The weak ones in the forest were the most vulnerable to attacks, so Shao Xuan had been paying attention to the surroundings. He was just an underage kid, and in the eyes of the beasts and ferocious beasts, he was one of the two weakest in the team.
When they crossed the basin, it was almost evening. Shao Xuan thought that there would be a cave for them to rest in. After all, the rule of the hunting team was not to hunt at night, and it was too dangerous to stay outside. Without a cave to rest in, they would feel insecure.
To Shao Xuan's surprise, the cave of the second hunting ground was not on this side.
The second hunting ground was on the other side of the mountain, but …
Shao Xuan raised his head and looked at the mountain. He could not see the top of the mountain, nor the border. It was too difficult to climb over. Even with the strong strength of a totem warrior, he might not be able to climb over in a day, not to mention it was already late. In the forest near the foot of the mountain, there were already many shining eyes staring at them.
The hunting team led by Mai did not stop there, but kept going up the mountain.
There was indeed a cave near the mountainside. It was a big cave, but it was not formed naturally, nor was it dug by the people in the tribe. It was dug out by some kind of creature.
To be exact, it was actually a passage. Every time the hunting team came here, they would enter from here. They could walk to the other side of the mountain, and directly go through the mountain.
On the wall near the entrance of the cave, there were many carved words. At the end, Shao Xuan saw Mai's name.
Every hunting team leader would write his name on the wall when he passed through here. So, all the names on the wall were written by the previous hunting team leaders. When Mai could no longer lead the team, and a new hunting team leader was selected, the new hunting team leader would also write his name on the wall when he came here. In their eyes, this was a symbol of honor.
Before entering the cave, the hunting team would hold a small ceremony to thank the ancestors who had opened up this hunting route.
Mai put down the long spear in his hand by his feet, and knelt down on one knee, with his palms facing inward and his hands crossed in front of his forehead. He kowtowed to the wall full of names.
"To our ancestors!!"
"To you!"
Shao Xuan followed the other hunting team members and bowed to show his gratitude.
It was said that the route taken by each hunting group was taken by their ancestors. A long time ago, when the tribe was short of manpower, there were not so many hunting groups. Every time they went out to hunt, they would change their routes. This time, they would take this route, next time, they would go that route, and the next time, they would change the route again.
Later on, when there were more people in the tribe, they divided into several hunting groups. Every hunting route opened up by the ancestors had a hunting group going in that direction.
The reason why they had to follow the route was to avoid those unknown and unpredictable factors. What kind of beasts were on each hunting route? How many ferocious beasts were there? What was the geographical environment like? All of these could be learned from the experiences of generations of hunting warriors. If they deviated too much from this path, they wouldn't be able to react in time, which would lead to greater losses.
Of course, the hunting route was only a general direction. Based on this, they could do whatever they wanted. For example, Mai's hunting group's route was to climb over the mountain where the first stronghold was, then cross the basin, and then walk past the current mountain to reach the other side.
As for some people in the tribe who had their own ideas and wanted to open up a new route, they could only dream about it when the Shaman and the Chief made a joint decision.
What? You want to open up a new hunting route by yourself?
Are you better than our ancestors?
Absolutely impossible!
A new route can't be opened up so easily. Do you think this route is not good?
How dare you! How dare you doubt our ancestors! Believe it or not, I'll beat you to death!
…
People in the tribe were always very persistent about the things passed down by their ancestors. Even if there were many decisions that Shao Xuan didn't think were appropriate, people in the tribe didn't think they were wrong at all.
In addition to being loyal to the totem, people in the tribe also worshipped and trusted their ancestors, which was beyond Shao Xuan's imagination. Even if their ancestors climbed out of the ground and told them that there was only one moon in the sky, people in the tribe would nod without hesitation.
This was also the result of the Shaman's brainwashing education, which was passed down from generation to generation.
Every hunting group leader of each generation always felt that only by going through all the routes that their ancestors had taken, could they live up to their ancestors' reputation, and also be worthy of the hunting route that their ancestors had opened up. Looking at the names written on the stone wall at the entrance of the cave, it was clear that those hunting groups all had the same idea.
After entering the cave, they lit the fire. The hunting group didn't go further in. According to their previous habits, they would spend the night at the entrance of the cave, and go in the next morning. It would take some time to go through this cave, because it was not a straight path.
"How did this cave that leads to the other side of the mountain come about?" Shao Xuan asked Lang Ga when they were resting around the fire.
"When our ancestors found this place, the cave already existed. It was said that there was a king stoneworm at the foot of the mountain, and all the winding paths in the mountain were made by it." Lang Ga said.
"Stoneworm?!" Shao Xuan was very surprised. This circular path was at least ten meters high, and according to Mai and the others, besides the paths that connected the two sides of the mountain, there were many other paths that led to the underground or the top of the mountain. It was really hard to imagine that such a large scale of holes in the cave was made by a stoneworm!
How big must it be?!
It couldn't be compared with the stoneworms that were used as bait!
However, this should be the story passed down by the ancestors who first came here to open up the hunting route. As for whether there really was a stoneworm or not, it still needed to be verified.
"Then … have any of our ancestors seen the stoneworm at the foot of the mountain?" Shao Xuan asked. It had been many years since the first hunting group came here to open up the hunting route. Even if the hunting group didn't stay here for long, someone must have seen it, right?
"No." Lang Ga saw that Shao Xuan was still doubtful, so he said, "But listen, there are sounds coming from the cave, so there must be a king stoneworm."
Shao Xuan tilted his head and listened carefully. There were indeed some faint whistling sounds, but it wasn't necessarily caused by the stone worms. Since there were many caves in the mountain, if the wind blew in from one cave and out from the other caves, there would still be the same sound.
There were still many doubts in his heart, but looking at Lang Ga, Shao Xuan wouldn't get an answer even if he asked. Not wanting to argue with these stubborn people, Shao Xuan asked, "What's on the other side of the mountain? What's the difference between here and here? "
As expected, Lang Ga's attention was quickly diverted.
"Different? Actually, the biggest difference is that there are many huge birds on the other side of the mountain. " Lang Ga stretched out his arms and gestured. Although the length of his arms was limited, Shao Xuan knew from his exaggerated expression that they must be really, really huge.
In fact, thinking about it carefully, Shao Xuan found that from the time he entered the forest until now, he had rarely seen large raptors. Although many of them were already huge in Shao Xuan's eyes, according to Lang Ga's description, there were even bigger and fiercer raptors on the other side of the mountain. The feathers on the heads of some warriors during the Snow Festival ceremony were probably hunted on the other side of the mountain.
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