I initially suspected these egg-shaped objects were fossils of some colossal creature, but upon closer inspection and touch, I realized the egg-shaped stones possessed none of the characteristics expected of fossils. Instead, they bore a striking resemblance to the batuo that the Tujia people mold when making ciba; it was as if an invisible hand had squeezed these ovoid stones out through a circle formed by the thumb and forefinger.

Damn it, how could there be such bizarre, egg-laying stones? I was completely baffled.

While I meticulously examined the surroundings, utterly captivated by the egg-shaped stones, Tan Ping'er, Ji Ye, and Man Niaoniao carefully climbed over from the fir trees one after another. I quickly cleared out a small rock basin (yan-dang) for Tan Ping'er and Ji Ye. Just as I was preparing to free up a spot for Man Niaoniao, I noticed the fellow had curled himself into a ball, panting heavily, frozen motionless among the dense fir branches. At a glance, he had the air of a monk sitting in meditation with downcast eyes, and with the wisps of white mist swirling around him, he looked quite similar to the Buddha as depicted on television.

At that moment, Ji Ye had already climbed up a bit further, yielding a "cradle" for Man Niaoniao. He urgently called for Man Niaoniao to quickly leave the fir tree. Given Ji Ye’s girth and imposing frame, if that tree couldn't bear his two-hundred-plus jin weight, it would be a disaster! Man Niaoniao, having vomited until his stomach felt scrubbed clean—even the sweet potatoes hadn't been enough to match his usual appetite, equivalent to a cup of water on a massive fire—was utterly depleted of strength. With a grimace, he staggered to his feet, summoned the last vestiges of his power, and jumped with a grunt, gripping the rock basin Ji Ye had vacated with both hands. Then, with a heave, he plopped down right into the basin. Alas, his immense body filled the yan-dang completely, leaving his hands and feet dangling uselessly against the rock face. The scene was like a chicken stewed in a clay pot—feet splayed out everywhere.

And that fir tree, after Man Niaoniao’s leap, finally let out a sharp cry from its tender crown, snapping in two and whistling down into the deep valley below.

My eyelids twitched, and I cursed inwardly, glancing around. I saw no substantial trees on this section of the cliff face. It looked like we had no way back now. Damn it all.

Ji Ye and I exchanged a look of helplessness; we had no choice but to commit to climbing higher. Man Niaoniao was still muttering to himself, “I didn’t mean to kick the fir tree down, damn it. It was just too weak (jingshi). My two little stones were fighting each other from the fright when I came over; they’ve only just settled down now…” (Jingshi: sturdy/reliable)

The other three, exhausted and hungry, slumped in their rock basins, dizzy and faint. They had lost all interest in Man Niaoniao’s incessant rambling; they just wanted to rest for as long as possible, to recover some strength before continuing the ascent.

Looking across the cliff face now presented an entirely different scene. The round stone we had just been on was also egg-shaped, jutting out strikingly from the opposing rock wall. It was enormous, pure white all over. From our current vantage point, if it hadn't been for its extraordinary size, one might mistake it for a giant egg. Nearby, there were also numerous rock formations resembling a honeycomb, though some areas were already empty, leaving behind rock holes (yan-kong) and basins of various sizes. Others looked like the white domes covering the cells before the young bees emerge. The dwarf trees and weeds covering the mountain and cliff only made these marvelous egg-shaped stones seem even more mysterious and strange.

The only thing that truly chilled us was the unfathomable, ink-black abyss beneath our feet. There was no sound of water, birds, or wind—only the faint, ethereal mist drifting between the two walls, adding to the illusory and terrifying atmosphere.

“Rest quickly, don't wait for the sweat to dry. Let’s move! Staying put here isn’t a solution,” Ji Ye spoke, his eyes conveying a sense of encouragement and resolve.

I craned my neck up to examine the sheer wall above, straining until my neck ached. I finally got a general sense of the near-vertical cliff. With the sun having shifted, the slivers of daylight filtering down were heartbreakingly scarce. On the wall, aside from shrubs, weeds, and vines of varying lengths that grew about as high as a man, there were only those ant-egg-like oval stones and the resulting empty holes and basins where they had fallen away.

“Up? Or down?” Man Niaoniao stretched his neck, looking upward.

“Up, of course. Has your brain turned to iron? We have to head toward the sunlight!” I retorted, lightly scolding Man Niaoniao. Due to extreme fatigue, I had completely stopped bothering with polite speech (Cai Pu); only my authentic local dialect was coming out. Fortunately, Tan Ping'er had mostly adapted and could understand me well enough.

“If only these stone eggs were real eggs!” Man Niaoniao sighed deeply, bracing his hands on the edge of the rock basin to pull himself up. Who knew that due to weakness and his considerable backside, the initial pull failed, causing him to curse wildly in frustration.

I secretly chuckled and quickly told Ji Ye to give him a tug. Aided by Ji Ye's pull, Man Niaoniao finally extracted his rear end as if pulling a radish. A faint, circular indentation was vaguely visible on his backside; combined with the fold of his butt crack and trousers, it looked somewhat similar to a famous car logo.

“Laugh, laugh at your old man’s dangling trousers! Hurry up and pull me up,” Man Niaoniao, sensing a mocking expression on my face, exploded in anger and began to curse loudly! My face tightened, and I quickly clamped my mouth shut, choosing to ignore him. Angering that hungry wolf would be no joke.

After resting sufficiently, Man Niaoniao could stand upright again. I turned to Ji Ye and said, “Given the situation, it’s impossible to go up one by one. It has to be like beggars roasting a fire—every man for himself. Let’s try not to go one after the other, lest someone above falls and smashes those below into the valley. Everyone just be careful.” Tan Ping’er and Ji Ye naturally had no objections. They each found the nearest rock basin and began climbing cautiously upward.

Although the cliff was steep, fortunately, the rock basins and holes, large and small, were not too far apart, as were the tenacious scrub trees and vines growing out of the crevices. Thus, climbing wasn't overly difficult. As long as we avoided looking down, the psychological fear wasn't overwhelming; the greatest challenge was hunger. Climbing was much harder for me because I was carrying Hua'er on my back and constantly had to turn around to warn Tan Ping'er to be extremely careful. Crawling and stopping like this, I quickly fell behind—even the sluggish Man Niaoniao was now diagonally above me!

The higher we climbed, the more egg-shaped stones appeared, and the stronger my curiosity grew. During a brief rest, I reached out again, touching an egg-shaped stone to examine it closely. I still clung to the belief that this might be the fossilized egg of some ancient large animal—or perhaps even an extinct dinosaur. But upon further thought, it seemed wrong. These egg-shaped stones varied in size and were located on a sheer cliff face. Even if this narrow gorge was formed by a later earthquake, how could dinosaurs have buried their eggs deep underground? Furthermore, if they were dinosaur egg fossils, how were these egg-shaped rock holes and basins formed? Could the dinosaur egg fossils automatically fall out? Of course, this bold conjecture rested on a significant fact: the inner surface of most of the egg-shaped rock holes and basins was smooth and fine, showing no signs of breakage or weathering. If not for the presence of some dead branches, decaying leaves, and a small amount of semi-damp silt inside some of the basins, they would look as if an egg stone had just rested there moments before.

The idea that these stones were fossils of eggs laid by some creature was quickly dismissed when the stone I was observing underwent a terrifying transformation—the egg-shaped stone, which moments before had been seamlessly connected to the cliff face, had inexplicably protruded slightly. Proportionally, the stone, which had previously shown only about a third of its body, now had only a short section embedded in the rock, yet the seam between the stone and the rock wall that birthed it remained perfectly tight.

This sudden change sent me into a panic. My immediate thought was that perhaps the sheer cliff we were climbing wasn't rock at all, but the buttock of some colossal, unmoving animal, and these stones were the eggs this behemoth had laid?

To verify this extraordinary speculation, I quickly drew my Ba Wang Sword and swung it forcefully at the egg-shaped stone. With a loud clang, sparks flew, and a palm-width chip was cleaved from the stone. My arm went numb from the recoil; the sword, heavy with momentum, bounced back. I lost my grip, and the blade of the Ba Wang Sword flashed like lightning toward my face. Terrified, I shut my eyes, tilted my head, and instinctively let go of the hilt. The Ba Wang Sword whistled past my ear…