Chapter 19

Outside the cave, the snow was still falling heavily, and the river had long been covered with a thick layer of ice. Few people in the tribe ventured out now. If one looked out, all they would see was a vast expanse of white.

Inside the cave, a fire burned, creating a different, more lively atmosphere than usual.

After the ice blocks were installed, the cave became much brighter, and the children inside didn't have to endure the cold wind. This new sensation intrigued them, and for two consecutive days, they were in an unusually excited state, gathering around the fire, looking at the words on the stone walls, and discussing them with each other.

Shaoxuan wrote down all the words from the old hunter's animal skin scroll on the stone walls. With the light that filtered in during the day, the words on the stone walls could be clearly seen without needing to light a fire. Learning these words meant that the old hunter wouldn't have to start from the beginning every time he came to teach.

Unlike the others, Shaoxuan spent most of his time in the stone chamber, except when eating, carefully wiping away the stone powder on the walls.

Shaoxuan had already moved the clutter from the stone chamber to other places, and the drawings on the stone walls took up a considerable area.

Finally, after clearing the last corner, Shaoxuan straightened up, took a deep breath, and stretched his sore limbs. He stepped back a few paces and, with the light filtering in, looked at the drawings on the stone walls.

The light was not very bright, and some parts of the drawings were not very clear. Shaoxuan still needed a torch to see them clearly.

In addition to the two places Shaoxuan had seen at the beginning, there were even more surprising drawings.

The drawings also depicted farmland and animal husbandry, with people working in the fields and shepherds driving sheep with whips...

People wearing fur coats and holding small, intricately designed cups, and groups of women carrying baskets to gather fruits...

There were even people riding horses. One drawing showed an adult leading a child on a galloping horse.

Next to it was a drawing that could be of a battle or a hunt. This drawing was longer than the others, almost taking up half of the left wall. In front of the drawing was a tall, magnificent horse, with a warrior on it, wearing a long feathered headdress, and looking much stronger than the other riders. He held his head high, exuding a commanding presence, likely the leader of the group.

Behind the strong warrior, several other riders were galloping. There were also some... wolves?

No, they weren't wolves.

Compared to Caesar, the animals in the drawing had longer, curled tails, some of which were even curled upwards. They were hunting dogs, right?

Some of the hunting dogs had their mouths open, as if panting, while others were turning their heads towards the riders, as if listening to someone speak.

The background of these drawings also included buildings, which were taller and larger than those Shaoxuan had seen in the tribe. Although he had heard that the houses in the mountainous area were much better than those near the foot of the mountain, even if he simulated the houses in the mountains based on the information he had, they still wouldn't match the grand mansions in the drawings.

His gaze returned to the first drawing he had seen. The woman in the drawing wore intricate and beautiful ornaments, unlike the simple and rough ones worn by the women in the tribe. As for the jar she was holding...

Those jars with intricate patterns, if they weren't stone jars, Shaoxuan thought of a possibility—pottery.

How long had these drawings existed?

If they were as old as the cave itself, they must have been around for hundreds or even thousands of years?

A thousand years ago, there was already animal husbandry and farming, and pottery existed. The hunting tools were more diverse than those of the present, and they even had hunting dogs, real hunting dogs, not like Caesar, who was occasionally brought back to be raised as a wolf!

Shaoxuan suppressed his shock and continued to look.

The drawings on the left wall were clearly different from those on the right. In the middle, separating the left and right, was a part that Shaoxuan couldn't understand, too abstract, and initially looked chaotic. Shaoxuan couldn't infer the meaning from the context of the other drawings. However, it was clear that after this part, the style of the drawings suddenly changed from vibrant and confident to a more desolate and bleak state. Many of the drawings conveyed a sense of desolation and sorrow.

Women kneeling and crying, children standing on the ground, staring blankly at something, as if lost in infinite confusion, and the background was not the grand mansions but the cave where Shaoxuan was now.

There were no more depictions of farming or animal husbandry, no more groups of women carrying baskets to gather, no more horseback riding, no more hunting dogs, and no more pottery that was more intricate than stone tools...

On both the left and right walls, above the carvings, there was a symbol—the tribe's totem.

The totem of the Yanjiao tribe looked like the horns of a rhinoceros, but longer and with flames, matching the tribe's name.

So, the carvings depicted the Yanjiao tribe?

Shaoxuan recalled what his archaeology classmate from his previous life had said: Murals and rock paintings generally depicted the life of the people of that era, or what they imagined or hoped for, serving as a form of spiritual寄托.

The carvings in this stone chamber were definitely not mere imagination. The emotions conveyed in the carvings were too intense, only real experiences and events could evoke such deep and strong feelings.

What had happened to the tribe?

A natural disaster?

A man-made disaster?

Or both?

At the end of the right wall, there were many palm-sized patterns, each with a distinct style. For example, the one in the upper left corner looked like a spider resting on a web, and the one on the right end looked like bamboo or some other plant. There was even one that looked like a mask, which was quite eerie...

These patterns included plants, animals, and various things that Shaoxuan couldn't identify.

While Shaoxuan was studying these murals, someone called him from outside.

"Axuan, Uncle Ge is here! Axuan, come quickly!"

The other children in the cave weren't interested in the deeper parts. Over the years they had lived in the cave, they only went to specific areas to relieve themselves and didn't explore further. They had seen those areas once and lost interest, so the child who called Shaoxuan didn't come over but shouted directly.

Coming back to his senses, Shaoxuan realized that today was indeed the day Ge delivered food.

This time, Ge brought enough food for three days. When Shaoxuan saw him, Ge's fur coat was still covered with snow that hadn't melted, but he didn't seem to mind. He was staring at the ventilation holes with ice blocks and fiddling with the stone plates, clearly surprised that such things existed in the cave. Since he started delivering food, the cave had always been dark in winter. He had heard about similar things in the cave before but had never seen the children use them, and given the previous conditions in the cave, he hadn't thought much of it.

He asked the other children in the cave to help "unload" the food. With plenty of food, the children didn't fight over it as they used to. After hearing Shaoxuan's request, they all came to help, and Shaoxuan distributed the food by group, leaving the internal distribution to the groups themselves.

Today, Shaoxuan didn't let Ge leave immediately but asked him to tell the children about the tribe, as Ge had nothing else to do after delivering the food.

Shaoxuan just wanted to learn more from Ge and see if he could connect it with the drawings on the stone walls. Unfortunately, what Ge said was similar to what Shaoxuan had heard from Langga and others, and it didn't provide the information he was looking for.

Shaoxuan drew a pattern on the ground with a charred branch. He noticed that Ge glanced at it a few times, clearly recognizing it, but showed no surprise, indicating that Ge didn't recognize the pattern.

Shaoxuan had drawn one of the distinct patterns from the end of the right wall. Ge, being a veteran warrior in the tribe, didn't recognize the pattern, and Shaoxuan sighed, realizing that learning more about the drawings on the stone walls would be difficult.

At the very end of the right wall, below the distinct patterns, there was a sentence, but Shaoxuan didn't recognize a few of the characters, making the sentence incomprehensible.

Although Shaoxuan could speak the language fluently, he was still unfamiliar with many characters. Calculating the time until the old hunter's next visit, Shaoxuan learned those characters and planned to ask when the opportunity arose.

About ten days later, the old hunter finally came down the mountain to the cave.

Surprised by the changes in the cave and pleased to find that the children had learned a lot, the old hunter was very happy. He took out another animal skin scroll and began teaching new things.

During the breaks, Shaoxuan asked the old hunter about a few characters, mixing in other characters to avoid arousing suspicion.

However, it turned out that Shaoxuan had overthought it. The old hunter was enthusiastic about teaching and didn't think much about it, assuming Shaoxuan had seen these characters elsewhere. He taught Shaoxuan to recognize each one with great interest.

After teaching, the old hunter praised Shaoxuan, "You've written these characters well, with great spirit! You will surely become a brave warrior in the future!"

Shaoxuan just smiled and didn't say anything. The characters he had written were imitations of those on the stone walls, not exact copies, but they carried some of the original's spirit and momentum.

From this, it seemed that the person who had drawn and written on the stone walls was also a warrior, and likely a very capable one.

After the old hunter left, Shaoxuan wrote the new characters from the animal skin scroll on the stone walls for the children to review and then returned to the stone chamber.

After learning the characters, Shaoxuan finally understood what the sentence said.

"One day, we will return to our homeland. Glory remains, and the fire of Yanjiao will never be extinguished."

At the end of the sentence was the word "Zan," likely the name of the person who had carved the drawings and written the sentence.

The last part of the sentence was carved very deeply, deeper than the other drawings, especially the last few characters, indicating the intense emotion the person felt when writing it.

Although Shaoxuan didn't know why the murals were later covered with stone powder, he was very grateful and respectful to the person who had drawn and written on the stone walls.

From the sentence, it was clear that the person, or the entire tribe, was in a difficult situation, even one of despair, but they had not given up.

Even in the most desperate circumstances, as long as they were alive and the tribe still existed, there was hope.

Shaoxuan took a charred branch and drew a simple thumbs-up next to the word "Zan."

Another thumbs-up for you.

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I'll update twice tomorrow, so I'll go to sleep now.

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