Chapter 47: Jianmu

“That woman possesses unusual skills and can create small portals for crossing realms. She carried a sachet of herbs to mask her scent. I chased her for a while, but she escaped,” Wen Ye said, his brow furrowed slightly as he paused, pondered, and slowly spoke. “The tattoo on her hand, if I’m not mistaken, is the ancient divine tree, Jianmu.”

Records in ancient texts state: There is a tree, with green leaves and purple stems, black blossoms and yellow fruit, named Jianmu. It is hundreds of ren tall without branches, having nine zhu above and nine gou below. Its fruit is like hemp, and its leaves like awns. The Great Hao once passed by it, and the Yellow Emperor made use of it.

Ren is an ancient Chinese unit of length.

The Jianmu tree has nine curved branches at its top and nine coiling roots beneath, its height connecting heaven and earth.

Bronze artifacts unearthed in a certain region of China have been examined by experts who suggest their prototype might be the divine tree Jianmu.

Thousands of years ago, the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors of the human realm ascended to the heavenly realm via Jianmu and the Kunlun Ladder to interact with the gods. The gods could also enter the human realm through the ladder.

At that time, humans and gods lived together, and demons arose in large numbers, leading to many conflicts and wars.

It wasn’t until the Juedi Tiantong (Severing of Heaven and Earth) that Emperor Zhuanxu ordered Jianmu to be cut down, retaining only the Kunlun Ladder, and assigned people to guard it closely, ending the cohabitation of humans and gods.

From then on, humans and gods each had their own duties, and demons were confined to another realm.

“Besides Kunlun and Jianmu, there is a third heavenly ladder on Mount Ling. The ancient Ten Shamans used the Mount Ling ladder to ascend to the heavenly realm, which is one reason why human emperors became increasingly wary of the great shamans.”

Tall trees attract the wind. The great shamans possessed great power, mysterious and unfathomable. The shamanic clans also had a heavenly ladder to communicate with the gods, so those in power would naturally become wary.

Pulling the shamanic clans down from their high position was inevitable.

“Later, the Ten Shamans went into seclusion, and the Mount Ling ladder was naturally destroyed as well.”

Wen Ye was silent for a moment before continuing, “During the period when humans and gods coexisted, and the shamanic clans held high positions in the court, one of the Ten Shamans, who specialized in presiding over the ascension rituals for human emperors, would hold a Jianmu prop and perform rituals, leading the souls of deceased emperors to ascend to heaven along Jianmu.”

“Which great shaman?” I couldn’t help but ask.

Wen Ye’s eyes sharpened, and he parted his lips slightly. “Wu Di.”

On Mount Ling were Wu Xian, Wu Ji, Wu Pan, Wu Peng, Wu Gu, Wu Zhen, Wu Li, Wu Di, Wu Xie, and Wu Luo, the ten shamans, who ascended and descended from there. All kinds of herbs were found there.

Although Wu Di was one of the Ten Shamans of Mount Ling, there are very few records of him in worldly texts.

I speculated, “Could that old thing who wants to capture me be Wu Di? The Great Wilderness Realm, which three great shamans manage that place?”

Wen Ye shook his head. “The three great shamans in the Great Wilderness Realm are equivalent to gods of the Three Realms. They have never shown their faces, and no one dares to pry into their secrets. That would be blasphemy.”

“Only some descendants of the shamanic clans know the secrets. The most important thing now is to find your mother. She may know the whole story.”

I huddled under the covers and sighed. “She hasn’t shown her face for over twenty years, and she doesn’t come to see me. Where are we going to find her?”

Wen Ye sat cross-legged and glanced at me. “When the opportunity arises, we will naturally find her. You go to sleep.”

Seeing that he had already closed his eyes and entered a meditative state, I closed my mouth.

The yellow night light shone on his profile, warm and gentle. A great sense of security rose in my heart, and my consciousness soon began to dissipate…

——————

Brother Yuan came to our place early in the morning, not only having brewed the medicine but also bringing a loving patient’s meal and black-boned chicken and ginseng soup.

“You’re really going to too much trouble, Brother Yuan,” I said, correcting Wen Ye’s use of chopsticks while drinking the soup and laughing.

Although I said it was a bother, I was secretly delighted. I could get this kind of treatment when I was sick. I could get a fever for another two days.

“He didn’t make it anyway,” Wen Ye said without looking up, earnestly battling the green broad beans.

After picking it up several times, he finally… grabbed it with his hand and stuffed it into his mouth.

It turned out that Brother Yuan’s wife’s family was a family of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, with their own TCM clinic that not only treated traditional ailments but also specialized in treating strange and uninhibited maladies.

Many wealthy people went to his father-in-law’s TCM clinic to recuperate and recover their health and for postpartum care, which was much more upscale than my great-grandmother’s unlicensed Chinese medicine shop.

The nutritious meal and Chinese medicine that Brother Yuan brought were from the TCM clinic.

Brother Yuan slumped on the sofa, looking at me and Wen Ye, and said with a grin, “If I had known, I would have only brought food for Xiaomai. Little fox, you’re still more suitable for dog food.”

“The firm is helping you investigate the person with the Jianmu tattoo. The preliminary assessment is that it should be a newly established organization of mages.”

“Brother Zhao recently went to Beijing to attend a religious research conference. Let’s see if he can get any useful information from within.”

I nodded and said sincerely, “Thank you, Brother Yuan, and Brother Yanzu, for being so concerned about me and Wen Ye.”

Brother Yuan waved his hand. “Xiaomai, you’re being too polite to say that. To put it lightly, this matter is about helping you find the enemies behind the scenes and helping the little fox overcome his tribulation, allowing you to understand your own origins.”

“To put it more broadly, it concerns national security. What if that damn tattoo organization is some kind of cult? Our firm also bears a national responsibility.”

“I used my connections to check the database for missing persons, but there is no information about your mother. If she hasn’t died, she should be living in seclusion somewhere, without any contact with the world.”

I had guessed as much. She wouldn’t go to a hospital even with serious injuries but would go to my great-grandmother’s unlicensed rural pharmacy instead because she didn’t want to leave any traces of herself in the world.

The old thing’s agent is not only looking for me but also wants to find her even more, right?

But why is Wen Ye so sure that my scumbag mother hasn’t died…

——————

In the following days, I diligently practiced my driving skills. I finally became familiar with the car and found my rhythm, no longer driving so nervously.

In the sweltering summer heat, every pore on my body was oozing oil. After practicing driving for a few laps, I ran to the bathroom to take a cold shower and urged Wen Ye to shower when I came out.

Although Wen Ye was a clean freak, he was very afraid of water. He never took baths and didn’t dare to let the showerhead pour water over his head when he showered.

Each shower took at least half an hour, even more tedious than a girl. I even suspected that he was wetting himself bit by bit as he washed.

The first time I noticed how long he took to shower, I thought he had fainted in the bathroom. I anxiously knocked on the door for a long time. As a result, this guy poked his head out covered in bubbles and glared at me with fear in his eyes.

I could tell that he wanted me to help, but because of his pride and the worldly distinction between men and women, he closed the door again.

“Why are you so afraid of water?” I found clean clothes for Wen Ye and handed them to him, finally unable to resist asking.

Foxes are canids and should naturally know how to dog-paddle, right?

He took them, shook his head, and said, “I don’t know. It’s an instinctive fear, like being afraid of thunder.”

“Besides thunder and water, what else are you afraid of?” I asked playfully.

He frowned, tilted his head, and thought for a moment, then said calmly and earnestly, “Separation.”

“Most foxes live alone and have little attachment to emotions. If I hadn’t been sent out of the Great Wilderness Realm by my parents, I would have had to separate from them in a few years to find a cave to cultivate and start a family on my own.”

“But I was sent out for no apparent reason, and the sudden severance made me uneasy. That should also be a fear.”

He said it calmly, but I caught the main point.

“In other words, hundreds of years ago, you could have started a family and mated with a female fox…” I was too embarrassed to say those two words and coughed twice to cover my embarrassment.

“Are you talking about jiaogou?” he asked, looking at me frankly, without the slightest embarrassment.

My face flushed, and I nodded slightly, whispering an ‘mm’ in a mosquito-like voice.

Jiaogou refers to the mating of animals.