"Strong Arm" was woken up by a series of "ding ding dang dang" sounds.
This was the beginning of the Chaos, the beginning of the Primordial Chaos. The world was dark, volcanoes erupted everywhere, and black smoke filled the air. While the earth was shaking, it also brought about rich nutrients. Forests grew unbridled, and birds and beasts roamed freely. Strong Arm, the spirit of all things with initial intelligence and social nature, was born. He was a caveman who drank raw meat and drank blood.
"Strong Arm" was the leader of the twenty to thirty cavemen in this cave. As a distant relative of early humans, their bodies were muscular, and their faces and shoulders were horizontally developed. Their bodies were covered in long hair, and their hands and feet were wrapped in developed muscles. Rather than calling them humans, they were more like gorillas standing upright.
The cavemen's forehead was tilted backward, but their lower jaw protruded forward. This skull structure gave them a developed bite force, but it also limited their brain capacity and the development of wisdom. Therefore, they had not learned how to make exquisite tools, let alone learn how to plant and animal husbandry. They only made rough stone axes, wooden spears, and bone sticks. Every day, they chased prey and gathered fruits.
Chasing prey required abundant energy. If they were sleepy, the prey might escape, or if they forgot to distinguish the footprints of ferocious beasts, the consequences would be unimaginable. As the leader of the cavemen, Strong Arm's sleep was a matter of life and death for the entire tribe.
Therefore, when he was woken up before dawn, Strong Arm accumulated a belly full of anger and was also filled with high vigilance. The hair all over his body stood up like a chimpanzee's, and a "lu lu lu lu" sound came from the depths of his chest.
The other men in the cave, or rather, the male cavemen, were also woken up by this strange sound.
"No hair", "One more", "Pig's claw", the men looked at each other, and then turned their turbid eyes to their leader. They curled their fingers and gestured, asking Strong Arm, "What's going on?"
The "ding ding dong dong" sound came from the deepest part of the cave. At the end of the darkness, there was a faint flickering flame!
This cave was warm, rugged, and long. It was the best place for the cavemen to live.
However, the cave was slanted downwards, deeper and deeper, and there was nothing at the end. It was not suitable for living, and it was impossible for a "divine tree" to be struck by lightning and ignite into a raging fire.
These cave dwellers were still trying to figure out the mysteries of fire. They had an instinctive curiosity and reverence toward flames.
Although the light was weak, it was enough to stimulate the eyes of all the cave dwellers, causing them to shrink to the size of a pin.
Strong Arm rubbed his sharp canine teeth and picked up the slightly polished stone axe. He made a hand gesture and crawled to the end of the cave with the male cave dweller.
Very soon, they saw a torch made of pine cones, beast oil, and bone rods. It was a torch that was far ahead of its time. It burned for a long time, and there was almost no smoke. It even emitted a very pleasant smell.
The flames stung their eyes, causing their pores to shrink, their muscles to stiffen, and their breathing to become difficult. Even the strongest and boldest leader, Strong Arm, almost cried out in alarm and fled like a rat.
But what surprised them even more was that under the flickering flames, there was a thin and small figure.
"It's Crooked Neck!"
The Extra One, who had six fingers on his right hand, danced and gestured to the Strong Arm, trying to ease each other's tension.
These early cavemen had yet to grasp the ability to speak. Their rough throats could only let out strange roars that formed short syllables. The flames that were baring their fangs and brandishing their claws tightly sealed their throats, not daring to let out the slightest sound.
Strong Arm didn't need to say anything as he could recognize it.
Crooked Neck was the weakest cave dweller in this small cave.
If the other cave dwellers were chimpanzees and Strong Arm was a gorilla, then Crooked Neck was a hairless monkey.
Such a thin and weak cave dweller originally did not have the right to survive in the cruel primordial era.
But although he was thin and weak, his running speed was very fast. He was also good at polishing stone axes, making stone spears, and various other strange things. Many times, he could even smell the scent of ferocious beasts. In order to prevent the hunting team from being wiped out, Strong Arm forced him to stay.
Other than being thin and weak, Crooked Neck also had a problem that was not a problem. Every night, he rarely slept. Instead, he liked to run outside in the pitch-black wilderness. He would tilt his neck and look at the starry sky. Looking at the bright stars in the sky, he would sink into deep thought.
Outside the cave, under the night sky, was the world of ferocious beasts. Saber-toothed tigers, long-haired lions, and the omnipresent wolf packs and giant ancient boars. It was unknown how Crooked Neck avoided the attacks of so many ferocious beasts.
Fortunately, this early cave dweller tribe had not developed a primitive religion. Otherwise, an alien like Crooked Neck would definitely be treated as a "demon" by the tribesmen. They would throw him down the cliff to please the gods.
Actually, according to the naming rules of the cave dwellers, Crooked Neck should be called "stargazing".
However, the barren brains of these cave dwellers were still unable to understand the concept of heaven and earth. They also did not know what exactly was flashing in the sky when the night sky fell. In their eyes, it was just a meaningless little light.
Their short syllables and the arrangement of their ten fingers were unable to describe such a profound concept as "stars". They could only habitually call this thin and weak fellow "Crooked Neck".
Including Strong Arm, all of the cave dwellers knew that Crooked Neck was an alien in their tribe. But no one would have thought that Crooked Neck would be so strange. Under the illumination of the fire, he was doing something that no one had seen before. It was indescribable and incomprehensible.
He was painting.
First, he used a sharp stone spear to carve out rough lines on the limestone. Then, he used various ores that were ground together with water, blood, and oil to paint the lines. A primitive, simple, crude, and crude mural that was full of vitality appeared before the eyes of the cave dwellers.
In the dark and chaotic sea of thought of the cave dwellers, there was no space for art, religion, or imagination to run rampant. As the leader, Strong Arm should immediately stop Crooked Neck's absurd actions. However, his throat and strong arms were tightly gripped by an invisible force. He could not roar or wave his arms. He could only stare blankly.
As he stared, the light of wisdom, like clear spring water, seemed to flow from Crooked Neck's fingers into Strong Arm's narrow brain chamber. It allowed him to vaguely understand the meaning of this mural.
Crooked Neck first drew many small figures at the bottom of the mural. These small figures brandished stone axes and long spears, as if they were chasing … wild boars and wild cows. That, that was their daily life. That represented them!
Then, Crooked Neck drew many small dots at the top of the mural. Surrounding the dots were radiating lines that constantly spread out. Those were the things that hung high in the sky: the sun, the moon, and the stars.
Finally, Crooked Neck drew many dotted lines from the small figures that represented them, all the way to the sun, the moon, and the stars in the sky. At the end of the dotted lines, he drew many arrows.
What did this mean? Did it mean that they, the cave dwellers who had just transformed from mud dots, would one day be able to fly to the sun, the moon, and the stars?
Strong Arm did not know.
He only felt that there were many new concepts, new words, new images, and bizarre fantasies that continuously poured into the depths of his brain. Or rather, they simply poured out from the depths of his brain.
The sun, the moon, the stars, the sky, the earth, the universe, flying, exploring … He really wanted to find a new way to express these concepts to his clansmen. Then, together with his clansmen, they would search for a way to fly to the sun.
Strong Arm was drowned by this huge, deep, distant, and ever-changing world. Clear tears flowed out from the corners of his turbid eyes. He stood there blankly, his stone axe unknowingly falling to the ground.
His clansmen, "one more", "hairless", "pig claw" … Everyone was the same.
Crooked Neck finished the mural. His ten fingers were already worn out, and the last stroke was completely dyed in blood.
He turned his head and looked at his clansmen who were dumbstruck and deep in thought. He grinned. His smile was incomparably brilliant, pure, and peaceful.
Taking advantage of the fact that his clansmen were still in a daze and unable to control themselves, Crooked Neck quietly slipped into the shadows where the torches could not reach. He stuck close to the cave wall, bypassed his clansmen, and walked towards the cave entrance.
He tiptoed and walked very carefully. He did not want to wake up the women and children who were still sleeping soundly.
Crooked Neck pushed away the rocks that were blocking the cave entrance, and once again sealed the cave from the outside. Only then did he walk step by step into the wilderness of dawn.
The sun had yet to rise, but waves of red light were already rising from the horizon, outlining the steep, majestic, and soul-stirring mountain ridge.
The river flowed, and all living things woke up. Gradually, the roars of beasts and the chirping of birds could be heard from afar, forming an ancient chorus.
Crooked Neck looked at all of this with reluctance. He took a deep breath, curled his hands, and licked his saliva. For the last time, he carefully combed his hair.
Under the illumination of the morning sun, the fur all over his body exuded a bright red color. In the depths of the red, there was a faint trace of golden light. He was clearly a frail monkey, but he exuded a soul-stirring aura that even the heavens and earth could not conceal.
Suddenly, he stopped combing and carefully groped around. From between his hair, he pinched out a flea.
He habitually wanted to pinch it to death, but after thinking for a while, he curled his fingers and flicked the flea out into the wilderness of endless possibilities.
The rocks that were blocking the cave behind him were pushed away once again, and the hurried roars of Strong Arm and the others could be heard.
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