Chapter 5: Star Moon Divine Eyes

  After walking for over ten minutes, Qin Zhong and the others walked deeper into the mountain forest. Along the way, the woman tied a dry grass on each tree they passed by. After they climbed to the second hilltop, she suddenly turned around and said: "After we get down this hilltop, you all have to cover your eyes."

  "Hmm, how much farther?" Qin Zhong asked this to calculate the distance and tried to recall the route they took after entering, a trick he learned from his grandfather's notes.

  These people went down the mountain all the way, and before they reached the foot of the mountain, Qin Zhong and others were covered with black cloth strips. The sky was about to darken, and the snow on the road was deep. A woman pulled Qin Zhong with a rope, passing it back one by one: "Everyone hold the rope tightly, there are still ten or so minutes of journey ahead, we must hurry up, you must keep up, don't fall down."

  Qin Zhong felt that on this road, he seemed to have climbed another slope, descended another mountain, and walked across what seemed like a bridge. It was as if he had been interrogated by someone and then entered a place that seemed very warm.

  After the black cloth was removed from Qin Zhong's eyes, what appeared before them was a vast expanse of whiteness, and under the thick snow were ordinary wooden tile houses. The place called the tribe had no more than twenty or thirty houses, and in the middle of the entire tribe there was a circular stone enclosure with a bonfire lit on it, surrounded by a group of people roasting by the fire.

  First was an old man with a white beard, wearing a tiger skin hat on his head, holding a copper pipe in his hand and puffing out smoke: "Yingzi, what do you mean by bringing these people back?"

  "Grandfather, just now my granddaughter went out to play alone and was chased by a bear. Fortunately, they came to her aid and saved her life; however, one of their sisters was injured by the big black monster's broken tree branch, so I brought her back for treatment."

  The old man's expression immediately turned ugly upon hearing this: "Haven't I told you, outsiders are not allowed to be brought in casually? You should know that if our place is exposed by outsiders, we will never have the peace and quiet we have now."

  "But, Grandfather, they killed our Bear God. If we don't get rid of the Big Black Monster quickly, we'll be in disaster, so I have to bring them back to apologize to the Bear God." Yingzi replied.

  Qin Zhong didn't say another word at this moment, and Guo Dafu was so anxious that he almost urinated. Seeing Qin Zhong's calm demeanor, he gave up.

  That old man called Yingzi to one side, whispering something, Qin Zhong's brain was like a computer, recalling whether this had been recorded in his grandfather's notes, unfortunately not. So he began to recall his history textbook, which mentioned the characteristics of the Ewenki and Oroqen ethnic groups, their bear god, who they considered their ancestors.

  The bear god is the ancestor of the nation, if you really kill the bear, then you must bring back the bear's corpse to worship and sacrifice, and then take the bear's bones for wind burial.

  However, Qin Zhong had never seen such a ceremony. What he was most concerned about in his mind was whether the injured Mo Na he was holding could find a quiet place to rest and recover, while he went out to look for evidence of Saman's resistance against Japan at that time.

  That white-haired old man chatted with Yingzi for half a day, and it wasn't until then that Yingzi hurriedly ran back. However, at least twenty or thirty people had already left the tribe.

  Qin Zhong saw that time was being wasted for too long, so he hurried over to the old man: "Sir, I don't want to say anything or trouble you, but you have to help arrange for her to be taken care of. She's badly injured and if she doesn't receive treatment soon, her life will be in danger."

  The old man looked at Mona, put his hand on his face, and touched Mona's shoulder. The old man puffed two mouthfuls of smoke and said: "He is not in danger of his life, but it seems that his shoulder was broken. At least he needs to rest here for about a month. Well, since she is the benefactor of Yingzi, we will also be generous and give her an empty room, leaving Yingzi's room to her."

  "Thank you then!" Qin Zhong said, and Yangzi led him to his own room. Once inside, Meng Na was placed on a wooden bed covered with animal hide.

  The old man immediately poured a cup of wine from his own jug and fed it to Meng Na. He turned around and said to Qin Zhong, "There are many people in your group now. You can stay here for a while until she recovers. Then you must leave immediately. Also, tonight all of you must participate in the ancestor worship ceremony and ask our shaman to help treat her injuries."

  Qin Zhong immediately understood that the old man wanted to use a shamanic ritual to heal her wounds and cure her illness. It seemed like a good opportunity, and he could also learn some things without having to ask around. Qin Zhong decided to stay here for the time being.

  Meng Na lay quietly on Yingzi's bed, seemingly no longer as uncomfortable as she was at the beginning. Qin Zhong and Yingzi went out of the house, he looked up at the sky and sighed: "Ah, it's really a step-by-step adventure, I didn't expect to encounter such a thing."

  "Yes, but you guys are quite quick on the draw. Generally speaking, it's pretty hard to kill that big black monster."

  Qin Zhong nodded and said, "Today also thanks to having a gun."

  "Is she your wife?" Yingzi asked Qin Zhong, but on Yingzi's face, it was clear that she had absolutely no guard against Qin Zhong.

  Qin Zhong immediately replied: "No, she's just my good partner. However, she is more important than my sister, because I don't have a sister."

  "Oh, haha, you're quite an interesting person. Alright, let's go, I'll take you to your room. However, there aren't many good places available for the few of you, so I'll temporarily arrange for you to stay in a house."

  Qin Zhong and others did not refute, under Yingzi's arrangement, several people were smoothly arranged, the sky was already late, the bright moon was in the air, and the morning stars were all over.

  Qin Zhong was accustomed to looking up at the moon and stars, but when he looked around in a big circle, it was just admiring the bustle. However, when he turned his head to look at the moon again, he suddenly found that the moon and the weakest star behind it were perfectly symmetrical, and between the moon and that star, a not-so-small black hole appeared.

  At this moment, Qin Zhong's eyes lit up: "Guo Dafu, come and see, this is the Star Moon Eye I've been talking about."

  "What's that? You didn't tell me anything last time?"

  "Damn it, I'll tell you again, the Star Moon's Eye is generally pointing to a sacred area. Let's remember the coordinates and we'll head there next time." Qin Zhong said.

  Guo Dafu's expression changed, and he secretly laughed in his heart: "Ah ha, so that means we don't have to bother searching for history anymore?"

  "Never mind this, we can just go there directly when the time comes."

  Just at this moment, more than 20 people came in from the outside of the tribe. These people all carried and held various animal skin bags on their shoulders and in their hands, which were enough to hold Xiong Heizi's body back. The leader was holding three animal skin packages in his hand, with something that seemed very heavy wrapped inside. He directly placed the three packages on the newly built altar.

  The old man continued to puff on his pipe, slowly opening three packages. Inside the packages were three bear heads. However, when he saw the head that Qin Zhong had hit, the old man was stunned: "Did you hit this one?"

  "Yes, shot dead."

  "Hmph, it's come to this point, if he doesn't die from his injuries then he must have an ancestor's spirit protecting him."

  Qin Zhong sneered and said, "I don't know why the E Lun Chun Zu and E Wen Ke ethnic groups consider this bear-like thing as their own ancestor. This is also unreasonable."

  He looked down at the bear head that had been cut off by the sharp blade, and his heart was not feeling good, after all, these few bears were killed by himself.

  In these two ethnic groups, they believe in Shamanism, respect nature, worship nature, and regard the black bear as their ancestors. If they kill a black bear, they must bring back the bear's head to let the shaman offer sacrifices. After the shaman has offered sacrifices, they will hold a bonfire party to share the bear meat among the tribespeople. Afterwards, the person who killed the bear will kowtow to the black bear and say good words, praying that their ancestors will bless them with good fortune in the future.