Free Web NovelChapter 2134: Chapter 1554: The Jurchen Tree Burial and an Unexpected Discovery!
"Wu Xiong, is your Grandpa Mafa’s grave in this old forest?"
"Yeah! Not just my Grandpa Mafa, my Amma lives here too. And lots of the dead from our tribes live in the old forest behind the mountain!..."
"Wu Xiong, is this the cemetery for your whole tribe? Then where are their graves? Why haven’t I seen them?"
"Why are you looking down? Look up!"
"Look up?"
"Yeah! Of course the graves of the dead are on the trees, on the tall and big ’Soron Pillar’! The higher their burial place, the more sacred it is, and the more auspicious their afterlife! Don’t you know even that? Are you really the tribe’s shaman?..."
"!!..."
Endless forest sea, green leaves covering the sky, looking up you cannot see the daylight. Thirty-meter-tall cold firs, like silent stone pillars, stand quietly in the dim world of the forest sea. Those thick old tree branches entwine like natural barriers, shrouding all who gaze upwards. The air is filled with a damp earthy scent, the smell of rotting leaves, and a peculiar musty sweetness.
Those who came were well-acquainted with death; one whiff told them this was the scent of corpses decaying into bones. Indeed, corpses decayed for a long time won’t have any stench, only a lingering, melancholy mustiness that can be sensed but is difficult to describe.
This damp, bone-chilling aura mingles with the moisture under the forest, like the cold sacrificial wells of the Mayans, called the "breath of the dead" by the tribes of Central America. However, the Mayans’ sacrificial wells lie deep underground, while the cemetery of the Shengshu Jurchen Tribes hangs high in the trees. Their only shared aspect is the mythical reverence for Tree Spirits and an inextinguishable sense of ghostly cold.
"Look! See! This cold fir, as tall as twenty adults, is the ’Soron Pillar’ my Amma chose! He placed my Grandpa Mafa at the very top. Then I placed him at the very top on this side. Amma and Mafa can see each other, talk and chat... huh? Where is my Amma? Why is he missing? He should be directly across from Grandpa!..."
Wudou Wen looked up at the thirty to forty-meter big tree. He searched carefully for a while, then suddenly slapped the trunk, pointed at the treetop, and shouted joyfully.
"Oh! Amma is there! Can you see? That white, white bone?... Turns out he has moss growing on him, entwined with vines, turning all green!"
"Great! The Soron Pillar of the Tree Spirit gave him green life, living even better... This really is Saiyin Uju, truly the most auspicious omen!"
"...!"
Following Wudou Wen’s finger, Zuwaro looked up, searching the towering fir treetop. After a few breaths, he finally saw two patches wrapped in leather, bound across the thick tree branches, faintly facing each other. He recognized this deathly white as bones peeking from decayed leather. Their binding posture indicated their heads turned upward, feet down.
"Chief Divine! This posture?... Does it symbolize climbing to the heavenly Divine Kingdom?"
"Yes, and no! Zu, this is our Northern Tribes’ tree burial, ’wind returns to wind, wood returns to wood, humans die and merge with trees’... Legend says that the ancestors’ initial life came from the Life Tree ’Soron Pillar’, blown down by the wind. Therefore, the best resting place for the dead is also to find the largest and tallest Spirit Tree to bury their bones on the tree!..."
"This way, their souls can reside in the tree, merge with the Tree Spirit, not disturbed by underground demons. If the deceased was an ungrown child, you must peel the bark, carve a large tree hole, wrap the child’s body and cover it with bark. This way, their ungrown soul can continue to grow with the help of the Life Tree ’Soron Pillar’, growing alongside the tree..."
"Blessed by the Divine Spirit! If a tree is sufficiently tall, sufficiently spiritually communicative, and on sufficiently high mountains... Then it is the sacred ’Great Soron Pillar’, truly the Divine Tree! Only the souls buried on such Divine Trees can follow the tree’s path to the heavenly Spirit Realm of ancestors!"
As Aguda spoke, he skillfully rolled his eyes back, gazing mysteriously at the height of the tree. Then he shook with shivers, estimating the height of the mountain with a regretful nod.
"Not possible! I see this mountain is not tall enough, and the tree is not tall enough... I’m afraid the buried souls cannot reach the Spirit Realm, only stay in the tree!"
"...Aguda, how come you seem more like a shaman than me?"
"Haha! Watching Kui Huo’s sacrificial rite every day, I learned some... It’s quite effective, warriors are more obedient and more afraid of me..."
Hearing this, Zuwaro took a deep look at Aguda, then surveyed the surrounding fir trees, especially the tops. This time, he truly saw the cemetery of the Du’erbi Tribe, seeing those white corpses that died unknown years ago!
Leather ropes wrapped around the trunk and thick horizontal branches, some hanging or tying those returning to earth. The deceased are wrapped in sewn leather, but decades of weathering have hardened and cracked the leather, exposing dry skeletons within. As the moaning wind blows through the high branches, the hanging corpses sway slightly, emitting a mournful rustling like an elegy.
