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.
Meng Chaoge was very sure that he was seeing the real scene, but what he saw in his eyes was like a still painting.
There were five people in a small corner of the huge stable.
There was a woman holding a two or three-year-old baby in her arms, sitting dejectedly on the wooden pillar behind her.
The other person didn't hold the child carefully. He only used his left hand to wrap it around his right arm, and his right hand dropped to one side.
The child was bound like this, with his head tilted back, so he probably couldn't sleep comfortably.
But the woman didn't care. Maybe the other person also hoped that the child in her arms would twist in protest.
To the woman's right is a peasant man who is mostly naked.
The peasant man crossed his fingers and held his hair as messy as a bird's nest, burying his face between his knees.
Directly opposite the farmer, an old man with gray hair and a thin body was lying on his side.
The old man hugged the wooden box used to collect horse manure tightly like a wife.
The stables covered with bamboo sheds are only so-so in terms of shelter from the rain, but they are not enough to provide shelter from the wind.
After a cold night, the helpless old man Gai used the wooden box as an oven, hoping to keep warm.
However, the rise and fall of the old man's back was slow and weak, like a candle in the breeze, extinguished at any time.
To the farmer's right is an old woman with frosty white temples.
The old woman's eyes were sunken, but her eye sockets were a little swollen, probably due to mental depression and excessive tears.
Sitting with a slightly hunched body, he was actually the one who was a little angry among the five of them.
When Meng Chaoge's eyes rested on the other party, the old woman happened to look over.
The old woman, who should have been dim-sighted, actually saw the person in the distance clearly, and two lines of tears flowed from the corners of her eyes involuntarily.
...
...
The old woman is an old man who returned to his hometown after the war with foreigners.
She believed in Buddhism throughout her life and was determined to be kind to others, and she would be rewarded with great rewards.
When the war broke out twenty years ago, she and her family were going to Northern Shaolin to worship Buddha, thus escaping disaster.
After returning to my hometown, I became more devout in Buddhism.
In addition to being a long-term pilgrim in Southern Shaolin, I take my family and family to Northern Shaolin every three years to thank the Buddha for his blessing.
The old woman never imagined that one day everything she believed in would turn into ashes overnight.
She saw the southern Shaolin fire rising into the sky.
She, a family of six and a village of villagers were kidnapped up the mountain and imprisoned in a stable that was leaky but still smelly.
No one here cares about their life or death, so they are locked up, not given anything to eat, and not allowed to make any noise.
Those who cried, made a fuss, begged for mercy, and resisted were all taken away and never came back.
Everyone dared not think or believe whether those relatives, friends and neighbors who were taken out of the stables were already dead.
Three of her family members left her one after another before even surviving a day.
Just now, her little grandson also passed away.
My daughter-in-law is probably crazy now if she is not stupid.
The younger son no longer knows how to face these changes.
And she was even more heartbroken.
Unexpectedly, at this time, she actually spotted four figures slowly approaching towards the stable in her cloudy vision.
She might not understand it at first, but in the past two or three days she has met some people in the world.
She doesn't like fighting and killing, so she can't say she approves of Jianghu people.
The Jianghu people burned down Southern Shaolin, the Jianghu people destroyed her home, and the Jianghu people are still torturing her.
She hates Jianghu people.
But when she saw that some Jianghu people actually broke in for unrelated people like them, trying to save them, and then died one by one at the sword of another group of Jianghu people, she realized that there are good and bad people in Jianghu people.
In the past two days, she had seen too many dead people, people who died in various ways.
She wanted to stop the four people from approaching, but she didn't have the strength to make a sound.
She was so anxious that tears hung from her eyes.
His cheeks trembled with anxiety, and two tears oozed down.
She shook her neck stiffly, hoping that the other party would understand what she meant.
Although the man on the far side looked like a young man, the old woman seemed to see right away that he was a tomboy.
She didn't want to see another beautiful girl die in front of her during her lifetime.
...
...
What Meng Chaoge saw was the scene of an old woman shaking her head silently with tears on her cheeks.
She was sure that the old woman was looking at her and understood what the old woman meant.
But Meng Chaoge seemed unable to convince himself to ignore these villagers.
Gulu gulu!
When Meng Chaoge hesitated, the sound of an owl seemed to be heard in the forest...