manynovel Chapter 284: Book of Seclusion
Chapter 284: Book of Seclusion
Chapter 284: Book of Seclusion
Deep in the mountains of Songxi County.
Jiang Wen was walking quickly in the quiet and deserted forest. Each step he took covered a distance of several feet, and his expression was a little tired.
He was in a restless state today, as he always felt the sound of a phone ringing in his ear. He searched his pockets several times before he remembered that he didn't have a cell phone. But his steps never stopped for a moment. He was judging his direction by the traces of the faint mountain roads and the direction of the gurgling streams, and was rushing towards a hilltop as quickly as possible.
Jiang Wen, who had previously chosen to stay alone in Zhanlu Mountain, went around and carefully explored the surrounding traces, trying to extract useful clues. Everything was developing as he expected, and he soon discovered a long-abandoned camp.
This camp was hidden under a double-chamber vaulted brick tomb from the Southern Song Dynasty. These lunatics dug up the original underground palace, randomly removed the burial objects, overturned the coffins to hide themselves, and completely ignored the worldly taboos. There were some iron smelting tools placed in a haphazard manner inside, but the ground was messy and dusty, and it had not been opened for a long time.
Jiang Wen was squatting in the tomb and sitting on the sarcophagus, drawing a map on the coffin lid with stones while trying to calm the tomb owner's emotions.
"Baima Mountain, Luanfeng Mountain, Gaoping Mountain, Qifeng Mountain..."
The foot of the mountain where Jiang Wen was in front of him had already exceeded the narrow scope of Zhanlu Mountain, because he had changed his thinking and expanded the search space very early, and also included other hills in Songxi County in the exploration.
As soon as he thought of joining the Communist Party, the world suddenly became wider. As the map was completed, he found that he had walked through several dangerous mountains in Songxi County and discovered more and more things.
"...Unfortunately, this is another abandoned camp. If I hadn't seen the tools, I would have suspected that we had run into savages."
As we all know, Bigfoot exists and is of great value to the ecosystem. For example, they feed calcium powder to wild geckos, spread seeds to wild ginkgo trees, dig pupal chambers for wild beetles, and trim hooves for wild cattle and horses. But catching Bigfoot won't solve any problems.
Jiang Wen has discovered many similar places. These people's hiding places are often in remote valleys, rock caves, treetops in dense forests, and even in ancient tombs and caves, wild streams and secluded paths. Jiang Wen also began to frequently encounter attacks for unknown reasons.
Whenever there are unusual noises or rustling footsteps in the forest, some hidden mechanisms and hidden weapons will be activated, such as spring crossbows, sleeve arrows, rock traps, animal traps, poison needles, and thorn spray guns. They will all be shot out from the most tricky angles, making it difficult to defend against them, but they never catch anyone alive.
For example, Jiang Wen carried with him a poison smoke gun that he had picked up. The bamboo tube was two inches in diameter and about two feet long. It was tightly wrapped with hemp rope and was slightly rusty on the surface, but the tube was originally filled with gunpowder and poison cakes. When ignited, the range could reach ten feet. If it hit clothes, the bamboo leaves would ignite and release poisonous smoke, causing people to be poisoned to death.
Previously, Jiang Wen encountered a volley of more than 20 poisonous smoke cannons. If it weren't for his superb martial arts skills, he would have been shot to pieces.
Such sophisticated traps and hidden weapons definitely require manpower to repair and maintain to ensure smooth operation. If the barbarians of the Southern Song Dynasty had such technical level, then the Mongols would have to transform into Pirate Kings and cross the ocean.
Therefore, Jiang Wen became more and more convinced that there was a group of people with ulterior motives hiding in the mountains. However, what puzzled Jiang Wen the most was that these places had been sparsely populated and uninhabited for many years. Could it be that there was a group of ghosts living in the mountains managing everything?
"These people are so vicious and cruel, and it seems like they are targeting lone martial artists. It's really weird."
Jiang Wen muttered to himself as he casually sorted out the remains of the tomb owner, preparing to determine his next move based on various clues. After all, this was the fourth hilltop he had reached in one day.
Chong'an County, Songxi County, and even the entire Jianning Prefecture, have been in a state of chaos since the end of Chongzhen. There are people from the county who have formed a party to start a rebellion, bandits who have taken over the mountains, and even merchants like Xiamei Town who have spontaneously established settlements. There is still a long way to go before the king's order, and there is no strong organization to gather everything.
The biggest reason was that General Bolo, the general of the Qing Dynasty, led 200,000 Qing troops to easily capture Jiangsu and Zhejiang and head straight for Fujian. Huang Daozhou was ordered to go to the battlefield generously and organized and reorganized the Shoulder Pole Army here. He carried the last dignity of the Southern Ming Longwu Dynasty and the hope of the Fujian people, and died at the end of the Chong'an Ancient Road for the Northern Expedition.
Not long after, the Qing army purged the Southern Ming forces. For a time, the hundreds of miles of mountain roads were filled with corpses and blood. The economy was in decline, the population dropped sharply, and the backbone and order were broken, and it has been difficult to recover ever since.
Jiang Wen felt that no matter what kind of trouble happened in such a chaotic time, it was all within reason. What's more, there was a group of ruthless criminals hiding in such a remote mountain area - although it was unreasonable, it was reasonable.
Starting again from their location, as the attacks became increasingly frequent and fierce, Jiang Wen believed that his encirclement was very close to the destination.
This time he went upstream along the mountain stream and saw dense jungle all along the way, with pine trees being the most numerous. The big ones required five or six people to surround them, blocking the narrow road. The rest of the bamboo trees grew in clusters of various kinds, and together they could be surrounded by dozens of trees.
When he reached the end of the road, there were already tall grasses on both sides that were higher than the top. Jiang Wen had to use a sword to cut through the grass where it blocked the way before he could move forward. The ground below was also wet and dirty, making it difficult to walk. Many old grasses that had withered and grown again over the years were piled up and rotted in the grass, turning it into a dirty and muddy swamp. If one was not careful, one would get lost in it.
After going through untold hardships to reach the end of the road, Jiang Wen suddenly saw a piece of moss sticking out, standing upright among the bamboo trees for no reason at all. It did not look like a product of nature. He slowly stepped forward and used his ancient sword to cut through the branches and leaves, and indeed he found a mottled boulder that stood tall.
This huge rock has been hidden here for who knows how many years. The writing has become blurred due to erosion by wind and rain. The signature reads "carved during the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty". Only a small part of the stone text is written in regular script, which seems to record how a group of people arrived here and discovered the relationship between Ou Yezi and the Zhanlu Sword and this mountain. However, the most mentioned part of the text is that this place is called "Kunwu Mountain".
The upper part of the stone cuneiform has been smeared by external forces, and the details of the inscription cannot be seen clearly, but it does not affect the overall reading. The only culprit that caused the stone carving to become incomplete is the crack in the horizontal line in the middle of the stone.
"The two characters on the top seem to be...陟岵? I see, it turns out to be a "broken monument"!"
Jiang Wen reached out and touched the moss-covered surface of the boulder, and noticed that there was a place in the center of the boulder where the stone cracks were particularly conspicuous, as if the entire boulder had started to break apart from here, and had been hit hard by some huge force in a hurry, causing it to become what it is now.
Jiang Wen touched there lightly with his fingers and touched some sharp edges. However, at the moment when he was distracted, three bamboos beside him seemed to be stimulated by a rope on the ground. They suddenly broke through the ground under their feet and pierced out, like a green dragon soaring into the sky.
Amidst the noise, several more bamboos attacked from all directions. Their bodies had been hidden in the sea of bamboos on the mountain without a trace, but now they turned into deadly weapons that flew in all directions.
Jiang Wen did not dare to be careless and quickly drew out his ancient sword to block. He was seen holding the Snake-Chopping Sword in his left hand and the Zhanlu Sword in his right hand, and using both arms to break the bamboo joints at the same time. He first cut off a bamboo whisk, but just as he broke the bamboo joints, a pool of clear water suddenly broke out, and all the grass and trees where the water splashed turned dry and black. Fortunately, Jiang Wen had already used the "Flying Catkins Power" in advance to fly away lightly, trying his best to break free from the encirclement. When another bamboo branch approached, he used the "Snake-like Raccoon Flip" to flip away close to the ground.
"Is it the bamboo whisk again this time?"
These things have happened many times. Jiang Wen is now familiar with the fact that these bamboo whisks are not as ordinary as they appear, nor are they devices used by mountain hunters to catch animals.
The strong wind blew the thick fallen leaves in the forest, revealing some scattered, exposed and gnawed human bones. The stench of corpses that lingered in the cold wind sounded like sobs, warning anyone who stepped into this place. This was enough to prove many problems.
Judging from the scraps of clothing wrapped around them, among them were villagers from Songxi, traveling merchants, hunters from mountain villas, and county yamen runners. Jiang Wen even saw some cloth belonging to military officers of a certain rank. But no matter what their status was in life, they could only sleep here quietly now.
A fierce wind was raging, and several bamboo whisks came crisscrossing each other, with more than ten forked bamboo branches attached, and twisting and rotating under the force of the ropes, making it dizzy and difficult to see clearly. But once the bamboo whisks get close to the body, you will find that these bamboos with dense nodes, strong branches, deep layers and long structures, have extremely dangerous cold light flashing on the tips. They are actually equipped with an iron spear head that should have been shining with cold light, but the traces have been maliciously covered with raw lacquer.
Jiang Wen sneered repeatedly, thinking that the killing move behind him was indeed dangerous. Then he tapped the two swords to remove the force, turned into a flying posture and danced with the wind, determined not to confront these bamboos head-on.
If it were other people who encountered the same thing, even if they were lucky or clever enough to escape from the bamboo whisk, they would soon discover that there seemed to be a mysterious luster among the criss-crossing branches and leaves of the bamboo, and the true appearance of the rustling iron leaves was hidden hard by the noisy sound.
So these lucky ones who have just escaped will be stabbed and scratched by the iron leaves and curved hooks on the bamboo whisk, causing them to scream. Then, the more they struggle, the deeper the iron leaves and curved hooks will penetrate into their skin and flesh, and blood will gush out all over their bodies, turning them into rolling blood gourds.
Then, even if some strong people can withstand the external injuries and break free from the shackles, they will immediately feel dizzy. The wounds are still bleeding, and the same blood is quietly flowing from their seven orifices.
Their breathing began to become difficult, their heartbeats began to accelerate, and their eyes slowly closed in waves of dizziness and pain. If it weren't for the wild beast gnawing at their faces, they would never have opened their eyes again.
This is the deadly poison on the iron leaves of the bamboo whisk, which can kill instantly if it strikes the skin. Even the slightest scratch on the skin can result in death!
Iron is quenched with water and bamboo is quenched with oil. The bamboo whisks made in this way are extremely sharp and dangerous, but they are buried in the most remote places. There is no doubt that they are the means used by the criminals to prevent being tracked.
"The more dangerous the better. I want to see how many tricks you have..."
Jiang Wen thought that his whereabouts had been exposed and that thieves would surely come to attack him, so he drew his sword and waited there. However, after waiting for a long time, no one showed up, so he simply put away his sword and sneaked into a grass nest, moving slowly forward, gradually walking towards the top of the peak at the source of the stream.
The top of the mountain suddenly opened up. After walking for only a few dozen steps, I saw a secluded valley among the dangerous rocks. There were shaded trees inside and no sunlight was visible. There were six or seven thatched huts built around it. In front of the doors were strange soil, mixed taro, indigo and other crops. It seemed like a hut settlement.
Outside these simple huts, not only were medicinal roots and snake skins piled up in piles, but dead leaves and dead trees had also formed five or six firewood stacks, which were already stinking. Jiang Wen also saw some dark-faced, deep-eyed, ghost-like figures moving hunched over. They kept going in and out of the huts, completely ignoring the empty spaces where some dying people were tied up with wooden cages and hemp ropes. No matter how they wailed and begged for help, they were left there in the wind and sun.
Naturally, they didn't care much about these things, because there were bacon and leather drying outside every hut. They were no longer surprised by these things, and instead there was a strange sense of satisfaction in their smiles.
In the middle of the Pengxi settlement, Jiang Wenzhe saw another charcoal kiln and iron furnace that looked like the one near the Zhanlu Zen Temple, but this time the iron furnace was still spewing out black smoke, and there was some "charcoal" burning underneath that looked like kneeling people and was emitting flames.
"Oh, damn it..."
Jiang Wen narrowed his eyes, and the sword light in his palm suddenly rose...
(End of this chapter)