“Ma_Litua-Dohi-Kua_Yepuze...”

“Yila_Adukua-Mimi’aye...”

The first storm of the dry season was triggered by the Saavi Valley, which was covered with sand and dust. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

In the hill plain, near the source of the hill river, there is a cave that is not hidden. Outside the cave were a few dry branches, and a few strands of linen hung on them indicated that there were still people here.

Looking into the cave, near the entrance of the cave are several simple murals: in front of a large group of people, there is a man with the appearance of a leader wearing antelope horns, who is half-kneeling to the heart of a bearded old man on crutches; the old man presses his hand on the leader's shoulder, and suddenly the large group of people sees a gratifying glow in the sky; there are still some people lying on the ground, who may have fallen from injury and illness, and they also jump up with joy to celebrate with the crowd; the old man quietly watches the cheering crowd, and when everyone has gradually dispersed, he goes back to the cave again。

“Duluafi-Jokui-Wintua_Lakune...”

“Guchee-Butjko_Havique_Egutede...”

These simple frescoes gradually changed from a simple brown earth color to a black wood sap, white concrete, The content of the colorful murals of the broken flowers of the sun has also begun to be enriched: there is a map of the siege between the tribes, the old man stands in the center, his hands are spread, and not far away are the elite riders of the two tribes; the old man raises his arm, and the riders who are enemies of each other suddenly lose their weapons; the companions of these riders are surprised to drive forward to inquire, and see the old man's hand raised higher; all the riders who come close to the old man have dropped their weapons, dismounted and knelt down beside the old man; the leaders of the two tribes are very surprised, but their methods are very different; a tribal leader wants to lead the remaining tribes that have not submitted to the old man to retreat quicklyThe other leader sent his best archers to aim at the old man on the post; the arrow came out, and the old man was hit by the arrow, but he did not see the old man fall, and there was no trace of blood on his wounds, but he saw a rider of the same tribe as the archer in front of the old man suddenly fall; everyone looked at it again, and the old man had no arrow on him, and the arrow was somehow transferred to the rider, and the rider was killed; seeing that the leader who was not in a good situation hurried to collect the remnants, but the old man had already taken a step forward and walked towards him; the leader anxiously asked the surrounding soldiers to come forward to stop him, but found that anyone who walked to the old man would put down his weapon and kneel down to worship。

“Yalavi-Kiyomu_Sak-Du’uloqe...”

“Kohi-Dalabi_Fihan’nikoche...”

Walking in from outside the cave, the walls of the cave were slightly smoothed at first. The cave first goes upwards to protect it from the erosion of wind and sand. As you walk, the slope begins to become gentle, then completely level. By this time, the nearby murals had become more coarse carvings. The patterns on these carvings can be clearly seen, at that time it should be when the carving began to develop, the carving technique is relatively rough, and the wrong place can only be smoothed and re-engraved. The signs of alteration are obvious, but fortunately this is only a relief used to tell the story, as long as the story can be told clearly, it is okay to be ugly at all.

The number of engravings is relatively large, and the two sides of the entire flat and wide space are carved in this way. At first, there was a square house made of mud, and the old man seemed unwilling to live in such a house; the owner of the house was very angry and sent a group of slaves to capture the old man, but the old man controlled him and killed his master; the slaves who had lost their master fled in all directions, leaving only the old man helpless to return to the cave.

Further down, the level of engraving has increased significantly: you can see traces of ink lines on the edges of the picture, and there are signs of the use of strips on the ground at the bottom - that is used to distinguish the painting area, and part of it is covered after carving, so as not to damage the front part of the carving. The fineness of the carvings has also increased, and the number of people depicted and the number of chariots and horses has also increased exponentially, indicating that the tools used by the carvers are gradually becoming systematic. There are some celebrations depicted during this period, but these times the old men only watched from afar and did not participate in the crowd, and the clothing of the crowd evolved with the upgrading of carving techniques, at first it was still simple linen, then it gradually changed to animal necklace with accessories, and then cloth leather and headdress. The color of the engraving has gradually changed from pure carving to colored relief, and until the end of the wide corridor, you can even see the old man's eyes inlaid with shiny obsidian.

“Akuma_Liju’utafi-Shahe...”

“Tuopilo-Namil_Itiqure...”

Walking through the promenade, a gentle downhill area began to appear, which was already deep in the mountain, but you could see a beam of light shining in. The stone walls here have narrow ventilation ducts that open outward, one every forty steps. Instead of leading all the way out, which would only be blocked by the wind and sand, the ventilation duct was winding and filled with crystals to reflect light. The reason why these narrow ventilation ducts are used here is not the ventilation, but the need to bring in these lights.

The reason for this descent is that the descent is lined with golden murals - drawing panels made of pure gold. Most of the figures on the paintings are related to the heads of beasts, such as lion heads, elephant heads, horse heads, and a few people themselves, all of which are painted on the lower layer of the old man's image. The man had a hook and a bundle of chains in his hand, and a shining orb on his head, and he looked like some kind of god who was admired and worshipped, but he also looked at the old man in admiration. The image of the old man at this time is kind and kind, but I don't know why, looking at these golden murals, I can always feel that there is always a terrifying cold light flashing in the old man's eyes.

The downhill area is long in frescoes, and it is unknown how much gold was used to create such a splendid passageway. Walking downhill, you can see a natural sinkhole formed in the mountain, looking down is a pool of blue waterhole, when the light is good, you can see that there are groups of fish and shrimp inside, but the bottom of the water is a little dark, and I don't know what is underneath.

There is a circle of artificially dug plank roads by the waterhole, which are made of cold iron wood that does not rot for 10,000 years - you know, this plant is extremely rare in desert areas, but this whole plank road has to cut down at least a whole forest of trees before it can be laid, and its luxury can be seen. The plank road is wide and not difficult, and there are six people walking side by side, and there are half-height railings on both sides to protect it.

“Soubi-Kai’iluo_Mupusa-Tie...”

“Lru_Zeku’io_Lamira-Dihie...”

After walking through this perfect view of natural and man-made construction, you can enter a magnificent hall. The hall is made of all kinds of huge stones, and the prototype stone pillars on the front are as thick as ten people hugging each other, and at least forty people are as high. Obviously, these pillars were not brought in from the outside, but were carved out on the spot. However, unlike the previous frescoes, the way these stones are shaped is from the inside out. The outermost ones have exquisite reliefs and carvings, like the entire thickest stone pillar on the front is multi-pointed star-shaped, and if you count carefully, there should be 90 sharp corners. And the further you go in, the shape of the stone pillar becomes more and more crude, until in the end there are only two spindle-shaped cylinders that are thin at the end, thick in the middle, and its circumference is reduced by six or seven percent.

Looking into the main hall, you can see the continuous stairs from the bottom to the top, walking nearly a thousand steps to the top, it is a high-backed throne made of pure crystal, which is padded with thick and soft fur, but the figure of the old man can not be seen here, and the melodious national singing comes from the cave behind the throne.

“Hakun-Mie_Puxa’alie-Ye...”

"The green banks of the river, which were originally abundant,"

“Nakun’nuqe_Ho-Qikalofe...”

"Now the wind and sand are raging;"

“Hali-Eeeeh...”

"It's been a long time;"

“Poju_Mosaha-Yuuuh...”

"All the vicissitudes of life;"

“Kalun-Dizo_Fatua’akoye...”

"How much is going on here;"

“Safa-Yi_Lorabu-Giwe...”

"The words are not over;

“Halin_Tuvil-Kalipe...”

"Longevity;"

“Akuahi...”

"Sigh. ”

Between them, the old man leaned on the crutch that appeared in the many mural rock carvings, and looked through the glazed window into the wind-blown hills. This is an observation hole that was later opened from the outside in, with multiple layers of glass to block the wind and sand, and used to observe the outside scene for the old man to observe the outside is also the direction where the tribe he was born once existed.

The old man's age is no longer available, and people outside only know him as "99 years old". It is rumored that he has been ten thousand years old, from the time of ancient times when there was no writing, and he is still alive until now. There are also people who do not believe this rumor, because every certain period of time, the nearby tribe that has received the favor of the old man will send the wise young men of the clan to the cave to seek the old man's inheritance. But there are many people who oppose this matter: no one has ever seen a child come out again, some say that they have obtained the old man's inheritance and thus replaced the old man, that is, each generation of the old man is actually a different person, and some people think that the old man is actually some kind of old goblin, who specializes in sucking the essence blood of these children to prolong their lives.

But no matter what kind of speculation it is, once these nearby settlements encounter troubles that are difficult to solve, they will come back to this very old man for adjudication. And, every time, any time, troubles, can be solved. This makes no amount of speculation, doubt, or rumor in the settlement stop these people from trusting the old man.

When the tribesmen were in pain, sorrow, and depression, they came to the cave and offered certain offerings, whether they were fresh fruits and vegetables, freshly slaughtered animals, paraffin wax and lamp oil for lighting, and of course cloth for clothing. Place these things in the hidden stone altar in front of the cave, and at the same time put the emblem of your own tribe, and within half a day, the old man will come to the corresponding settlement, comfort the other in his special way, and each time it will be surprisingly effective - all the negative emotions of these sad people will disappear.

This continues to this day.

It was the day when several nearby settlements sent their boys to the cave, but it was hard to say if the young children had the tenacity of the nomads. The old man keenly noticed that after so many years, the breath of the children who came here had also undergone great changes, especially the last time, the one eighty years ago, when he felt for the first time the civility of these children, instead of the ignorance and confusion of not knowing the written language.

The world has changed, and an old man like him doesn't know if he can survive it. The same change took place in the nearby settlements: the low, mud-housed houses of the past were gradually disappearing and replaced by tall buildings that were all glowing, the cars in the streets were no longer drawn by cattle, and the old people could not even see that they were powered by Momo, and at night people no longer went to sleep early, and the streets were lit with bright balls and pillars of light, and young people sat under the balls of light, drinking the liquid from the green bottles, and in a moment they fell unconscious to the ground.

The wind and sand were still howling, and the old man no longer stood in front of the observation window, but walked to the passage on the other side with a cane. At the end of the passage was a stone platform that extended out into the pool, and the old man stood near the stone platform for a while, picked up a broom and gently swept the dust from it—this place had not been used for eighty years.

Every eighty years it would open again every eighty years, and each time there would be a group of young children standing there, and each time the children would look at him with a glint of longing for strength, and each time there would be eighty children standing here.

There was no sadness or joy on the old man's face, and after cleaning the stone platform, he turned around and walked towards the exit of the cave.

I don't know how long I walked, walked through the cave for observation, walked down the steps of the main hall, walked through the long plank road, crossed the calm pool, walked up the glorious slope, walked through the long stone carving corridor, and came to the downhill place at the entrance of the cave.

This is the wind and sand are gradually starting to get smaller, and the old man is not irritable, he knows that it will take some time before the children will come up.

Another few hours of his wait passed.

The old man had been sleeping with his eyes closed, and suddenly his eyes opened suddenly—he heard a small, but sharp, metallic grinding sound—and by his hearing, he knew distinctly that it was coming from 2,000 paces away from the entrance of the cave.

The old man's eyes were fixed in that direction, and in the distance, there were still grains of sand in the air, which did not interfere with his vision, and he could clearly see that a low machine, no more than half a man tall, was heading this way. At this time, he heard the same sound coming from several other directions, and there was also a "fluttering" sound in the air. The old man looked into the air again, and saw that it was a light machine with four small spinning pieces flying in this direction.

The old man didn't know what these things were, he had never seen them before, but from the wisdom of his years, these were the same type of precision war machines.

In the long life of the old man, it was not without encounters with robbers who came to explore the secrets of his long life, but these people were finally tamed by him. Only this time there was something different: the other party didn't send a "person" at all, and his abilities were of no use to these dead things. And the old man knew that even if he hid in the winding cave, the dead things would be able to find him - and he didn't know if the other party's machinery had the kind of flint that exploded at the touch of a button, and if it exploded in the cave, it would bury him directly.

Fortunately, he still had a way to escape - last year, one of the offerings he received was a diving suit, and in his wisdom, even if he had not studied the words marked on it, he learned the meaning of those words by reckoning and simulating - thanks mainly to the illustrated instructions for the wetsuit equipment. The wetsuit uses a decarbonized oxygen tank: it absorbs exhaled exhaust air and converts it into air that a person can breathe. Judging by the notes on the instructions, this oxygen tank was enough for him to swim from the bottom of the pool to another cavern with an outlet tens of thousands of paces away, which was his backup base.

However, his body may not be able to support him for long: without children coming to show him his abilities, he will at best be able to sustain himself until the end of the year. The old man's eyes burst with unwillingness, but he was not slow—not at all like an old man, but a little faster than a young man—and he hurried back to the back of the throne to fetch his diving suit, and then came to the stone platform and dressed himself.

However, the old man did not jump directly into the pool, but pulled open a dark board next to it, and a wooden ladder to avoid the water fell into the water. He slid down the wooden ladder into the water, put on his diving goggles and breathing apparatus, turned on the oxygen and ventilation knobs, and then jerked the wooden ladder, and the dark board closed again.

The old man slowly submerged in the water, first letting the old bone get used to the buoyancy in the water. Looking to the bottom of the water, there were thousands of bones - all the bones of children he had thrown down after using his powers, and I don't know how many skeletons had accumulated here over the years.

The old man did not pay attention to the condition of the bottom of the water, and swam at an extremely fast speed towards a dark river opening that opened downward. After a short time in the water, he swam near a barred cliff. He came ashore with a "whoosh", but he didn't take off his breathing apparatus - the air here was barely breathable. He walked to the cliff, took out a metal key from a hidden pocket of his diving suit, inserted it into a small hole in the cliff, twisted it counterclockwise, and only heard a "click" sound, the key connected to the original circuit hidden in the cliff, drove the machine, and popped out of the cliff a step 4 palms wide and 2 palms thick.

The old man pulled out the key and began to climb the steps. When he had gone up completely, the steps began to "click" and retract one by one - this was all pre-calculated time, and if there were pursuers behind him, there would never be enough time to come up.

After going up the cliff, there is another waterhole, and the current here is more rapid. However, the old man, who was familiar with the road, did not immediately enter the water, but touched a place with a linen rope tied to the side, and from there he entered the water, and the water speed was not so urgent.

After a long trek against the current, the old man finally arrived at his reserve base. He swam out of this side of the river and prepared to go ashore.

And the moment he came out of the water, he saw a long black tube appear in front of him, and next to it was still ringing in a language he had never heard before. Seeing that he didn't react, the black tube suddenly spewed out a sharp object, and he couldn't dodge it with a skill like him, and it was pierced through the left side of the heart in an instant.

The old man fell into the water, sank to the bottom, and as he died, the experience of his life flashed before his eyes, the first of which was the year he first remembered.

He was 11 years old.