Protect Our Chief

...

Gu God Village.

As the political and cultural core of the Barbarian Gu Race, Gu God Village covers an enormous area, nearly a dozen times the size of an ordinary small Gu Village. Even those large Gu Villages with tens of thousands of people are utterly dwarfed before this Gu God Village; the difference in scale is immense.

The permanent population in Gu God Village also reaches well over a hundred thousand, far from what any ordinary Gu Village can compare to.

Even in ordinary times, this village often receives guests from other villages, with materials flowing in and out very frequently. Within the village, there are even dedicated markets and trading posts set up, making it faintly take on the appearance of a city.

Recently, as the day of the celebration draws near, guests have been arriving in a constant stream, making the village even livelier than usual. By day, people come and go, creating quite a hubbub of human voices. Even with the armies of Daqian already pressing down outside, this enthusiasm cannot be dampened.

In a little over ten days, it will be the day when Quasi-Saintess Jing formally succeeds to the position of Saintess and offers sacrifices to the forebears. For the Barbarian Gu Race, this is an extremely important day, and also a rare celebration that must be carefully prepared.

Thus, the men and women, young and old in the village had already begun to move about early in the day.

The altar at the center of the village was, naturally, the top priority.

This altar used for worshiping the ancestors has an extremely long history. Ever since Gu God Village moved here, it has been in use. The blue-gray stone, weathered by Time, has become mottled and old, giving it an especially deep and solemn air.

On the altar stands a tall totem pole.

At this moment, an old man of the village was carrying a bucket of paint, patiently and meticulously repainting the totems on the pole with bright colors, stroke by stroke, letting the ancient totem pole regain its vitality.

On the altar, there were also some dark-skinned, lean men who were scrubbing the altar over and over, determined to make every stone crack spotless and new, not letting a speck of dust remain.

Farther away, some other men were carrying items, rearranging the altar under the direction of the Elders of the clan.

Unlike the tall, fair-skinned girls, the men of the Barbarian Gu Race generally appeared much leaner, and their skin tended toward a darker shade. Compared with the high-spirited girls, they appeared far less striking in looks.

However, both men and women had at least some tattoos on their bodies.

In the bamboo building beside the altar, a group of girls were busily taking down the old, grayish decorations from inside; some were washing them clean, while others were replacing them with new ones.

This bamboo building was one of the rare large bamboo structures of the Barbarian Gu Race. In both height and footprint, it was several times that of a normal bamboo house, and its craftsmanship and complexity were far beyond what ordinary bamboo houses could compare to.

Without a doubt, its owner could only be the Saintess or the Saint Son of the Barbarian Gu Race. This title is one that has existed since ancient times.

It is just that the Barbarian Gu Race has, for the time being, no way to take the further step into Lingxu, so the positions of Saintess and Saint Son are only nominal.

As the residence of the Saintess, the building materials of this bamboo house were not ordinary bamboo, but a special species of Spiritual Bamboo with many spiritual effects. Each piece of Spiritual Bamboo had been treated with special methods; even after many, many years of use, there was no trace of age upon them.

At this moment, several girls were holding bamboo baskets, taking out exquisitely cut paper-cuts one by one and sticking them onto the pillars and doors and windows of the bamboo building.

This was also one of the customs of the Barbarian Gu Race.

The paper-cuts depicted the Six Divine Gu of ancient clan legends. It is said they were supreme Gu Insects nurtured by the Great Powers among the ancestors, each possessing world-shaking might, able to protect the clan members so they could survive in a perilous world.

Every time a celebration was held, the elders would cut some of these and paste them on doors and windows to ward off calamity and pray for blessings, asking for the protection of the ancestors, while also adding to the festive atmosphere.

"Have you heard?" one girl suddenly spoke up. "Yesterday the former Quasi-Saintess Ya joined with several Elders to go to Grandma Saintess to lodge a complaint, accusing Quasi-Saintess Jing of colluding with outsiders and betraying our Saint Gu Worm Race, saying she harbors evil intentions, that she was ill-intentioned from the very beginning, and is a running dog of the Daqian People. The commotion was really big."

Daqian People called them the Barbarian Gu Race, but the Barbarian Gu Race of course referred to themselves as the Saint Gu Worm Race.

"You already said the commotion was big; how could I not have heard? My father even went to watch the excitement yesterday~" Another girl rolled her eyes at her. "If you ask me, the former Quasi-Saintess Ya just can’t see the situation clearly. Isn’t she just trying to use this matter to topple Quasi-Saintess Jing, so she can take the opportunity to replace her and become the new Saintess herself? But she doesn’t think about how much Quasi-Saintess Jing has done for us since she came, and how many troubles she has helped us solve?"

"Back when Quasi-Saintess Jing first arrived, so many Elders opposed Grandma Saintess in taking her in. And yet now, aren’t they all convinced? Saying that Quasi-Saintess Jing harbors evil intentions—who would believe that? I, for one, don’t."

"Exactly." Another girl was also somewhat displeased. "The date of the festival has already been set, and Ya still hasn’t given up. She still thinks she’s that lofty Quasi-Saintess. She should take a look around—aside from Elder Ga and those few die-hard conservatives, which other Elders are still willing to support her?"

The Quasi-Saintess Jing they spoke of was naturally Wang Shouzhe’s fifth younger sister, Wang Luojing.

She had come to the Barbarian Gu Race several decades ago. As a Daqian Person, she had naturally found every step difficult at first. Many people of the Barbarian Gu Race viewed her through colored lenses and were constantly on guard against her. Even joining the current Saintess as her disciple had taken quite a few twists and turns.