Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Strong Arm was woken up by clanging noises.

It was the beginning of Chaos and the beginning of the primordial era. There was nothing but darkness between the sky and the earth. Volcanoes were erupting everywhere, and black smoke was spreading everywhere.

The earth was shaking and the mountains were shaking, but there was abundant nutrition, too. The forests were growing at will, the birds and animals were running freely, and the primitive cave dwellers such as

‘Strengthened Arm’ were born.

Strongarm was the leader of the twenty to thirty cave dwellers in the cave. As distant relatives of the early human beings, they were all muscular and had long hair all over their bodies. Their hands and feet were

covered in developed muscles, making them more like upright gorillas than human beings.

The foreheads of the cavemen leaned back, but their jaws protruded forward. Such a skull structure not only gave them developed bite force, it also limited the development of their brain capacity and wisdom.

Therefore, they had yet to learn how to polish tools that were too delicate, let alone farming and animal husbandry. They could only forge crude stone axes, wooden spears, and bone clubs by chasing after prey and

collecting fruits every day.

Pursuing prey required abundant energy. If one was drowsy, their plump prey might run away, or they might forget to distinguish the tracks of the ferocious beasts, resulting in dire consequences. As the leader of the

cave dwellers, the sleep of ‘Strengthened Arm’ was a matter of life and death for the entire tribe.

Therefore, when ‘Strengthened Arm’ was woken up before dawn, he was more vigilant than ever. The hair all over his body was standing up like that of a chimpanzee, while he was purring in his chest.

The other men in the cave, or rather, the male cave dwellers, were woken up by the weird noise, too.

‘No Hair’, ‘One More’, ‘Pig Claw’. The men looked at each other in bewilderment, before they looked at their leader with dirty eyes and gestured to ‘Strong Arm’ to ask what was going on.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Dong! The sounds were coming from the deepest part of the cave. At the end of the darkness, feeble flames were glittering!

The cave was warm, narrow, and rugged. It was the best shelter for the cave dwellers.

However, the cave slanted downwards and sank deeper and deeper. There was nothing at the end of the cave, which was not suitable for survival. It was even more unlikely that a ‘divine tree’ was hit by lightning and

set ablaze.

These cavemen were still exploring the mysteries of fire-making and had an instinctive curiosity and reverence for flames.

Although the fire was feeble, it was enough to stimulate the pupils of all the cave dwellers, whose pupils constricted to the size of needles.

Strong Arm rubbed his sharp canine teeth and picked up the slightly polished stone axe. Gesturing, he crawled to the end of the cave with the male cave dwellers.

Very soon, they saw an exquisitely-made torch that was made of pine cones, animal oil, and bone sticks and far more advanced than any torch in the modern era. It was burning for a long time without being

extinguished. There was barely any smoke, and it was emitting a very pleasant smell.

The flames stung their eyes and made their pores constrict. Their muscles were rigid, and they found it hard to breathe. Even ‘Strong Arm’, the strongest and boldest leader, almost exclaimed and ran away in fear.

But what surprised them even more was the thin, small figure illuminated by the flickering flames.

“It’s Crooked Neck!”

‘One More’ who had six fingers on his right hand waved his hands and gestured to ‘Strong Arm’ to ease their anxiety.

The early cavemen did not have the ability to speak yet. Their coarse throats could only utter weird roars in short syllables, and the raging flames blocked their throats, making them too scared to utter any sound.

There was no need for ‘one more’ to say anything. ‘Strong Arm’ had already recognized him.

Crooked Neck was the thinnest cave dweller in this small cave.

If other cavemen were chimpanzees, and Strong Arm was a gorilla, Crooked Neck was a hairless monkey.

Such a weak caveman did not have the right to survive in the cruel primeval world.

However, although he was thin and weak, his running speed was very fast. He was also good at polishing stone axes, making stone spears, and all kinds of weird things. Most of the time, he could even smell the scent of

ferocious beasts to avoid the annihilation of the hunting team. Therefore, Strong Arm managed to keep him alive.

Other than being extremely thin and weak, Crooked Neck also had a problem that was not a problem. Every night, he rarely slept. Instead, he liked to run out to the wilderness where he could not even see his own

fingers. Craning his neck, he looked up at the starry sky, gazing at the brilliant stars in the sky. He was deep in thought for a long time.

Outside the cave, under the night sky, was the world of ferocious beasts. Sabretooth Tigers, Long-Haired Lions, the ubiquitous wolves, and the giant ancient pigs. There was no telling how they managed to avoid the

scourge of so many ferocious beasts.

Thankfully, the tribe of cave dwellers in the early years had not developed a primitive religion yet. Otherwise, alien species such as Crooked Neck would definitely be regarded as ‘devils’ by their compatriots and thrown

into the cliffs to please the gods.

In fact, according to the naming rules of the cave dwellers, ‘slanted neck’ should be called ‘stargazing’.

However, the barren brains of the cave dwellers did not understand the concept of nature yet, nor did they know what was blinking in the night sky. In their eyes, they were just meaningless light spots.

The combination of their short syllables and their ten fingers was not enough to describe the mysterious concept of ‘star’. Therefore, they could only call the thin fellow ‘crooked neck’ out of habit.

All the cave dwellers, including ‘Strengthened Arm’, knew that ‘Crooked Neck’ was a different species in the tribe. But no one had expected that ‘Crooked Neck’ would be so weird. He was doing something that no one

had ever seen, could not describe, and could not understand under the illumination of the fire.

He was drawing.

At first, he carved rough lines on the limestone with the sharp stone spears. Then, he smeared the paint that was made of all kinds of ores and added clean water, blood, and oil. A primitive, crude, rough, and full of

vitality painting appeared in front of the cavemen.

In the dark and chaotic sea of thoughts of the cave dwellers, there was still no space for arts, religions, or imagination. As the leader, Strong Arm should’ve stopped ‘Crooked Neck’ immediately, but his throat and his

strong arms were grasped by an invisible force. He could not shout or wave his arms. He could only watch in a daze.

While he was reading, a stream of wisdom flooded into his brain through his fingers like a clear spring, making him vaguely understand the meaning of the painting.

At first, Crooked Neck drew a lot of little people below the murals. These little people were waving stone axes and spears as if they were chasing… boars and bison. That was their daily life, and that represented them!

Then, Crooked Neck drew a lot of dots on the top of the murals. The dots were surrounded by radial lines, which were the things hanging high in the sky: the sun, the moon, and the stars.

In the end, ‘crooked necks’ drew a lot of dotted lines from the little people who represented them, leading to the sun, moon, and stars in the sky. At the end of the dotted lines, many arrows were drawn.

What did it mean? Did it mean that the cave dwellers who had just evolved from mud could fly to the sun, the moon, and the stars someday?

Strong Arm did not know.

He only felt that a lot of new concepts, new words, new pictures, and bizarre fantasies were flooding into the depths of his brain.

The sun, the moon, the stars, the sky and the earth, the universe, flight, exploration… He was looking for a new way to express himself. He would explain all the concepts to his compatriots and find a way to fly to the

sun with them.

Strong Arm was drowned by the enormous, deep, remote, and ever-changing world. Clear tears flowed out of the corner of his dirty eyes. He stood where he was in a daze, and the stone axe fell to the ground without

him knowing.

His compatriots were ‘one more’, ‘hairless’, pig claws’… Everybody was the same.

Crooked Neck finished the painting. His ten fingers were already worn out. The last stroke was completely dyed in blood.

He turned around and looked at his compatriots, who were both dumbfounded and deep in thought, before he grinned. His smile was extremely brilliant, pure, and peaceful.

While his compatriots were still in a trance and unable to control themselves, he snuck into the shadows beyond the torch’s reach and walked to the entrance of the cave, avoiding his compatriots.

He tiptoed and walked very carefully, not wanting to wake up the sleeping woman and child.

Crooked Neck pushed away the rocks blocking the entrance of the cave and sealed it again from the outside. Only then did he step into the wilderness of dawn.

The sun had not risen yet, but waves of redness were already rising on the horizon, outlining the steep, magnificent, and shocking ridge.

The river was flowing. Everything was waking up. The roars of animals and the chirps of birds were echoing in the distance, forming an ancient song.

Crooked Neck reluctantly watched everything. Taking a deep breath, he licked his saliva with his curled hands and combed his hair one last time.

Illuminated by the morning glow, the hair all over his body was emitting bright red colors, and in the depths of the redness, there were vague traces of goldness. He was clearly a weak monkey, but he was emitting an

aura that was soul-stirring and could not be concealed by the world.

Suddenly, he stopped combing and picked up a flea from the fur carefully.

Out of habit, he wanted to pinch it to death. But after thinking for a moment, he curled his fingers and shot the flea into the boundless wilderness.

The rocks behind him that blocked the cave were pushed away heavily again. Strong Arm and the rest of them were shouting anxiously.

Crooked Head didn’t even turn his head. With a slight smile, he leapt up and turned into a rainbow facing the morning sun!.