The so-called secondary forest is a forest system that is reformed after the destruction of the original forest land. If left for a long enough time, the secondary forest will revert to its original state and reach a new equilibrium. But if external disturbances are always present, then the characteristics of the secondary forest will be obvious.

The destruction of primary forest systems may be due to natural causes, such as fires, but more often than not, due to human logging. The woodland they passed through today was obviously different from the previous day, there were not many large trees, and the larger plants were sparsely distributed, interspersed with many shrubs and large grasses.

While Tin Qi was speaking, the crowd saw a stump, the flat fracture apparently either lodging due to natural causes or had been sawn off. This shows that there are often people here who come here to cut wood and harvest various mountain goods.

They have been walking along the surface of the river these days, and there are other tributaries in the mountains that are constantly flowing in, but the water of the stream is not too strong, and they can always find a suitable place to wade through. When they reached this valley, they were already surrounded by a river with considerable water, and although the bed was open and not deep in many places, it was difficult to wade through it if they could not swim.

Now that he had found traces of the aboriginal activities, Ding Qi looked around again, pointed ahead and said, "Let's climb to the top of that mountain and try it, maybe we can already see the village in the distance." ”

After having lunch by the water, they climbed the mountain in the afternoon, and finally saw the traces of human traffic. This side of the mountain is a gentle slope with few tall trees, and there are large areas of bush and green carpet of grass with a variety of unknown wildflowers.

Beneath the slopes of the hill is a plain, and there are also hills scattered on the plains, and there are apparently patches of artificially cultivated fields between the hills. When the river entered the plains, it spread out in a fan-like shape, and many large and small lakes were formed between the fields and hills, some of which were apparently dug by hand along the terrain.

At the end of the plain there is a series of mountains, which do not seem to be as high as this, and near the mountains there are villages and houses. There are four villages in total, with the largest being the closest to the distant mountains and the farthest from their location, and the other three surrounded by zigzags, all about the same distance from the central village.

There are green plants and open flowers in the lake, and it is difficult to see in the distance, but it is a lotus flower that can be seen in the distance. There are still small boats parked in the larger lakes, and it is not too late to say that this time, but there is no one in the fields where you can see clearly.

Bi Xuecheng asked curiously: "There are fields and ponds, why is no one working?"

Ding Qi shook his head and said, "It's not that there is no one, but you can't see it." All you can see is at the foot of the mountain, far from the village, and there are still people in the fields closer to the village. Don't forget the darkness here, the villagers should all rush back to the village before it falls, and it's not too early for them to stay far away from the village. ”

Ye Yanxing: "Master, shall we rush to the village now?"

Ding Qi shook his head and said, "Don't worry, it's easy to do it when you get to a populated place." Let's find a campsite first, take a shower and change clothes, clean up and tidy up first, and then ask the locals about the situation tomorrow. ”

They walked in the mountains for almost a month, but fortunately, Ding Qi always led the way with a machete in hand, and the walking speed was not fast, so they did not become called Hanako. Before they came, they wore high-top mountain boots, the kind that were of good quality and sturdy, and they also had a pair of light casual shoes.

On the way, they also took a bath and washed their clothes, and Meng Huiyu was a little more troublesome, but it was easy to do. Find a safe and suitable place, the three men are on guard around and don't peek, but Meng Huiyu felt a little embarrassed. But she also loves cleanliness, but fortunately the climate is good, if it is winter, there is no such condition.

While it was still early, the group turned around and walked down the hill to find a suitable campsite and then a suitable bathing place by the stream. After finishing his work, it was almost dark, so I hurriedly made a fire to make dinner, and finally ate the last box of canned beef I brought.

During the meal, Meng Huiyu asked, "How far have we come?"

Ye Yanxing: "I can't remember it clearly, but I feel that there are hundreds of miles, and I have never walked such a long road in my life!"

Bi Xuecheng: "How old are you, and you are still in this life?"

Ye Yanxing asked rhetorically, "Have you walked such a long way on foot?"

Bi Xuecheng shook his head and said: "Of course there is no more, I feel that there is almost a thousand miles! The ancients said that 'a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step', and this is almost in time to enter Beijing to catch the exam." ”

Ding Qi closed his eyes at this time, his expression seemed to be staring at something, and he suddenly said: "If you count the straight-line distance, we have actually only walked more than ten kilometers, almost between twelve and thirteen kilometers." ”

Bi Xuecheng exclaimed: "How is it possible to be so short!"

Meng Huiyu reminded in a low voice: "Master is talking about a straight-line distance. Then he asked, "Master, have we really come this far, and what is the curvilinear distance?"

Ding Qi: "More than 300 miles, that is, more than 160 kilometers." We followed the current, and circled several large S-shapes back and forth in this mountainous area. ”

Ye Yanxing: "Have you taken so many detours?"

Tincchi: "It's a stupid idea, and it's a clever one, because we don't know the terrain here, and we don't know where the water is going. The mountains are very difficult to walk, which is much slower than walking in a straight line on the plains, and we are delayed for seven or eight days, not every day. ”

They did delay on the road, because it was raining in the mountains, and although they had ponchos in their backpacks, it was not a wise decision to climb over the mountains and mountains in the rain, and they might fall and even fall into a deep valley if they slipped their feet, so they simply stayed in the camp during the day to practice.

Tincey felt lucky that at least no one got sick or injured along the way, and that there was always a suitable camp in the mountains. The kind of place they found on the first day on the halfway slope of the hill was a half-open grotto the size of a house under the hollow cliff, which was not ubiquitous, but could be found almost every day if the road was far enough.

There were also deep caves and intricate pores in the mountains in this area, but Tintin would not look for such a place to camp, but one afternoon they went into a large cave, zigzagged to a large cave hall, and then retreated. The smell was terrible, and there were piles of feces on the ground, and you didn't have to look up to know that the walls of the cave were covered with nocturnal white wings.

The night here is so deep that many animals must be hiding in caves, so it's best to camp in a place where you can see clearly at a glance to avoid unknown dangers. Fortunately, I can always find such a place, which has to be said to be lucky.

When camping at night, Ding Qi also "communicated" with these grottoes under the rocks during his meditation. The cave can't speak, so how can you communicate with people? It's not easy to explain in words, it's just a feeling.

For example, if you want to get started, you have to see what you have in your hand as if it were alive. And the cultivation of the secret method outside the prescription pays attention to empathy with heaven and earth, even if the word "telepathy" is not used, this is also a psychological phenomenon.

When the secret method cultivation outside the square reaches the Xingshen realm, this feeling is even more obvious. To feel the will of heaven and earth, you must first feel the breath of your surroundings, the cave can't speak, but it seems to be able to tell you something.

It was a purely spiritual experience, and Tintze seemed to have traveled through time and space to see a long time ago. If there were really 50,000 Taiping troops who entered the Qin Gaotai back then, then they would also be scattered in different places in this outside world, I am afraid that there will be them everywhere. In such an environment, the first task of survival is to find a suitable camp and be prepared to stick to it for a long time.

But natural campsites are not so easy to find, and formed soldiers and civilians can quickly assemble, and then build some suitable places for temporary camping according to the terrain, such as digging out such spaces under the rock formations on the hillside. Why didn't they look for plains or villages, because there were no villages at all, and the people in the mountains didn't know where the plains were.

The fields and villages you see on the high slopes today are probably the result of the transformation of the environment by the remnants of the Taiping Army after they came out of the mountains. And before they came, the plains must have been primeval jungle.

Large herbivores like Si are good at running, in fact, the plains are more suitable for them to survive, but now they can only be seen in the deep mountains, not because the plains suitable for reclamation and habitation are occupied by humans. Ding Qi sat in the stone niche and empathized with the stone wall, which may be a kind of induction or a guess, and he thought that these camps in the mountains were left by his predecessors.

Ding Qi was closing his eyes and pondering, and then he heard Meng Hui ask, "One hundred and sixty kilometers, how can Master remember it so clearly?"

Ding Qi opened his eyes and replied two words: "Heart plate." ”

The secret method of Fang Wai starts with the contemplation of the body, and the cultivation of the contemplation of the body first starts from the "heart book", from the "heart book" to the "heart realm", in fact, it is borrowed from the psychological skills learned by Ding Qi and the Fengmen heart disk technique. The body and mind are one world, and only by empathizing with the world around us can we experience and sense another world, and then entrust our hearts and minds to refine the things in our hands to break through the subtle realm.

Jing Wenshi is equivalent to a key to open the door, after being able to sense the outside world, it will maintain this state at ordinary times, and regard Jing Wenshi as that world, which is the process of sustenance and spiritual refinement. As long as you do it, the next thing will be simple, just walk in with the Jingwen stone.

Cultivating to the hidden realm is actually exercising a clear self-awareness, and at the same time, it is accompanied by the emergence of that indescribable divine consciousness. Jingwen stone no longer has to be held in the hand, it is one with the body and mind, and it is a part of "me".

Further cultivation to the realm of rejuvenation is to truly empathize with the world, which is equivalent to the extension and rediscovery of self-consciousness. The secret method outside the square is different from other secret techniques circulating in the world, along with the cultivation Ding Qi can feel the growth of the so-called mana, but it itself does not pursue any magical power, just to explore and discover the unknown outside the square.

In fact, the cultivation of each level of the realm can be endless, such as the contemplation of the body realm, such as the subtle realm, even if you don't break through the next level of realm, you can continue to cultivate, and master it more and more proficiently.

The Qin Gaotai is so vast that Ding Qi is not yet able to influence and feel the will of the entire world, but it does not mean that he has not broken through the Xingshen Realm, nor does it prevent him from continuing to explore the higher realm.

So after cultivating the secret method outside the square to the Xingshen Realm, what is the next realm? Ding Qi has already given it a name, or is it borrowed from the secret techniques of the eight gates of the rivers and lakes to call it the Heart Disk Realm. He even had a vague feeling that the key to finding the gateway to the Qin Gaotai was whether he could complete his cultivation of the Xingshen Realm and break through to the next level of realm.

During the journey of more than 20 days, Ding Qi had actually been cultivating, and he was condensing his heart. Although I don't know the scene of the entire Qin Gaotai, as long as I walk through, it will be clearly presented in the Yuanshen, like a world that is unfolding, and like a three-dimensional picture of time and space.

It wasn't until they walked out of the mountains and mountains that Ding Qi realized that they had come full circle. But there is no way to do it, who knows how many turns the water will take in the mountains, and they can't wander aimlessly in the mountains. It is even more impossible to find a straight line in one direction, and many places are simply impossible to climb and climb.

Ding Qi's speed has not been fast these days, on the one hand, because the road is difficult, and he has to protect the three disciples behind him, and on the other hand, because he is condensing his heart. It is precisely because there is such a heart plate in the Yuan Shen that he knows how far he has traveled now, and how many kilometers is the distance of such terrain in a straight line.

The principle of condensing the heart plate in the secret method outside the square is not complicated, and several disciples have already practiced introductory kung fu, so Ding Qi took this opportunity to explain it to them in detail, which can be regarded as giving them a clear understanding of their future cultivation trajectory.

After dawn the next day, they packed up their equipment and bags, and tried to dress up as neatly as possible, at least not so embarrassed, and their energy and physical strength were adjusted to the best state. No one knows whether the aborigines of this area are good or not, and maintaining the best condition can prevent accidents, in short, try not to cause mistakes and avoid conflicts.

Soon after dawn, there was no one in the nearby fields, but smoke was rising from the distant villages. As they walked down the hillside, they could already see people coming out of the village, and although they could not see the silhouette of the human form, they could see small dots moving outward, and many of them were coming in this direction.

"Master, there are sunflowers here, are they wild?"

Ding Qi: "It's not very likely to be purely wild, someone should have brought it in and planted it at the earliest, and then it grew in the wild." ”

There are sunflowers growing on the hillside, scattered in irregular patches, like wild. Sunflower was introduced to China in the Ming Dynasty and became an important oil crop, and sunflower seeds quickly replaced the status of watermelon seeds and pumpkin seeds, becoming one of the most common leisure snacks.

It is entirely possible that if someone from the Taiping army brought in sunflower seeds and then sowed them here. This is the outer world, and there may have been sunflowers at the earliest, but this is unlikely. Because they hadn't seen it in the mountains for so many days, they had only seen it on the slopes of the mountains close to the people, so it was obvious that they were not native to this area.

The plains under the hillside were crisscrossed by water, and there were obvious roads between the fields, and they found the largest road, and there were many small bridges on this road, and most of them were brick bridges, made of large square bricks. They walked for about an hour with their bags on their backs and finally met a group of people on the road.

Ding Qi was about to say hello, and the gang also saw them, and hurriedly trotted over. What are you trying to do? Ding Qi subconsciously clenched his stick, but unexpectedly, those people came to a place a few meters in front of him, knelt down and kowtowed together, and said: "Greetings to a few Heavenly Brothers! After receiving the order, I will wait day and night, and finally there will be Heavenly Brothers coming to our East Camp!"