The Human History of Those Gods: A Continuous Stream

He only had a slight understanding of wilderness survival. During the summer camp in his second year of junior high school, Sun Wuliang encouraged him to sign up for a wilderness experience camp. The camp was held on an island called Laoliping, and the duration was 6 days and 7 nights. The experience officer was an American wilderness survival expert, whose name Liang Song had already forgotten.

All he remembered was that his first day's task was to build a shelter. Several children were given two handsaws and took turns sawing off some tree branches about the thickness of a thumb. By the time they dragged the branches back, the shelter's framework was already in place, and the sawn branches were laid out on the frame. He couldn't remember what he ate at all; it was as if he had never eaten insects before.

Before the camp ended, he was picked up by Shi Yufen. That night, she dreamed that Liang Song fell off a cliff while picking wild fruits. The strong sense of reality made her cry and scream all the way to the principal's office. The huge impact forced the principal to personally go to the island to pick up Liang Song. When he left, he was greeted by a procession of people, because he and Sun Wuliang had just stolen and eaten all the food stored by the entire team.

Outdoor activities became popular as an adult, but he wasn't very interested, mostly due to his less-than-perfect experiences during his time in Laoliping.

According to Liang Song's plan, climbing over the mountains towards the sun would lead him back to the ancestral hall where he and Li Jushuang lived. However, after entering a broad-leaved forest, he seemed to lose his way.

He couldn't quite explain why he kept climbing upwards. The forest gradually became drier, and the ground was covered with thick, large patches of fallen leaves. Walking on them felt like walking on the back of a sleeping, scaly monster. Occasionally, large-winged birds would flutter through the forest, startling a few squirrels who would peek out from their tree holes. Liang Song then remembered the squirrels storing food in their tree holes, but the trees were too tall for him to climb.

Turning around, I saw an animal, I couldn't tell if it was a muntjac or a serow, darting quietly through the bushes, and in the distance came the sharp cries of monkeys.

No wonder some people say that the mountains are under the rule of the gods.

Liang Song tightened his shoes and continued forward. The midday sun shone through the trees, casting dappled patterns on the ground through the gaps in the leaves. It was early spring, and the woods weren't humid; the fallen leaves underfoot were dry. Would there be snakes? Were they still hibernating at this time of year?

He seemed to remember Jiang Hai or someone else, who used to keep a corn snake, often carrying it in his shirt pocket. Jiang Hai always had a smile on his face, and he never knew what he was plotting. Jiang Hai, He Huanhuan, Sun Wuliang, Chen Yuan... Liang Song's mind was in a mess, with more than a dozen faces flashing before his eyes like a revolving lantern.

Suddenly, his foot slipped, and he fell hard. The rocks scraped against his body. He tried to grab something, but the walls were slippery. He could only keep his muscles clenched and his body curled up to minimize the impact of the landing.

Liang and Song fell heavily to the bottom of the pit.

He wiped the mud off his face, and the sunlight shone through the pit, illuminating his face with a blinding glare.

It was a huge tree hole, but fortunately it wasn't too deep. He looked up and estimated the distance from the bottom to the top of the hole, which was about four meters deep. If he could find something to stand on and hook onto the intertwined tree roots above, he should be able to climb up.

He sat up, brushed aside the fallen leaves covering him, and found his left foot stuck in a pile of rubble. He tried to pull his foot out, and after a few wiggles, it loosened a little. He took a breath, suddenly released his grip, and his foot was free. As the dust settled, some grayish-white stones in the rubble looked somewhat familiar. He nervously squatted down and used his hands to clear away the soil and fallen leaves, revealing a densely packed pile of human bones before him.

The flat pieces were likely the scapula, while the long, thin pieces were probably the radius or tibia, mixed among the broken skull and humerus, emitting a strange, slightly fishy smell.

Do the mountain spirits eat people?

Liang Song's head buzzed.

A snowy night, mountain spirits, anesthetics, and that eerie ritual.

More wild thoughts surged into his head. This must be a band of mountain bandits, at least three people. Besides the mountain spirit, there might also be her deceased master, her missing martial uncle, or other helpers or women captured to work. After all, raising a child in the mountains is not easy, and a woman is always needed to take care of their daily needs.

They lived in that dilapidated Taoist temple and had been engaged in the ancient business of murder and robbery for many years. They would try to kidnap any lone traveler and take them to the temple, first robbing them of their valuables and then killing and eating them. They survived by doing this business until a few years ago when the mountain spirit's master passed away and his uncle probably went down the mountain to find his own way to make a living. The group dispersed, leaving only the mountain spirit alone and weak. So, when he tried to ambush and kill him, he failed.

He panicked for a moment, then remembered that his immediate priority was to climb up, find a way out of the mountain, and then call the police. The cave entrance was about four meters high, with a mud wall made of tree roots on one side, but the ground was loose and offered no foothold. He tried to climb several times, but failed each time.

This cave and this mountain, like a natural prison, locked him tightly inside.

He sat down to rest for a while. He hadn't driven his newly bought Pagani yet, hadn't gone on a date with Song Yoon-ah, whom he had just met, and hadn't inherited the Zhiguan Group's empire or started a family line. Was he really going to die in these mountains?

He looked up and thought how good it would be to have a tool to shovel away the tangled soil around the tree roots, so he could have something to hold onto. He looked around and pulled a grayish-white leg bone from the pile of bones.

The soil was hard, and the leg bones were somewhat loose.

He dug for a while, but realized he wasn't doing it right, only making his palms numb and sore. He grimaced and cursed a few times, nothing more than vulgarities cursing the mountain spirit's ancestors for eighteen generations. As he was cursing, he suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck. Instinctively, he looked up and saw a face quietly facing him from the edge of the pit.

Li Jushuang.

"You killed these people?" As soon as the words left his mouth, Liang Song felt incredibly stupid.

The two people stared at each other, one above the other.

Suddenly, Li Jushuang's face disappeared, and Liang Song shouted angrily, "Hey, mountain spirit, where are you going?" All around was quiet, and the only footsteps had also disappeared. Where could the mountain spirit go? Naturally, it wanted to trap him here. It wasn't afraid that Li Jushuang would come in and kill him. If the mountain spirit didn't use underhanded tricks, it would definitely not be his match, but if it was trapped in the cave, it would only face death.

He forced himself to cheer up, thinking that as long as he could climb out of the pit, there would be a way to leave. So he piled up the fallen leaves and soil under his feet and tamped it down with his feet, trying to give himself a higher foothold.

Bang, bang.

Just then, a long branch suddenly slid down from above, tapping him on the head with a thud. He looked up, and the mountain spirit struggled to hold the branch out to him.

"This is the mass grave from the Battle of Molan Pass before Deng Ai entered Sichuan," Li Jushuang said in a stiff voice. "Do you know Deng Ai? He's the one who secretly crossed Yinping, took Chengdu, and destroyed Shu Han. There were no trees here before, just some wild azaleas. After the battle, they killed the prisoners and threw them into this tree pit. Back then, the tree pit wasn't this deep. It was open, and there were corpses for hundreds of meters."

"Later, mountain birds brought tree seeds, and for a very long time there was enough rain, so the tree slowly grew. Many years later, the leaves fell layer by layer and slowly turned into soil, and the cave entrance became higher and smaller."

Liang Song was pulled up by Li Jushuang and followed behind her somewhat shyly. Yes, they were all withered and rotten human bones, piled up here for who knows how many years, leaving only the smell of soil.

"You've been following me all this way?" "No, I haven't." Li Jushuang seemed a little angry; he wanted to change the subject but didn't know how to begin. After a while, he said, "Are there tigers in the mountains?"

Li Jushuang didn't answer, so he continued rambling on: "If there aren't tigers, there will always be lions, leopards, or something. Wolves, there will always be wolves. Aren't you afraid living alone in the mountains?"

The only sound was the crunch of two footsteps on fallen leaves, like someone whispering mockery at Liang Song. Liang Song stopped, his footsteps becoming lighter. He was a little embarrassed: "Hey, do you have to be so petty? When I fell into the hole, I was terrified. I thought... I thought I'd never see you again..."

Li Jushuang also stopped, her face cold and stern. She turned back to stare at Liang Song, seemingly judging whether he was telling the truth. Liang Song raised his eyebrows, grinned, and a ray of sunlight shone on the corner of his mouth, making his expression appear exceptionally sincere.

After a while, Li Jushuang asked, "Didn't you think those people were killed by mountain spirits?"

Li Jushuang turned around and started walking again, and Liang Song quickly followed a few steps.

The mountains and fields were deserted. Liang Song deliberately stomped on the leaves loudly: "I was panicking, wasn't I? I'm just a city bumpkin. I've hardly ever seen rice or corn in my life. Suddenly I was in the mountains and fell into a cave. Wow, the whole cave was filled with bones under the soil. The skulls were white and round. I've never seen anything like that before. You tell me, Li Jushuang?"

Li Jushuang ignored him, and he continued awkwardly, "Mountain spirit? What mountain spirit? Oh, you mean Nandou? Nandou is just a cat, how could it possibly kill someone?" From his angle, he could just see Li Jushuang's fair neck, with fine strands of hair on it that shone gently.

Li Jushuang's shoulders relaxed, and Liang Song knew he wasn't so angry anymore. He caught up with him and bumped him with his shoulder: "Don't be angry. A real man shouldn't be so petty. You burned me with fire, and I didn't even get angry with you, did I? By the way, I caught a crab! Huh? Where's my crab? Hey, where's my crab?"

------

Sun Wuliang did not enter the mountain.

According to Shihe's plan, they split into two groups.

Led by Shi He and Wang Lantian, the team, consisting of 132 people including the local rescue team, entered the mountains from Cankou. They were divided into groups of five and searched along different routes. Wang Lantian was in the first group, while Shi He camped at Langang to provide supplies for the search and rescue team.

The other team, consisting of only two people led by Sun Wuliang, went to Qibei Town to find and meet Liang Song. If Liang Song had already arrived in Qibei Town, or if Liang Song arrived in Qibei Town during the search and rescue operation, Sun Wuliang could provide immediate assistance.

If they couldn't reach Liang and Song, Sun Wuliang sought support in Qibei and began a search and rescue operation from there. Nanping wasn't far from Qibei town as the crow flies, but the road conditions were terrible.

The only highway was built in 1953, and no other roads have been built since. Because of the constant transport of goods, heavy trucks run on this road all year round. The excessive weight has caused potholes everywhere on the road surface. Coupled with rockfalls, mudslides, and landslides, it can be said to be the highway with the worst road conditions in the country.