Chapter 36

The sky was green, and the grass was emerald green.

A Bang hummed the songs of the village and went all the way to the ancestral hall.

The meaning of A Bang in Miao language is flower; according to the rules of Wu Family Village, her full name is actually very long.

But because she has loved flowers since she was a child, the people in the village are used to calling her by this part of her name.

Her brothers go hunting in the deep mountains, her sisters go picking fruits in the forest; sometimes when they see cute, elegant, beautiful, or even a bit strange flowers, as long as they are not so common, they are happy to bring them back to her.

Some are picked, and some are dug back with the whole root, which can be transplanted.

A Bang raised those flowers next to the ancestral hall, often coming to visit, and asked the grandmother guarding the ancestral hall to take care of them a little.

If there are sick flowers, let the grandmother find someone to notify her.

When A Bang came today, the grandmother was sitting on a bamboo chair outside the ancestral hall.

The grandmother was very thin, her skin was dark yellow, she looked about sixty years old, her hair was wrapped in fine blue embroidered cloth, her eyebrows were light and her eyes were long, and there were many wrinkles on her forehead and corners of her eyes, but her spirit was still good, her back was relatively straight, and she was rubbing a bamboo flute in her hand.

Hearing A Bang's cheerful greeting, she raised her eyes and said unhurriedly: "You're here; these flowers are all quite good today, none of them are particularly withered."

"Why is it a bit noisy on the mountainside this morning? It was noisy all night yesterday, and it's noisy again today?"

While speaking, the grandmother also shook her head, appearing a bit unhappy.

The grandmother likes quiet and doesn't like to join in the fun; last night's bonfire singing and dancing, A Bang came to invite her, but the grandmother only listened to half a sentence and sent the person away, refusing to go.

A Bang didn't come to disturb her about this morning's matter, but when the grandmother took the initiative to ask, she couldn't hold back.

"Today is the three trials; Grandpa asked Zewa brother to compete with the people from outside. That uncle is so amazing; he looks like he doesn't have much strength, but he can make such a big whirlpool on the water surface..."

The grandmother suddenly raised her eyes and interrupted her: "Let outsiders pass the three trials? Is someone coming to borrow the treasure? Borrow what?"

A Bang answered: "The Colorful Cloud Flute."

The wrinkles on the forehead of the grandmother guarding the ancestral hall deepened; she froze for a while and said: "The ancestors' things have been lost for so long, and it's only been a few years since they were found; how can they be borrowed out?!"

A Bang smiled and said: "That flute was originally found by Uncle Shanjun, and we don't use it much; Grandpa and Zewa brother and the others all agreed that if they pass the three trials, they are willing to borrow it."

"Nonsense!"

The grandmother guarding the ancestral hall scolded, stood up from the low stool, but stopped after walking a few steps, her eyes flickering.

"Forget it, since the clan leader and the others have agreed, let's see if these people can pass the three trials."

"A Bang, listening to what you mean, this trial today has already been won by the outsiders?"

A Bang nodded and said: "Yes, the fist technique that uncle played is really magical, like dancing, but it's completely different from all the dances I've seen."

"I don't know what new and strange things will be in tomorrow's competition; Grandmother, are you going to watch it with me?"

The grandmother sat back in the chair, her fingers pressing the holes on the flute in turn, her head lowered, her tone a bit stiff: "Hmph, I'm not going; the person guarding the ancestral hall should guard the ancestral hall."

A Bang knew that the grandmother's temper was a bit strange, so she didn't care, went to the flower field to look at the flowers she planted, and said with a crisp laugh: "Then Grandmother, can I stay here tonight?"

The grandmother guarding the ancestral hall said gloomily: "As you wish."

The house of the person guarding the ancestral hall is the best one in the village, about the same as the village chief's house.

It's just that the village chief's house uses some deer heads and animal skins for decoration, which is very rough.

The house of the person guarding the ancestral hall is much more exquisite; every inch of the wooden floor in the house is carved with patterns, the jars and cans are also cuter than elsewhere, the silver pots are neat, the bottles are easy to hold, and most of them are good things brought in from outside the mountain by which generation of ancestors.

A Bang especially likes to stay here overnight.

However, the grandmother sleeps very late; the older she gets, the later she sleeps, and the first half of the night always makes some fine noises; in recent years, she has become even more fond of playing the flute in the middle of the night.

The sound played is not particularly loud, but A Bang, who lives in the same room, has long prepared cotton earplugs for herself.

In the middle of the night, A Bang tossed and turned in the room.

I don't know why today, even with earplugs, she couldn't sleep steadily.

The grandmother was sitting on the threshold playing the flute, looking at the ancestral hall not far away, her expression complex, the corners of her eyes lifted, gradually revealing a kind of ruthlessness, but the flute sound was so low that it was inaudible.

The night gradually brightened.

The morning glow first spread from the mountains, covering half the sky; several households in the village made chicken crows, human voices gradually became noisy, and there was cooking smoke everywhere.

Only then did the sun arrive late.

In the rendering of the clouds, the big red fireball in the sky was as flat as an orange.

Seeing Chu Tianshu stepped on the bamboo corridor of the stilt house and started the first thing he did every morning, holding a jar and drinking like a cow.

After pouring down a whole jar of water, his eyes were stained with a bit of water mist, and only then did he hiccup.

"The morning sun in the mountains is really soft."

Looking at the sun through the water mist, it makes people feel more, will that flat sun be pricked by the mountain peak if it shifts a little bit?

Seeing Chu Tianshu could feel that after he drank a jar of water just now, his stomach was also like the sun.

First it was full, and soon a heat force rose, spreading from the stomach, and the water was rapidly converted and absorbed.

The heavy feeling of the stomach was alleviated, and the dry and uncomfortable feeling between the skin and muscles was also greatly relieved.

This kind of superb water replenishment ability must be achieved in both the "Food as an Immortal" and "Dragon Entwined Body" paths to be possessed.

Before the war with the old eunuch, Seeing Chu Tianshu's Dragon Entwined Body already had nine-tenths of the heat, and Food as an Immortal had about four-tenths of the heat.

In these days, he recalled the urgent urging of force during battle, internal and external insight, and in every step of walking, he felt the different exertion of muscles.

"Dragon Entwined Body" finally had ten-tenths of the heat, truly achieving this realm.

On the contrary, on the path of "Food as an Immortal", the medicinal power of the Spirit Yang Gallbladder was exhausted, and the time for mixed training with the witchcraft acupuncture method was short, and there was no obvious improvement in the realm.

However, with the guidance of "Toad Cultivation Palm Heart Thunder", for the Food as an Immortal with the same four-tenths of heat, he would also be much more exquisite when using his internal organs to exert force than at the beginning.

After breakfast, Seeing Chu Tianshu met with Cai Shanjun and others and was led by the people in the village to see the venue for the second trial.

That was a large dirt pit on the other side of the village.

The whole pit was about thirty meters square and about three meters deep; the bottom of the pit was made very flat, and there were drainage ditches on the edge, which could drain the water at the bottom of the pit during the rainy season.

I don't know how much manpower and how long it took for the ancestors of Wu Family Village to dig this pit.

When Seeing Chu Tianshu arrived here, dozens of men were trying every means to send a cow down.

First, they used two long ladders to let people go down, and then a full eight men lifted a large thick wooden board below.

The people above worked together to hang the cow with a lever and slowly let it down.

With support from above and below, it took a lot of effort to put the cow in the pit.

The cow looked very docile from beginning to end, its eyes covered with coarse cloth, lying down without moving.

But, looking at the movements of those men, they still looked a bit terrified.

Seeing Chu Tianshu and the others also understood the caution of those men.

Because that cow was nearly three meters long, if it stood up, I fear its shoulder height could be one meter seventy-eight, and its weight must be more than a thousand jin.

Compared to the yellow cattle and water buffalo that children can ride on their backs, the cow in front of them was like a big monster with bulging muscles.

The large and sharp horns at the top, the shiny black hair, the white four hoofs, and the sound of snorting and low roaring, all made people tremble.

"This is a wild ox."

Wu Zhaizhu Wu stood by the pit, his voice also relatively slow, and said to everyone, "In legend, there was once a mountain god who felt that the children of the Three Miao disturbed him, so he turned into an ox, came down the mountain to arch over houses and trample crops; a Miao king stood up, bare-handed, and with incomparable bravery, overwhelmed the incarnation of the mountain god."

"From then on, the mountain god not only did not come to harm people, but also pointed out the more fertile land on the hillside that could be cultivated as terraced fields to feed people."

"The second trial of Wu Family Village is to reenact the scene of the Miao king subduing the ox."

The environment in Yizhou is warm and humid, with many jungles, and there are thousands of wild beasts in the mountains, even elephants, and wild oxen are not strange.

The wild ox of Wu Family Village is the strongest one in the wild ox herd, and the breed is also quite special.

Cover its eyes, and it will be very docile, but if you uncover the blindfold, it will stare at the first living thing it sees and chase it relentlessly.

In order to make the ox look more like the incarnation of the mountain god, those men were also tying cloth strips and covering it with tree leaves.

They carved wood into deer horn shapes and placed them on the ox's back, with five or six sharp deer horns branching out in all directions.

"The competition between the warrior and the ox must be bare-handed, no pulling on the deer horns on the ox's back is allowed, only dodging ten times is allowed; if you still cannot overwhelm this ox after dodging ten times, it counts as a failure."

After Wu Zhaizhu Wu explained the rules, Wu Tugu took off his outer garment.

His attire today also leaned toward the legendary Miao king; his face was painted with several colored dyes, and his arms and belly were tied with a large number of colored cloth strips, like wearing a skirt.

Also because he was dressed as the Miao king, Wu Tugu, who was usually quite talkative, didn't say a word today, just nodded toward Seeing Chu Tianshu and the others, and went into the pit along the ladder.

On the other side, those men who transported the wild ox all climbed out of the ladder, and only after confirming that Wu Tugu was ready did they use a long bamboo pole to try to uncover the ox's blindfold.

The wild ox opened its eyes, its eyelashes long and dense, its eyes round like copper bells, reflecting Wu Tugu's figure.

The crowd of onlookers by the dirt pit was relatively quiet, and Wu Zhaizhu Wu didn't shout anything to start.

This contest between man and wild beast had already begun from the moment the wild ox opened its eyes.

"Moo!!!"

The wild ox's four hoofs supported its body, its eyes staring without moving.

Wu Tugu spread his arms, shook his body, approached the middle of the field, and his gaze also stared back, tit for tat.

The ox's hoofs began to dig the ground, shook its head, and the deer horns tied to its body all swayed.

Wu Tugu took a deep breath and suddenly patted his belly with his palm.

Roar!!

The wild ox suddenly let out a roar, lowered its head and charged, its hoof sounds like war drums.

The bigger and heavier something is, the harder it is to accelerate at the beginning.

With the body shape of this ox, it was able to accelerate into a flowing running state within a short ten-plus meters.

Seeing Chu Tianshu captured this scene and immediately understood that the physical quality of this wild ox was slightly beyond his estimation.

With such a collision, there was a force of several thousand jin.

Wu Tugu reached out to grab the horns, but suddenly felt that this distance and this posture were not convenient for him to exert force, fearing he couldn't hold it, so he hurriedly jumped a big step and dodged to the side.

The wild ox didn't hit him; when it was about to rush to the edge of the dirt pit, it slowed down and bypassed, turned a corner along the pit wall, and charged again.

Wu Tugu tried two more times.

Once, he wanted to grab the horns with his right hand, and his left hand wanted to scoop the ox's belly.

Because he had long arms and legs, although the deer horns hindered him somewhat, he could still avoid touching the deer horns and scoop under the ox's belly while his left arm was fully stretched.

But his right hand was struggled by the ox's head, and he couldn't grab the horns steadily, so he hurriedly retreated.

Counting this time, he had already dodged three times.

Just a little while after the start, one-third of the opportunities had been used up.

Seeing Chu Tianshu asked in a low voice: "Is it true that deer horns are not added during the usual New Year's performance?"

Wu Zhaizhu Wu nodded, his eyes not moving from the pit.

In the past, without deer horns, Wu Tugu only needed two or three times to find an opportunity to flip the ox from the side.

But with this appearance today, how many opportunities he would use, Wu Zhaizhu Wu couldn't say for sure.

The wild ox reached the edge of the pit again, ran and turned along the pit wall, and just as it twisted its body, it was about to charge toward the middle of the field.

"Drink!!!"

Wu Tugu actually took the initiative to rush in front of the wild ox.

The ox's butt was less than five meters away from the pit wall, and it hadn't completed acceleration, but Wu Tugu's pair of big hands were already stuck hard on the horns.

(End of chapter)