The closer they got to death, the faster time seemed to fly. It felt like only a blink of an eye, and darkness had fallen again.
Everyone was fully equipped and on high alert inside the tents.
The wind picked up, growing stronger and stronger, howling and swirling, growing larger and larger, stretching from the ground to the sky like towering pillars of wind, whipping up sand, stones, and withered grass into a frenzied tumbling.
There was no snow tonight, but the storm was still immense and powerful, sweeping down from the distant Kunlun Mountains, enveloping the entire canyon in a swirling cloud of sand and stones.
Fortunately, they had reinforced the tents with huge rocks beforehand. Even so, several tents were almost deformed by the wind. Even inside the tents, everyone had to wear goggles and masks; the temperature inside seemed to drop by several degrees in an instant, a chill seeping into their very bones.
Ke Xun squatted at the tent entrance, peeking out through a crack with his fingers. However, the swirling sand and grass clippings reduced visibility to only one or two meters; beyond that, it was a complete blur, and he couldn't see anything at all.
Ke Xun turned to Mu Yiran and said, "I want to go out and take a look."
Mu Yiran raised an eyebrow at him, waiting for his explanation.
"I want to go see the rocky platform and see how it appeared out of nowhere," Ke Xun said. "Maybe I can glean some clues from the process."
"That's too dangerous," Hua Jiqiu said seriously, adjusting his goggles after a day's rest, his spirits and body much better. "The wind is too strong, and tornadoes are especially terrifying. Stronger winds can even throw you high into the air. Ke, I know we're all here with a death wish, but as long as there's a glimmer of hope, we shouldn't take unnecessary risks." Ke Xun looked
at this elder who should have been enjoying a peaceful and tranquil retirement, and suddenly thought of his own father who never had the chance to enjoy such a life.
Pulling off his mask, Ke Xun grinned at Hua Jiqiu: "Whatever you say, Old Man Hua."
Hua Jiqiu was taken aback.
Being called "Old Man" at the age of forty felt strangely strange. "
Perhaps I was being too serious..." Old Man Hua reflected. The young man had clearly only been discussing things with his good friend.
Ke Xun's good friend, Mu Yiran, withdrew his gaze from Ke Xun, pursed his lips, and swallowed back the words "I'll go with you" that he was about to say.
This nearly devastating tornado raged for an unknown period of time, until, like the previous night, it passed its peak and slowly subsided and dissipated. After the wind and sand calmed, the rocky platform indeed appeared in everyone's view, along with the scene of corpses strewn across the land.
The group left their tents and cautiously approached the rock.
They had already inspected the rocky platform the previous night, but at the time, no one had considered that it might be something from another world, so even the inspection was somewhat superficial.
Wei Dong looked around, rubbing his arms as he said in a trembling voice, "So...we're in another world now?"
Luo Jin jumped up in shock. "So...so everything we're seeing now is...is a scene from another world?"
A deathly silent night sky, silent mountains, desolate land, bone-chilling cold, dead creatures, and a ghostly, eerie rocky platform.
"Don't worry about that," Ke Xun stopped Wei Dong and Luo Jin from looking around fearfully. "Check the rock first. Qin Ge, Xiao Chun, Fang Fei, Luo Bo, you four take your guns and stand in four directions around the rock. Keep an eye on any movements in the distance. The rest of you check the rock, don't miss an inch."
Hearing this, everyone quickly composed themselves and immediately spread out, each finding a side of the rock to carefully examine it from top to bottom.
Ke Xun took off his gloves and ran his hands over the cold rock face, muttering to himself, "What kind of rock is this?"
"It should be granite," Yue Cen, who was standing not far away, replied.
"Granite?" Ke Xun asked, puzzled. "I remember granite is a very hard rock, right? Why does this rock feel so brittle?"
He reached out and pried off a slightly protruding piece from the rock face.
"It's probably weathered from its age," Yue Cen said, sweating slightly. Even if the rock had weathered and become brittle, Ke Xun's strength was still excessive.
"Sister Cen, do you think if I keep prying and breaking it, I might just dismantle this rock platform?" Ke Xun asked, continuing to pry and peel away the brittle outer layer of the rock face.
"..." Yue Cen couldn't help but sweat again. "Your idea is quite creative; perhaps you could really try it."
Ke Xun put his hiking gloves back on and began to vigorously pry at the rock.
"Ke'er, what are you doing?" Wei Dong noticed Ke Xun making a ruckus and rushed over to see what was going on. "Holy crap, you're amazing! Are you trying to dismantle this rocky mountain with your bare hands?!" "
If the answer is inside the rock, then this is the only way," Ke Xun said. "Come help."
"I brought an entrenching tool in the car," Mu Yiran said from the side.
"I'll go get it!" Wei Dong quickly ran over and brought back several shovels. "Boss, you've thought of everything! The trunk really has everything you need."
Everyone took the shovels and started digging into the rock face.
As they dug, they suddenly heard Ke Xun exclaim, "Huh? There seem to be scratches on this rock face!"
Mu Yiran walked over and shone his flashlight on the spot Ke Xun pointed to. Sure enough, there were several scratches that didn't look naturally formed.
"Everyone, be careful when you dig, don't damage the scratches underneath," Mu Yiran reminded everyone.
Gradually, the group discovered more carvings in different places on the rock face. As the area peeled away increased, more carvings were revealed, making it increasingly clear that these marks hidden beneath the rock surface were all carved by human hands.
With this discovery, the group moved more cautiously and quickly, spending over two hours clearing away all the rock surface within reach.
Under the beam of flashlights, ancient and simple patterns revealed their mysterious appearance.
These patterns had simple lines and bizarre compositions, resembling both writing and painting. What was most chilling was that each symbol seemed to be a living being, yet each one appeared to be a dead one.
The symbols on the rock face were like depictions of a group of living corpses.
They performed incomprehensible actions in unimaginable scenes, each movement twisted and bizarre beyond what normal humans could make, each movement lifeless.
A chill ran down the spines of the group.
Hua Jiqiu struggled to overcome the intense psychological discomfort caused by the images, adjusting his glasses as he leaned closer to examine them. He said, "The style of these rock carvings is somewhat similar to the Damaidi rock carvings I saw when I was invited by my unit for a work exchange."
"Damaidi?" Ke Xun asked.
"It's a rock art area," Hua Jiqiu said, "containing over ten thousand prehistoric rock paintings, dating back approximately thirteen to four thousand years. These rock art symbols in front of us look somewhat like…"
He took out his phone, scrolled through the photo album for a while, and then showed it to the people who had gathered around: "Look, I took some pictures of the promotional brochures. You see, the rock paintings in this photo are speculated to be from the Xia Dynasty. Some of the symbols on them are similar in style to the symbols we see here, aren't they?"
"Indeed." Shao Ling nodded first, then looked at Mu Yiran.
Although Mu Yiran wasn't a painter, he was an art dealer and an excellent connoisseur of art.
"That's right," Mu Yiran's answer confirmed Hua Jiqiu and Shao Ling's judgment, "They are indeed the same style, and very likely from the same era."
"These symbols seem to depict a scene of apologetic chanting." Hua Jiqiu put away his phone, turned on his flashlight, and brought his face closer to the carvings on the rock wall to examine them more closely.
"What is apologetic chanting?" Ke Xun asked.
"It means praying to ghosts and gods with witchcraft," Hua Jiqiu reached out and gently stroked the engravings, wiping away the dust, and continued to examine them carefully. "Look, these symbols, some look like people, some like beasts, some like plants, and some like characters. Among them, the symbols that look like people are moving in very strange ways. The angles at which their limbs are twisted are something that no living person could do."
"So…so what does this mean?" Li Xiaochun, who had gathered around at some point, shuddered and asked.
Hua Jiqiu turned his face, pulled his chin back, and looked down at him from above his glasses: "This means that these 'people' had their necks, limbs, and even torsos forcibly broken and were forced into this position."
Luo Yi's legs went weak and he sat down on the ground with a thud, his voice trembling like withered grass in the wind: "Why...why did they do this?"
Hua Jiqiu shook his head: "My research focuses on New Year customs, and I've only occasionally gained some superficial understanding of other historical aspects through exchanges with my work unit. So, that's all I know. As for why they did it, I dare not presume to say."
"Dance is the oldest form of shamanic prayer. The original meaning of the word 'shaman' is that people are dancing," Shao Ling continued. "Shamanic prayer also has countless schools. I think that perhaps in the 'culture' of a certain school, the dance performed by a living shaman is used to communicate with heaven and the gods, while...the dance performed by a 'dead shaman' might be used to communicate with the earth and ghosts."
"What Xiao Shao said makes sense," Hua Jiqiu nodded.
"So... what's depicted on this rock face is a scene of shamanistic prayer to communicate with ghosts?" Wei Dong couldn't help but lick his dry lips and take two steps to the side.
It was just a cold, lifeless wall carving, yet it sent chills down his spine.
"Why were these carvings done here?" Zhu Haowen asked the crucial question. "And why didn't the weathering of the rock face erase these carvings?"
"Usually, these kinds of carvings are done in caves or on rock walls for record-keeping or transmission," Shao Ling said. "They're also carved on sacrificial vessels, perhaps to enhance their meaning. As for why these carvings haven't weathered away, I suspect some force used some method to create a protective layer around them."
"If that's the case, then is this rocky platform just ordinary rock, or... a sacrificial vessel?" Ke Xun looked up at the top of the rocky platform, then at everyone else. "Could this rock be—the Nine Tripods?"
This guess made everyone's eyes widen. "Perhaps we should try to climb to the top of the rocky platform to take a look," Shao Ling said, turning to look at the car. "Unfortunately, although the car is already quite tall, it's still far from the top of the platform."
"I brought climbing gear," Mu Yiran suddenly said.
"But who can climb?" Shao Ling asked.
"Me," Mu Yiran replied.
Shao Ling opened his mouth, but couldn't say anything for a moment, only giving a thumbs up.
Mu Yiran was about to go to the car to get tools when Ke Xun grabbed his hand and stopped him: "It's probably too late tonight. Dawn will break soon, and we don't know when this rock platform will suddenly disappear. What if it suddenly disappears while you're still on top? You'll fall straight down! Let's climb tomorrow night. We have one night to use."
Mu Yiran looked at the worry in his eyes and smiled: "Okay, tomorrow it is."
"I want to climb up with you tomorrow. I don't trust you to go alone. If this rock platform is a sacrificial vessel, it could be very dangerous to climb up," Ke Xun added.
Mu Yiran smiled again: "Okay, together."
Ke Xun looked at him strangely, feeling that since arriving here, her boyfriend had been incredibly doting and gentle towards her.
"So what can we do now?" Wu You asked.
"Take pictures of these," Ke Xun said. "We can study them carefully tomorrow during the day, and maybe we can find some clues."
Fortunately, everyone's phone cameras still worked, so they carefully and clearly photographed all the symbols on the four walls of the rock.
Not long after they finished taking pictures, a thick fog suddenly rose in the canyon. Everyone was worried about the danger of getting too close to the rock platform, so they returned to the tent to look out.
In the fog, where visibility was only half a meter to a meter, the rock platform gradually disappeared from sight. By the time dawn broke, the rock platform had vanished silently into the fog.
Author's Note:
Hua Dad: Xiao Ke, Xiao Mu, you two are really close friends.
Ke Xun: …Yes, our relationship has become so close that it's negative distance, probably negative… 15 centimeters.
Boss: 15.2cm.
Ke Xun: …
Hua Dad: That's rare. I envy your friendship.
Wei Dong: …Everyone, come and see, there's an honest man here!
Luo Yu: Uncle Hua probably has no idea that my brother and his wife have already completed an invisible car operation right before his eyes.
Shao Ling: ...I'm a little envious of that length...
Wu You: Hey, Mr. Shao, did you change into a pair of elephant trunk underwear with an even longer nose?
Shao Ling: ...Shut up! Do something within your duty as an 'eye for all'!