After the old man left, no one spoke on the hillside for a while.
The wind passed through the pine woods, gently swaying the treetops. A few pine needles drifted down from the branches, settling slowly onto the exposed bluish-gray stone slab. The patterns on its surface still lay there in silence, like naturally formed growth rings, or countless fine watermarks woven together.
Hunter Zhou squatted beside it for a long time, then could not help reaching out, wanting to touch the slab.
"Don't touch it."
Shen Xiu did not speak loudly, yet Hunter Zhou's hand froze in midair.
"Since the old man said to come back tonight, don't move it for now."
Hunter Zhou awkwardly withdrew his hand and nodded. "True enough. I've lived half my life, and this is the first time I've run into something like this. Better safe than sorry."
After saying that, he glanced once more at the stone slab, slung his medicine basket onto his back, and slowly headed down the mountain along the path he had come by.
Only after Hunter Zhou's figure vanished among the trees did Liu Qingyan softly let out a breath.
"Did you find something?"
Shen Xiu did not answer immediately. Instead, he crouched down, picked up a dead branch from nearby, and lightly traced a circle around the stone slab.
Bit by bit, the soil was brushed aside, revealing more and more of the slab's edges.
A moment later, both of them were slightly stunned.
This so-called stone slab was not a single piece.
Its edges stretched out to both sides, disappearing beneath the earth, with no end in sight.
"Not a stone slab."
Shen Xiu spoke in a low voice.
"More like... stone steps paving a road."
Liu Qingyan followed his gaze.
The stone steps were about