Chapter 10 Baby Falls

After eliminating this hidden danger, Zhou Cheng could finally sleep peacefully.

It was only around four or five in the afternoon, still early for dark. But after a sleepless night and a day of intense mental stress, Zhou Cheng was beginning to feel overwhelmed.

After making some food to share with the little monkey, Zhou Cheng carefully locked the door and went straight into his sleeping bag and fell asleep.

When Zhou Cheng woke up, he looked outside and saw bright light coming into his eyes through the tent.

It didn't seem dark yet.

Um?

A hint of doubt flashed through Zhou Cheng's mind.

I feel like I have slept for a long time, why is it not dark yet?

Zhou Cheng took out his cell phone and saw that it was seven o'clock in the morning. He suddenly realized.

It turned out that I slept too long and it was already the next morning.

After a good night's sleep, my energy and physical strength have returned to their peak.

When I left the tent, I saw that the little monkey had already gotten up and was jumping around and playing in the cave.

"Are you starving? I'll cook right away."

After making some simple preparations and having a hearty meal with the little monkey, the man and the monkey left the cave again and headed straight for the excavation site.

The rain the night before yesterday had made the excavation site a muddy mess. Fortunately, Zhou Cheng had dug a drainage ditch at the beginning, so there was no water accumulation here.

But even so, the subsequent excavation work began to become difficult.

The soil had turned to mud, and the water-soaked earth was much heavier, so every swing of the shovel required more effort than before.

The sun gradually climbed to the center of the sky. Even though it was already autumn, Zhou Cheng still felt a little hot.

As the water vapor rose, the humidity increased significantly. The humidity, heat, and heavy physical labor made Zhou Cheng very uncomfortable.

But Zhou Cheng continued digging mechanically like a robot, without any slowdown due to the harsh environment.

He had long been accustomed to this kind of situation. He had even experienced worse pain countless times.

During the continuous digging, the shovel hit something again.

It seems to be a stone.

Picking up a small shovel, Zhou Cheng cleaned it carefully and saw that it was not a stone, but a stone slab that had obviously been specially processed.

There are some things carved on it.

This means it has some value and must be examined carefully.

Taking it out and facing the sun, Zhou Cheng saw a circle carved on it. Within the circle, the image of a human baby was depicted with just a few strokes.

Below this pattern were simple depictions of human figures, all kneeling on the ground, bowing in worship towards the circle.

Shaking his head, Zhou Cheng put it aside and started digging again.

Zhou Cheng has discovered many Yangjiagou tribal artifacts carved with this pattern in the past few months.

Some of them are on stone slabs, some on jade, and some on bronze and pottery. The contents are similar, all of which are human babies in a circle and people worshiping below.

Combining his archaeological knowledge, Zhou Cheng believed after careful analysis that this showed the scene when the ancestors of the Yangjiagou tribe were performing fertility worship.

The circle represents the moon - the reason why Zhou Cheng is sure that it is the moon and not the sun is because the image of the sun carved by the Yangjiagou tribe has some line segments around it representing light, but the moon does not have that.

The baby figure within the circle embodies the Moon God's power over fertility. The crowd below pays homage to him, worshiping him.

In addition to patterns of worshiping the moon god, Zhou Cheng also discovered many portraits of worshiping other gods, such as the god of the sky, the sun god, the mountain god, etc.

The newly discovered stone tablet is no different from the previously discovered images of moon worship and has no value.

Zhou Cheng continued digging until the sun set again.

After returning to the cave filled with ancient artifacts such as skeletons, stone tools, and pottery, Zhou Cheng did not rest, but began to study those artifacts again, trying to find some new discoveries.

It was not until after ten o'clock that Zhou Cheng began to rest.

On the second day, the excavation continued. On the third day, on the fourth day...

On this day, Zhou Cheng dug up another stone slab.

A quick glance revealed that the image depicted was still of the Yangjiagou tribe worshipping the moon god.

It's of no value.

Zhou Cheng was about to throw it aside, but at that moment, he suddenly realized that the image on the stone slab seemed slightly different from before.

Taking it back again and observing it carefully for a while in the sunlight, Zhou Cheng finally found the difference.

There is still a round moon above the stone slab, and there are still people worshipping below.

But... the image of a human baby that was present in every previous moon pattern is not present in the moon pattern on this stone slab.

The image of the baby appeared below the moon, appearing to be falling downwards.

Zhou Cheng's pupils suddenly constricted.

The human baby that originally appeared on the moon fell down and left the moon?

It was clearly in the moon before, but now it fell down...

The image of the baby is in the moon, which is a manifestation of the moon god holding the power of reproduction. So at this moment, the ancestors of the Yangjiagou tribe believed that the moon god had lost the power of reproduction, so the baby image fell?

Recalling the various patterns he had discovered before and combining them with his research on the beliefs of the Yangjiagou tribe, Zhou Cheng had not found any descriptions of gods losing or gaining power.

It seems that which gods have which powers are fixed from birth.

At this moment, then, this image may have another interpretation.

Did the Moon Goddess "throw" the human baby down?

What does this mean?

The Moon Goddess holds the power of fertility.

The Moon Goddess used the authority she held to throw the human baby off her body.

Of course, Zhou Cheng would not believe that there really was a Moon God or that he held any power.

This is just a speculative and sacred explanation of the nature of heaven and earth made by our ancestors who were in a state of ignorance and did not have enough scientific knowledge.

"Thunder is the anger of Thunder God, and rain is the spraying of water by Dragon King" is the embodiment of this explanation model.

Zhou Cheng believes that the ancestors of the Yangjiagou tribe would not deviate from this explanatory pattern either.

So……

On this stone slab, a human baby falls from the moon, which holds the power of reproduction. To explain what phenomenon did the ancestors of the Yangjiagou tribe create this pattern?

What do they want to explain with this pattern, this hypothesis?

Zhou Cheng gradually realized something, and his heart began to beat violently.

The answer seems obvious: there is only one.

The ancestors of the Yangjiagou tribe, like human civilization today, also lost their ability to reproduce.