In the evening, Gongsun Yan walked out of Anhua City, and the north gate was facing Shuangtou Ridge, and he immediately quickened his pace, and had to go up the mountain to find a safe place to spend the night before it was completely dark.

Compared with the Shuangbo Mountain Range he walked in front of, Shuangtou Ridge is obviously much taller, and the mountain is much more steep, when Gongsun Yan climbed to the mountainside, it was completely dark, he climbed a pine tree nearby, looked for a branch that could be reclined, hung up the basket, took out dry food and water bags to eat and drink, and after a day of running, he was already hungry.

He was lying on the tree, Gongsun Yan was not sleepy, he began to think about the next plan, the most important thing is to find a "nest" for himself to live in for a long time, thinking of this, he straightened up, reached forward with his hand, and said "Huh" in his mouth, he found that tonight was much warmer, the night was very cold a few days ago, and sometimes he would even be woken up by freezing when he slept on the tree. After a moment's thought, he realized that this was the southern slope, which was significantly warmer than the canyon and the northern slope. He decided to find a "nest" to settle down in the southern slope of the Shuangtou Mountains after dawn.

Early the next morning, after breakfast, Gongsun Yan began to act. For three days in a row, not only the southern slope, but even the northern slope of Shuangtouling was searched, but he did not find the "nest" he wanted, not that the place was too small and did not shelter from the wind and rain; It's just not stealthy enough to be easily discovered. There is a cave in the ground that is hidden and wide, but it is dark and damp, and there is no bottom, and Gongsun Yan does not dare to stay there for long.

After a few days, Gongsun Yan figured out the geographical location and basic situation of Shuangtouling. Shuangtouling is a conjoined mountain, the west is connected with the "big mountain" said by the middle-aged man, the big mountain is worthy of being called the "big mountain", the double-headed ridge is the "little brother" in front of it, the mountain peak is abrupt and lush, towering into the clouds; On the east side of the Twin Python Mountains, the Grand Canyon came to an abrupt end; The north and south sides are hilly areas that resemble plains. From a distance, Shuangtouling is like two pythons in close contact, so there is such a saying.

Because the south of the Shuangtou Mountains is Anhua City, which is close to the densely populated area, there are not many medicinal resources on the mountains near it, and the rare medicinal materials are even more extinct. If Gongsun Yan only collects medicine to make a living in this vicinity, I am afraid it will be difficult to continue.

After thinking about it repeatedly, Gongsun Yan decided to go to the "big mountain" to break through, since there were few people there, there must be more medicinal herbs, and maybe he could find a suitable place to live.

When I came to the foot of the mountain, I saw a sign erected next to the road to climb the mountain, which read "The mountain is high and the forest is dense, and the beasts are infested, pay attention to defense".

Gongsun Yan ignored it and began to climb the mountain without hesitation.

The mountain is very steep, the trail is rugged and difficult to walk, and there are some bends with cliffs on one side and mountains on the other. It took Gongsun Yan nearly an hour to reach the peak, I thought it was to climb to the top and see the mountains at a glance, but I didn't know that it was "less than two miles at a glance", not far away there are still mountain peaks towering, deep canyons, and obviously there is a feeling that a mountain is higher than a mountain.

The roar in the canyon is terrible, the cry is mournful, and sometimes there are bursts of roars, which are terrifying. Although Gongsun Yan often goes in and out of the canyon, he rarely encounters fierce beasts, and when he sees this scene, he is also a little stunned. He decided not to go deep into the canyon yet, but only to collect medicine near the peaks on the periphery.

In the past few days, he picked a lot of rare herbs, some of which were like red-headed shellfish and red blood vines, which he picked for the first time, and it was estimated that they could be sold at a good price.

This morning, the sky was clear, the visibility was very high, Gongsun Yan had breakfast and came to a peak, was thinking about where to pick medicine, and found that there seemed to be a few red plants on the cliff of the mountain peak facing the north, it was difficult to find without deliberate observation, with his many years of experience in collecting medicine, most of the red plants growing on the cliff were treasures. However, the mountain peak is abrupt and resembles bamboo shoots, and the place where the red plants grow is dozens of feet high from the valley floor, and there are no vines hanging down around it, so it is difficult to pick.

But this is not difficult for Gongsun Yan, he quickly probed to the bottom of the valley, and then began to climb the cliff, less than an hour to climb there, fixed his eyes, he was overjoyed, it is a cliff ginseng, and there are two black cliff ginseng, the so-called "thousand years of red and ten thousand years of black", black cliff ginseng medicinal value is extremely high, is a thousand years of the best herbs, he hurriedly used a small shovel to carefully pick down those cliff ginseng, try to keep the roots, convenient for future generations.

After doing this, he found a position where he could borrow a little strength, took out a water bag and drank a few sips, he looked back at the peak he was standing on, and found that this cliff was a little special, his position was concave to the east in a U-shape, and the raised part of the cliff was like a screen, which could mostly block the view from the south peak, no wonder this cliff has not been discovered.

He took a breath and prepared to descend the mountain, and in order to save time and energy, he pulled out the rope and looked up to find a place to tie the "knot". Suddenly, he noticed a small patch of green plants resembling cypress growing in the shade above the depression, rubbed his eyes and looked closely, he couldn't help but be stunned, his heart trembled, and he almost fell.

He settled down, stabilized his mood, and began to climb there, and when he got closer, he could see more clearly, yes! This small piece of green plant is the "Nine Dead Soul Grass", known as the "King of Herbs", and he picked them with a slight trembling hand and carefully put them in the back basket. Gongsun Yan brushed away the cold sweat on his head, calmed down his excitement, and he was happy in his heart, today is really a good luck, and good things are happening.

He looked around carefully again, looking for a place where he could tie a rope, and saw a small piece of rock protruding from the upper right of the cliff where the cliff ginseng had just grown, only a little more than a zhang high from his current position, and he quickly climbed there, and the cliff wall above was covered with moss, which was not easy to climb, and the rock was very flat enough to settle down and tie the rope.

Gongsun Yan flexibly climbed the rock, and found that there were not only moss growing on the cliff wall, but also mushrooms growing in several places, he felt very strange, how could mushrooms grow on the rock wall? Mushrooms usually grow on wood! He tried to shovel the mushrooms and moss, and sure enough, he saw rotten wood underneath. Continue to peel off the moss on the surface of the wood with a shovel, and the outline of the wood gradually appears, the area is not large, about six feet square, although the surface has rotted, the inside is still relatively hard.

He became more and more curious, the wood embedded in the rock wall was obviously artificial, who was doing the wood here? He decided to find out, took the medicine hoe from his waist, and he gently planed it, and immediately heard the sound of an empty drum "dong dong", indicating that there was an empty back of the wood.

It didn't take long to dig a corner open, revealing a black hole, and now he knew that the wooden block was used to plug the hole. He stopped his movements, listened quietly, and heard no sound coming from inside, only a musty smell, but not a strong smell. He continued to dig for a while, only to hear a "bang", and the remaining part of the rotten wood fell into the hole, revealing a hole more than six feet square.

Gongsun Yan sorted out the debris at the entrance of the cave a little and quickly climbed in. He didn't rush deeper, sat at the entrance of the cave and looked around carefully, and found that the inside of the cave was tall enough for an adult to stand, the entrance was rectangular and neatly edged, and it was necessary to go up a step to enter the inside, not like a natural formation.

After waiting for about a quarter of an hour, seeing that there was no movement, he unloaded the basket, took out a slightly longer piece of wood from the pile of rotten wood, took out a dagger and sharpened the rotten part, and then took out a small porcelain bottle, poured a little pine oil in it on the wood, and made a simple torch.

Although Gongsun Yan is young, he is indeed experienced, and he raises torches to explore the cave, one is for lighting; The second is that many unknown creatures are afraid of fire and can avoid being attacked. What's more, the burning flame can detect whether there is a lack of oxygen in the cave and prevent suffocation.

Less than a zhang away from the cave, Gongsun Yan found a stone chamber, about one zhang square, square inside, with a stone table and a stone bench, the walls were empty, and there was a wooden frame on the table, on which was a light gray translucent stone; There is also an ensuite inside, which is of average size, except for a stone bed, and nothing else.

Gongsun Yan held the torch and observed carefully, the four walls and the ground of the stone chamber were very flat, and the traces of man-made were obvious, which confirmed his suspicion that this was a cave specially built by someone.

It's puzzling what kind of person can endure so much? Why was this hidden cave built? Why give up so much effort? Gongsun Yan was puzzled. From the black cliff ginseng growing near the entrance of the cave, it can be inferred that this cave has been sealed for at least nearly 10,000 years, unless the people who lived here at that time did not know the medicinal materials, of course, it is possible that the worldly masters disdain it.

If you don't understand it, don't think about it, Gongsun Yan immediately decided to live here in the future. He first went to the entrance of the cave and took the basket into the stone room, took out the dry food, and took out the two precious medicinal herbs and spread them out; Then go to the entrance of the cave to clean up the rotten wood debris together and put it in the back basket, and then take it down when you are ready to go down the mountain.

Without tools, Gongsun Yan can't do anything, and now it's too late to rush to Anhua City to buy things, and today is a great harvest, and he doesn't want to continue to collect medicine. He sat at the entrance of the cave in a rare leisurely manner, looking out, the entrance of the cave was just blocked by the protruding "screen" of the cliff wall to block the view of the opposite peak, and it was already early in time, and the sunlight could obliquely hit the side wall of the cave entrance. He planned to go to Anhua City early tomorrow morning to buy something, and bring back the things stored on the other pine trees by the way.