My mentor went to the Tibetan area for an investigation. After coming back, he became insane.
He kept repeating a sentence:
“Fish have wings, yaks love to eat stones, and humans don’t need heads!”
The next day, he committed suicide.
The surveillance footage showed that he dissolved his entire head with strong sulfuric acid.
People were shocked by the mentor’s determination, but I understood him.
Like me, he had seen the truth of the world.
Since I was fifteen years old, after seeing that truth, I had more than once wanted to cut off my own head…
1
Have you heard of Shangri – La?
It’s not the Shangri – La City at the junction of Yunnan, Sichuan, and Tibet provinces, but the paradise that only exists in legends.
It’s a mysterious pure land similar to Utopia or Taoyuan.
A week ago, my mentor, Wu Heng, sent a message claiming to have found this place.
No one knew what he had seen or experienced.
All we knew was that this morning, among the three – person scientific research team led by the mentor, only he came back.
The two senior brothers who accompanied him were missing.
And the mentor himself seemed to have suffered a huge mental shock and was unconscious. He was currently receiving treatment in the hospital.
As soon as I received the news, I rushed over.
Just as I walked to the front of the ward, two policemen came out. I hurriedly asked:
“Officer, how is the professor?”
The leading policeman shook his head. “Professor Wu has suffered severe mental trauma and is currently unable to communicate effectively.”
“Regarding the two missing members of the research team, we will cooperate with the relevant police and fire – fighting forces in the Tibetan area to conduct a search.”
I thanked them for their hard work.
After explaining my purpose to them, they let me enter the ward.
I turned my head and saw that the mentor was lying on the floor, frantically scribbling something on the paper!
He was muttering to himself:
“Hehe, this fish has wings… No wonder the cows are so strong… They grow up eating stones…”
I quietly approached, wanting to see what he was drawing.
Just then, the mentor seemed to be frozen for a moment. When he came to his senses, he tore the paper into pieces like crazy and stuffed them all into his mouth!
“Don’t look! Don’t look! Don’t look!!”
“Nurse!”
My face suddenly changed, and I quickly tried to stop him.
Although the nurse and the police arrived in time, the mentor was like a madman and had already swallowed all the scribbled content.
I looked blankly at the few pieces of white paper scraps that were rescued in my hand. “Professor, what can’t be seen?”
“I don’t know, I don’t know…”
The professor giggled stupidly.
“Professor Wu, I’ve told you that you can draw, but you can’t eat paper!” The nurse looked helpless. “Why do you never listen!”
I suddenly looked up. “Has the professor drawn many times?”
“Yes, he has been drawing since he came here.” The nurse explained. “And he eats the paper right after drawing.”
“Is there any that has been kept?” I asked.
The nurse didn’t answer but looked at the police.
“We have kept a few.” The leading policeman finally spoke. “But after studying them, we have no clue.”
I pleaded. “Can I take a look?”
After the two policemen exchanged glances, one of them took out a folder from his bag.
“Sure.”
Hearing this, the nurse beside me couldn’t wait to get away. She quickly walked out of the room and couldn’t help muttering, “It’s so creepy!”
I frowned.
When the file was opened, strange and grotesque images emerged…
2
“What is this…”
I stared wide – eyed, stunned in place as if electrocuted.
“Xu Wei?” The policeman’s voice brought me back to my senses. He asked, “Did you find anything?”
“This looks like Xing Tian in the myths and legends.”
I paused and continued. “But why are there so many?”
On the folder was a printed color photo, not the original painting, but this didn’t affect the weirdness of the content.
In the painting was a village.
There were scattered Tibetan – style buildings. A group of headless villagers hung their heads around their waists. Their long and narrow eyes, located on their breasts, stared fixedly ahead.
At the navel position, a mouth full of sharp teeth opened, dripping with extremely thick saliva.
What was even more frightening was the head hanging around the waist.
As if it had life, it had various expressions, either sarcastic, disdainful, or pitying…
Just looking at this painting for a moment, my soul seemed to be sucked in.
I quickly withdrew my gaze and gasped for breath:
“Officer, does the place in this painting exist in reality?”
The policeman sighed. “We don’t know yet. We are looking it up and comparing. If this village exists in reality, perhaps many mysteries can be solved.”
“If there is any discovery, you can contact me at any time.”
After I finished speaking, I added, “Although I didn’t participate in this investigation, I know quite well about the situation of my mentor and the two senior brothers. Maybe I can help.”
“Thank you then.”
I replied, “You’re welcome.”
Taking one last look at the mentor, I was about to leave. Just as I turned around, my neck suddenly tightened, and a sense of suffocation hit me!
“Fish have wings, yaks love to eat stones, and humans don’t need heads!”
The mentor pushed me to the ground and strangled my neck tightly. “Humans shouldn’t have heads! They shouldn’t!”
“Professor, I…”
I struggled desperately, but the mentor was surprisingly strong, and I couldn’t break free.
When the two policemen grabbed the mentor and were about to pull him away, the mentor suddenly let go of his own accord and looked at me in extreme horror.
The fear on his face was almost overflowing. “You… You…”
“Cough cough…”
I quickly straightened my opened collar and rubbed my neck. “Professor, what other stimulation did you receive?”
The mentor yelled and backed away frantically. Finally, the doctor came and gave him a sedative, and then he calmed down.
There was nothing for me to do here, so I left.
In the elevator, looking at my reflection in the metal door, I subconsciously opened my collar and touched the side of my neck.
There was a horribly hideous scar there.
“Professor, did you see that thing too…”
3
The dusty memories came flooding back.
I chose the biology major in college, but to be honest, I didn’t like biology.
The reason why I studied hard, even went to graduate school and asked my senior brother to recommend me to Professor Wu Heng, the leader of domestic evolutionary biology, was entirely because of something that happened when I was fifteen years old, something that I would never forget in my life.
I will never forget that day.
It was a hot afternoon. My brother and I went to our grandmother’s house in the countryside to play. Grandma was very happy and went to the field to pick watermelons for us.
But we waited for a long time, and grandma didn’t come back.
So, my brother and I went to the melon field to look for her. We didn’t see grandma in the field, but I saw the guy stealing watermelons.
A black shadow was lying in the field, munching on the melon.
I immediately picked up a stick and shouted, “Watermelon thief!” The guy was startled, and his body stiffened.
After a while, the short figure rose from the melon vines.
In the blink of an eye, it was almost two meters tall!
Was he a person lying in the melon field?!
Fine – grained fear grew wildly. I let out a loud scream and ran away with my brother.
If it was a normal person, I wouldn’t be afraid, but the one in front of me had an empty neck. There was no head at all!
The eyes as big as copper bells on the chest were like those of a wild beast.
I ran desperately with my brother and stopped by the stream when I couldn’t catch my breath.
My brother was extremely thirsty and went to drink the cold water in the stream.
I kept watch for him and let him go. But something terrifying happened.
My brother disappeared!
In the blink of an eye, he was gone.
I stumbled and fell into the stream, searching for a long time but couldn’t find my brother. Just when I was about to despair, I suddenly caught something.
But when I saw it clearly, my eyes went black, and I fainted on the spot.
It was a human head…
When I woke up, I was already in my grandmother’s bed.
I told the adults about the headless man, but none of them believed me. They said I had heatstroke and had hallucinations.
Only my brother believed me.
But it was really unbelievable. Since they didn’t believe me, how could they believe my brother?
After the adults said so much, I even began to doubt whether I was really delirious from heatstroke that day.
Maybe there was no headless man at all?
Until two weeks after the incident, I gradually recalled some things…
4
The head I picked up was alive.
Although I was a bit fuzzy about the face of the other person, I remembered other details.
That day, I didn’t lose consciousness immediately. The head asked me:
“Are you from the Flying Skull Clan or the Headless Clan?”
I was stunned for a long time before saying, “I’m Han Chinese.”
Hearing this answer, the head sneered twice. “So you’re a poor wretch who hasn’t awakened yet.”
“You’re the poor one!”
I immediately retorted. “You don’t even have a body!”
The head looked at me with pity and said lightly:
“There are only two types of humans. Either they have no head or no body. What are you?”
After saying that, it floated into the air and flew away.
I chased after it and shouted, “You’re talking nonsense. People have both heads and bodies. The head is one of the important organs of a person!”
The head in the air looked at me with a half – smile.
“Is this your idea? Or is it your body’s idea? Or… is it what your head tells you?”
My mind went blank.
This thought just now came to my mind. It was my brain that told me…
Is the thought of the brain my thought?
This question popped up, and my brain quickly told me:
“Yes, yes, yes…”
But somehow, my body began to move out of control, constantly slapping my head!
My consciousness became chaotic.
I fell into a coma.
…
Since then, I began to think about whether humans really have both a body and a head, or as the head said, the two are separated.
This question has been bothering me.
Throughout my entire study career, I almost chewed over and over again the knowledge about biology, trying to find the answer from it.
But the only conclusion I got was –
The head and the body cannot be separated.
I even more than once pointed a knife at my neck.
Practice is the best way to prove.
But when the blade cut through the skin, the fear of death made me tremble, and my throat involuntarily let out a cry for help.
I failed again and again.
Until later, I followed my mentor to study and made guesses and inferences from the perspective of biological evolution.
I found that the so – called “Flying Skull Clan” and “Headless Clan” were not completely impossible.
Unconsciously, I returned home.
My brother was doing his homework in my room. He was about to be a senior in high school, and his schoolwork was relatively heavy. The light in my room was good and eye – friendly.
I didn’t disturb him.
Maybe because I was too nervous, I fell asleep on the bed.
When I woke up leisurely, my brother was sitting by the bedside and handed me the phone. “Brother, someone is calling.”
I rubbed my eyes, took the phone, and answered.
“Hello, who is this?”
“Is this Xu Wei? This is the police station.”
I immediately perked up. “Yes, this is me! What’s the matter?”
A voice came from the phone:
“We have news about the two missing members of the scientific research team.”
5
I rushed to the police station in a hurry.
The police told me that someone had seen Zhang Xin and Zhao Wenlei near Batang Village.
Zhang Xin and Zhao Wenlei were the names of my two senior brothers.
“Have you found them?”
I stood up excitedly.
The policeman hesitated for a moment before replying, “Sort of.”
“Sort of?” I sensed something was wrong.
Another policeman sighed. “We did find Zhang Xin and Zhao Wenlei in Batang Village, but the situation is rather complicated.”
As he spoke, he handed me a confidentiality agreement.
Without thinking, I immediately signed my name. “Now can you tell me?”
The two policemen looked at each other and said in unison:
“You say.”
I was confused by their reaction.
Finally, the older policeman said, “Forget it. Anyway, we invited you here this time because we want you to go to Batang Village with us.”
“You’ll know when you go.”
The other policeman nodded repeatedly and subconsciously swallowed a mouthful of saliva. “Yes, you’ll know when you go.”
“That feeling is simply indescribable.”
I frowned tightly and had to ask, “Are my senior brothers still alive?”
“Currently…” The older policeman paused. “They are still alive.”
Subsequently, they informed me of the relevant itinerary.
We would set off in two days.
Unexpectedly, the day before the departure, another accident occurred.
6
The mentor committed suicide.
He took advantage of going to the toilet in the middle of the night, slid down from the second – floor pipe to the first floor, and fled back to the National University laboratory all the way.
When the police found him, he was already dead.
The death scene was extremely tragic.
The surveillance footage showed that he put his head into strong sulfuric acid, almost in an immersed state.
The flesh and blood were eroded away, leaving only a skull.
When I heard this news, my heart twitched suddenly.
All kinds of emotions intertwined.
Although I was sad about the mentor’s death, I was more afraid, afraid of the unknown.
There were too many doubts about the mentor’s way of suicide.
Why did he choose such a decisive and painful way?
The only breakthrough I could think of was one thing – the head!
It was the head again!
I subconsciously touched the scar on my neck. “The professor must have discovered something…”
Perhaps I would get the answer when I went to Batang Village.
At eight o’clock the next day, I got up on time.
I looked at the breakfast left by my mother on the table and couldn’t help shaking my head. Mom really forgot to cook for my brother again.
My brother wouldn’t go back to school until Monday.
I left the breakfast on the table for my brother and went downstairs to buy fried dough sticks and soy milk for myself.
Soon, a police car came to pick me up.
We were going to Batang Village.
Batang Village is located in the southern part of Tibet. It takes nearly half a day’s drive. The scenery outside the window was beautiful, but none of us were in the mood to appreciate it.
The mentor and the others’ previous investigation in the Tibetan area was to study the impact of sea – land changes on biological evolution.
The Qinghai – Tibet Plateau was an ocean 280 million years ago.
65 million years ago, due to the movement of two continental plates, the earth’s surface uplifted, forming today’s “Roof of the World.”
At that time, I was obsessed with studying anthropoid apes and was not interested in that investigation, so I didn’t sign up.
If I had signed up, would the result have been different?
Unconsciously, the car stopped.
Looking ahead, there were several police cars parked outside the village in front of me. Judging from the license plates, they should be local police.
After getting off the car, the accompanying policeman took me to a low – rise house and reminded me, “Your two senior brothers are inside. You’d better be prepared mentally.”
“Don’t worry, officer.”
I nodded. “Before, when there were accidents during field investigations, the professor often warned us. At least my two senior brothers are still alive.”
The policeman seemed to want to say something but stopped. He simply opened the door.
I walked into the room, and a strange fragrance rushed into my nose.
The scene I saw next instantly destroyed all my mental preparations. An uncontrollable fear surged like a tide!
“What the hell… What is this…”
7
Was this still a human being?!
I was so scared that I stumbled and almost fell to the ground.
In the room, the two creatures that were no longer human – shaped were either like plants growing on the floor or like cast metal, as if they were originally integrated with the ground!
Moreover, I found it impossible to recognize them.
If I had to describe them, the best word would be… grotesque change.
One second, their heads were on their necks, and the next second, their heads were embedded in their abdomens.
When I looked again, there was a face on the thigh, and three heads grew out of the neck, all without facial features!
They were changing almost every second.
The only way to tell Zhang Xin and Zhao Wenlei apart might be the tattered cloth hanging on them.
That was their clothes.
I looked at the police in disbelief. “What happened to my senior brothers?”
“As you can see.”
The policeman’s face was solemn. “When we found them, they were already like this. We asked you to come to see if you could find anything.”
“You have worked with them for several years and should be the person who is most familiar with them in work.”
I looked anxious and said, “Officer, they need to be comprehensively examined immediately to find out whether it is bacteria or a virus that has caused this mutation.
We must treat them quickly!”
“The expert team in this regard is already on the way,” the policeman replied. “They should arrive tomorrow.”
Only then did I feel relieved. Then I turned to my two senior brothers and probed:
“Senior Brother Zhang? Senior Brother Zhao?”
One of them let out an “er er” sound. His throat seemed to be blocked, and he couldn’t speak.
“Sa…”
The other one’s mouth opened slightly. Judging from the tattered clothes, it could be vaguely determined to be Senior Brother Zhang Xin.
I quickly said, “Senior Brother Zhang, what do you want to say?”
“Keep asking.”
The policeman next to me raised his gun and leaned closer.
I was anxious inside but didn’t dare to approach rashly. “Senior Brother?”
Zhang Xin’s mouth opened and closed, and his voice was as faint as a mosquito’s. It was too far away, and I couldn’t hear clearly.
After that, no matter how I asked, he didn’t make any sound.
“Sacrifice,” the policeman carefully retreated. “He said ‘the sacrifice is coming’.”
Sacrifice…
The messages sent back by the mentor were basically not related to sacrifice. Only one point might be related.
“Shangri – La!” I slapped my thigh. “Collect the nearby myths and legends, especially those about the mysterious pure land.”
The policeman was a bit puzzled. “Mysterious pure land?”
“It can be understood as the ‘Taoyuan’ or ‘Utopia’ in the Tibetan area,” I explained. “Only people will hold sacrifices. This might be a breakthrough.”
The policeman replied yes and turned to leave.
…
That night, just as I was about to take out my sleeping bag, I suddenly heard a loud “bang”.
Without hesitation, I immediately rushed towards the source of the sound.
It was the direction of my senior brothers!
When I arrived, there was minced meat all over the ground, and Zhang Xin was gone.
Judging from the bloodstains, it seemed that he had exploded from the center.
At the position where Zhao Wenlei was, half of the flesh – and – blood tissue was left, which should have been torn off by brute force.
What on earth had happened?
My thoughts were in chaos.
Just then, a black shadow flashed past my eyes.
8
“Don’t run, stop!”
I hurriedly chased after it. “Senior Brother Zhao!”
That figure was Zhao Wenlei.
He fled very quickly. After a few shuttles, he crossed the forest. I was out of breath from running. When I came to my senses, I was already in a certain valley.
The stream in the valley had long since dried up, leaving only jagged rocks.
Zhao Wenlei was very agile. Soon after entering the valley, I lost track of him.
“Where is he going…”
I supported my knees with both hands and gasped for breath.
Crash~
A slight sound came. I subconsciously looked up, but my eyes dimmed. “It’s just a sparrow.”
Just as I was about to withdraw my gaze, my pupils suddenly constricted.
I rushed forward and stopped in front of a large stone, exclaiming, “Fossil?!”
On the stone in front of me, several long and narrow fish were maintaining a swimming posture.
Even after a long time, the fish scales were still distinct.
The most eye – catching thing was that the things on both sides, which could be called “fins” for the time being, were actually several times the length of the body.
From a distance, it looked like… wings.
“Fish have wings.”
The mentor’s words emerged in my mind.
Could it be that the research team led by the mentor had been here?
My heart trembled. I continued to walk along the valley. After nearly half an hour, a cave appeared in front of me.
It was pitch – black and bottomless.
For some reason, just by looking at it, I felt inexplicably irritable.
Should I go in?
I lit a cigarette and hesitated.
Just then, a red thing outside the cave looked familiar to me.
It was actually Zhang Xin’s mobile phone!
This year was his zodiac year, and he had specially changed to a red phone case, which left a deep impression on me.
I quickly turned on the phone. Although the battery was showing red, there was still some power left.
The initial page was the chat interface between him and Zhao Wenlei.
I scrolled down from the top. At first, the content was normal. Until four days ago, Zhao Wenlei said:
“I’m waiting for you in Handa Valley.”
Handa should be the name of this valley.
A day later, Zhang Xin replied: “I’m here. Where are you?”
After three hours, Zhao Wenlei replied with two voice messages, with an interval of about five minutes between the voice messages.
“Don’t enter the cave! Don’t enter the cave! Don’t enter the cave!”
“Come in quickly, come in quickly, come in quickly…”
9
In just a few minutes, the attitude was completely opposite.
What on earth had happened in the middle to make Zhao Wenlei change so much?
Should I go in and take a look?
I turned my head to look at the cave and, as if possessed, walked in.
It was very dark and empty inside the cave, but the light from the phone flashlight only had a visible distance of a few meters.
I walked forward bravely.
Half an hour passed, and there was still no sign of light.
“Pat – pat…”
A deep voice suddenly came from the front, making my heart suddenly rise.
I shone the phone around, but it was still pitch – black.
Just then, I was suddenly tripped and fell to the ground. The phone rolled not far away.
“Damn it! What bad luck!”
I cursed and reached out to pick up the phone.
After confirming that the phone was not broken, I let out a sigh of relief. But just as I was about to turn off the screen, I saw two pale eyes reflected in the screen!
I suddenly turned my head and almost shouted.
Dry, furry… No, was this a yak?!
“It’s a yak corpse…”
I calmed down my emotions. The huge skeleton of the cow corpse in front of me was overly emaciated.
Not only that, but the yak’s belly had been cut open.
I carefully observed the cut marks and was surprised. “Strange, why is there a sutured mark on the cow’s belly?”
The abdomen of the corpse was empty. Besides bones, the whole body only had skin left.
And a pool of mucus.
“Pat – pat…”
The strange sound came again. I raised my phone, and in the darkness, there were reflected dark spots.
The spot closest to me was only two or three meters away.
Looking closely, these spots were actually eyes, the eyes of yaks!
“Why are there so many yaks here?!”
I was stiff all over, as if being targeted by a wild beast.
Fortunately, these yaks soon lost interest in me and stretched out their tongues to continue licking the stones.
Many animals will lick the salt on the surface of stones to obtain the salt their bodies need.
I just thought it was normal, but the next second it wasn’t.
The yaks directly ate the stones!
Even for large stones, the yaks crushed them and swallowed them directly, showing no sign of stopping!
It’s true that animals have lithophagy to supplement salt or aid digestion.
But this amount of consumption was astonishing.
This was the same as what the mentor said – yaks love to eat stones!
I tried to suppress the shock in my heart and suddenly felt that my feet were a bit slippery. Looking down, it was some unknown mucus.
A strange fragrance came from the air.
This smell was exactly the same as the smell on my two senior brothers before!
I held the phone tightly and shone it towards the end of the mucus.
Only then did I see that not far away, a yak was twitching all over, visibly shriveling up, and mucus was constantly flowing out of its belly…
10
Buzz~
A touch of red came into view.
I suddenly found that Zhang Xin’s phone had slipped out of my pocket when I fell just now.
The flowing mucus had soaked it.
I picked up a flat – long stone and tried to slowly push the phone out of the mucus.
But the next second, the phone suddenly short – circuited and smoked.
Sesame – sized sparks jumped out. Almost instantly, the mucus started to burn violently. In less than a moment, the yak was burned to charcoal.
A black mass rolled out of the yak’s belly.
“What is this…”
Before I could react, more and more yaks around me twitched, and abnormal mucus gushed out from under them.
“Moo – o – o~”
The yaks let out painful howls and soon fell silent.
After a rustling sound, I looked at the scene in front of me in horror. Something was crawling out of the yaks’ bellies!
They were human bodies covered in mucus, without heads, with eyes on their breasts and mouths at their navels…
Not all of them were just bodies.
In some cow bellies, heads floated out, quietly suspended in the air.
There were men, women, the old, and the young, with different looks.
Looking at these “people” and thinking of the sutured marks on the cow bellies, an idea popped into my mind. “Did someone sew them in?”
Some animals will also have lithophagy when their gastrointestinal tracts are uncomfortable.
These “people” were stuffed into the cows’ bellies. No wonder the yaks’ gastrointestinal tracts were not good.
I stood among the “crowd”, and they ignored me, walking straight towards the depths of the cave as if on a pilgrimage.
“Junior Brother Xu, don’t you want to go and take a look?”
A voice suddenly rang in my ear, scaring me.
I stiffly turned my head and saw a familiar face. My face changed greatly. “Z… Senior Brother Zhao, how did you become like this?”
In front of me, Zhao Wenlei was only a floating head!
He smiled and said, “Junior Brother Xu, I’ve been waiting for you for a long time. Let’s go quickly.”
“Where to?” I asked.
Zhao Wenlei looked towards the depths of the cave and said meaningfully:
“The real Shangri – La.”
11
The real Shangri – La…
Reason told me not to go deeper, but somehow, there seemed to be a call that made me instinctively want to move forward.
Zhao Wenlei wasn’t in a hurry either, waiting quietly.
After a long time.
I made a decision. “Let’s go.”
Zhao Wenlei seemed to have expected it and took the initiative to float in front to lead the way for me.
“These creatures that look like Xing Tian, and these heads…”
I organized my words and looked at Zhao Wenlei, who only had a head left. “And you, Senior Brother Zhao, what’s going on?”
“We are all humans, but different from those called the descendants of Yan and Huang.
At this point, Zhao Wenlei paused and said, “We can barely be regarded as the ‘descendants of Xing Tian’. This lineage has two branches, the Headless Clan and the Flying Skull Clan.”
This was the second time I had heard of these two races.
The first time was when I was fifteen years old.
I keenly caught the keyword. “Barely?”
Zhao Wenlei looked ahead. There were torches burning on both sides of the cave wall, and primitive – style murals could be vaguely seen.
“We share the same blood as Xing Tian.”
I looked up and was deeply attracted by the content of the murals.
The first few paintings depicted a battle, which could be summarized by a sentence from “The Classic of Mountains and Seas: Overseas Western Regions”:
“Xing Tian fought with the Emperor for the throne here, and the Emperor cut off his head.”
The Emperor here refers to the Yellow Emperor.
Obviously, Xing Tian lost this battle, but what I focused on was the content of the second half of the mural.
In the well – known myth, after Xing Tian lost his head, his soul remained undying, so he used his breasts as eyes and his navel as a mouth, and danced with a shield and an axe.
It was highly praised for its spirit of resistance.
But on the mural, it was another version of the myth.
After Xing Tian lost his head, the transformation of his breasts into eyes and his navel into a mouth was a curse from the Yellow Emperor on the rebels.
After the Yellow Emperor cut off Xing Tian’s head, the complete Xing Tian had two wills.
One was in his body, and the other was in his head.
To become a real Xing Tian, one of the wills needed to devour the other.
But the two wills were almost equal in strength, and neither could do anything to the other.
Since then, Xing Tian has been in an endless cycle of “self – beheading”.
Until a long time later, for some unknown reason, the two wills reached a certain consensus and left the Central Plains area where the Yellow Emperor was located.
Coincidentally, they came to the Tibetan Plateau.
Moreover, soon after, they both gave up control of their respective parts, and the two became one.
The complete Xing Tian fell into a state of silence.
As time passed, Xing Tian’s flesh and blood began to “split”, giving rise to the current Headless Clan and Flying Skull Clan…
It was simply unbelievable!
After reading this, I couldn’t calm down for a long time. It completely subverted my cognition.
Could biological evolution occur in this way?
“This is not scientific!”
Zhao Wenlei’s smile was playful. “Only what is within human cognition is called science, but there are more indescribable unknowns, aren’t there?”
I wanted to refute, but looking at Zhao Wenlei, who only had a head left and was floating in the air, all words seemed pale.
Quietly, the cave had come to an end.
A huge bronze door stood in front of us. Many members of the Headless Clan and the Flying Skull Clan had gathered in front of the door.
With a violent vibration, the bronze door slowly opened.
Boom——！
Suddenly, the sky was bright.
The scene in front of me completely shattered the little belief I had left in modern biological science!
12
How tall can a human be?
Two meters or three meters is probably the limit.
But the huge skeleton standing in front of me was sitting cross – legged and was nearly a hundred meters tall. Its bone shape could be said to be a proportional enlargement of a human.
Although it had long been proven that the current state and distribution of human bones could not support an overly large body.
But what I saw in front of me told me that it didn’t matter anymore.
“This is Xing Tian, the great God of War Xing Tian!”
Zhao Wenlei’s eyes were filled with fanaticism. “The sacrifice begins. Offer everything you have and welcome His return!”
Many members of the Headless Clan and the Flying Skull Clan rushed towards the skeleton like they were possessed. The moment they touched the bones, they turned into a pool of flesh and blood.
They wriggled and merged with each other.
Zhao Wenlei led me to a certain high platform. Several headless people in Tibetan clothes immediately carried a table over.
Several flying – skull female members then brought fruit plates and fish meat in their mouths.
Looking at these people, I felt a bit familiar, so I stopped a flying – skull female member and asked:
“Have I seen you somewhere?”
The other person gave me a blank look and drifted away.
“They are all villagers from Batang Village,” Zhao Wenlei said with a faint smile. “For so many years, they have never left the Tibetan area.”
They had never left, but I had indeed seen them.
I suddenly remembered!
The painting the mentor had drawn before was of these Batang Village villagers. I had wondered before why I didn’t see any locals in the village.
So they had all come here.
Thinking of this, I asked, “You brought the professor and Senior Brother Zhang here, right?”
“Zhang Xin is of our same clan,” Zhao Wenlei said calmly. “After I guided him to awaken, his brain and body had a rejection reaction, resulting in a distortion.
So I sent him to Batang Village, planning to deal with him. Unexpectedly, the police came, so I had to pretend for the time being.
As for the professor, he is not of our clan, but he saw something he shouldn’t have seen.”
At this point, he paused:
“Originally, in that investigation, I just wanted to bring Zhang Xin here to manually awaken him. But the professor accidentally discovered the entrance to Shangri – La.
I was worried that he would escape, but unexpectedly, after he knew all this, his beliefs collapsed, and he suffered a severe mental blow.”
Thinking of the tragic situation of Senior Brother Zhang, I felt a chill in my heart.
I couldn’t help but ask, “Awaken?”
“Our two clans have been cooperating and integrating into the so – called human society for too long,” Zhao Wenlei sighed. “The blood of many people has fallen asleep.
If there is no manual intervention, they may think that they just have schizophrenia for the rest of their lives.”
Hearing this, I fell into thought.
I vaguely felt something was wrong. It seemed too casual.
The professor had discovered their secret. Even if he was mentally traumatized, if I were them, for safety’s sake, I would never let the professor leave.
Unless it was intentional.
“Didn’t I deceive you?”
Zhao Wenlei looked at the skeleton of Xing Tian and murmured, “But I’ve been planning this for so long. I won’t let you be a coward.”
I suddenly stood up. The next moment, I felt dizzy, and my body went limp.
“So it was you?!”
Some memories deep in my mind became clear.
Zhao Wenlei’s face gradually overlapped with the head I had fished out of the river when I was fifteen years old…
13
Darkness.
Boundless darkness.
My consciousness fell into chaos. The past events flashed through my mind like a fleeting horse. Many details I had overlooked were strung together.
Besides the first encounter when I was fifteen, I formally met Zhao Wenlei in high school. The school organized a summer camp, and I went to visit the National University with the team. At that time, Zhao Wenlei was a volunteer at the National University. He took me to the university’s biology laboratory and subtly revealed that the biology major of the National University, especially evolutionary biology, was leading in the international arena. Because of this, I filled in the National University as my college entrance examination volunteer. Later, when I was studying for my doctorate, he introduced me to Professor Wu Heng, and I was then able to become his disciple. It seemed that, invisibly, Zhao Wenlei was guiding everything. If my guess was correct, from the time the professor returned from the Tibetan area until I came here, it was all secretly manipulated by him… But what was his purpose?
Finally, my consciousness gradually became clear. However, my eyelids were extremely heavy, and I couldn’t open them at all. My body also couldn’t move.
“Have all the people from the two clans been recalled?” This was Zhao Wenlei’s voice.
Someone answered, “They have all been recalled.”
“Have all those who were artificially awakened in the yaks’ bellies come out?” Zhao Wenlei asked again.
“They’ve all come out. Although manually separating the head and body has damaged their vitality, after absorbing the essence of the yaks’ flesh and blood, they are basically fine.”
“Very good. As long as we all merge, the new Xing Tian will reappear in the world!” Zhao Wenlei finally said, “At that time, the conquest will begin, and there will only be the Headless Clan and the Flying Skull Clan among humans!”
So, he had been lying to me when I was fifteen. Before, when I heard his words, I really thought that all humans belonged to these two races.
At some point, I could actually see. It was as if my soul had left my body. I saw Zhao Wenlei talking to a tall headless person. In the distance, like a swarm of ants, the headless and flying – skull people swarmed up the huge skeleton. At this time, the bones were almost invisible. It was more like a giant without skin, full of scarlet flesh and blood!
Suddenly, my pupils dilated sharply! I saw myself on the flesh – and – blood giant covered in mucus, being wrapped by the wriggling meat balls and almost completely submerged. I wasn’t from the Headless Clan or the Flying Skull Clan. Why would I…
Buzz! Next to Zhao Wenlei, the tall headless person jumped onto the “Xing Tian” and gradually merged into it, disappearing.
I felt as if I had fallen into an ice cellar. If this continued, being swallowed by the meat balls would probably be my death. A huge sense of fear hit me. I wanted to open my eyes, but my eyelids were like they were filled with lead. Despair grew wildly.
“Becoming me, isn’t it good?” The giant seemed to have thousands of mouths, roaring in unison, “Xing means to kill. The Xing Tian who vowed to kill the Heavenly Emperor will eventually return!”
Looking at the ugly and distorted thing in front of me, I instinctively repelled it. I let out a hoarse roar:
“No! I don’t want to!”
With a buzz, I suddenly opened my eyes and looked at the young man in front of me, exclaiming, “Brother, why are you here?”
14
“Brother, after we went to grandma’s house that year, you always had me share my location with you.” My brother shook his phone and said helplessly, “The police said you were missing, so I came to find you.” As he spoke, he stretched out his hand to pull me up.
“Uh, okay.” I struggled hard and climbed out of the meat ball.
“You can’t come out!” On the giant, Zhao Wenlei had already melted half of his head. He was like a madman. “Quickly join us, join us -!”
I ignored him and turned around to run away with my brother.
Boom! The ground shook. I stood in front of the bronze door and turned my head to look at Shangri – La. The newly – green meadow stretched as far as the eye could see. Nearly a thousand clear and translucent lakes were inlaid in it. In the distance, the snow – capped mountains were pure and lofty. It was so beautiful. Incompatible with it was the huge and ugly giant. On the scarlet flesh and blood, the skin was beginning to form. Vaguely, the scar at the connection between his neck and head could be seen. Amid the roars, the surrounding small mountains collapsed, revealing a huge ax and a shield. The giant was still sitting cross – legged in place. A vast amount of mucus spread out from him, destroying everything!
“Come back…” The pure land was disappearing visibly. The mucus spread very fast. My brother and I continued to flee, but it was too fast. It was about to engulf us.
Just then, I suddenly thought of something and took out a lighter from my pocket. I turned around and smashed it! The plastic shell of the lighter broke, creating a small explosion. The sparks fluttered and fell into the surging mucus.
Whoosh——! Instantly, the mucus began to burn and quickly spread to the giant. I had seen before that this mucus was extremely flammable.
Flames shot everywhere. Vaguely, Zhao Wenlei’s roar was heard: “Coward…”
Was it being a coward if I didn’t let you swallow me and become your stepping – stone? It was simply crazy. I thought to myself, but I didn’t have time to think about it. I ran with my brother.
I kept running, kept running! Finally, light appeared in front of me. Several policemen were walking into the cave with flashlights. I helped my brother and quickly waved:
“Officer, over here!”
The policemen quickly came over and asked with concern, “Xu Wei, what are you doing here? Did you find anything? We’ve been looking for you everywhere!”
“Inside the cave…” I said intermittently, “Inside is the real Shangri – La, Xing Tian, the Headless Clan… the Flying Skull Clan…” I was out of breath from running just now. I looked at my brother, who seemed to be in good condition, and said, “Brother… you tell the officers…”
My brother shook his head. The policemen looked at me in surprise:
“Brother? There’s only you here.”
15
Only me? I looked up blankly. “He was by my side just now. Where’s my brother?”
The several policemen walked behind me. After about ten minutes, they trotted back:
“We reached the end. There really isn’t anyone else inside.”
“Impossible. My brother was with me!” I stared wide – eyed and gesticulated. “We just came out of Shangri – La. He saved me…”
The policemen looked at each other and all shook their heads.
…
After leaving the Tibetan area, I was sent to the hospital for a comprehensive examination. My parents put down their work and rushed to see me. When they saw me, I quickly said, “Mom and Dad, you quickly tell the police that my brother is missing. Go find my brother!”
My parents sighed and seemed to want to say something but stopped. Finally, my dad spoke, “We only have one son, you. Where did you get a brother from?”
Only one son? I was stunned. Then, under my pestering, I forced myself to leave the hospital and go home. As soon as I entered the door, I went to the room and took out a bunch of things. “These are all my brother’s, clothes, textbooks, and toys from when we were kids…”
“These were all yours. Don’t you remember?” My mom pointed to a white T – shirt. “I bought this for you in your sophomore year of high school at Tianjie Square.”
At this time, my dad took out a diagnosis from the drawer:
“When you fell into the stream and drowned at the age of fifteen, you’ve had schizophrenia ever since. The brother you mentioned, the doctor said, is another you.”
“Over the years, we’ve indulged you and played along with you. But now the police are investigating a case. Don’t make trouble.”
I looked at the diagnosis and said with difficulty, “What about Shangri – La? It’s inside the cave. Did you find it?”
“That cave is only 1.5 kilometers deep. These days, we’ve carefully inspected it. We even invited geological experts, but we didn’t find any other exits.” The policeman said seriously, “That cave is one – way.”
“Was everything fake?” My mind seemed to shut down, and I slumped to the ground.
…
Two months later. The police told me that the deaths of Zhang Xin and Zhao Wenlei were due to an infection with some unknown virus. While having a series of hallucinations, their body cells also underwent mutations. The mentor’s confusion was the initial manifestation of being infected with this virus. My previous abnormalities were likely due to the same infection, but subsequent tests did not show any abnormalities. The relevant experts said that there were antibodies in my body.
Of course, the research on the virus and antibodies later came to an end. Because there were insufficient samples, the samples collected from Zhang Xin’s body all died out in an extremely short time.
As for Batang Village, it was originally a deserted village with no villagers at all.
Since then, my brother never appeared in my life again. Gradually, I also accepted the ending of the incident. Only in the dead of night would I recall that strange experience, not knowing whether it was real or not. There was always a voice in my head:
“Do you believe in yourself?”
After decades of thinking about this question, I still have no answer. Finally, when I was old and weak, on the verge of death, I made an important decision. I was going to take a gamble.
16
I was 107 years old. In the past few decades, I had immersed myself in the field of biological anthropology research. The awards my team won were countless. International awards, including the Nobel Prize, were enough to fill a wall. Under my research, even cancer was no longer an incurable disease, and there were already effective treatment methods. In the academic circle, I was a leading figure, a pioneer. Outside the circle, I was hailed as “the greatest scientist of the 21st century” and “the man who knows the human body best after God” by the media.
I couldn’t deny that this was the result of talent and hard work. But if you asked me:
“How much do you love this field?”
My answer would be, not at all. I always thought that I could face that experience in the Tibetan area calmly. But somehow, these days, in my dreams at midnight, I always saw my brother, Xing Tian, the Headless Clan, and the Flying Skull Clan. It was like some kind of hint. Maybe I had never really let it go. Studying biological anthropology was, in a way, to prove something. To prove whether Xing Tian really existed, whether the Headless Clan and the Flying Skull Clan existed… This wasn’t love; it was an obsession!
It’s just that years of research told me – they couldn’t exist. But I wasn’t willing to accept this. Now that I was old and about to die, I decided to use my life to prove it one last time. This answer was very important to me.
“Come on!” I placed my head under the laser guillotine and pressed the remote control in my hand. This was something I had wanted to do since I was fifteen but had never done.
Instantly, my head was separated from my body. Time seemed to pass extremely slowly. Fortunately, I had injected a special potion, so after my head was cut off, I could still maintain consciousness for a while.
After waiting for a long time, the scene I had imagined didn’t appear. My consciousness began to fade…
It seemed that everything back then was an illusion. Now that I had the answer, I could die. As my last bit of consciousness was about to disappear, I suddenly felt a swelling in my chest, and eyes grew out of my breasts…
These eyes slowly widened. I roared in my heart, filled with indescribable excitement:
“It’s real! Everything is real!”
My brother appeared in front of me. He was very young, still looking like a high – school student.
“Brother, long time no see.”
17
“Brother…” I opened my mouth at the navel position, using it rather clumsily.
My brother walked over, as if he knew what I was thinking, and said, “Brother, what I know, you can also know.”
I was just about to ask a question when many ancient memories unfolded like a scroll.
In the distant past, the two wills in Xing Tian, after a long period of hostility, found that neither could defeat the other and gradually reached a kind of “reconciliation.” This “reconciliation” was not a symbiosis between the two sides but a different form of competition. They controlled the complete “Xing Tian” and left the territory of the Yellow Emperor, coming to the wild Qinghai – Tibet Plateau. In a beautiful land, Xing Tian’s flesh and blood differentiated, giving birth to the Headless Clan and the Flying Skull Clan.
These two ethnic groups were naturally hostile and fought endlessly. The two wills in Xing Tian agreed that the ethnic group transformed by the winning will would control the complete Xing Tian. Although essentially, a single member of the Headless Clan or the Flying Skull Clan was just a piece of Xing Tian’s flesh, they had self – consciousness. The two fundamental wills didn’t directly control these small individuals, nor could they consciously interfere. For the sake of fairness, both sides would “sleep.” The only influence was the instinct engraved in the blood of these small individuals to merge with each other and transform into Xing Tian.
The struggle between the two races lasted for thousands of years. Until decades ago, the new leaders of the two races suddenly realized a problem. What was the meaning of what they were doing? Was it to become the complete Xing Tian? No, that wasn’t right. It was to regain their strength, make a comeback, and once again raise their axes against the Yellow Emperor and cut him down from his imperial throne! Since both sides had the same goal, was it important which of the two races won or lost? It wasn’t.
So, the two races reached a cooperation. It took them ten to twenty years to find and confirm the human being who carried the two sleeping wills of Xing Tian and guide him to become “Xing Tian”! But so far, the plan had failed.
After digesting this part of the memory, many things became clear. The name of that human being was Xu Wei. My brother and I were the two wills in Xing Tian. Zhao Wenlei was the new leader of the Flying Skull Clan. His words “coward” echoed in my ears, carrying the wind and thunder of decades.
I was shocked as if struck by lightning. He didn’t want to become Xing Tian himself but wanted us to return!
I trembled and asked, “If we had merged back then, who would have become Xing Tian?”
“Maybe it would have been you, maybe me, or maybe both of us,” my brother shook his head. “At that time, neither of us had really awakened, and no one knew the result.”
“Why did you save me back then?”
“Saving you was out of instinct,” my brother hesitated for a moment and added, “I said, at that time, neither of us had awakened.”
“Cough cough…” I coughed violently, feeling weaker than ever. “Am I about to die?”
“Death has no meaning for us. When we’re injured, we’ll sleep and then wake up,” my brother said calmly. “You’re just tired. This body is worn out and needs to be replaced.”
Feeling my body rotting and starting to break down, I softly asked, “Can the complete Xing Tian defeat the Yellow Emperor?”
My brother didn’t answer.
I smiled self – deprecatingly. “Zhao Wenlei and the others understood this truth, but we didn’t.”
After a long time.
“I don’t want to change my body anymore,” I struggled to get up and walked towards my brother. “What will you do after swallowing me?”
“Xing Tian.”
“Okay!”
18 (Epilogue)
The next day, in the morning news. The host received a notice and urgently inserted a piece of news:
“Mr. Xu Wei, a contemporary scientific giant, died at home on June 6, 2097. His body was severely decayed, and his head was missing.”
“Currently, the police have not ruled out homicide and are actively investigating.”
**Right after that**, another host said, “According to the data released by the relevant monitoring department, a 5.0-magnitude local earthquake occurred near the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor from 1:00 to 3:00 am yesterday. In the mountainous area 3.2 kilometers away from the Mausoleum of the Yellow Emperor, a meteorite is suspected to have fallen. The expert group has rushed to the scene immediately.”.
“Now, we’ll hand the live – broadcast to our colleague at the scene.”
The live – broadcast screen switched. After a brief introduction by the young reporter, the camera was pointed at the “meteorite crater” behind him. In the charred pit, two huge objects were stuck obliquely. One was a metal object shaped like an ax, almost broken. The other was a flat object similar to an ancient shield. Its surface was severely carbonized and covered with deep sharp – weapon cut marks.
People watching this scene couldn’t help but wonder what they had experienced to be so damaged. Was it a fierce battle?
-End-
