Chapter 99 – The Shaman Volumes
Translated by Sunyancai
Shao Xuan was stunned, so he moved away his sight and looked elsewhere. Moments later, he looked at the animal skin roll again, and looked at those symbols.
However, when he stared at that ink mass for some time, the brown fruit revealed itself again. Very sharp and clear, just like a regular fruit, it presented in front of him. He could see all the details, such as the folds of the pericarp.
What was all that?!
In the past, Shao Xuan would only have those phantom visions when he was in a dangerous situation or on special occasions. But now, it was neither dangerous, nor was there a special scene like the Green Thief’s nightmarch. He was merely standing in the medicine house. If the location was the cause of his phantom vision, then why did it take him so long to cause visions?
The animal skin roll was abnormal.
Shao Xuan stopped looking at that ink mass that he had been staring at, but changed to another picture.
Soon, Shao Xuan realized that other pictures were similar as the first ink mass. When he kept staring at them for some time, the real object would gradually emerge from the symbolic paintings, sharp and clear.
Shao Xuan saw many medical plants and herbs in this animal skin roll, including the Wind Ball and Green Thief that the advance group brought back while he was a member of them. Besides them, there were some other odd-looking herbs.
The thing that surprised Shao Xuan the most, was the accuracy of the pictures. For example, the Wind Ball and the Green Thief were captured with a trap. Unavoidably, there were some remaining traces, caused by the ropes. Shao Xuan personally set the traps and caught these two sneaky plants, of course he could recognize them at first sight. The pictures in the animal skin roll had those exact two things! The traces and marks on their bodies were exactly the same as in Shao Xuan’s memory!
It was truly a real object representation!
He moved on to other pictures. There were not only plants, but also animals on the animal skin roll.
In fact, the first half of the animal skin roll had pictures of plants, while the latter half of the animal skin roll had pictures of animals. However, no matter which kind it was, there were only simple symbolic paintings without description of how these creatures were obtained or processed.
When he went through the animal medicines part, Shao Xuan could only see the final products, without understanding how they were processed, or what part of the animal’s body they were from. The comments on their sides were very simple, so it was impossible for Shao Xuan to have a better understanding of them.
Shao Xuan opened and read some other animal skin rolls on the stone desk. However, aside from the one that he was holding in his hand, the other animal skin rolls were all very plain. Obviously, the painters of the other animal skin rolls tried very hard to describe the details of the objects. However, due to limited painting skills, Shao Xuan could not see the exact image of the real fruit. It was far more different than the real-object-representation.
Shao Xuan recalled the time earlier, when he was inside the Shaman’s stone house. He saw the Shaman painting. At first sight, Shao Xuan assumed them to be simple symbols. However, it took the Shaman quite a lot of strength to make every stroke. Now, combined with the knowledge from the animal skin roll in his hand, Shao Xuan had a speculation in his mind.
He waited until Gui Ze had finished processing the herbs in one stone plate, and then come to her with the special animal skin roll, “Is this one made by the Shaman himself?”
Gui Ze looked aside and saw Shao Xuan with the animal skin roll in his hand. Earlier she was quite calm, but immediately she became very nervous. She walked towards Shao Xuan quickly, and had a close look at the animal skin roll before she said anything. Gui Ze was relieved when she saw that animal skin roll remained unscratched.
She wanted to take over the animal skin roll and place it back where it was, to prevent any damage to it. However, on second thought, she remembered that it was the Shaman who told Shao Xuan to come and learn. So, she hesitated, and then finally withdrew her hand.
“It is indeed written by the Shaman himself, and it was made only this year…You…you should be extra careful when reading that. Do not damage it in any way!” Gui Ze stared at the animal skin roll in Shao Xuan’s hand, and said in a serious tone, “The Shaman would read it every time he comes. He will be angry if he sees it damaged.”
Naturally, Shao Xuan understood in his heart how much people in the tribe valued the Shaman.
Shao Xuan answered as he nodded, “I get it. And I will be very careful with it.”
[You just rest assured! *cough*]
“By the way, have you read it as well?” Shao Xuan lifted the animal skin roll in his hand and asked.
Gui Ze smiled at that question, and she answered with pure admiration in her eyes, “This is written by the Shaman, so only he could read its content. Whoever else would only see chaos and mass.”
She assumed that Shao Xuan was like her, and that he would not understand a thing from the animal skin roll either. When she entered the medicine house for the first time, she had seen similar animal skin rolls. However, it was said that these kinds of animal skin roll belonged to the Shaman, and the Shaman only. They were totally different from the normal ones.
“They are called the Shaman Volumes. So only the Shaman could understand their content. You won’t understand it, just change to another animal skin roll.” When Gui Ze finished explaining, she went back to the big stone table to process different plants. There were still a few stone plates full of herbs that required to be processed soon. Moreover, the other hunting team was about to come back, so she needed to accelerate her process. She did not have much time to talk with Shao Xuan.
When Gui Ze went back to her work, Shao Xuan looked down at the animal skin roll he had at hand, and whispered, “The Shaman Volumes?”
He did not try to explain his situation when Gui Ze misunderstood him. Nor would he ever argue with Gui Ze that he could indeed read and understand the content of this animal skin roll, and beg her pardon…
The Shaman Volumes? And only the Shaman could read them? Who said that?
Shao Xuan shook his head, and grabbed a wooden chair. He sat on the chair and opened the animal skin roll carefully on the stone desk, so that he could continue reading all those paintings on it. Earlier, he roughly went through a few pictures and there were still a lot of other ones. Even when the notes weren’t in detail, he could have some understanding of the pictures if he read them for some time. Perhaps he would encounter one or two of them when he went out for hunting missions later?
It must be because of the Shaman that the animal skin roll got the name of Shaman Volume.
The paintings made by the Shaman were completely different from the ones made by the others. When doing the paintings, it was highly likely that the Shaman used some special power to combine his consciousness with the ink. So even simple strokes had many secrets contained inside.
If any regular person could see the meaning of these symbolic paintings, then why would Ta and the others have animal skin roll with regular paintings? Of course, the paintings given to the hunting group leaders were made especially for normal people, so that they could understand the content.
When it was late in the afternoon, Shao Xuan left the medicine house, for he would not be spending the night in here.
Not long after Shao Xuan had left, the Shaman came to the medicine house.
Gui Ze reported the results of her work in the afternoon in a respectful way, and the Shaman smiled, “Good. You’ve done a lot lately.”
One old man and one young lady in the room, sharing the same facial expression. It was just that Gui Ze seemed more delightful because of the Shaman’s compliment.
After asking things about the herbs, the Shaman asked, “How was Shao Xuan behaving today?”
“I taught him the basic picking and processing of the plants, and then he spent the afternoon reading animal skin rolls by the stone desk.” Gui Ze briefed today’s things to the Shaman and pointed at the stone desk in the corner, “He also read your animal skin roll. Just like me in old times, he could not understand, so he was confused.”
The Shaman’s face slightly changed for a moment. However, the change was too fast for Gui Ze to capture.
“How long had he been reading that animal skin roll?” asked the Shaman.
“Almost half a day.” And he even yawned. Gui Ze kept the latter part of the sentence to herself, for she feared the Shaman might be angry about it.
The Shaman was in silence for some time, and then said slowly, “Just leave him be. You go on with your tasks. The hunting team is about to come back. Pack three packs of herbs first.”
“Yes.”
The next day, when Shao Xuan went to the medicine house again, Gui Ze was still very busy at the big stone table. Shao Xuan stood by her side and watched for some time. He helped with the moving, and watched some of the primary processing methods of some new plants. After watching Gui Ze work for some time, he turned to look at other things. He looked around the room, and his eyesight stopped when he noticed that there was another new animal skin roll on the stone desk around the corner. It looked quite similar to the one that he read yesterday, regarding the material and look.
Shao Xuan picked up the new animal skin roll, and opened it. All he saw were indeed simple symbols just like the ones he saw yesterday. However, in this new animal skin roll, there were series of images instead of individual images.
In this new Shaman Volume, there were the whole processing methods of eight different medicinal plants recorded. From the selection of treatment, to cooking, from drying to storage, there were detailed descriptions on them all. Seeing those images, Shao Xuan felt that he saw a pair of weathered hands processing and demonstrating all the procedures in front of him.
After a series of symbolic pictures, there were also comments in words.
When you combined the images with the words, it became very clear and profound.