The appearance of the old glutton startled me, so I forgot to be polite to him. But the old man didn't care. He smiled and answered me: "Always there, always there."
It turned out that Lao Tao had known about it since we entered the Huangtuling Mountains, but we had been busy climbing the mountain during the previous period. Lao Tao felt that the four of us had no time to pay attention to him, so we did not show up. It wasn't until we climbed to the top of the mountain that the Taoist appeared, but the Taoist didn't have the nerve to disturb us, so he just stood behind us and said nothing.
I think so, as Lao Tao is the local mountain god in Huangtuling, he will naturally know that we are here, but this mysterious appearance is really scary.
The old man took us to a very inconspicuous mountainside, then turned around and cupped his hands towards us and said: "Four of you, please." As he said that, there was a "click" on the mountain wall behind him, and a door opened. Door! I thought to myself, does the mountain god still do this? So, he happily followed the old man into the cave. From the outside, this cave looks like an overgrown mountain wall. Is there anything special about it? But no one could have imagined that there is such a mountain gate here, and there is a unique cave inside. There is a regular corridor inside the cave. Although it is spacious, there is no light such as torches, making it look a bit dark and gloomy. If I hadn't followed Lao Tao, I wouldn't have ended up here. The four of us all turned on the flashlight function of our mobile phones, and then we followed the old man all the way inside.
To be honest, the corridors in this cave are a bit too long. I even doubt whether the mountain is that long. It felt like we had been walking for more than an hour, and Lao Tao didn't say a word in front of me. I was really impatient, so I quickened my pace and walked forward and asked, "How far is it?" Lao Tao turned around and said : "We'll be there soon." I frowned, thinking to myself, what kind of hole is this? Is it a bottomless pit? I'm not worried that this glutton will harm me. After all, with my current means, this glutton is really not necessarily my opponent. Since he has some conspiracy, the three people behind me are not rookies either.
After walking for about ten minutes, it suddenly became clear and the light of the lights was visible. When I took a closer look, I was immediately dumbfounded! The end of the cave is not a stone room as I imagined, but a very huge space with many houses and bright lights. It looks like a village! What’s even more incredible is that there are actually many pedestrians walking back and forth here, as if they were everyday people!
Of course, the people walking around under the spiritual eyes are not human beings, they are all fairies and demons. The four of us stared at the scene in front of us in stunned silence. After a while, we remembered to ask the glutton: "What on earth is going on!"
It turns out that this place is not our real world, but a place between the human world and the spiritual world. In fact, we often see similar things happen in movies, TV dramas and online stories. For example, when a medicinal farmer went up the mountain to collect herbs, he discovered a cave that he had never seen before on the mountain road he often walked. When he went in, he saw the lights. It was as bright as a riot, but the people inside were very hospitable. But when I went to that place later, I found that the cave had disappeared and never appeared again. There are all kinds of stories like this, and today, the four of us met for real.
According to Lao Tao, this place is a secret place located in Huangtu Ridge. The so-called secret realm is of course set up for the interactions between monsters and wild fairies. Monsters and wild fairies and some ghosts that wander around the world all the year round also need to live like humans. Since Huangtu Ridge is controlled by the gluttons, basically monsters and wild fairies need to live like human beings. The wild ghosts have no conflicts and will establish a certain relationship network with each other. This is why Mr. Liu asked the weasel to come to Taoist to find a place to stay last time.
Although this mountain is not big, monsters and wild ghosts are different from humans. There will always be some rare herbs and other objects found, or some monsters find various treasures and the like. In this case, this secret place will also become a place for trading.
This reminds me of a story I heard from an old man enjoying the cool air at the entrance of an alley. Today there is a mountain in the northwest outside Wuzhong County called Biese Mountain, which is directly connected to Wuzhong County. At this junction, which is the westernmost part of Wuzhong County, there is a small mountain called Ladder Mountain. In fact, this ladder mountain does look like a straight step. There is a small village at the foot of Ladder Mountain called Baishan Village.
People in Baishan Village say that the grasshoppers on Ladder Mountain all have golden eye rings. You can see lights on the mountain at night, but when you get closer, the lights disappear. People in Baishan Village have a jingle: "There are treasures on Ladder Mountain, nine cylinders and eighteen pots! Not on the front slope, but on the back slope."
I don’t know what year or month, a Nanmanzi came to Baishan Village, which is what we now call a southerner. Since Baishan Village is located in a remote area and comes from northern China, I don’t know much about southerners, let alone who is southerner. Where are people from? The southern gentleman came to a villager's house and was surprised to see gourds growing on the vegetable shelf in the villager's home. Then he begged for money to buy the gourds growing in the villager's land.
Speaking of this gourd, you may not be familiar with it, but when it comes to gourd, everyone should know what it is. This so-called gourd is the thing before the gourd is cut open, and it is a brother of the gourd.
The villager who grew gourds was puzzled at first, and felt that the gourds were not valuable. You know, he planted this gourd just to split it into two scoops in the future. However, Mr. Nanfang didn't think so, and even boasted: "As long as you give me this gourd, I will give you as much as you want!" The villager was happy at that time and said: "You You are the God of Wealth. I can only buy you a gourd for two copper coins at most. How can I ask you for ten thousand taels of gold?" Unexpectedly, the gentleman from the south smiled when he heard this and said: "I I don’t want your gourd now. I’ll have to wait until the autumn, when the gourd is ready, and then I’ll come and get it!” After saying that, he took out a piece of silver from his pocket and stuffed it into the hands of the villagers, and told him to give it ten thousand yuan. I'm optimistic about his gourd. This is a deposit, and he will definitely come to collect it after autumn.
At first, the villagers of this kind of gourd didn't take this matter seriously. They just thought that the Nanmanzi was a madman and said something crazy, and he had lost the benefit of a piece of silver in vain. But as time went by, the villager began to think more and more wrong. The Nanmanzi didn't look like a madman. What's more, if he was a madman, how could he have so much money to buy such a useless gourd! The villager discussed it with his wife several times, and finally the couple felt that there was something fishy about the gourd growing in their yard.
So when autumn was coming and the gourds were about to grow, they secretly picked them and hid them.
After autumn, the southern gentleman really came to buy the gourd he ordered. But when he arrived, he found that the gourd was missing, and he said anxiously: "Oh, why is my gourd gone!?" The bearded villager pretended to be annoyed and said: "Don't mention it! It's your fault too. ! When you left last time, you gave me a piece of silver as a down payment and said you wanted to buy this gourd. Later, when someone heard about this, they all knew that the gourd was valuable, and they secretly picked it up before the autumn was over. went!"
Mr. Nanfang also slapped his thigh in annoyance and said "Oh!" "That gourd is useless until it grows up! Alas! It must be that I don't have this fate! That's all, since the gourd was picked before it matured. Go, it’s considered unusable, that’s all!”
Seeing Mr. Nanfang's appearance, the villager knew that there must be something fishy in this gourd, so he asked Mr. Nanfang: "Sir, I think you are also a wealthy man, why do you like such a man in my yard?" Broken gourd? Is it possible that this gourd is really worth the ten thousand taels of gold?"
Mr. Nanfang smiled bitterly when he heard this and said: "Well, since the gourd was lost before it grew up, it's okay for me to tell you. This gourd is a gourd, but it is also the key to the mountain behind your ladder mountain!"