Hengji Mountain is 120 kilometers away from the tribe. Because there are no roads in the Gobi Desert, the convoy took three hours to reach the foot of the mountain.
Having grown accustomed to the yellow sand and Gobi Desert along the way, I felt somewhat out of place when I saw Hengji Mountain.
Hengji Mountain is not high, with its highest point only about forty or fifty meters high. It is not particularly steep and doesn't look imposing at all, but it is quite large in area.
Compared to the surrounding Gobi Desert, this mountain is covered with lush trees, like a piece of jade embedded in the Gobi.
Without any human interference, the plants here grow wildly, and from the outside, the forest appears pitch black.
After the two trucks stopped, Wei Shengnan walked over with four disciples of the Wei family: "Brother Lin, what do you think we need to do next?"
"The terrain here is complex and varied, and the host and guests share a similar sentiment, so it is not suitable for burial. Previously, I could only see an aerial view on the map, but the terrain here is even more complicated than I expected."
Qu Ruilin looked at Hengji Mountain with a solemn expression: "Let's go up the mountain first."
Wei Shengnan turned around and shouted, "Everyone, grab your equipment. The two local drivers will stay and watch the cars. The rest of you, head into the mountains!"
I took a backpack out of the car, put it on, and waved to the monkey: "Take the rest of our stuff!"
The monkey walked over and picked up a travel bag: "Young Master Duan, what did that pretty boy mean when he said this place was complicated?"
"Pretty boy" is the nickname Monkey gave Qu Ruilin. Ever since he found out that Qu Ruilin had fought with me, he has been shouting to avenge me. Although he definitely can't beat Qu Ruilin, given his personality, if I hadn't stopped him, he really would have done it.
Seeing that the others were already preparing to enter the mountains, I followed them with my travel bag and explained to him, "What Qu Ruilin said is from the Book of Burial. This mountain range is uneven, with the main peak and the ridges being as chaotic as each other, without any hierarchy. It is an absolutely unsuitable place for burial."
The monkey muttered, "If you ask me, the ancients were just too much trouble. When a person dies, it's like a lamp going out. They could just bury them anywhere, why did they have to go through all that trouble of traversing mountains and valleys? Take Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum for example. It took thirty-eight years to build and involved more than seven hundred thousand people. Didn't the Qin Dynasty still perish?"
"Funerals have been a manifestation of the worship and respect for the dead since ancient times. They also contain people's understanding of another unknown world and are one of the expressions of ancient ideology. According to historical records, there are records of burials in the middle and late Paleolithic period, which is a culture that has been passed down for tens of thousands of years."
I paused for a moment: "It is precisely because of this culture that future generations can see the shadow of history and witness the civilization of that time today."
“That’s right. If we didn’t have this culture, we wouldn’t be able to get rich!” The monkey grinned. “Young Master Zhou, you just said that burial became popular among humans in the late Paleolithic period. Do you know what it was like before that?”
I replied, "It is indeed recorded in Mencius, Teng Wen Gong I. In ancient society, although humans had the concept of distinguishing between life and death, they would generally just throw away the body of a deceased fellow human."
While we were chatting, our guide, Galawa, had already reached the edge of the forest. The translator exchanged a few words with him, then turned to the people behind us and said, "Everyone, keep quiet. Once we're in the forest, no one is allowed to speak!"
Upon hearing the translator's words, I quickened my pace and asked Song Laosan, "What's wrong?"
“Galava said this forest is the territory of the Naga, and we must not make a sound lest we disturb the gods!”
Fearing I wouldn't understand, Song Laosan added, "Naga is a snake god in Indian legends. It is said to have several heads and can transform into human form. Its appearance is generally that of a human head and a snake body."
"Damn! I thought some ferocious beast had appeared in the forest, but it turns out it's just a legend. Didn't they say there was a haunted temple on this mountain? Now another snake god has popped up. It seems the ghosts and gods in India are quite united, even sharing the same mountain!"
The monkey continued to grumble dismissively, "If there really are any monsters or demons in this forest, it'll be perfect for me, the Marquis, to take a look! If we can catch a snake with many heads, it might be worth more than the treasures in a tomb!"
Galawa stood at the edge of the woods, and hearing the monkeys' commotion, he lowered his voice in alarm: "Hey! Don't make a sound!"
"Alright, stop shouting."
I shook my head to signal the monkey to shut up: "There's a rule in the tomb raiding business: once you've hired a guide, you must respect their customs and taboos! Many places have legends that seem ridiculous from a modern perspective because ancient people didn't have modern scientific knowledge and mistakenly took certain natural phenomena as supernatural phenomena. But you need to understand one thing: any custom that seems strange to us is the optimal solution when it was formed."
The others, who hadn't believed Galawa's words before, all stopped talking to each other after hearing my explanation.
Seeing that we had quieted down, Galawa said a few words to the translator and then led the way into the woods.
I don't know if it was because of the story of the ghost temple told by Galawa, but as soon as I entered the woods, I felt extremely uncomfortable.
Just then, the monkey whispered to me, "Young Master Duan, can you feel that the temperature in this forest is lower than outside? I was sweating profusely just now, but as soon as I entered this forest, it felt like I jumped into a river!"
The monkey's description perfectly describes how I feel right now.
India has a tropical monsoon climate, characterized by high temperatures year-round, significant rainfall, and distinct dry and rainy seasons. The average annual temperature is above 22 degrees Celsius.
The rainy season is over now, and the average temperature is in the thirties. On my way here, I kept pouring water on my head to cool down and avoid motion sickness and heatstroke.
The temperature in the forest wasn't just cold; it was chilly.
Song Laosan also noticed something was wrong, rubbing his arms which were covered in goosebumps: "How come this place is even colder than the ice room where I was locked up a few days ago? It's so cold that my whole body is aching, and I feel like it's about to drop below zero. Even if there are temperature differences in the woods, it can't be this much different!"
"That's really strange. If the temperature here is really that low, how could the surrounding plants possibly survive?"
Wei Shengnan looked at the lush trees around her: "Xu Hu, check the temperature here."
"Why."
Xu Hu responded softly, moved the travel bag on his back to his chest, took out a thermometer from it, and his expression immediately changed: "M-Miss."
Hearing Xu Hu stammering, I looked at him and asked, "What's wrong?"
Xu Hu looked at us in surprise: "The temperature here is... twenty-eight degrees Celsius!"
The monkey retorted without hesitation, "Impossible! Is the thermometer broken? If it were really that hot, we should be sweating buckets!"
Xu Hu reached into his travel bag and rummaged around some more: "Because we're worried about electronic devices malfunctioning, we only bring devices with a low failure rate. Look at these two spare thermometers."
I looked at the thermometer and felt a chill run down my spine.
All three thermometers were set to 28 degrees Celsius!
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