Jiulian Mountain is a mountain.

Where there are mountains, there are roads.

The higher and bigger the mountain, the more roads there are, hundreds or even thousands, or even countless.

It’s nothing more than whether it’s easier or worse for ordinary people.

There are tens of millions of roads leading up to Jiulian Mountain.

There are three easy ways to go.

There are two front hills.

A road paved with thousands of stones leads directly from the foot of the mountain to the gate of the South Shaolin Temple.

One is the winding trail that the residents of the mountain walked out of when Jiulian Mountain was not exclusively part of Southern Shaolin.

Although it has many twists and turns, it is suitable for driving cattle.

Now after being repaired and widened, it has become the main driving lane for Shaolin people to buy food for daily use.

The back mountain is a steeper hiking trail.

It is not open to the public on a daily basis and is mostly used for emergencies. It is also a shortcut for accomplished Shaolin disciples to go up and down the mountain.

Apart from these three paths, as long as you have enough skills and patience, you can follow any path you set your sights on.

However, after a strange fire, there is no easy way to climb.

For those three roads that are easy to take, it is undoubtedly best to lay out spies, traps, ambushes, etc., just to wait for "predestined people" to fall into the trap.

What you see, hear, and encounter is most likely what the other person wants you to see, hear, and encounter.

On the contrary, for those roads that are not easy to walk in the first place, the other party may not have time to perfect the layout, and there are still loopholes to exploit.

Kemeng Chaoge and the other four chose the most difficult path to climb, which had been "spelled" on.

Unless the four of them are strong enough to ignore all obstacles, they can defeat Huang Long.

It was precisely because the four of them were unfamiliar with the place and had lost contact with other members of the cabinet and other allies. In addition, after being disguised in disguise, they rejected the invitations of two groups of people. When they thought that they should not delay any longer, and

In order to avoid running around like a headless fly and putting myself in a more disadvantageous position, I chose the simplest and most direct way that had been arranged and got straight to the point.

Face the difficulties head-on first, and then figure out how to overcome them.

...

...

At the foot of Jiulian Mountain, at the beginning of the thousand stone steps, there is a stone archway with the four words "Southern Shaolin Temple" engraved on a plaque in the middle of the archway.

The dim skylight seemed to cover everyone's eyes with a layer of navy blue gauze. Not only was it difficult to see far, but everything they saw seemed to have lost their life and looked lifeless.

The four people who went up the mountain raised their eyes intentionally or unintentionally before entering the stone archway.

The stone archway was erected fifty years ago. It is not as old as Southern Shaolin itself, but it is still an old structure.

After all, it is something that has gone through the foreign wars twenty years ago, so it is understandable that there are some damage, cracks and strange colors.

It's just that the name of the thousand-year-old temple is so blurry that it's hard to see clearly, which makes people wonder, has Southern Shaolin really been erased from the world?

No matter how optimistic you are, you will not think that this is a good sign.

Meng Chaoge and the four of them climbed up the steps with heavy hearts.

Always be alert to the disturbance behind the trees and rocks on both sides of the stone steps.

After climbing three hundred stone steps, the four of them arrived at the first fork in the road without incident.

Continue to climb the steps straight up, and after 700 steps you will reach the gate of the Southern Shaolin Temple.

Half a mile ahead of the fork on the left hand side is the Zhike Liao, which is connected to and shared with the carriage road.

Zhikeliao has stables and accommodation and provides free clear soup and water. It is a must-go place for temple-goers who ride horses or vehicles or pilgrims who worship Buddha.

Starting from Zhike Liao and the 300 stone steps, Zhike monks will greet you and send you off.

But in Shaolin today, except for the autumn wind accompanying the four people, and the vegetation on both sides that became more and more withered and decayed as the autumn day deepened, where could there be half a human figure?

"Go and have a look?" Ji Zhe suggested.

Naturally, Meng Chaoge and others were not the first people to try to climb the mountain after the fire.

From yesterday to now, what they saw, heard, and heard was that there were three groups of people, with no less than sixty people going up the mountain one after another.

After walking three hundred stone steps and climbing a mountain nearly thirty feet high, not a single person was seen.

It would be a good choice to find a place where people are supposed to be to explore the situation.

Maybe the sky was too dark and depressing, but Meng Chaoge, Shi Zhonghuo, and Dong Qing didn't speak out, they just walked silently towards the left side road to respond to Ji Zhe with their actions.

...

...

The scale of Southern Shaolin Zhike Liao is not small.

The word "Liao" must have been chosen because the four cabins really could not entertain many guests or accommodate too many people, and were mainly used for temporary resting places.

But the stables in Zhikeliao are very big.

Three large stables built with bamboo sheds are located on both sides and opposite sides of four side-by-side wooden houses.

The central open space can park forty or fifty carriages, and the stables can accommodate hundreds of horses.

According to time, today is the last day of the Bon Dharma Ceremony.

Even if there are not hundreds of horses in the stable, it is not an exaggeration to have dozens.

Ji Zhe has a pair of inconspicuous peach blossom eyes that are always easy to be ignored, so he gives people the impression of being delicate and elegant. But when he squints his eyes and closes his slightly pointed chin, even if he still has a simple look on his face,

Her face also looks like a shrewd and wise fox beauty.

No matter how hard this fox beauty looked, she couldn't see a single flower from the stable, let alone a horse!

Just like the three villages at the foot of the mountain, Zhi Ke Liao also escaped the fate of being burned down, but its appearance in public view was extremely strange.

The cabin is closed.

The stable is spacious.

Surrounded by the two, the open space used to park carriages and sedans was empty and seemed particularly empty.

I don't know what was going on in the wooden house. Meng Chaoge and the three men who were standing thirty feet away with Ji Zhe could not see any horses in the stables.

But without exception, the four of them spotted the shadowy figures in the stables.

people!

People sitting, lying or collapsed on the ground!

Why are people in stables?

Who could be in the stable?

Meng Chaoge and the others stepped forward a little.

They didn't deliberately cover their whereabouts along the way, but when they arrived at Zhike's House, they still kept a very cautious distance.

Soon, they could roughly discern who was staying in the stable.

There were men and women, old and young, all of them were dressed simply, but all of them were slovenly. Although they were still alive, they were lifeless.

Those people were not monks, so it was not difficult to deduce their identities. They were probably some villagers at the foot of the mountain.

The villagers were taken captive to the mountains and imprisoned in stables?

Who did this and what was their intention?

Dongqing took another step forward, gesturing for herself to go and have a look alone.

Meng Chaoge did not agree immediately, and continued forward with the three of them, stopping when they were about fifteen feet away from the nearest stable.

This distance is the limit of the abilities of the three of them. If there is an accident and Dong Qing retreats, they can handle it.

Just when Dong Qing was about to leave, Ji Zhe silently stopped the other party, shook his head, and seemed to have discovered something.

"listen."

Ji Zhe only said one word, and the other three listened attentively.

It is not easy for their ears to hear the details of something fifteen feet away, but it is probably not difficult to hear something.

"There is only the sound of wind, no sighs, whimpering, or wailing."

Ji Zhe is explaining a simple fact.

Shi Zhonghuo frowned and said, "It's indeed too peaceful."

All four of them recognized that the calmness referred to the mood of the villagers.

Ji Zhe said: "If you have been frightened all night and starved for a whole day, if you make any noise afterwards you will be taken out and executed, then it is not surprising that you are so peaceful."

While Ji Zhe was speaking, Meng Chaoge's eyelashes trembled slightly in the wind, but her sharp eyes were staring straight ahead without blinking. Even though her eyes were so sore, she still stubbornly wanted to see something clearly.
To be continued...