Petru walked through the rubble at the base of the altar, climbed up the steps, and looked up to see the giant moon covered with countless craters, like an old, pockmarked face that filled the entire sky.
The savages were still praying, and Petru had to pass by them because they had almost completely surrounded the altar. He saw that their prostrate bodies were trembling slightly, as if they were very afraid, and no one looked up at him.
He ran through the gap in the crowd towards the village, where savages were scattered and kneeling in the fields and at the village entrance.
Petru had been wondering if he was still dreaming, but seeing so many savages made him rule that out. If it was a dream, it certainly wasn't a dream of savages.
If it's not my own dream, not the savage's dream, then whose dream is it?
He suddenly thought of a possibility: could it be a dream conjured up by Qingmu and Su Huilan? They were both unfathomable people. But he immediately shook his head. If they had such an ability to make all the savages on the island dream at the same time, they wouldn't have been so hesitant when they came ashore.
Petru ran into the village, found the courtyard where he had been imprisoned, and followed Mrs. Larry's instructions to enter the largest room on the right.
The house was divided into two rooms, front and back, and apart from some practical, simple pottery and woodenware, there was almost nothing decorative, so Petru spotted his clothes and weapons at a glance.
The weapons were piled in a wicker basket in the corner, most of them still there; clothes hung on the wall, not just his, but many others, some even made of animal hides, probably spoils of war won from tribal conflicts. He saw a set of women's clothes among them and guessed it might be Mrs. Larry's.
He dressed. Unfortunately, his military backpack was gone, his AK was out of bullets, and the sniper rifle wasn't very portable, so he had to discard them all. He carried as many other weapons as possible on his back and took off Mrs. Larry's clothes, tying them around his waist. Then he left the house and ran towards the altar. He hoped the moon would linger a little longer, so he would still have a chance to rescue Mrs. Larry, or even kill the old wizard with the scepter with a single burst. Once he took that guy down, Petru, with his gun, wouldn't be afraid of those savages at all.
He had barely rushed out of the yard when he nearly collided with someone. He raised his right hand and fired a burst, but the distance was too close. The man was agile and dodged the shot with a slight sidestep. By the time he tried to fire again, he couldn't turn the angle, but his left hand had already drawn a pistol and fired a shot to his right. But the man was quick enough to not only dodge the bullet but also grab his wrist. In a struggle, the two fell to the ground simultaneously.
He heard Su Huilan's voice. " Petru! Stop!"
At the same time, he saw clearly the face of the person he was fighting with; it was Qingmu. Su Huilan was not far from them.
The two of them stopped simultaneously. Petru stood up and said, "You've come at the perfect time!"
Crow suddenly flew over and landed on Qingmu's head, saying, "Caw, yes, the timing is perfect! Any earlier and we'd see someone's naked bottom! Guagua..."
Petru was taken aback. "You've been here for a while?"
The Crow said, "Didn't you see me fly over your head?"
Petru said, "I saw it, but... I thought I was dreaming."
The Crow said, "You are indeed dreaming. If I hadn't flown by, how could you have gotten out so easily!"
"Oh, I see!" Petru exclaimed in realization. No wonder it was so easy for him to escape from the great wizard's dream; the Crow had helped him. "Then let's hurry. You deal with that old man, and I'll go rescue Mrs. Larry."
The Crow shook its head frantically, "No, no, no, no, don't make me provoke that old man again! I almost got knocked down by him just now to save you, it was..." It looked up at the terrifying giant moon in the sky, "... the moon saved me!"
"Alright, enough nonsense, where is Mrs. Larry?" Qingmu asked.
"Under the altar," Petru said.
"Then let's go save them first!" Qingmu said, then left the courtyard and ran side by side with Petru towards the altar.
The Crow cried out anxiously, "Hey, hey, hey, how do we deal with that old man?"
Qingmu said, "Following our pre-arranged plan, if things get really bad, we'll run. I'll cover the rear! You and Hanran need to coordinate well. By the way, where's Hanran?"
The Crow said, "She's lying outside the altar. I'll go find her now."
He said that and then flew away.
Petru was focused on saving people and didn't care how Qingmu and the others knew about Mrs. Larry. He ran while giving a brief account of what had happened.
Qingmu then began assigning tactics. "If the savages keep praying and ignore us, we'll just focus on rescuing Mrs. Larry and not provoke them. If they try to stop us, Petru, remember, Professor Su and I will isolate the Mental Power Field around that old wizard. In the isolated mental vacuum, all material things on the island will temporarily disappear, but everything we brought in will remain, so you must take that opportunity to kill the wizard with your gun. Remember to be quick; that guy's Mental Power is too strong, and Professor Su and I might not be able to hold out for long."
Petru roughly understood and asked, "But besides that old man, there are several hundred savages!"
Qingmu said, "Give those to the Boss Coal and Hanran."
Petru patted the gun at his waist. "Good! As long as I get the chance to shoot, I'm not afraid I won't be able to kill him!"
A rumbling sound came from somewhere, and the ground beneath our feet trembled.
"A tsunami!" Su Huilan looked up at the moon and said nervously, "We're too close to the moon. The tides will turn into a tsunami under the strong gravitational pull, and the seawater could submerge the entire island!"
The savages' chanting grew louder and louder, and together with the rumbling sounds, it made people's ears throb.
"Did you hear me wrong?" Petru shouted.
"I hope I'm wrong!" Su Huilan said.
They quickened their pace and soon arrived at the altar, where they saw the Boss Coal and Hanran, but their appearance was very strange: the Crow stood on a large rock, wings outstretched, neck outstretched, as if it was about to take off but had been frozen in place by a spell; the cat's front and hind paws were placed on steps of different heights, its body stretched out as if it were running up the steps of the altar and then suddenly stopped.
Qingmu looked up following their gaze and saw many huge stones floating above the trapezoidal altar, like a meteorite swarm drifting from the Kuiper Belt.
Stones kept rising from inside the altar, gleaming a dark brown under the enormous moon overhead. Most remarkably, these stones were arranged in an inverted trapezoidal shape, as if a dotted line had been drawn in the air to create a symmetrical pattern to the altar on the ground.
"Holy crap! What happened?" Petru had seen these stones that were originally under the altar. "Could it be that gravity pulled all the stones up? Why the hell didn't it pull us all to the moon?!"
Su Huilan was also dumbfounded, not knowing how to explain this phenomenon.
The rumbling sound rolled in like muffled thunder, making one fear it might explode at any moment. Suddenly, a wind picked up in the canyon, howling loudly.
At some point, the savages stopped chanting and stood neatly at the edge of the altar, like condemned prisoners about to be executed, their faces filled with terror and helplessness as they watched Death approach.
A massive white curtain rose along the ridgeline of the distant mountains, obscuring the entire view. The curtain stretched upwards, merging with the edge of the crescent moon. High above, colossal waves, with their earth-shattering power, surged forth.