The hunting party waited at the entrance of the cave until the next afternoon.
Originally it was time to leave at noon, but Mai and Lang Ga suggested to wait a little longer before everyone continued to guard the entrance of the cave.
In fact, by this time, Lang Ga and the others have given up hope, but they are still not reconciled.
"Let's go, if you don't go, it will be delayed." A soldier of the same age as Mai looked at the sky and said.
They didn't bring much food. The hunting harvest of the first stronghold was stored, and when they rushed to the second stronghold, they only brought a moderate amount of food. By now, some warrior animal skin bags are empty.
According to the rules of the hunting party, no one will leave while waiting for their companions, and even if the food is gone, they cannot leave to hunt. This is another kind of mourning ceremony in disguised form to remember comrades-in-arms. Even if there is no death or corpse, rationally speaking, everyone knows in their hearts that the lost person will never come back.
Once you leave the entrance of the cave, it means giving up waiting, the mourning is over, the hunting begins, and the nature is different. Unless the hunting returns, it will not return to the entrance of the cave.
So far, some people in the team seem to have enough. Shao Xuan is not a big man, and he has no status in the tribe. They don't need to spend a few days to mourn. They have to start hunting quickly.
Mai looked at the sun that had already started to set, and greeted everyone to get ready to go.
Before leaving, everyone bowed their heads slightly and tapped their eyebrows with one hand. Every time someone on the hunting team leaves, other teammates will perform a simple memorial ceremony like this.
"Let's go." After the mourning, Mai took the people away from the cave entrance, preparing to go to another cave on the mountainside, which was their second stronghold.
Shao Xuan carried the "ancestor" on his back and carried a stone tool in his hand as he walked towards the entrance of the cave step by step.
In the dark environment for so long, Shao Xuan did not feel uncomfortable when he saw the light again.
He had already heard the birds and insects chirping outside the cave, and his mood skyrocketed.
The entrance of the cave is relatively narrow, much narrower than the entrance on the mountainside that I walked through before. Maybe it was as big as other cave entrances a long time ago, but now, the entrance of the cave is blocked by some large rocks falling from the mountain. Also covered by vines.
This mountain near the surface is still the same as other mountains, there is nothing special about it, there are grass and streams, only the deep inside of the mountain is different from other mountains. Therefore, Shanbiao, like other mountains, has various forests of flowers, plants and insects, and the names of the leaders of the previous hunting teams carved on the walls of the cave where they entered the passage before still exist and will not disappear.
At the entrance of the cave, Shao Xuan listened carefully to the outside, looked outside the cave through the gap between the vines, and found no dangerous creatures, so he carefully pushed aside the vines and walked out. When walking, you have to be careful not to let the "people" behind your back hit the rocks. The "people" are already like this, and I don't know if they will crack if they hit it.
Feeling the weak sunlight, Shao Xuan felt as if he had been reborn again. If it wasn't for the environment, he really wanted to yell and vent.
I was used to looking at the skeleton before, so I didn't find it too scary, but now I turned my head and saw the appearance of four mummified corpses... Shao Xuanqiang calmed himself down and hypnotized himself: "It's okay, this is the ancestor, the ancestor of the tribe, even if it is shriveled, withered, and turned gray. Yes, it is also extraordinary!
He didn't immediately drop the four "people" behind him. The treasure was still there. Shao Xuan planned to borrow the protection of his ancestors before joining the hunting team.
Shao Xuan didn't know where it was, but he looked up at the mountain and looked at the silhouettes flying in the sky in the distance. He felt that it should still be on the mountain, and he had already reached the other side of the mountain, still at the foot of the mountain.
It is impossible for him to rush around like this alone. He doesn't know much about this place, and he can't fight against those beasts. He has to be careful not to be caught by those big birds in the air. He can only try to contact the hunting team first.
He lowered his head and looked at it. The animal skins and trousers on his body were covered with a layer of gray-white stone powder, and so were his hands.
He rubbed his hands and wiped off the stone powder on his hands. He originally planned to rub the leaves from the vines next to him to wipe his hands, but after thinking about it, he gave up. Shao Xuan didn't know whether the vines were poisonous to people.
After wiping his hands, Shao Xuan put his fingers into his mouth and blew a whistle with a specific rhythm.
It is impossible to call out loudly here, as it will provoke some creatures, so Shao Xuan still adopts the old method used by the hunting team. When it was blowing, Shao Xuan thought about going back and making a deer whistle for hunting later.
The people of the hunting team who were walking to the second stronghold paused, especially the Buckwheat couple and the intermediate totem warriors. Their hearing was better than that of the junior totem warriors. The latter could hear vague sounds, but they could clearly hear them captured.
"Mai! That's... "Qiao pulled Lamai excitedly.
Mai signaled her to stay calm and listened carefully. The voices were separated a bit, but they could still be identified as the secret signal of the hunting team. Moreover, it seemed that only Ah Xuan would be the only one who would blow this whistle in the team!
However, they had just left the entrance of the cave, and the direction of the whistle was not at the entrance of the cave, but at the foot of the mountain...
"You guys wait here first!" Mai said and ran down the mountain. After a few ups and downs, his figure disappeared among the trees.
"Is it really A Xuan?" Lang Ga said in surprise. Although he couldn't hear it clearly, he had heard such a voice before he found the two children when it was about the Thorn Heifeng.
"Impossible, the ancestors couldn't come out, how could Ah Xuan do it?!" said a soldier. It's not that he didn't want Shao Xuan to come back, but the worship of his ancestors made him not believe in Shao Xuan's ability.
"But it was the same voice we heard last time we looked for him!" Ang said.
Thinking that Shao Xuan was still alive, Lang Ga couldn't help it.
Not only Lang Ga, but others too, desperately want to know the answer.
"Let's go and have a look!"
"Yeah, let's take a look. As long as you don't come out of the mountain, you won't encounter any large beasts, and it will be too late to go to the cave later."
"I want to go too!"
Generally speaking, the members of the hunting party follow the rules and listen to the leader's words. The leader tells them to wait and do what they want. However, the situation is different now. Since the opening of this hunting route, almost no one has survived the disappearance. Get out of it smoothly! Something even the ancestors could not do!
Several intermediate totem warriors discussed and unanimously decided to take a look at the past.
So, after Mai Ben went there, the rest of the hunting team followed closely.
Mai followed the voice to find it, and saw a gray man standing there.
At first, Mai did not pay attention to the object that Shao Xuan was carrying, nor did he take a close look at the stone tool that Shao Xuan placed at his feet. At this moment, Mai was shocked.
Even though his whole body was covered with a layer of gray-white stone powder, Shao Xuan was still a child after all, and he could tell who he was at a glance at his small body.
"Ah Xuan, you're really fine!" The hunting party who followed closely also arrived and recognized Shao Xuan.
Lang Ga approached quickly, ready to give a hug from a soldier to celebrate Shao Xuan's escape from death, but after seeing what Shao Xuan was carrying, he stammered: "A Xuan... what is behind you... carrying?"
Everyone's attention was focused on Shao Xuan's back.
"This," Shao Xuan turned around so that everyone could have a better look at the person carrying him, pointed and said, "It's the ancestor."
But Shao Xuan still underestimated the weight of the word "ancestor" in the hearts of the tribe.
As soon as he said the word "ancestor", Shao Xuan found that everyone in the hunting team seemed to be frozen, standing there blankly, but their eyes became red, their breathing was rapid and heavy, their facial muscles twitched, and they looked a little distorted, and their whole body was covered. Also shaking.
Everyone who was normal just now is not right now.
"Wait, don't get excited! If you have something to say, speak slowly!!"