Daomu Biji Volume 8 Chapter 34

“Before, the local people here called the shadows in these stones Miluotuo.” Ghost said, “We always thought they were referring to these things in the stone, but after we studied the ancient books, we found that we had misunderstood. Miluotuo didn't refer to these things, it meant 'old grandmother' in the Yao language. They referred to Miluotuo as the whole mountain here. “

“The mountain?” I asked.

“The mountain is the old grandmother and these shadows are its children. When we arrived here, the Yao people weren't completely civilized and still attached great importance to the taboo parts of their culture. At that time, when we were investigating, we found that some of the best hunters here received a strange tattoo on their bodies when they came of age. The tattoo was patterned to an animal similar to the Qilin. In the early days, we made a deep study of this kind of behavior and through understanding the evolution of their tattoos and some legends, we found that the origin of this tattoo had two key points.

“The first point was from a Han tattoo master. According to the local elders' legends, their tattoos didn't look like this at the beginning. Both the technology and the shape of the tattoos were very simple and primitive. Later, a master tattoo artist of Han nationality came to teach here, and finally the tattoo became like this.

“When did this Han tattoo master come to Banai? According to their speculation, it should have been in the Ming and Qing dynasties. There was very little information about him. Only one legend mentioned that he came here to avoid sin, but it was impossible to verify and it wasn't important. The first thing we knew was that in the past thousand years, this tattoo had been improved by a Han Chinese.

“So no one knows what the previous tattoos looked like, but fortunately in our next investigation, we got some supplementary information from other Yao villages.

“Legend has it that the Banai hunters created the tattoo with regional restrictions. It's said that only hunters hunting deep in Yangjiao Mountain need the tattoos. In everyone's minds, Yangjiao Mountain seemed different from other places.

“The second point is, what's the purpose of getting this tattoo?

“Was it to ward off evil? Our folklore experts denied this statement because if it was a design to ward off evil spirits, there should be a corresponding cultural heritage in the village. But when we asked the villagers, no one knew the use of the tattoos, only saying it was custom. Moreover, the design to ward off evil spirits couldn't be changed. If a master of the Han nationality changed the design, it would be a big event that could destroy the clan, and the master would be lucky to not to be skinned.

“There were many twists and turns in the textual research process at that time, but that generation was very good. First, the real masters of the previous generation were still alive and if you wanted to ask, there were always some clues. Second, all sorts of old data were slightly better than the present ones. So we finally found out the reason.

“The tattoo was a very precise topographic map. Of course, it wasn't in the modern sense, but after countless forays on the land, the ancient Yao people found the safest hunting path. This path was very complicated, and in a time when there were no maps or words, ancient Yao people tattooed it on themselves.

“At that time, tattoos were only used to simply record the route. Later, due to various historical reasons such as war, the original intention of the tattoos was forgotten and became a custom without cause. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, a Han Chinese who fled to Yaozhai had the skill to create tattoos and these crude designs were improved and finally became the present tattoos.”

“So, the tattoo on the hunter's body was actually the route of the Yao ancient road.” I thought of Poker-Face's tattoo, but I couldn't think too much about it for the time being. I knew Ghost was right, and we had also found this.

“Later, when we entered the Yangjiao Mountain area, we slowly started to doubt.” He said, “Why tattoo the route on the body, instead of using your mind to remember? In other words, if the mountain roads here were so complicated and secretive, why bother going in? If the place where an iron mine was located was very difficult to get in and out of, and it took one kilogram of gold to mine one kilogram of iron, then why mine it?”

“Was it really that complicated?” I couldn't remember the details of Poker-Face's tattoo, but I do have the impression that it was quite complicated.

“It's so complex that it's impossible to remember it with your head or by instinct. If it weren't for the tattoo map, the hunter would have given up if he hadn't reached a third of the distance, and the road would be too difficult to walk." Ghost said, “I'm the only one in this world who can walk that road without the tattoo.”

At that time, because they found that it had no hunting value, they tried to find the end of the ancient road according to the tattoo map. The ancient Yao people spent so much energy to open up this ancient road that it must have been for something more important.

They were carrying out the archaeological project of Zhang Jialou at that time and naturally thought about the two being in one place. They speculated that the ancient building's location here must have something to do with the very important things mapped by this tattoo.

As a result, Ghost's team began to explore the ancient road.

But what they didn't anticipate was that the ancient road didn't have an end point and was a closed loop.

“What does this have to do with this mountain?” Fatty said impatiently. The shadow on the wall had faded gradually due to the evaporation of the water vapor.

“Don't you understand?” Ghost said, stamping his feet.

We bowed our heads and it took me a while to react: “Is this the ancient road?”

“Yes, this ancient road was built on the rocks. Almost all the sections are on the edge of the rock, and all the rocks along the road are full of such things. The entire road looks like a very complicated charm pattern, enclosing the whole mountain here. All these miluotuo are found only in this circle. They walk very slowly through the rocks, but when they reach the edge of the stone path, they can't get out.”

“That's… interesting. Go on.” Fatty seemed to be getting more spirited.

“Is this ancient road like a fence?”

“Yes, the ancient Yao people seemed to be raising these things.” Ghost said, “This was our conclusion. There was further speculation that these ancient roads were like indentations on rubber trees and the Yao people cut off the surface of the mountain along these roads. These Miluotuo are very sensitive to heat sources, so lighting a stove near the mountain road can lead these monsters to the surface and allow for them to be dug out. We didn't know why these monsters came into being in the mountains or what their value was, but there were many signs that this was what the Yao people did.”

“Is it difficult to raise beautiful girls?” Fatty touched his chin. “This is really good. I can't believe that people here still have this awesome technology.”

“It's not like you haven't seen these monsters before. They're as green as beer bottles. Even if they're girls, can you do it?” I was distressed by the thought.

“Those we met may not be well developed yet. When Bai Suzhen (TN note: Lady White Snake) wasn't well developed, her lower body wasn't a big tail.” Fatty said, “I don't have any taboos. Green is green, but it's not a bad green anyway.”

I shook my head and looked at Ghost, but there wasn't any change in his expression. He continued, “The question is, since they're bred, what do miluotuo eat?” Ghost extinguished the torch and walked back, “Wu Sanxing, you know what I want to say.”

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Chapter end