Unorthodox methods, cultivating immortality relies on rich women

Chapter 192 The Mysterious Tribe

There were no bricks or tiles, no wooden beams; all the buildings were constructed entirely of huge stone blocks, each more than a person tall and several meters long.

The surface of the stones has been smoothed by the passage of time, but the rough lines carved on them can still be seen. There is no mortar to hold the boulders together, and the gaps are so small that even a piece of paper cannot be inserted.

It is precisely because of this giant rock that this architectural complex has not been completely buried in the mountains and forests over thousands and tens of thousands of years of erosion. Only a small part of the stone walls have collapsed, and they still stand there stubbornly.

The tribe is surrounded by a wall built of huge stones. Most of it is now buried by vines and rubble, but its original outline can still be seen. It acts as a barrier, firmly protecting the entire tribe.

"Is this a miracle?" Kelly exclaimed in amazement.

The group stepped over the collapsed wall and went inside, but they did not scatter to look around. Everyone knew that in such a strange place, it was safest to stay together, especially with someone like Shen Qingzhou in the background.

Sure enough, at that moment, Shen Qingzhou said, "Everyone be careful and don't spread out too far. There are people in here."

""

"people?"

Upon hearing this, everyone turned to look at him in surprise.

"He's not the kind of person you think he is. Anyway, just be careful," Shen Qingzhou warned.

Upon hearing this, Ma Chenggang and Zhao Changming quickly flanked Bai Yukui, but Bai Yukui turned them aside with a look of disgust.

"You two just need to take care of yourselves. I still have Shen Qingzhou."

After saying that, she naturally took Shen Qingzhou's arm.

Ma Chenggang and Zhao Changming exchanged a glance, and in perfect unison, they fell a step behind and stopped following.

As the group ventured deeper, everyone felt a strange sense of security.

Even after countless years, this tribe is still shrouded in a magical power, and everyone subconsciously turns to look at the stone wall.

Because there was a feeling in my heart, a sense of peace, that came from that stone wall.

Most of the stone houses in the tribe were half-collapsed and overgrown with weeds. The people dispersed and carefully explored their surroundings.

Soon, Old Man Chen seemed to have discovered something and let out a cry of surprise.

The crowd immediately gathered around and saw a pile of unidentified bones scattered on the ground of the stone house.

These skeletons were enormous, yet they were exactly the same as the wild boar they had encountered before, and all of them were twisted.

What's even more surprising is that these animal bones show no signs of weathering whatsoever.

The bone is dense and hard, with a faint oily sheen on the surface. Even the growth lines in the bone seams are clearly visible, as if it was just taken from a wild animal yesterday. It doesn't look like it has been silent in this desolate mountain wilderness for thousands of years. It's as if time has stood still on it.

"Impossible—" Old Chen squatted on the ground, reaching out to touch it but not daring to, his face pale. "These bones—even if they were cast in iron, shouldn't they have rusted after so many years? How can they be completely unharmed?"

"Or is it the person you're talking about, a newcomer to the hunt?" Old Man Chen looked at Shen Qingzhou.

Shen Qingzhou shook his head and said, "They don't need to eat."

Upon hearing this, everyone vaguely understood what Shen Qingzhou was talking about.

However, the reason why these unidentified remains did not decay remains unanswered.

Seeing that Shen Qingzhou did not explain, the others did not pursue the matter further. However, Kelly still asked one of the accompanying team members to cut off a small piece to take away, and Zhao Changming did the same.

The bones were not as hard as they had imagined; they seemed to be just ordinary bones.

The group emerged from the stone house and continued forward, gradually discovering that the surrounding stone houses seemed to be clustered together, appearing chaotic yet seemingly following some kind of rule.

Kelly was writing and drawing in her notebook, as if she was recording something.

As for why we didn't use a camera to take pictures, it's because once we came in, we found that the camera was completely unusable. But this wasn't due to the magnetic field, because the compass in Old Man Chen's hand was working perfectly fine.

Just then, the group noticed a huge stone tablet standing in the middle of the road.

As everyone crowded around, they saw that the stone tablet was covered with densely packed symbols.

It's not oracle bone script, not bronze script, and not any known ancient writing system. The symbols and lines are twisted, yet they carry a strange pattern. Some look like coiled snakes, some like deer—it does have a bit of a pictographic feel to it.

Kelly stood before the stone tablet, her emerald eyes filled with shock and fervor, her fingertips lightly tracing the engraved symbols.

"My God—this is a completely independent original writing system, with no inheritance connection to any of the ancient writing systems we know of—no, there are a few basic symbols that are somewhat similar to the inscription symbols of the Yangshao and Hongshan cultures—"

Kelly looked down, trying to write the words down, but then realized it was too difficult.

Because these characters are completely unfamiliar, it is impossible to find any pattern at the moment, and there can be no mistakes, otherwise the meaning may be misinterpreted when interpreting them later.

Undeterred, she picked up the camera to examine it, only to find it was still just like a brick, unable to even be turned on.

In fact, it wasn't just cameras, mobile phones, and satellite phones; without exception, they all became black screens and useless pieces of metal.

Just then, Old Man Chen chuckled and pulled some things out of the package.

"Look, this is useful."

He pulled out a stack of Xuan paper, a rubbing pad, and ink from his backpack. Wow, I didn't expect that bringing it along would actually be useful.

As a family of tomb raiders, these are some essential tools for tomb raiding.

Because some inscriptions need to be rubbed and then appraised by someone to determine whether the stolen items are valuable.

Artifacts with inscriptions are much more valuable than those without.

Old Chen was clearly not doing this for the first time; his movements were very practiced.

He and the foreign woman worked together seamlessly, one applying ink, the other pasting stickers, and the other rubbing the paper.

The process of making rubbings of the ancient symbols on the stone wall didn't take too long, so everyone stood still and waited. Their nerves, which had been tense for most of the day, relaxed slightly, but no one dared to really let their guard down. They dispersed in twos and threes to explore the surrounding stone houses.

Then the group discovered something peculiar: some of the stone houses still showed signs of habitation, as if the people living inside had just left. This was the case with the stone house where the skeletons were found earlier.

However, some of the stone houses were clearly abandoned for a long time. The stone walls were pitted and uneven from the erosion of time, and the houses were filled with twisted vines as thick as an arm. Half a room was filled with decaying leaves and dust, and even the stone beds were cracked by the wildly growing tree roots.

The combination of these two completely different phenomena is quite bizarre.

After making a complete rubbing of the stone tablet, the group continued on their way.

This ancient tribe was far larger than people imagined. The stone path underfoot wound its way forward along the mountain valley, with stone houses stretching endlessly on both sides, some intact and some collapsed.

They walked for an unknown amount of time when the stone house that had been blocking their view suddenly disappeared. The group felt as if their vision had been suddenly opened up, and a vast, suffocating wind rushed towards them.

A massive, unimaginably huge sacrificial plaza suddenly appeared before everyone's eyes.

The square is paved entirely with giant bluestone slabs as thick as a person's embrace. The surface of the slabs is engraved with twisted symbols that are the same as those on the stone tablets. Circles and lines extend from the edge of the square all the way to the center, like a huge array of symbols that covers the sky and locks the entire square in place.

Even just standing at the edge of the square, one could feel an immense aura that made it almost impossible for everyone to breathe.

In the very center of the square stands a giant stone pillar that is over ten meters high.

The stone pillar, which should have stood straight and tall, was twisted into a dense spiral shape from its base to its top by an unimaginable force, all in the same direction.

The twisted ridges spiraled upwards along the pillar, like a giant python roaring towards the sky.

The pillar should have been engraved with intricate patterns, perhaps ancient totems, deities worshipped, or tribal epics.

But at this moment, all the patterns were twisted into a mess along with the twisting of the stone pillar. Only a few distorted human faces could be barely discerned from the broken lines. They seemed to be wronged souls trapped in the stone, emitting silent roars.

What truly sent chills down everyone's spines was the dense, orderly mass of kneeling "people" surrounding the stone pillar.

They should have knelt on both knees, bowed their bodies, pressed their foreheads to the ground, raised their hands above their heads, and performed a grand sacrifice towards the giant pillar.

But their bodies, like the wild boar they had encountered before, were twisted by an invisible force, making their postures strange.

Some of them turned their heads back and looked up at the sky, some looked to the side or left and right, some tucked their heads under their armpits, and some had half their bodies facing left and half facing right.

Moreover, they are still "alive" —

P.S.: I'm completely drained, please vote for me!

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