On the morning of the thirteenth day of the first lunar month. Lin Jue and Gao Muqing led 700 Luoyan troops to leave Luoyan Valley. These 700 people are almost the strength of all the Luoyan army, and less than 80 soldiers and horses are left in the cottage to guard, but this is enough. These 700 people, Lin Jue and Gao Muqing, can only lead 50 people to Taoyuan Village, the place of the alliance. The remaining 650 people will all be led by Liang Qi to ambush outside the boundaries of Taoyuan Village in case of accidents.

Two days later, the group parted ways in a canyon outside the Taoyuanzhai territory. Liang Qi will order people to look out on the top of the mountain on both sides. It was agreed that if it was daytime, it would be called by beacon smoke, and if it was at night, it would be called by fireworks, and after getting the order, General Liang Qi led the army to storm in, and no matter what soldiers and horses he saw, he would be annihilated without being verbose, until he rushed to Taoyuan Village to rescue Gao Muqing and Lin Jue.

Although the arrangement was like this, Lin Jue absolutely did not want to see such a situation happen. When it did, it was a terrible situation. In fact, these 700 people may not be able to save themselves and Gao Muqing.

……

Taoyuan Village is located on the Panlong Ridge on the west side of Funiu Mountain. Panlong Ridge is the second highest peak in the Funiu Mountains, and in terms of height, it is second only to Shiren Mountain. But in terms of the complexity of the terrain, Panlong Ridge is better than Shiren Mountain. The steepness of the mountain, the depth of the canyon, the dense density of the mountain forest is incomparable, and what is even more rare is that Panlong Ridge is connected by a circle of continuous mountains, and a huge valley is enclosed in the middle.

Incredibly, this huge valley in the middle of the Panlong Ridge is lush with trees and flowers all year round. Even in the cold winter months, there is no snow in the valley, let alone freezing. In the middle, a lake is steaming all year round, and it is a huge hot spring. In the Funiu Mountain, it is a gift from God to have such a place to stand.

In view of the peculiarity of the topography of Panlong Ridge, there has always been a rumor in Funiu Mountain that the mountain shape of Panlong Ridge resembles a dragon lying down. And the hot spring flowers and trees, where the ice and snow melt and are evergreen all year round, are exactly what the monks call the place where the spark flourishes. Therefore, the strange valley of Panlong Ridge seems to have become the place where people say that Panlong Crouching Tiger thrived.

Not only does it have such a good terrain and this kind of good color, Panlongling is naturally a place where the major cottages dream of taking it as their own. At the beginning, when the Great Shu Kingdom was unified by the Great Zhou, a Shu State soldier and horse protected the only bloodline of the Great Shu Kingdom, when Meng Dan, the southern king, retreated into the Funiu Mountain, the initial foothold was chosen in Panlongling. They hope that with the help of the feng shui dragon xing vein here, he can one day assist the southern king Meng Dan to restore the country and restore the kingdom of Dashu.

However, the feng shui of this land of Beaulieu does not seem to help. Meng Dan had only been in Funiu Mountain for only two years, and because of the unsuitable water and soil and the harsh and desolate climate here, he died with a whimper. He was only twelve years old when he died, and he didn't even have any blood left. A group of lonely generals of the Great Shu Kingdom suddenly lost their masters, and they all became orphans.

Soon after, internal strife began to arise. Originally, this defeated army and retreated into Funiu Mountain was composed of several defeated armies. When King Nan was there, they still had a common master with each other, and they could still coexist with each other. But after the death of King Nan, the contradiction between the general Mu Yuan and the general Fan Ronggui broke out. Neither wanted to obey the other, and a big fight broke out between them soon after. The final result was that Fan Ronggui was defeated and Mu Yuan won. Fan Ronggui led his soldiers and horses to escape from Panlong Ridge and set up another mountain. Mu Yuan occupied this feng shui treasure.

More than 100 years have passed, and each of the cottages has experienced division and dumping, annexation and encroachment, and the original two camps have now been divided into dozens of cottages of all sizes throughout Funiu Mountain. But one thing has not changed, that is, Mu Yuan's lineage has been entrenched in the Panlongling territory for a long time, because the strength of the Mu family's Taoyuan Village has always been the best in the entire Funiu Mountain. Even the internal divisions and strife that have not shaken this point. And the most powerful cottages occupy the best territory, which is also the time of course.

Before leaving, Lin Jue had heard Ruan Ping talk a lot about these old things about Panlongling. Lin Jue's original intention was to understand the strength of Taoyuan Village and how Mu Zhenshan was a person. Unexpectedly, I learned these allusions and stories of Panlongling. However, Lin Jue didn't think that Panlongling was really a treasure of feng shui and a place where Longxing could flourish.

With Lin Jue's knowledge, he could immediately conclude that there was a great possibility that Panlongling was a volcanic relic. The crater and the flat area in the middle should be a dormant volcanic crater, with no ice and snow all year round, and the four seasons are like spring, and the flowers and plants are luxuriant, which should be because the ground below the volcano is warm, and there is magma churning underground, resulting in the entire stratum of the land in a warm state, and naturally it cannot freeze and snow. The hot spring lake mentioned is even more proof of his idea.

The so-called land of dragon prosperity is just a far-fetched theory. Even if your guess is wrong, it's not actually a crater. It's definitely not a place where dragons thrive. The Taoyuan Village has been located here for more than 100 years, why haven't they seen the slightest sign of development? Isn't it still trapped in Funiu Mountain as a mountain bandit?

On the afternoon of the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Lin Jue, Gao Muqing and his entourage arrived at the foot of the eastern slope of Panlong Ridge. Standing at the bottom of the mountain, the mountain of this Panlongling is very majestic and steep. The slopes of the mountains are towering, the forests are as deep as the sea, and the huge rocks on the slopes are covered from top to bottom, forming several natural passages with sparse trees, which are also the only reasons that can go up the mountain.

Under the mountains, the leader of Taoyuan Village, who is responsible for receiving the visits of the major village owners, has been waiting for a long time. When Gao Muqing, Lin Jue and the others arrived, hundreds of soldiers and horses poured out of the trees, and after identifying them, they led Lin Jue and Gao Muqing up the mountain from a passage on the east side.

When walking on the stone steps of the passage in the forest, Lin Jue concluded that this was an ancient volcanic crater. Because the stone steps are carved into a rock belt from top to bottom. The left and right slopes are covered with dense forests, but the passage up the mountain is covered with rocks, and only the scattered trees grow in the crevices of the rocks. And the variety of this rock Lin Jue knows, it is a rock with a scientific name called 'basalt'. It is also a rock that is commonly known as a volcanic rock.

Seeing this basalt landform, it is almost certain that this volcano erupted a long time ago. The passage up the mountain in the forest is actually the trace of the path left on the slope of the mountain after the magma flows out of the crater. It is only on this path that the magma flows through the cooling path that the trees will be sparse like this, after all, the trees and rocks cannot take root and grow.

The further up the stone stairs become, the more amazing the terrain becomes. Standing at the foot of the mountain and looking at the appearance of Panlong Ridge before, I couldn't realize the steepness of this mountain. But when you walk on the stone steps and climb up, the cliffs on both sides are like ghosts, and the deep pits are densely packed. It seems to be a dense forest ground, but a huge pit suddenly appears as if it leads to hell, making people's hairs stand on end.

Even this stone staircase passage passes through some artificially built bridges from time to time, otherwise it would not be possible to pass through the layers of cliffs that suddenly appear in front of you.

The leader of the mountain bandits in Taoyuan Village, who accompanied him, reminded everyone from time to time not to deviate from the position of the stone steps up the mountain, and reminded them not to step on the snow on the side of the road. The leader also gave a demonstration himself. He picked up a rock and threw it at a flat patch of snow beside the road, which pierced the snow and revealed a deep black hole below. The sound of the stones tumbling and falling in the hole for a long time proves that even this hole, which is less than a foot in circumference, is deep and bottomless, and it is not known where it leads.

Everyone in Luoyan Valley was dumbfounded, such a terrain could really be called a murderous place. If you accidentally fall into such a hole in the forest, it will be the end of the broken bones. The entire slope of Panlong Ridge seems to be empty, and this place is really weird.

Lin Jue was also very smacked. But he understands that this landscape is due to the massive damage caused by the eruption of the volcano. Magma sometimes does not flow from the ground. Under tremendous pressure and high temperatures, the magma remains underground, leaving behind thousands of cobweb-like passages. Some of them cause the ground to collapse, and some of them will emerge from the ground to form potholes, which is probably the cause of this landform.

Such terrain is a natural defensive barrier. No one dared to walk in the dense forest, because no one knew whether they were stepping on the ground or not. If you want to capture this Taoyuan Village, I am afraid that you can only go up from a few forest passages where magma flows. And along the way, there are stone castles and arrow towers guarding the dangerous places, and if you want to attack here, I am afraid it will be more difficult than climbing to the sky.

Finally, an hour later, everyone crossed the dense forest area on the slope of Panlongling. When everyone's vision is no longer blocked by the mountains and forests, the scene in front of them is even more staggering.

But above the top of the mountain, the bare germanium-colored mountain is like a towering copper wall and an iron wall under the blue sky and white clouds. Only a few places are covered with snow, and there are hard and strangely shaped rocks everywhere, and all the way up is craggy and dangerous. The terrain above the tree line is even more steep, and it is bare and uncovered, even if one can cross the mountain forest, there is nothing to hide.

And that's not all, at the top of the towering cliff, there is a ring of man-made fortifications that stretch from the edge of the summit to the north and south. The beacon towers, battlements, and bunkers are clearly visible, like the walls of a great wall built around the top of the mountain. After more than 100 years of operation, the owner of this place has fully combined the fortifications and the terrain, taking advantage of the location of the crater to create a giant castle that combines man-made and natural. How much effort and manpower it should take.

Think about it, the length of the entire circle of mountain passes in Panlong Ridge is more than 20 miles. Completing the construction of the 20-mile Great Wall is a huge project. Especially in the middle of this barren mountain, without any tools, this is simply a feat.