Chapter 463: Miluotuo

"Before, the locals here called the shadows in these stones Miluotuo," the shadow figure said. "We always thought they meant that the things inside the stones were Miluotuo, but later, after researching ancient texts, we found we were wrong.

Miluotuo does not refer to these things. In the Yao language, Miluotuo means 'old grandmother.' What they call Miluotuo is the entire mountain here."

"The mountain?" I echoed.

"The mountain is the old grandmother, and these shadows are the children she gave birth to. When we arrived here, the Yao people were still not fully civilized, and they still attached great importance to the taboos within their culture.

During our surveys, we discovered that some of the best adult hunters here would tattoo a strange pattern on their bodies after reaching adulthood. The tattoo pattern was an animal resembling a qilin. We did a deep analysis of this behavior in the early stages.

Through their evolution of the tattoo and some legends, we found two key points about the origin of this tattoo."

The first point came from a Han Chinese tattoo master. In their legends, the elderly remembered someone saying that their tattoos were not like this at first—both the technique and the shape were very simple and primitive.

Later, a Han Chinese tattoo master came and gradually taught here, and finally the tattoos turned into what they are now.

When did this Han Chinese tattoo master come to Banai? According to their estimates, it should have been during the Ming or Qing dynasty.

There is very little information about him. Only one legend mentions that he came to avoid punishment, but it cannot be verified.

However, that's not important. We first learned that, within the last few hundred years, this tattoo was improved by a Han Chinese.

So what did the tattoo look like before? Nobody knows. But very luckily, in their subsequent investigations, they obtained some circumstantial information from other Yao villages.

Legend has it that the Banai hunters' tattoos had a regional restriction. It is said that only hunters who hunted deep in the Yangjiao Mountain area needed to be tattooed.

It seemed that Yangjiao Mountain was different from other places in the hearts of the ancient Banai people.

Second, what was the meaning of tattooing this pattern? Was it to ward off evil? Their folklore experts dismissed this idea. Because if it were a pattern for warding off evil, there should be a cultural tradition passed down in the village, but when asked, no one knew the purpose of the tattoo.

They only said it was a custom. Moreover, patterns for warding off evil cannot be altered. If a Han master had modified the pattern, that would be an event comparable to the annihilation of a clan. That master would be lucky if he wasn't skinned and stretched over a drum.

During the research process, there were many twists and turns. The research work at that time was very impressive. On one hand, the true masters of the previous generation were still alive.

If you asked, there were always some clues. On the other hand, various old materials were preserved slightly better than now, so they finally found the reason.

That tattoo was a very precise topographic map—not in the modern sense, but one created by the ancient Yao people after countless attempts and dangers in that land.

They had found the safest hunting route in that area. This route was very complex. In an era without maps or writing, the ancient Yao people tattooed it on their bodies.

At that time, the tattoo was only for simply recording the route. Later, due to various historical reasons like wars, the original purpose of the tattoo was forgotten.

It became a custom with no known origin. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, a Han Chinese who had fled into the Yao tribe, skilled in the art of tattooing, improved these crude patterns, and eventually they turned into the tattoos seen today.

"So the tattoo patterns on the Banai hunters are actually the route of the ancient Yao road," I said, thinking of Poker-face's tattoo. I couldn't delve into details yet, but I knew what the shadow figure said was probably correct. We had also discovered this.

"Later, when we entered the Yangjiao Mountain area, we gradually developed a doubt," he said. "Why tattoo the route on the body? Couldn't they memorize it? Or, if the mountain paths here were so complex and treacherous, why not just not go in at all? Why must they go in?

If an iron mine is in a place extremely difficult to reach, and extracting one kilogram of iron costs one kilogram of gold, why would they still mine it?"

"Is it really that complex?" I vaguely recalled the details of Poker-face's tattoo, but I did remember it was quite intricate.

"Complex. So complex that no human could memorize it with mind or instinct. Without the tattoo map, you would have to give up before completing even a third of the journey—the path is too difficult," the shadow figure said. "In this world, I am the only one now who can complete that path without using that tattoo."

At the time, they tried to find the end of this ancient road based on the tattoo, because they realized the road had no value for hunting. Obviously.

The ancient Yao people had spent so much effort opening this ancient Yao road, it must have been for something far more important.

They were then engaged in the archaeological project of the Zhang Family Ancient Building, so naturally they linked the two. They speculated that the location of the Zhang Family Ancient Building might be connected to something very important hidden by this tattoo map.

So the shadow figure's team began to explore that ancient road.

But what they didn't expect was that the ancient road had no end—the entire path was a closed loop.

"What does this have to do with the mountain?" Fatty asked impatiently, because as the water vapor evaporated, the shadows on the wall were gradually fading.

"Don't you understand yet?" the shadow figure said, stamping his foot on the ground.

We looked down. It took me a while to realize: "Is this the ancient road?"

"Yes. This ancient road was always built against the mountain rock. Almost every section of the road is beside the rock face.

And inside all the rock faces beside the road, there are things like this.

The entire ancient road looks like a very complex talisman pattern, encircling the whole mountain here.

All these Miluotuos exist only within this circle. They move extremely slowly within the rock, but when they reach the edge of the stone road, they can no longer get out."

"Interesting, interesting. Go on," Fatty said, seeming energized.

"This ancient road is like a fence?"

"Yes, it seems the ancient Yao people were raising these things," the Shadow Person said. "That's our conclusion. Some have further speculated: these Yao ancient roads are like the cuts on rubber trees. They followed these roads.

They cut off the surface of the mountain. These things are very sensitive to heat sources, so they lit fires near the mountain roads, lured them to the surface of the mountain, and dug out these monsters."

"We don't know why these monsters appear in the mountains, nor what value they have, but there are many signs indicating that's what they did."

"So what, they're all pretty girls when grown?" Fatty rubbed his chin. "That's great. Never thought the people here had such incredible skills."

"Haven't you seen what these monsters look like? They're as green as beer bottles. Even if they were girls, could you bring yourself to do it?" I said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

"The ones we saw might not have been fully developed yet," Fatty said. "I don't have any taboos. Green is fine, as long as it's not the green on a cuckold's hat."

I shook my head and looked at the Shadow Person. His face showed no change as he continued: "The problem is, since they were raising them, what did the Miluotuo eat?"

The Shadow Person extinguished the torch and walked back. "Wu Sansheng, you know what I want to say."