Strange mountains and rivers

From the county seat of Liao County back to Guzhen, and then from Guzhenyi to Yuanbaozhai, it is more than eighty miles.

It doesn't sound too far, but only locals know how deep it is.

It is fifty-five miles from the county seat to Guzhenyi, and the first thirty miles are barely good.

Although there are mostly mountain roads, you can tell from the word "Guzhenyi" that this is an ancient post road and the road condition is not bad.

But after passing Zhugou Pass to Guzhenyi, the road conditions suddenly deteriorated, and the mountain road became more and more steep. This is why Guzhenyi became an ancient post road instead of a current post road.

The current post road goes directly from Zhugou Pass to the north and no longer goes to Guzhen Post. Although it is a bit detoured, it is much easier to walk and it is farther from the hinterland of Yushan Mountain.

This is one of the reasons why the business road prefers to take a detour. It is farther away from the forbidden area and safer.

There are three thousand miles of rivers and mountains in Yushan, there are too many forbidden areas, and the area occupied is too large.

Although the monster beasts in the mountains seem to be relatively quiet in the past few decades, they have always been a major hidden danger. No one can tell whether these monster beasts will cause any trouble.

The common people have no choice. They have lived here for generations, so where can they go?

Monsters, ghosts, and snakes everywhere will eat people. Sometimes people are more vicious and vicious than evil beasts.

If the road from Zhugouguan to Guzhenyi is difficult, then from Guzhenyi to Yuanbaozhai, you can just say that there is no road.

It is a mountain trail taken by pure hunters and mountain people, which is beyond the reach of ordinary people.

From the county seat to Guzhenyi, Chen Huaisheng thought he was not walking too slowly.

He didn't use the walking charm.

It’s not necessary, you have to be sparing.

On this trip back to their hometown, according to what the faction said, the group of them will probably have to stay in the county and Woyunpu for a period of time to investigate clues about the murder of Lingyun Sect disciples, and Fengtongling will be left to them. I went to inquire privately.

I am currently cultivating and striving to gain enlightenment and enter the Tao as soon as possible while understanding the situation and my identity will not be exposed for the time being.

It was a Taoist who had seen the fruitlessness of his journey abroad and returned to his hometown, ready to accept the reality and hang out in the countryside.

From the county seat to Zhugou Pass, Chen Huaisheng felt something was not right.

There are far fewer pedestrians on the road than when I traveled six years ago.

Along the way, from morning to night, he met few ordinary people. There was only one caravan, and there were obviously two or three Taoists accompanying the caravan.

This seemed unimaginable in the past. At least three or five caravans should have passed by.

It would make sense to say that there are fewer people walking on the section from Zhugouguan to Guzhenyi from the county seat via Zhugouguan Pass. After all, the post road does not go beyond Guzhen Station. However, the section from the county seat to Zhugouguan Pass is from Liao County to the north. The only way to pass through Xiyang County.

When we arrived at Zhugou Pass, it was already dark.

Zhugou Pass sounds like a big name, like a checkpoint, but it is not at all. There are about a dozen thatched houses and tiled houses along the road. Except for a post station, the others are all built by ordinary people.

Through the night, you can vaguely see an ancient pass on the mountain pass in front. Both sides are covered with bamboos, hence the name Zhugou Pass.

The ancient pass has been demolished a long time ago, and half of the dilapidated gate collapsed. It was the same six years ago and it is the same now.

The post station is available for lodging, but it is mainly used to receive people traveling on official business, but it also serves as a private accommodation, with better conditions and more expensive prices.

Chen Huaisheng chose to stay privately and came back, not wanting to wrong himself.

It was obvious at first glance that the person running the inn was an old Taoist, over fifty years old, but Chen Huaisheng had the impression that he was not this person when he stayed here six years ago.

Next to the inn is a herbal medicine shop and mining shop, and a tea shop and cooking shop.

Fortunately, the owner of the tea shop and cooking shop has not changed. He is still Zhou Chunping from Luo Hamburger Zhou family. Chen Huaisheng has an impression, but he doesn't know if the other party still has an impression of him.

"Brother Zhou, are you still busy?"

Leaning against the counter, Chen Huaisheng casually grabbed a handful of peanuts on the counter, peeled one off and threw it into his mouth.

"You are..." The man in gray robe, who was called Zhou Chunping, looked at this strange young man in surprise.

He has a very good memory, and he can remember most of his past business trips, but he has no memory of this young man with big ears and sharp eyebrows.

Zhugouguan is the junction area between Gu Town and Caoji Town. Some of the prominent families in the two towns will settle down here.

Wherever there are people, there are rivers and lakes, no matter how big or small they are.

Taking Guzhen as an example, 20 or 30 Tao seeds are produced every year. Among them, there may be six or seven innate Tao seeds, but less than one can truly realize the Tao and enter the Tao.

In the twenty years that Chen Huaisheng knew, there were probably only five or six disciples from Guzhen who entered Taoism. None of them ever returned to Guzhen. They all went to the big cities to work hard, and at the worst, they had to settle in the county.

The big families in the county towns cannot be called aristocratic families, that is, they are just a clan with one surname, and in a certain village or village, they are just mortals who make up the majority.

A surname like this in the countryside also has a strong influence, but this is only for ordinary people.

If this family can produce a Taoist seed from time to time, and even have one or two disciples who have realized the Taoism and become a Taoist, even if they don't return to their hometown, they can still be called a wealthy family in the country.

For example, the Chen family in Yuanbaozhai also has a common surname.

There are nearly 4,000 people in Yuanbaozhai from 600 households, and there are about 700 people in 100 households with the Chen surname.

However, the Chen family has produced six Taoist seeds in the past twenty years, one of which is Chen Huaisheng, but no one has ever entered Taoism.

But the Luo Burger Zhou family's situation is different.

There are more than 800 households in Luobao and more than 4,000 people, and the Zhou family accounts for one-third. In addition, the Zhou family has produced at least a dozen Taoist species in the past twenty years. Two people have become Taoists, and one of them is a disciple of the Lingyun Sect.

"I am Chen Huaisheng of Yuanbaozhai. I went out to travel and seek Taoism six years ago. I stayed here for one night. You also encouraged me to visit Bianjing, Luoyi and Jiangling."

Chen Huaisheng was smiling all over his face, but the gloom in his brows fell in the eyes of a character like Zhou Chunping who had to face countless people every day, so he could naturally figure it out.

"Really? The Chen family in Yuanbaozhai? I have a bit of an impression. Are you back now? It's good to come back safely. It's good to go out and experience things when you were young. It's more serious to come back to your hometown and do something down-to-earth... …”

To be honest, he had no impression of Chen Huaisheng.

There are too many people passing by here every day. Unless something impresses him deeply, the others are just familiar at best.

It is located at the throat of Guzhen and Caoji Town. Most people who want to go in and out of the mountains will choose to rest at Zhugouguan.

The two towns combined have a combined population of more than 30,000 people. Even if most people do not leave the countryside all year round, there are still many people who want to pass here.

This is especially true for those young people who are eager to see the outside world, well, Taoists.

Zhou Chunping felt a little sad when he thought of this. Wasn't he the same way back then?

After running around for several years with great ambitions and achieving nothing, he still had no choice but to return home in despair.

Not every Taoist cultivator can enter Taoism and practice. How many people have gone back to their hometowns with bruises and bruises over the years?

Be it Caoji Town or Gu Town, which year doesn’t have a few?

Chen Huaisheng also heard the consolation in Zhou Chunping's words and smiled: "Yes, it's better to be in the countryside. I will come back eventually, but Brother Zhou, why did I have fewer business trips from the county town to here? "

These words immediately aroused Zhou Chunping's mind. It happened that there were no customers in the store at the moment, so he sat behind the counter and started chatting with Chen Huaisheng.

"...I don't know what's going on. The weather has suddenly become a lot colder in the past few years, especially in autumn and winter. You are from Yuanbaozhai. Youhe knows that it has never been frozen before, but About four or five years ago, it started to freeze. Although there was only a thin layer of ice on the surface, it had never happened before. The snow had been accumulated for a long time in winter. It turns out that it only takes two or three days for heavy snow to seal the mountains once the sun comes out. It just melted, but now it’s no longer possible, and it often doesn’t melt for ten days and a half,..."

Zhou Chunping smacked his lips and sighed, "I don't know what happened to Tianshi... Later, there were more wild beasts coming out of the mountains. You should know those things deep in the mountains..."

Chen Huaisheng was stunned, "Which ones? Are they the Linglong Rabbits?"

"Haha, if they are really all exquisite rabbits, why don't we all be happy? But there are also things like ghost-beaked tits and fire-maned wild boars." Zhou Chunping smiled bitterly, "Half a month ago, a cousin of mine went to the north of Luohamu on the second day of the 20th century. Half of the cliff ten miles away was attacked by a group of ghost-beaked tits. One hand was pecked until only bones were left, one eye was blinded, and the face was covered with injuries, but luckily, I saved my life..."

"In July, two children of the Lei family from Fengtongling, one born with Taoism and the other with acquired Taoism, encountered a bald-tailed wolf at Jiguanyan. Neither of them escaped, leaving only a pile of human bones. They came to the rescue. Several people used red fire magic arrows to encircle and suppress them, but they couldn't be killed. They were run away by the beast. Now the Fengtong Ridge is still in turmoil..."

Chen Huaisheng was also shocked.

He knew about the Ghost-beaked Titmouse. If we were to say how dangerous a first-level monster was, it was not considered dangerous, and it was not very aggressive either.

A single one, the innate Taoist species can barely handle it, but it is impossible to kill or capture the opponent.

If they are in a group, one Taoist species will definitely suffer.

If you really piss off this monster bird that looks only about the size of your fist, it will surround you like a wasp and peck at you so fast that you really can't bear it.

But this bald-tailed wolf is in trouble.

There are two types of wolves, one is the red-tailed wolf, and the other is the black-tailed wolf. Both are secretive and like to hide in the dark to attack prey. They are considered first-order monsters.

It's just that the red-tailed wolf usually lives on the mountainside, while the black-tailed wolf likes to live in the river valley area.

But the bald-tailed wolf is different. The bald-tailed wolf is not the same type, but a lone wolf among the red-tailed wolf and the black-tailed wolf that was expelled from its territory. It is more fierce and cunning than the ordinary red-tailed and black-tailed wolf.

After becoming a lone wolf, it becomes more and more ferocious. After surviving for more than a hundred years, the wolf's tail hair will gradually shed, leaving only the quills less than an inch long, which has also become a very dangerous weapon for the bald-tailed wolf.

The bald-tailed wolf is already considered to be quite powerful among the first-order monsters. It goes without saying to ordinary people that even if they encounter it, they will simply die.

A monk with level one or two Qi training may not be able to get a good deal. Only monks with level three Qi training or above are qualified to hunt such monsters.

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