Strange mountains and rivers

As soon as they came out of Wolong Ridge, Chen Huaisheng and Chen Song were discussing how to take this first step.

"Senior Brother Chen, this burden is placed on both of us. We have to get this thing done. The sect will arrive in large numbers in half a month, so we must clean up Longlinyuan before that. Come out, this requires a lot of manpower.”

Chen Huaisheng stood at the entrance of the valley and looked out.

"Wolong Ridge is rich in aura, which is very suitable for Taoism. However, mortals cannot stay here for too long. It is good for three to five days, but harmful for a long time. Senior Brother Wang and I calculated that at least three to five hundred people are needed to help clean up and repair it. We will strive to clear out the entire Dragon Linyuan in ten days. We will demolish what needs to be demolished and repair what needs to be repaired. In addition, all roads will be restored and opened, and a lot of spiritual materials will need to be transported in..."

Chen Song didn't expect Chen Huaisheng to calculate so carefully, and nodded: "Huaisheng, do you mean that these two things should be done together?"

"Well, I think it's okay. I remember that Baita City and Bajiao Village are not close to Wolong Ridge. Baita City is 220 miles away, Bajiao Village is further away, 290 miles away, but Wolong Ridge is 20 miles away. There are already mortals living there, so where is the nearest place?"

Seeing Chen Huaisheng looking over, Chen Song thought for a moment, "Minjialou, the nearest market town, is more than forty miles away from here to the east. There are five or six Zhuangzi, with 30,000 people, and Dawang Town, which is a large mixed surname. The Huang family, the Tao family and many other small surnames are in the south, with a population of 30 to 40,000 people. The other is Datuweizi, which is probably the largest town within 50 miles nearby. There are about a dozen villages around it, with a total population of 70,000 to 80,000 people. …”

Chen Huaisheng was startled, "There are more than 100,000 people here?"

Chen Song understood Chen Huaisheng's doubts, "Huaisheng, you may not know much about the situation in our land in Hebei. The area like this is really vast, but 70% to 80% of it is a mountainous area. Our Wolong Mountains can only be on the periphery of the mountainous area, and further west Going north, the mountains become higher and more dangerous. For example, Minjialou is actually a small dam and some valleys at the foot of the mountain. The south of Dawang Town is also a mountainous area. It mainly relies on the flat land of the mountain valley and only the big earth fence. This piece of flat land is relatively large, but it is also convex in the middle, and there is also a mountainous area, so although it looks like a large area on the map here, it is actually divided and squeezed into basins, valleys and dams. Because of this, the monster is Once the beast comes out of the mountains, there is nowhere to hide..."

"Winter and spring are the times when monsters appear?" Chen Huaisheng asked.

"No, that's the case in Da Zhao. Demonic beasts appear here all year round." Chen Song smiled bitterly, "Sometimes you won't encounter ferocious beasts for two or three months, but sometimes you won't encounter them for a month. You can encounter a few waves, there’s no guarantee, it just depends on luck.”

Chen Song's words also made Chen Huaisheng understand why these market towns and villages must not only have their own cultivation force, but also rely on the protection of casual cultivators and alien cultivators.

The land of Hebei is too fragmented and rugged. Areas suitable for human habitation such as basins, valleys, plains, and dams are relatively small and scattered, while mountainous areas account for most of the area. Monsters live in the mountainous areas, condescending, and have geographical advantages. They can attack at any time. Coming out of the mountains, no place where humans live can avoid the ravaging range of monsters.

With such frequency of demonic beasts appearing, first- and second-level demonic beasts can rely on their own force to fight against them, plus appropriate help from external forces. However, if it is a third-level demonic beast without strong practitioners taking action, it will be a disaster. Leave when this monster has done enough wreaking havoc.

For a place, this kind of laissez-faire approach is barely acceptable once every eight years. If it happens every one or two years, it will be an unbearable pain.

"For these people, who will welcome us the most, or who will have the most difficult life before we enter Wolong Ridge, and who will benefit the most when we enter Wolong Ridge?"

Chen Huaisheng asked.

"Minjialou and Daduweizi." Chen Song said with certainty: "Minjialou directly faces Wolong Ridge. Every year, there are many monsters coming out of the mountainous area to the north of Wolong Ridge. They are the first to bear the brunt, while our Chonghua Sect blocks the north. Come out, monsters, they just need to be on guard against the monsters coming from the mountains to the west. As for Datuweizi, it is a special situation. It is too scattered and belongs to more than ten villages. They are all far apart. Monsters are infested. Every time they assemble to respond, they are the slowest and suffer the most harm.”

"Well, Minjialou, Datuweizi, Senior Brother Chen, who do you think we can choose first?" Chen Huaisheng rubbed his chin.

"The Minjialou is the closest, but the Minjialou should be protected by casual cultivators. Datuwei is relatively scattered. Several villagers to the south of them have united themselves to bet on luck. If there are first- and second-level monsters, they will do it on their own. In order to avoid monsters, they hid in dug tunnels or nearby caves. The Zhuangzi people in the north had fewer people, with a total of 20,000 people. It turned out that there was a fourth-level foundation-building casual cultivator as a shelter, but it is said that in March I went to travel to the East China Sea, and I probably haven’t found a suitable protector yet..."

Chen Huaisheng thought for a while, "Then let's start from the area around Dashuweizi. The closest one is..."

"Shitangzhuang has two major surnames: Shi and Tang, as well as some miscellaneous surnames. There are about five thousand people in it."

Only by truly walking around this land in Hebei can you truly feel the vastness of this land.

After coming out of Wolong Ridge, the two rode horses to the southwest. There were winding mountainous areas on both sides. They traveled along the edge of the foothills. After walking for about twenty miles, they began to see farmhouses one after another.

Fushui is a tributary of the Anshui River, meandering from northwest to southeast. The terrain in this area is gentle and the soil is fertile. It is indeed a treasure land for farming.

Farmland being cultivated can be seen from time to time along the way, and some ditches are filled with water. It is obvious that this is the busiest spring plowing season for farmers.

"If we go further, someone should come to ask us." Chen Song's eyes wandered in the fields, with a little surprise on his face, "Huh? It's a little strange."

"What's wrong? Someone is here?" Chen Huaisheng didn't care, thinking that Chen Song saw someone, "Just take a look at the situation in Zhuangzi here. An intuitive first impression is very important."

If according to what Chen Song said, there are more than 5,000 people in Zhuangzi like this. The number of innate Taoist seeds born every year will not be less than that in his hometown Yuanbaozhai. At least two to three hundred babies are born every year, and there will be two or three Taoist seeds among them. Even three or four.

The Hebei side is not as powerful as the sects in Da Zhao. Most of these Taoisms are difficult to enter the sect for practice. They can only rely on the family's accumulation to explore, or they can become disciples of casual cultivators, but the latter is the same. rare.

Therefore, the vast majority of Taoist cultivators can only self-enlighten the Tao in village families based on the essence of experience accumulated by the family over thousands of years.

Compared with the villages in Da Zhao, the first way out for innate Taoist seeds is to go out and join a sect. Those with good qualifications will be introduced into the big sects, those with less qualifications will go to the sects themselves, and those with less qualifications will go to the sects themselves. Just go out and try your luck, and then return to your hometown to become a village elite.

But it is different here in Hebei. The harsh living environment and lack of sects have made most of their talented Taoists have to live in the villages and explore and struggle on their own. But now that the Chonghua Sect has come, they may be able to bring Let’s make some changes.

"No, it shouldn't be." Chen Song said calmly: "Why can't you see anyone in the field? Logically speaking, this is when the farmers are busy. The fields are half plowed, and there are also people in the ditches. The water is flowing in vain, no one is guiding the water to the fields, there is no one around, it’s so weird.”

Chen Song's words made the casual Chen Huaisheng alert, and his eyes immediately followed the direction of Chen Song's finger, "Oh?"

Sure enough, many fields were put down after being tilled halfway. You can even see the farm tools left behind because of the rush. There should also be a gap in the ditch, and the water spread over the entire land. But other neighboring fields had no water at all.

"Something must have happened." After just a brief look, Chen Huaisheng made a judgment.

Farm tools are a huge asset to a mortal farmer, and to be able to leave them alone would never be possible in such a hurry unless one's life is endangered.

But it didn't look like there was any fighting, it just looked like he was leaving in a hurry.

"Go and ask?" Chen Huaisheng jumped into the air and looked around, "There are houses around here, but it doesn't look like there was any attack."

The two immediately ran to the nearest house, but without exception, even the two houses they visited were closed, and no one responded when they called the door.

I simply jumped into the courtyard and found nothing unusual. There was no one there, but the gate was open to the outside.

"Tunnel? Did they go down into the tunnel?" Chen Song immediately reacted and looked around for the tunnel entrance.

"Why did you go into the tunnel? You should have received a warning. Only when the monster appeared did you escape and hide as soon as possible."

Chen Huaisheng shook his head.

Now is not the time to look for tunnels. If we find these mortals hiding under the tunnels, they may not know what kind of monsters are coming.

"Let's go ahead and take a look. This is a place for retail households. There should be a village in front of it. How far is it?" Chen Huaisheng and Chen Song jumped out of the courtyard. "It's probably a few miles away. I remember there seems to be a courtyard. There are hundreds of households,..."

The two immediately ran forward.

Chen Huaisheng injected himself with a magical talisman. Don't begrudge the talisman at this time. If you are really unlucky and encounter a third-level monster as soon as you go out, then run away for your life.

Along the way, Chen Huaisheng was running like the wind, and he arrived quickly after a few miles. This was a quite large village.

I saw figures shaking, shouting, and chaos.

Chen Huaisheng noticed that in a field coming from the west, a huge mark crossed the village fence surrounded by spurs and blood thorns, directly collapsing the fence, and the huge scratches extended into the village.

Spur Bloodthorn is a kind of spiritual plant, which is somewhat useful against first-level monsters such as Iron-maned Boars and Mountain Wolves that have poor jumping ability.

As long as the bodies of these monster beasts are stabbed by the thorns of the spur blood thorns, they will feel paralyzed and affect their movements. These monster beasts also know this, so they generally will not climb over and collide with such spiritual plants.

However, this kind of spiritual plant is of little use to monsters such as wolves and golden cats with excellent jumping abilities. They can easily jump over these fences.

However, the monsters that were directly crushed by them were definitely not first-order monsters like the wolf or the golden cat, but the second-order scale monsters.