Mountain and River Festival

Chapter 47 The Secret of Danxia
In early October, a mountain gate was erected on the hillside of Danxia Mountain. The huge plaque on the gate read "Tianxing Sword Sect" shining brightly. The "Shen's Trading Company" that had changed its name and hidden itself became history in less than a month.

The buildings on the mountain have been replanned, imitating the original Tianxing Sword Sect model, and divided into various halls, scripture storage buildings, and various trial fields. The mountain is filled with sword energy and finally begins to show the shadow of the Sword Sect.

The place where the underground fire is most intense has been divided into the Sword Forging Hall. The master of the Sword Forging Hall has begun to refine the fifth-grade flying sword. The Danxia Gang still has quite a lot of forging materials in reserve in its warehouse. After so many years of accumulation, a local gang has a pretty good foundation... In fact, in order to buy these, Shen Tang paid Liu Yan'er quite a lot of money.

I don’t know if Liu Yan’er can hold on with her intelligence.

Money is a small matter. Such a gang foundation is really too convenient. A resurgent sword sect is taking shape visibly.

The mountain was once covered in medicinal herbs, but they were recently cleared to make way for the Hanying grass, so no new plantings were made. This time, however, it was convenient; no new plantings were needed. The land was divided among the various branches of the Sword Sect. Only a large herb garden remained, still managed by the original Danxia Gang disciples. All the former alchemy apprentices moved nearby to become the Sword Sect's Alchemy Hall, serving only the sect's own needs.

In theory, Lu Xingzhou had no duties in the sect and was only a guest official. In reality, the people in the Dan Hall went to him to report everything, so he was basically a hall master.

Oh, he is not the hall master. As a guest elder, he doesn’t even receive a salary. Instead, he can use the storehouse freely and take whatever he wants.

The people of Tianxing Sword Sect felt that this was not a good thing, and they always felt that this was not like a guest elder... But they could not say anything, because their sect leader was more diligent than the disciples of the Dan Hall in reporting matters to Elder Lu, and even the plans of each hall were based on his opinions.

Uncle Zhong and the others privately complained that if they had to give Lu Xingzhou a position, he wouldn't be a guest official at all, he clearly looked like the Sect Master's wife...

The lady didn't even live in Danxia Mountain. She lived in the back mountain of Huo's house. She built a bamboo house for herself and An Nuo to live in. However, the sect leader still went there every day.

Dugu Qingli pushed his wheelchair up and down the mountain every day, which was so far that it was extremely long, and his face was ashen.

In fact, when no one was watching, Shen Tang had already tried to walk on his own. It took only three days from the time he needed Dugu Qingli's support at the beginning to the time he no longer needed it.

"You have a really good foundation. You've recovered much faster than I expected." Lu Xingzhou watched Shen Tang leave his wheelchair and slowly walk towards him, a rare hint of jealousy in his eyes. His own broken hamstrings had only just begun to heal, and the others were still far behind.

Shen Tang stood in front of him and bowed gently: "You have been refining the medicine to strengthen the tendons and bones to assist me recently. It would be impossible for me to achieve this speed on my own."

Lu Xingzhou didn't say anything.

Whenever the two met these days, the atmosphere was extremely awkward. Shen Tang hardly dared to meet him alone and had to bring Little White Hair with him. Lu Xingzhou also didn't dare to send An Nuo out to help out and had to stay aside.

The two looked at each other inadvertently, and then quickly turned their eyes away.

The wheelchair play that day was really ahead of its time...

Looking at this dialogue, they are actually being polite... Dugu Qingli felt that he was simply out of his mind, and the Emperor's Shocking World Sutra was indeed not an easy practice.

She really didn't want to listen to the two people's false politeness, so she couldn't help but interrupt: "Why do you want to live on this hilltop? It's so inconvenient."

Lu Xingzhou said, "There's underground fire on the Danxia Mountain side, but not here. It's been enclosed by the Huo family and treated as an ordinary back mountain... I think since it's surrounded by dragons and tigers, and there's fire on the other side, this side should also have its own unique characteristics and need to be studied."

"So what results have you come up with these days?"

"Theoretically, it should be a harmonious union of water and fire, and the clear streams and springs here are indeed more beautiful, but I feel it's not enough." Lu Xingzhou asked, "I've had you arrange for people to observe the sunrise at different locations these days. What's the result?"

Shen Tang said, "What a coincidence! Looking at the sunrise from the tallest building of the business just before us, the sun looks like a pill jumping out from the gap between two mountains. This shows that the Huo family built a house in that location years ago for a reason, but later found it useless and abandoned it to Liu Qingcang."

Lu Xingzhou's expression turned grim. "In other words, Liu Qingcang was actually responsible for observing the happenings in the mountains for the Huo family in his early years."

"should be."

Lu Xingzhou closed his eyes and took a deep breath: "He died too early!"

The two were confused for a moment and stared at him blankly.

"Forget it, he's already dead, so I'm not too bored to whip his corpse." Lu Xingzhou didn't explain this, and continued, "Although this terrain wasn't man-made, it must have been used by an extremely powerful immortal to refine their elixirs. The alchemy furnace was originally hidden in the valley, but then, for some unknown reason, it popped out. In other words, the spiritual energy here was completely absorbed by this person's alchemy, degenerating into its current thin state, causing Xiazhou to decline."

Shen Tang was somewhat shocked: "Absorbing the earth veins of an entire city has resulted in Xiazhou being downgraded..."

"Hmm... The Huo family thought they had no more secrets after acquiring the furnace, but I don't think so. Logically, the terrain here must have been very fortunate before this person laid out the plan, which is why he chose to use it, right?" Shen Tang pondered for a moment and nodded, "Yes."

Lu Xingzhou said decisively, "So, broken down, there are actually two things going on. This person's layout must have created a concealing effect. If my guess is correct, there might be a secret immortal realm hidden here!"

Shen Tang and Dugu Qingli looked at each other. If there was a secret realm, then the level of this secret realm might be very high.

Lu Xingzhou patted the armrest of his wheelchair and murmured to himself, "Sacrificing mountains and rivers to refine the Sun and Moon Pill... I wonder who this person is, he's so bold... But where is he? Why didn't he react even when the pill furnace was taken away?"

Of course no one can answer this question.

Dugu Qingli thought for a while and said carefully, "If this is a cover-up set by a figure of this level, we can't break it with our abilities. Otherwise, I will send a letter to Master and ask him for guidance."

Lu Xingzhou remained silent. He didn't really want the Holy Land to get involved in this matter, because if they got involved, they probably wouldn't get their hands on it. But Dugu Qingli was right. If a figure of this caliber set up a restriction, then everyone's abilities might not be able to break it... And even if they did, wouldn't there still be dangers they couldn't handle?

I can’t solve it, and I can’t give it to the holy land either… Lu Xingzhou frowned and pondered, Yuan Muyu’s pretty face flashed through his mind.

Looking for her?
Just as he was hesitating, he heard Shen Tang say, "Don't ask your master for now. Let's try to crack it ourselves first. If it doesn't work, we can talk to you later."

Dugu Qingli seemed to understand their thoughts and nodded. In fact, she wanted to ask the master, but her purpose was to help Lu Xingzhou. If it was about personal experience, it was obviously unreasonable to ask the master for everything.

For personal training, solving such a puzzle is an extremely valuable training experience. Dugu Qingli also wanted to try it himself, so he said, "How about we try to set up an illusion-breaking formation on the two mountains?"

Lu Xingzhou pondered, "Based on the ancestral motto, if a formation is needed to solve it, then the eye of the formation is most likely unrelated to the mountain itself. The observation point where the sun rises like a red pill is more likely the true eye. Otherwise, the motto is meaningless."

Everyone thought: "That makes sense. The Huo family couldn't find anything wrong, most likely because they were focused on the mountains."

"The center of the formation and the entrance are likely two different things. The entrance is more likely to be in the center of the valley surrounded by the dragon and tiger." Lu Xingzhou continued, "So we need two formations. One is the Spirit Gathering Formation, which will gather a large amount of spiritual energy at the center of the formation to 'unlock' it; the other is the Illusion-Breaking Formation, which is set between the two mountains. As for whether our formation is powerful enough, that's another matter. It's always safe to try it out first."

Both women nodded. This idea was very reasonable. It was precisely because it was complicated and misleading that the Huo family gained nothing.

"Besides, there must be something missing from these alone. I can't be the only one in the world who can think of this. The Huo family hasn't been the only one to produce fools over the years. The reason they still haven't gained anything is that they must be missing some conditions... I think it might be a problem with the water element in this back mountain. There shouldn't be just ordinary springs here. Corresponding to the Danxia underground fire, there should be a spiritual spring or a spiritual pond here."

Both women stared at him blankly. Is it our heritage or you?

Anuo sat aside and ate sweet potatoes, not surprised at all.

The power of mountains and rivers, the way of formations, Sister Yu is really amazing. I don't know where she got her inheritance from, but in any case, she is definitely not a lone little demon girl. I don't know why she "ran away from home" and built her own power from scratch.

But for these things, knowledge is one thing, but being able to solve the puzzles also requires being smart enough. Of course, the master is very smart, although not as smart as An Nuo.

Lu Xingzhou wheeled his wheelchair outside and looked at the dark clouds in the sky. "It's going to snow soon."

Shen Tang walked over and said softly, "Today is the beginning of winter."

"Li means establishment and beginning; Dong means the end, the time when all things are stored. On a certain day, the beginning of winter means that virtue is in the water." Lu Xingzhou murmured, "Do you think the return of the spiritual spring is related to the season?"

Shen Tang was startled, and Dugu Qingli shuddered all over.

It's indeed possible. If it were an ordinary cultivator's formation, perhaps the timing wouldn't be considered. However, since it's believed to be related to the immortals, the possibility of timing being involved is extremely high.

If you only utilize the terrain but lack the communication between heaven and earth, how can you talk about becoming an immortal?

Since the beginning of winter is the day when things return to hiding, it will definitely be easier to find clues if we solve the mystery on that day.

It sounds difficult to unravel, but with Lu Xingzhou's explanation, the secret of this mountain seems to be about to be revealed.

(End of this chapter)