thought about it many times in secret.

"It's been raining for several days straight, but today we can actually see the sunset from the village. The Cave Goddess must be feeling happy today too."

The people waiting on the shore obviously had an old man as their backbone.

His hair and beard were gray, his eyelids were a little swollen, his belly was slightly fat, and he had a knee-length maroon cloak hanging down his back. He had a loud voice and appeared very majestic and enthusiastic.

"Today, the benefactor who retrieved our ancestral relics for us has arrived. The husband chosen by the Cave Goddess has arrived."

"Light up the bonfire, bring out the wine, and have some singing and dancing tonight."

The crowd guarding the shore cheered.

A pretty girl came forward and placed a wreath made of flexible branches on the patriarch's head, and gave another wreath to Cai Shanjun.

The wild flowers with yellow stamens and white petals added a touch of wildness and a sense of intimacy to both of them.

The relationship between everyone seemed to become closer, and Chu Tianshu and his friends were all surrounded by people and headed up the mountain.

Although the clan leader and the others spoke Chinese, when they were surrounded by the crowd and walked up the mountain, Chu Tianshu found that he could not understand what many people were saying.

But he could understand the lively and cheerful feeling.

"Did the governor make such a deep impression on them?"

Xiao Huo was a little flattered. "After more than ten years, it's still so popular."

Zhong Jinqiu said calmly, "That little girl was able to recognize Commander Cai at first sight. That was truly impressive. As for these people now, they're probably just enjoying the evening's singing, dancing, and fine wine."

Chu Tianshu also thought so.

But he just liked this lively and cheerful atmosphere, so he had a bright smile on his face, unlike Uncle Zhong who was so tense.

But when they really got close to the stilt houses, the crowd dispersed immediately.

Uzewa explained, "They all went to prepare firewood for the bonfire that night, fish to grill, worm tea, flower tea, fragrant bamboo, and pickled vegetables."

"It takes a lot of preparation to have a fun night."

Chu Tianshu nodded and saw that everyone had been taken to a higher place. It seemed that it was the meeting hall of the entire village.

Other stilt houses are made of bamboo and wood, but the hall in front of you is built with nanmu and bricks and tiles.

There were more than a dozen chairs in the hall, and a six-legged black iron pot on the ground in the middle, with unlit firewood piled inside.

As soon as everyone sat down, the girl who first discovered Cai Shanjun came up with a wooden tray in each hand.

"Would the guests like worm tea, oil tea, or scented tea?"

The girl smiled, her eyes sparkling, and she placed a tray in front of Cai Shanjun. "I remember that the Cave Goddess's husband only drank scented tea."

The clan leader said, "This is Abang, the one you helped drill the flute for."

Cai Shanjun suddenly realized and took the cup of scented tea with a smile.

The girl walked past everyone in turn and took a cup from each person.

Chu Tianshu looked at the two trays with many bowls of tea and asked, "Can I have one of each?"

A Bang smiled and said, "Of course."

Chu Tianshu took three bowls. The oil tea looked like noodle soup and smelled a bit salty and fragrant.

It looked like some winter melon candy or something was soaked in the scented tea.

Insect tea actually looks the most normal, just like the water used to soak ordinary tea leaves.

Chu Tianshu originally thought that he would be able to see insects like centipedes, and he wanted to experience it.

Zhong Jinqiu, who was sitting next to him, tilted his head and gently reminded him, "Worm tea is the stuff that insects excrete after eating tea leaves, which is then dried and made into tea."

Chu Tianshu's face changed slightly. If it was centipede, he would be willing to try it, but forget about this kind of tea.

He asked Uncle Zhong two more questions.

Oil tea is made from things like broad beans, glutinous rice, and wheat flour. After frying, it is mixed with camellia seed oil. It can be stored for a long time, and it is really fragrant when you brew it when you want to eat it.

Scented tea is made from the peel of winter melon and green grapefruit, which is cut into finger-sized pieces, or in strips or slices, and carved with auspicious patterns of flowers. It goes through various soaking processes to remove the bitterness, and is then pickled with sugar.

Chu Tianshu silently picked up the flower tea and took two sips, then drank two sips of the oil tea. They were indeed very good. He couldn't help but glance at the worm tea, but after thinking about it, he looked away.

After a while, he saw Uncle Ma drinking worm tea happily and couldn't help but glance at him again.

While he was studying these teas, Cai Shanjun had already exchanged a few pleasantries with the clan leader and got down to business.

"I came here this time to borrow the Rainbow Cloud Flute."

The patriarch, who was smiling and had a heroic voice, suddenly fell silent.

"So, that's why you came here."

The patriarch still had a smile on his face, but his voice became deep and slow, as if he was considering something with great difficulty.

"Although you brought the Rainbow Cloud Flute out of the cave, you have already taken away the generous gift we gave you back then."

"Besides, the Colorful Cloud Flute was dim back then, and it only seems to have recovered in the past ten years since we enshrined it in the ancestral hall..."

(End of this chapter)