Dust Across Ten Thousand Miles: The Migration of a Xiongnu Clan

He brushed the dust from the parchment scroll. Its words had been copied so many times that Latin, Germanic languages, and even older, unknown symbols had become mixed together.

On the final page, faded ink recorded a saying passed down through the generations:

“Our ancestor came from the land where the sun rises, following water and pasture, fleeing war. After nine battles, he migrated ten thousand li to the west.”

He had dismissed it as an ancient legend, until he consulted historical records from the East and found account after account of “campaigns against the Xiongnu” and “migration west” in the Book of the Later Han and the Book of Han.

A bloodline forgotten for a thousand years began to awaken in his hands.