125: Human Stepping Stones and the Mystery of Looking South

"What on earth?" Wang Dalong thought he had misheard. He pointed at his own nose, then at the dust-covered foundation stone. "Me? Lie down? Brother Feng, you don't have a fever, do you? This stone has been baked by the sun enough to fry an egg. If I lay my flesh down there, it'll be a straight-up teppanyaki."

"The foundation of this sacrificial altar is still here, but the body of the platform has been completely destroyed." Lin Feng ignored his complaints and explained his logic at a rapid pace. "According to Song Dynasty architectural regulations, this kind of 'Wangbai Platform' used for important sacrifices was usually built to a height of one to two meters to show solemnity and provide a better view. Where we are standing now is at least a meter lower than where Su Xian stood back then."

He crouched down and gestured on the foundation stone. "This height difference will cause a massive deviation between our current line of sight and the one from back then. Many reference points that could have been seen are now blocked by the terrain or vegetation ahead."

Wang Dalong listened in a daze, but finally understood what Lin Feng meant. "You mean... you want to reclaim that one-meter height difference? But we don't have a ladder... so you want me to..."

"Yes." Lin Feng's answer was simple and direct. "Your height plus your thickness is just barely enough. Give me the drone and the camera."

Wang Dalong's face instantly collapsed into a bitter expression. He looked at Lin Feng's unquestionable gaze, then at the deserted mountaintop around them, and finally could only sigh and obey.

"Fine, fine, fine, I'll lie down, I'll lie down! For the sake of the national treasures, I'll sacrifice myself today to be a human stepping stone!" He muttered as he carefully lay face down on the foundation stone, trying to keep himself as flat as possible. "Brother Feng, take it easy. I'm over two hundred pounds. If you fall, we'll both roll down the mountain."

"Keep the live stream recording and don't move," Lin Feng instructed as he took off his backpack, holding only the camera and the drone controller.

He took a deep breath and first stepped one foot onto Wang Dalong's thick back.

"Ow! My kidney!" Wang Dalong let out an exaggerated scream.

Lin Feng steadied himself and then slowly stood upright.

In an instant, his field of vision changed completely.

The view that had been obstructed by low shrubs and undulating terrain was now perfectly clear. The vast southern hilly area was spread out before him like a scroll, revealed without reservation.

He immediately realized the brilliance of Su Xian's design.

Standing at this elevated height, to the north was the former homeland where grief was entrusted, and to the south was the hidden land guarding secrets. One sacrificial altar connected the past and the future, responsibility and hope.

"Fatty, I'm going to fly the drone. Don't you dare move," Lin Feng said in a low voice.

"I know, I know. Hurry up. I feel like my kidney is about to be crushed by you," Wang Dalong's muffled voice came through.

Lin Feng stopped talking and skillfully controlled the drone to take off. The drone hovered about two meters above his head, the lens pointing vertically down, capturing him, Wang Dalong, and the entire ruins of the "Wangbei Platform" in the frame.

After finishing this, he raised the high-resolution camera in his hand.

He stood perfectly straight, his feet on the central axis of Wang Dalong's back, ensuring he was aligned with the north-south axis of the altar. Then, he leveled the camera and aimed the lens at the southern horizon.

"Click, click, click..."

Using very small angles, he performed a carpet-style panoramic shoot of the entire southern view from left to right, and then from right to left. Every hill, every patch of forest, and every piece of abnormally colored land was clearly recorded.

Only after finishing all this did he carefully step down from Wang Dalong.

"Phew... my poor back..." Wang Dalong felt as if he had been granted a general amnesty. He tried to do a kip-up... but failed, and clambered up grunting. While pounding his lower back, he asked, "How was it, Brother Feng? What did you see? Any golden, glittering great halls?"

"I don't know yet." Lin Feng didn't answer immediately. He sat cross-legged on the ground and imported the photos from the camera into his tablet.

Dozens of ultra-high-resolution photos were seamlessly stitched into a giant panorama by the software.

Lin Feng zoomed in on the image, his gaze precise and meticulous as it swept over every inch.

Wang Dalong also leaned over, his head squeezed in beside him. On the image were continuous green hills with dense vegetation, looking completely normal.

"Brother Feng, isn't this just ordinary hilly land? There's nothing there," Wang Dalong said after looking for a long time until his eyes were blurry.

Lin Feng didn't speak. His fingers slid slowly across the screen, zooming in on the image frame by frame to the maximum.

Minutes and seconds passed. The wind on the mountaintop blew past, carrying a hint of dry heat. Just as Wang Dalong's patience was about to run out, Lin Feng's finger suddenly stopped.

He tapped on the very center of the panorama—due south—on a small, distant mound.

"Look here."

Wang Dalong immediately leaned in. It was a solitary little mound, no more than twenty or thirty meters high, submerged in a background of larger hills, looking completely inconspicuous. If Lin Feng hadn't specifically pointed it out, he wouldn't have noticed it even if he looked a hundred times.

"This mound... is there something wrong with it?" Wang Dalong still couldn't see it.

"Look at its silhouette." Lin Feng zoomed in again and traced a line along the edge of the mound with his finger. "It's too regular. It presents an almost perfect conical shape with a uniform slope, completely out of place with the surrounding volcanic hills that have been eroded into various shapes by natural weathering."

He switched to another satellite map photo, an overhead view of the same area.

"From an overhead perspective, it looks more like a perfect circle. Naturally formed mountains rarely have such regular geometric shapes. And..." Lin Feng's gaze was sharp. "Look at its vegetation coverage. On the surrounding hills, there's a mix of tall trees and low shrubs. Only this mound is covered almost entirely by the same type of shrubs and herbaceous plants, with almost no trees over ten meters tall."

Wang Dalong suddenly understood. "Different vegetation means the soil layer underneath is different! Those big trees can't take deep root, which means the soil layer on this mound is very shallow, or there's something under the soil!"

"Yes." Lin Feng's fingertip pressed heavily on that circular mound.

"This isn't a mountain."

His voice wasn't loud, but it was resolute.

"This is a grave."

Wang Dalong felt his scalp go numb for a moment. A grave the size of a mountain? This scale was simply too massive!

Lin Feng had already stood up and packed away all his equipment, his gaze pointing directly toward that distant direction.

"Let's go take a look."