The closer to death, the faster time seems to pass, as if in the blink of an eye, the sky is dark again.
The crowd was fully armed in the tent, waiting in full force.
The sound of the wind is gradually rising, blowing more and more fiercely, whistling, spinning, from small to large, from the ground to the sky, like a pillar of wind rising to the sky, rolling up the sand, gravel and dry grass to swirl frantically with it. tossing.
It didn't snow tonight, but the storm was still strong and majestic, rushing wildly from the Kunlun Mountains in the distance, shrouding the entire canyon in the flying sand and rocks.
Fortunately, everyone used huge stones to reinforce the tents in advance. For this reason, several tents were still almost deformed by the wind. Even if everyone was hiding in the tents, they had to bring windproof glasses and masks. The temperature seemed to drop by more than ten degrees in an instant, making people feel the chills from the inside out.
Ke Xun squatted at the entrance of the tent and opened a gap with his fingers to look out. However, the sand and grass clippings swirling in the sky made the visibility almost only one or two meters, and two meters away was chaotic, and it was impossible to see anything at all.
Ke Xun turned to discuss Mu Yiran: "I want to go out and have a look."
Mu Yiran raised his eyebrows and looked at him, waiting for him to explain.
"I want to go to the rock platform to see how it appeared out of thin air." Ke Xun said, "Maybe I can get a glimpse of the secret behind the scenes from this process."
"It's too dangerous," Hua Jiqiu said after a day's rest, now his mental and physical condition is much better, and he solemnly held up the goggles over his glasses, "The wind is too strong, especially the power of tornadoes. It’s scary, the stronger wind might even throw you into the sky. Xiao Ke, I know that everyone comes here with the mentality of dying, but as long as there is a ray of hope for survival, we shouldn’t take risks lightly.”
Ke Xun looked at the elder who was supposed to enjoy the rest of his life peacefully and peacefully, and suddenly remembered his father who had no chance to enjoy happiness.
Taking off his mask, Ke Xun grinned at Hua Jiqiu: "Listen to you, Father Hua."
Hua Jiqiu was stunned.
It's a strange feeling to be called Dad when you are not confused.
Maybe I'm being too serious... Father Hua reflected on himself, this young man was obviously just discussing with his good friend.
Ke Xun's good friend Mu Yiran looked back at Ke Xun, pursed his lips, and took back the words "I'm going with you" that he was going to say.
This violent tornado, which was about to destroy the sky and the earth, had been raging for a long time. After passing the peak like last night, it slowly fell back and dissipated. After the wind was calm, the high rock platform appeared in everyone's field of vision. And then there was the scene of wild corpses.
The people got out of the tent and cautiously went under the rock.
Everyone had already checked this high rock platform last night, but at that time, no one thought that it might be a thing from another world, so even if it was checked, it was superficial.
Wei Dong looked around and said in a trembling voice while rubbing his arms: "So... we are in another world now?"
Luo Meng jumped abruptly: "Everything, so everything we see now, is all a scene from another world?"
The dead night sky, the silent mountains, the desolate earth, the deep cold, the dead creatures, and a ghostly and gloomy rock high platform.
"Don't worry about those," Ke Xun stopped Wei Dong and Luo Xun's terrified glance, "check the rocks first. Brother Qin, Xiaochun, Fang Fei, and Radish, you four grab your guns and stand on the rocks. Four directions, pay attention to the movement in the distance, and the rest of the people check the rocks, don't miss an inch."
When everyone heard the words, they hurriedly restrained their minds, and immediately dispersed, each found one side of the rock, and examined it carefully from top to bottom.
Ke Xun took off his gloves, touched the icy rock wall with his hands, and said to himself, "What kind of stone is this?"
"It should be granite." Yue Cen, who was not far from him, took his words.
"Granite?" Ke Xun wondered, "I remember that granite is a very hard rock, right? Why does this rock feel so brittle."
As he said that, he stretched out his hand to break it, and actually broke off a slightly protruding place on the rock wall.
"It's probably a long time ago, so it's weathered." Yue Cen sweated a little, even if the rock became brittle due to weathering, Ke Xun's hands were too strong.
"Sister Cen, tell me, if I break and break like this, will I just tear down this rock platform alive?" Ke Xun said as he continued to peel and peel the crunchy outer skin of the rock wall.
"..." Yue Cen couldn't help sweating again, "Your idea is also very creative, maybe you can really give it a try."
Ke Xun put on his climbing gloves again and began to slash the rocks.
"Ke'er, what are you doing?" Wei Dong found that Ke Xun's tossing was flying, and he hurried over to look at it, "Fuck you, are you trying to demolish rocks and mountains with your bare hands?!"
"If the answer is in the rock, that's the only way," Ke Xun said, "Come and help."
"I have a shovel in my car." Mu Yiran said beside him.
"I'll get it!" Wei Dong hurried over and came back with several shovels, "Boss, you're too thoughtful, you really want something in the trunk."
Everyone took the shovel and started to scrape the rock wall together.
He was chopping and chopping, and suddenly he heard Ke Xun's "Huh": "There seem to be scratches on this rock wall!"
Mu Yiran came over and lit the spot where Ke Xun pointed to him with a flashlight, and saw that there were a few scratches that did not seem to be formed naturally.
"Everyone, be careful not to damage the notch below." Mu Yiran told everyone.
One after another, everyone found nicks in different parts of the rock wall, and as the peeling area became larger, more nicks were exposed, and it became more and more certain that these traces hidden under the rock surface were all Artificially engraved.
With this discovery, everyone moved more cautiously and quickly. It took more than two hours to remove all the rock skins within reach.
Under the light of the flashlight, the ancient and simple patterns revealed their mysterious faces.
The lines of these patterns are simple and concise, the composition is strange, and the words are like paintings. The most shocking thing is that each symbol is like a kind of creature, but every creature seems to be a dead creature.
The icons on this rock wall are like, showing the behavior of a group of living jumping corpses.
They perform incomprehensible movements, in unimaginable scenes, every movement is twisted and eccentric like a normal human being can do, every movement is lifeless.
Everyone could see a chill from the bottom of their hearts.
Hua Jiqiu struggled to overcome the intense psychological discomfort caused by the pictures, leaning on his glasses to take a closer look, and said, "The style of these rock carvings is the same as what I have seen when I was invited to work with the unit for work exchanges. The barley field rock carvings are partly similar in style."
"Barley field?" Ke Xun asked.
"It's a rock painting belt," Hua Jiqiu said. "There are more than 10,000 prehistoric rock paintings left. Those paintings date from about 13,000 to 4,000 years ago. The rock art symbols in front of us, I think Looks a bit like…”
As he spoke, he took out his mobile phone, flipped through the album on the mobile phone for a while, and then handed it to everyone around him: "Well, I took some pictures on the promotional color page at that time, you see, the rock painting on this picture. It is presumed to be a rock painting of the Xia Dynasty, and there are some icons on it that are similar in style to the icons in front of us, aren't they?"
"Indeed." Shao Ling nodded first, then looked at Mu Yiran.
Although Mu Yiran is not a painter, he is an art dealer and an excellent painter.
"That's right," Mu Yiran's answer affirmed Hua Jiqiu and Shao Ling's judgment, "it is indeed the same style, and most likely from the same era."
"These symbols seem to describe a kind of prayer-weary scene." Hua Jiqiu put away his mobile phone and put his face closer to the notch on the rock wall with a flashlight.
"What is weary prayer?" Ko Xun asked.
"It means praying to ghosts and gods with witchcraft," Hua Jiqiu stretched out his hand and gently stroked the notch, wiped off the dust on it, and continued to examine it carefully, "Look, some of these symbols look like humans, some like beasts. , some are like plants, some are like words, and these symbols are like people, their movements are very strange, and the angles of their limbs are twisted, which cannot be made by living people at all.”
"So... So what does this mean?" Li Xiaochun, who had been around at some point, shuddered and asked.
Hua Jiqiu turned his face, retracted his chin, lowered his head, and looked over from the top of his spectacles: "It means that these 'people' were forcibly broken off their necks, limbs, and even their torso, and put them in such a pose. "
Luo Yu let out a "thump" and sat down on the ground, his voice trembling like dry grass in the wind: "They...why do they do this?"
Hua Jiqiu shook his head: "After all, my research direction is only about the customs, but I have only learned a little about other historical aspects when I go out to communicate with the unit occasionally. So, that's all I know. As for why I do this, I don't dare to lie."
"Dance is the oldest method of witchcraft. The original meaning of the word 'witch' means that people are dancing." Shao Ling said, "There are countless schools of witchcraft, I think, maybe in a certain In one genre of 'culture', the dances performed by the living witches are used to reach the heavens and the gods, while... the dances performed by the 'dead witches' may be used to reach the earth and ghosts."
"Xiao Shao's words are reasonable." Hua Jiqiu nodded.
"So... what is depicted on this rock wall is a scene of witchcraft and ghosts?" Wei Dong couldn't help licking his dry lips and took two steps to the side.
It was obviously just a piece of ice-cold wall carving, but it made people feel terrified.
"Why are these pictures engraved here?" Zhu Haowen asked a key question, "Also, after the rock wall has weathered, why haven't these nicks been weathered?"
"Usually this kind of thing is engraved on caves or rock walls for record or transmission," Shao Ling said, "In addition, it is also engraved on sacrificial vessels, which may serve as a blessing. As for why these nicks have not been weathered, I guess it may be that some kind of force used some method to set a protective layer on the outside of the nicks."
"If so, is this rock platform just an ordinary rock, or... a sacrificial vessel?" Ke Xun looked up at the top of the rock platform, and then looked at everyone, "Could this rock be the Jiuding?"
This guess made everyone look shocked, "Maybe we should try to climb to the top of the rock platform to see," Shao Ling said, turning to look at the car, "Unfortunately, although the body is already very high, it is far from the rock. The top is still a long way off.”
"I brought rock climbing equipment." Mu Yiran suddenly said.
"But who can climb rocks?" Shao Ling asked.
"Me." Mu Yi said.
Shao Ling opened his mouth, but didn't say anything for a while, only stretched out his hand to compare his thumb.
Mu Yiran was about to fetch tools from the car, but was stopped by Ke Xun's hand: "I'm afraid it won't be too late tonight, it will be dawn soon, and we are not sure when this rock platform will suddenly disappear. If it suddenly disappears while you are still on the top, don't you want to fall directly? Climb it again tomorrow night, you can use it one night."
Mu Yiran looked at the worry in his eyes and smiled: "Okay, just tomorrow."
"Tomorrow, I will climb up with you. I don't trust you to act alone. If this rock platform is a sacrificial vessel, it may be very dangerous to go up." Ke Xun said again.
Mu Yiran smiled again: "Okay, let's go together."
Ke Xun looked at him strangely, feeling that since he came here, his boyfriend has been obedient, petting and gentle to him.
"Then what can we do now?" Wu You asked.
"Take pictures of these pictures," Ke Xun said. "We can study them carefully in the daytime tomorrow, and maybe we can find some clues."
Fortunately, the camera function of everyone's mobile phone can still be used, so I carefully and clearly photographed all the symbols on the four walls of the rock one by one.
Not long after the filming, thick fog suddenly formed between the canyons. Everyone worried that it would be dangerous to be too close to the rock platform, so they returned to the tent and looked out.
In the thick fog with visibility of only half a meter to one meter, the shadow of the rock platform was gradually lost. Until the dawn broke, the rock platform disappeared silently with the thick fog.
The author has something to say:
Dad Hua: Xiao Ke, Xiao Mu, you two are really close friends.
Ke Xun: ... Yes, our relationship has become a negative distance, about 15 centimeters.
Big guy: 15.2cm.
Coxun: …
Father Hua: It's rare, I envy your friendship.
Weidong: ... Come and see everyone, there is an honest man here!
Luo Yao: Uncle Hua may not even know that my brother-in-law has completed an invisible car in front of his eyes.
Shao Ling: … I’m a little envious of that length…
Wu You: Hey, Mr. Shao, you have changed to a pair of elephant-nosed panties with a longer nose
Shao Ling: … Shut up! Do something that opens your eyes!