Anderson and Boris are dead.
No one expected this ending.
Alice held Anderson's body and wept uncontrollably until Mrs. Larry returned to comfort her.
"They passed away peacefully, Alice; this is the best possible ending. Think of Professor Pardik! Cheer up, Alice, don't let the dead worry about your sorrow in heaven."
Alice stopped crying, gently laid Anderson's body down, and looked earnestly at the other men, saying, "Please, dig a hole and bury him."
The group went to the village and found some stone shovels, stone knives, and stone prying tools. They then dug a pit in the soft mud next to the altar.
Ivan and Petru carried Boris and Anderson's bodies to the pit, buried them, and covered it with soil.
At Mrs. Larry's suggestion, the group dug another pit and buried the savage woman named Tafiti. Qingmu and Situ then dragged out the bodies of the three tribal chiefs, Kubota, Batus, and Bigwendi, and buried them as well. As for the other Itza People, they simply didn't have the strength to dig so many pits, so they left them alone.
Duwa kept reciting some scripture as she walked around the square filled with corpses, repeating it countless times.
After completing these tasks, people began to consider their next steps. There were no Itza People to stop them from doing anything; it was time to go to the altar. Of course, there were no natives to guide them now; they had to figure everything out on their own.
Just then, Su Huilan asked in alarm, "Where are the Boss Coal and Hanran?"
People then remembered that when the Itza People's Mental Power Formation exploded, the Crow were blown away like kites and never returned. The cat also disappeared at the same time.
Everyone looked at Qingmu. The bird had been perched on his head as if it were part of his body; logically, he should have noticed it long ago.
Qingmu touched his messy hair, glanced in the direction of the village not far away, and said a little embarrassedly, "Um, they're in the village."
"Ah, how did you know?" Su Huilan asked in surprise.
"Oh, I saw them when I was looking for the tools," Qingmu said.
The group headed towards the village together. As they passed a wooden house, they heard rustling sounds coming from inside.
Qingmu pushed open the door with a creak and saw the Boss Coal and Hanran.
The ground was littered with scattered dried fruit, dried fish, and some dark, mushy things that looked like dried fruit pulp.
The cat lay sprawled on a soft meadow, its belly bulging, clearly filled with food. Seeing the people at the door, it tried to twist its body to get up, but having eaten so much, its already somewhat obese body wouldn't obey its commands. After several attempts, it couldn't roll over, so it could only grin, baring its teeth, and look somewhat embarrassed at the Crow.
The Crow was quite agile; upon hearing the door open, it swooped onto the roof, intending to hide on the beams of the wooden house. But it forgot that the wooden house was very simple, and there was no space for it to stand on the thin beams. In its haste, it almost crashed into the roof, causing it to fumble and fall down with a thud.
It landed beside the cat, its tail pointing towards the door, its head peeking back from under its wing. Seeing that Qingmu was looking at it, it Guagua, "Croak, um, I was... blown here by the wind, you know, croak. If it weren't for that damned wind, I wouldn't care about anything here, croak... and the book."
With a Hanran meow, it agreed, then arched its body and finally rolled over, landing on all fours and panting heavily.
Qingmu walked straight over, grabbed the Crow, threw it on his head, and said, "Let's go."
Su Huilan picked up the now-full Hanran and shook her head helplessly, saying, "If you eat any more, no one will be able to carry you."
The Crow Guagua twice, but sensing the awkward atmosphere, it fell silent. It wasn't until the people returned to the altar that it noticed two people were missing, and couldn't help but whisper to Qingmu, "Hey, it seems like two big guys are missing from the book?"
Qingmu pointed to the spot where the dead were buried. "Over there."
The Crow twisted its neck in surprise, but did not caw again, only making a gurgling sound from its throat.
The stone steps of the altar were covered with vines and wild grass. Where there was no grass, they were mostly very smooth, as shiny as the stone tablets in tourist attractions that were touched by tourists all year round. It was clear that people here often climbed up the altar in fixed positions and for fixed rituals.
The top of the altar was perfectly flat, like a pyramid that had been sliced open by a lazy person, except this pyramid was hollow, with sloping stone steps inside. Unlike the outer steps, there wasn't a single blade of grass to be found on the inner steps. This reminded people of the barren Tapu on the islands of the South Pacific.
Descending the stone steps, you reach the interior of the altar, where many large and small black stones stand, resembling a maze arranged like artificial hills. These stones are somewhat similar to those in Tapu, and there is no wild grass to be found on the stones or on the ground.
The fact that not a blade of grass grows might not be surprising enough, since such places have been seen on Earth before. But what the Crow said sent a chill down one's spine:
"Caw! There's not even a single bird dropping here!"
The altar is ancient enough, and the Itza People never enter its interior, so naturally they don't clean it. The absence of bird droppings indicates that few birds fly over this area. Yet, there are clearly many birds here; just now, they even saw a flock of birds flying by.
"Could there be some special reason why the birds deliberately avoided it when they flew by?" Mrs. Larry said.
"Radiation?" That was the first thing that came to Su Huilan's mind. They had analyzed this on Tubuai Island and even went to ask for a radiation detector.
Situ shook his head and said, "It might not be radiation."
"What is that?" Alice asked.
"Perhaps this altar space didn't exist when the birds flew across the sky," Situ said.
"What?" People didn't understand what he meant.
Situ raised his head and said, "Look at the sky."
People then looked up and saw the Sun hanging high in the upper sky. The sunlight was not dazzling, and when they squinted, they could see colorful circles.
"What's the matter?"
How many Sun did you see?
People were shocked, only then realizing that there were originally three Sun in the sky, but now they could only see one.
"I'll go up and take a look!"
Petru moved nimbly, crouching low as he climbed the stone steps to the top of the altar. He stood atop, looked up at the sky for a moment, then stretched out his hand and shouted, "Three! Three!"
People climbed up, looking up as they went. There was only one Sun in the sky. But the moment they reached the top, their vision blurred, and the sky suddenly became three Sun.
Strangely, when people came down, the Sun in the sky did not disappear immediately. Instead, it remained there until they reached the bottom of the altar after climbing the last step. Only then did the sky suddenly darken, and the three Sun became one.
"Are there two worlds inside and outside the altar?"
Everyone was on edge, knowing that one of these two worlds must be real, and the other fake. The question was, which one was real?