I Am Your Natural Enemy

We checked as well, there shouldn't be any problems; it really is a single massive stone mountain.

But that's exactly where the problem lies—the skeletons we've found so far are mostly embedded inside the rock.

And judging by their posture...

It's like...

"Like what?"

"Like they were just walking along, then suddenly appeared inside the stone, and were never able to move again—ended up suffocating to death in there, barely any signs of struggling at all.

Anyway, it's very strange, but the traces of their clothing all support it—the remains are all just a few centuries old."

"Don't talk nonsense, and don't post anything online. Someone should have explained the rules to you before you came."

"Yeah, understood."

Feng Yao wasn't reassured, so he had each member of the archaeology team sign a confidentiality agreement.

He held a tablet, carefully reviewing the exploration team's results from recent days.

Other than this mountain itself being made of stone, every other hill within ten miles is all made of earth.

Moreover, the local geology doesn't really match this stone mountain. When they explored below ground, they confirmed that after a few dozen meters, the strata beneath the stone mountain are no different from the surrounding area.

For ordinary landforms, no matter how strange, there would be nothing unusual about that.

But Feng Yao's first instinct right now was that this mountain had been moved here from somewhere else; it just appeared out of nowhere.

All their previous investigations had only checked local records going back less than a hundred years, and they had spoken with some of the oldest locals.

Now, he felt it was absolutely necessary to dig deeper—at least six hundred years back.

Within the Scorching Sun Department's database, there was very little relevant information, almost none at all.

Feng Yao just told the archaeology team to keep working on site, and then started using different channels to ask people about the mountain.

As for himself, he personally visited the oldest established families in the area.

Only families like that might have any records left.

Three days later, Feng Yao searched through local gazetteers in the county library and found a family who, decades ago, used to live near the stone mountain but later moved away en masse.

After tracking them down, he got in touch as a member of the archaeology team, and made an unexpected discovery.

The family had already declined back then. Some had gone out to the West Sea's Coast seeking fortune, and later the whole family relocated.

At that time, people cared about clan traditions even more than Nanwu commandery residents do now; the genealogy and such were vital and, of course, brought along.

One page of the genealogy recorded an event.

Back then, their ancestor had not yet settled here—at the time, this place was a miasmic wasteland. One time, when their ancestor passed through here,

suddenly there was an earth-shaking quake, like a dragon writhing underground. Come dawn the next day, they discovered that between two mountains nearby, a stone mountain had suddenly appeared.

The stone mountain was shaped like a crouching tiger, its rocks jagged and imposing.

And on the mountain itself, fiery lava flowed in dazzling streams, as if it were a gigantic crouching tiger coiled there, fresh blood spilling down its body.

All around, dust and ash filled the air before falling, flames set the surrounding forests ablaze, circling the stone mountain.

Their ancestor was deeply shaken, and when he returned home afterward, his business thrived, and his son passed the scholar exam.

The ancestor felt it was a sign of good fortune, so came for another look. This time, the stone mountain was already thick with greenery and looked no different from the other hills around.

But the ancestor still believed this was his family's blessed land, so they all moved to settle on the south side of the stone mountain, facing water and backed by the mountain, and sure enough, the family prospered for centuries.

They even changed their family name to Shi (Stone) from then on—that origin is also recorded in the genealogy.

Of course, even within the family, nobody really believed all of this.

Any established clan that can pass down for five or six generations has some legendary tale about their founder.

They'd polish it up, play up the drama and add a little glory for the family name.

It's nothing special—even some emperors of old would claim some legendary figure as their ancestor after ascending the throne.

There's countless stories like that. If the family were still prominent locally, the legend would surely still be alive.

Unfortunately, the whole family emigrated seventy or eighty years ago, disappeared without a trace, and the stories faded with time.

Now, after going through local gazetteers, Feng Yao had finally traced records of an old-established family from hundreds of years ago, and followed the trail to track down their descendants and see these notes.

After reading those accounts, Feng Yao was completely unnerved. He told the archaeologists to withdraw, and at night left only a handful of people at a distance, watching, relying on equipment for monitoring.

On the other side, when Cai Qidong received the report, he was even more shaken.

He just glanced at the genealogy photos Feng Yao sent, and after reading the account broke out in a cold sweat.

He'd stake his head on it—this stone mountain was absolutely connected to the Mountain Lord.

The abandoned Earth Temple for the mountain god atop the stone mountain—no doubt it used to worship the Mountain Lord!

There's no way he's wrong.

He's not some incompetent nobody like Wen Yan; of course, he knows who the Mountain Lord is.

He never imagined that after the Spiritual Qi Resurgence, of all the legends and key figures requiring attention, the Mountain Lord—who'd always seemed inactive—had actually arrived in Nanwu commandery centuries ago.

The northern surveillance perimeter and targets wouldn't uncover anything even in another hundred years.

The Mountain Lord simply wasn't up north at all.

Just thinking that the Mountain Lord and the West River Dragon God are both here, and the two of them apparently don't get along—Cai Qidong was completely unsettled.

If those two really fight, it's going to be a disaster.

He thought long and hard, and ultimately took out his phone and dialed a number not in his contacts.

"Hello, Tuoba, I think there's something I really need to tell you in advance."