Chapter 1

Shao Xuan sat on a modified bus, looking out the window at the continuous mountains. The summer solstice had just passed, and the mountains were full of vibrant green. After living in the city for a long time, seeing such scenery greatly improved his mood, which had been gloomy due to his unsuccessful career. Originally, Shao Xuan had planned to call a few friends for a long trip to clear his mind, but he unexpectedly met his old classmate and fellow townsman, Shi Qi, who was studying archaeology, and was dragged along to join the archaeological expedition.

This trip was to a remote small village, where it was said that artifacts from the Stone Age had been discovered. A first batch of people had already gone, and this was the second batch.

Shao Xuan listened as his old classmate talked about the skulls of early humans, stone tools, and rock paintings, even pulling out several pictures to explain in detail. People in research were like that; once they got into it, it was hard for them to pull out. Although Shao Xuan didn't understand much, he listened politely.

The paper was filled with rock painting images from previous archaeological discoveries. Shao Xuan looked at them and thought they weren't as good as the drawings of his nieces and nephews from kindergarten.

The lines in those images were relatively simple, roughly showing people with tools hunting, as well as various animal drawings. The rest were hard to identify.

"Is this a sheep? But the sheep is drawn too large," Shao Xuan pointed to one of the images.

The image showed a sheep with long, huge curved horns, and a person with a bow and arrow next to it. However, the proportions were off; the person's head only reached the sheep's back. In the following images, the rabbit's size was similar to a lion's, and the horse in the left picture had a very short tail.

Of course, not all the images had such proportions. Rock paintings from different periods and regions had different styles. Some later images had proportions closer to reality, showing a group of people hunting with dogs.

Flipping further, there were a few color-printed images, which were clearer.

"Ha, this one is even more exaggerated. The deer's antlers are so large, and the person is only a little taller than the deer's legs... What's that in the lower right corner, an eight-legged crocodile?" Shao Xuan couldn't appreciate the primitive style.

"Primitive humans might not have paid much attention to proportions," Shi Qi explained.

"So, you mean that when primitive humans painted, they didn't focus on realism but used exaggeration?" Shao Xuan asked.

"Probably," Shi Qi scratched his head. "After all, humans in that period didn't have refined aesthetics. It might have been purely symbolic, like a researcher once speculated that the paintings on cave walls or rocks were just for the hunters to see before a hunt, to have a mental image, or perhaps for some unknown rituals, especially those painted by 'shamans.'"

"Shamans..." Shao Xuan imagined a strangely dressed old shaman.

"Hey, what's that look for? I'm telling you, the status of 'shamans' in those human communities might not have been low; in fact, it might have been quite high."

"I know, shamans," Shao Xuan nodded.

Shi Qi waved his finger, took out a file, and pointed to some scanned images and text, saying to Shao Xuan, "If totemic consciousness represents the anthropomorphization of nature and the collective unity of people, then shamanistic beliefs represent the naturalization of people. The profession of 'shaman' actually appeared as early as the Stone Age..."

Shi Qi continued talking about the historical development of the "shaman" profession, using professional terms and citing sources, which made Shao Xuan's head hurt.

Shao Xuan didn't know much about this and wasn't interested. If it weren't for his old classmate and fellow townsman, he wouldn't have known about it at all. In the past, when he heard about archaeology, he thought of valuable antiques, but Shi Qi's research direction was even more ancient, so ancient that few people were interested. A few days ago, he heard a radio discussion about whether Darwin's theory of evolution or the theory of extraterrestrial creation was correct. Shao Xuan just listened out of boredom and didn't think about it much after.

On the contrary, Shao Xuan knew that his childhood friend was very interested in ancient humans. In high school, he often discussed mysterious disappearances of ancient human remains discovered in modern times.

"You won't understand the professional stuff, so let me explain it simply. Look!" Shi Qi pointed to a picture, indicating a certain part. "The character for 'shaman' appears in oracle bone and bronze inscriptions, but it looks like this."

Shao Xuan looked at where Shi Qi was pointing, a symbol that looked like two '工' characters intersecting.

"This double '工' character symbol has appeared on some ancient pottery and shell-carved human heads. Shamans were involved in hunting, praying, and healing. From a certain perspective, 'shamans' could be considered scientists of that time. However, these are all speculations. Even ancient records might not be true, as people back then loved to exaggerate. As they say, 'history never reveals the truth.' Archaeology is just about uncovering some fragments. Who knows what the real situation was?"

"The cave discovered this time is also related to 'shamans.' It's the last few images you saw. The first batch of people who went there sent back rock paintings, and the cave also had the double '工' character symbol, so it's speculated that it might have been a shaman's dwelling. There was a short earthquake in the area last month, which probably exposed the cave, as no one had mentioned it before."

At this point, Shi Qi closed the file, looked around carefully, and, seeing that his mentor and other classmates weren't paying attention, lowered his voice and said mysteriously to Shao Xuan, "I heard that the first person to discover the cave was a child. According to a message from a junior, the child saw a strange, watermelon-sized insect crawl out of a stone in their courtyard wall. The child, being bold, followed the insect, which eventually disappeared into the cave. The child then told the adults, and that's how the cave was discovered."

"A watermelon-sized insect?" Shao Xuan found it absurd. Anyone hearing it for the first time would think it was fake. "Did the child lie?"

Shi Qi shook his head. "Stranger still, according to the first batch of people, the stones used to build the courtyard wall contained fossils of ancient organisms. The stone where the child saw the insect had a fossil, though not complete, just a part. However, according to experts, if the organism were still alive, it could indeed be as large as a watermelon, and it looked similar to what the child described."

"Sounds pretty mysterious, but only the child saw it. Did anyone else see an insect crawl out of the wall?" Shao Xuan was getting interested.

Shi Qi shook his head. "We don't know. We'll ask when we get there. Anyway, we're almost there."

When they arrived at the destination, it was already 11:00 AM. Shao Xuan had a simple lunch with Shi Qi and the others and then returned to the bus.

Shi Qi and his team were eager to start. They didn't rest after lunch and planned to begin work immediately.

Shi Qi had already explained to Shao Xuan what to be careful about, what not to touch, where not to go, and who to contact if anything happened. Shao Xuan had a clear idea.

"I'll tell you more after we finish today. You can wander around for now. The scenery here is nice, with green mountains, blue skies, and clear water. It's good to get out of the smoggy city and clear your lungs."

With that, Shi Qi took his tools and followed his mentor. Shao Xuan couldn't go with them and wasn't particularly interested in going.

The bus was now empty, and with the doors and windows closed, it was very quiet. Shao Xuan hadn't slept well in the past few days, and after listening to Shi Qi's stories on the way, he felt sleepy.

When he woke up, it was already 2:00 PM. Shao Xuan was about to go for a walk when he saw Shi Qi, wearing a work uniform, come over to the bus to get a file and then rush back to the site.

Before getting off, Shi Qi took a stone the size of an egg from his pocket and threw it to Shao Xuan. "I picked it up in the cave. No one seemed to care, so I took it. It's probably not important. I can't give you antiques, but this stone is from the cave. It's quite smooth, probably just something someone threw there. Here, keep it as a souvenir."

The stone was near the cave entrance, far from the core area, and its material was clearly different from other excavated items. It had no markings, so the first batch of people focused on the Stone Age "antiques" and rock paintings and didn't pay attention to the stone. Shi Qi found it interesting and picked it up.

Shao Xuan took the stone and examined it. It felt like any other stone, dark green, egg-shaped, and relatively smooth, as if it had been deliberately polished. It didn't look ancient, but it was still a nice object to play with, even if it wasn't an "antique."

Shao Xuan didn't think much of it and played with it for a while. He noticed that the stone didn't warm up, even after holding it for ten minutes. He thought about it and took out a lighter to burn the stone. Normally, the part in contact with the flame should have been hot, but the stone remained cool.

Looking around, Shao Xuan took a fruit knife from the table, placed a piece of paper underneath, and planned to scrape some fragments to have them tested by the archaeologists. However, when he tried to scrape the stone with the knife, it left no marks, and the tip couldn't even scratch it.

It didn't warm up in the fire and couldn't be scratched by a knife... truly a strange stone.

Shao Xuan took the stone and got off the bus, planning to show it to Shi Qi later.

The bus was parked near the village, but the road ahead was difficult to navigate.

Some villagers were working, while others went to the newly discovered cave to watch. Therefore, when Shao Xuan entered the village, he only saw a few people moving around.

The village had a two-meter-high stone and earth wall, built decades ago to protect against wild animals. The stones came from the mountains, but in recent years, no large wild animals had been seen, so no one paid attention to the walls anymore.

Looking at the large stones on the wall, which had been there for a long time, Shao Xuan felt a sense of desolation.

Shao Xuan played with the stone in his hand, looking at the stones on the wall. He remembered the "watermelon-sized insect" incident that Shi Qi mentioned.

Just as he was about to look away, Shao Xuan suddenly saw something snake-like on the wall, moving and glistening with cold light. Even from a distance, it made him feel a chill, and he almost jumped. But when he blinked, it was gone, and the wall was just the same old, weathered wall.

Was it an illusion?

Shao Xuan looked at other parts of the wall and then noticed a gap where a large stone had fallen. Smaller stones had been picked up by villagers to build their own walls, but the large one remained. Shao Xuan saw a green sprout emerge from the stone, quickly growing leaves and extending vines in all directions. In a blink, the three-meter gap was covered by the vines and branches, and he could smell the fresh scent of plants.

Shao Xuan took a few steps back, took a deep breath, and looked again. The vines and branches were gone, and the wall was the same old, weathered wall, with the large stone still there.

Feeling something strange in his hand, Shao Xuan looked down.

The stone, which had been cool and unscratchable, suddenly crumbled into sand and fell through his fingers.

As the last grain of sand fell, Shao Xuan's vision went dark.

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