However, strangely, their auras, like stars in a foggy sky, flickered, appearing and disappearing.
I informed Lin Xi of what I saw. Lin Xi thought for a moment, then called his brother. His brother used his internal connections to find the county leader who was in charge of flattening Furong Town seven years ago and inquired about the incident.
Initially, the leader was evasive. Under the pretense of Lin Xi's brother being a "new official who wants to make a mark," he finally confessed the truth.
The landslide was real, but so was the intention to conceal the truth of Furong Town.
It turned out that Furong Town was an ancient town dating back to the Song Dynasty. It was situated deep in the mountains because, during times of war, some villagers sought refuge there. They utilized the unique terrain of numerous stone caves and cliffs to construct a semi-subterranean town. From the outside, the town was invisible. The main living and activity areas were within the caves, interconnected like a tunnel warfare system.
Later, as the country stabilized, the villagers in this underground "Peach Blossom Spring" began to communicate with the outside world. Due to the fertile land and pleasant climate nearby, they were unwilling to leave and even attracted more people to settle. As the population grew, the stone caves became insufficient. A new town was built on top of the original cave town. Because of its remote location, it remained intact through various wars and conflicts.
Meanwhile, the underground stone caves gradually fell into disuse.
With the establishment of the new country, especially after the reform and opening up, the peaceful, self-sufficient agricultural life here was disrupted. Due to poor transportation, with the nearest village over two hundred li away and roads impassable, people gradually began to leave the town. Eventually, only a few hundred elderly and children remained.
To achieve poverty alleviation and exit the list of impoverished areas, the local government had long wished to relocate this burden. The landslide seven years ago finally provided the local leaders with an excuse. They resolved to move all the remaining villagers to the county town, providing each household with a house and insurance for the elderly, thus preventing any disturbances.
The town was then completely abandoned.
However, the reason for leveling the above-ground structures differed from the official explanation. The leader stated that it wasn't to prevent villagers from returning, but because after the villagers were relocated, strange people frequently appeared in the underground caves, making repairs and doing mysterious things. When asked what they were doing, they refused to say and drove away the local officials. Annoyed, the officials thought, "You want to repair the caves? Fine, I'll bury them all, and no one will have anything to do with them again."
Thus, bulldozers were deployed to flatten all the above-ground structures. Combined with the landslide covering the area the following year, Furong Town was completely buried in history.
"Understood," I said, nodding after listening to the leader's account. "It's the Chi You organization. They've turned this place into a secret base. The people tinkering in the caves back then were them. After the landslide, they continued their work, transforming the underground caves into a fortress. That's why I saw flickering auras, because the stone walls would block parts of them."
"Then let's go there now and catch them off guard!" Xu Ran said. She had a longstanding conflict with the Chi You Group and was eager for action.
"No, tonight's mission is only to find the Miao King's hiding place. We'll wait for 201 tomorrow before taking action," Lin Xi said. "How about this? We'll advance another five kilometers or so, find a location where we can monitor Furong Town, and then wait for dawn."
Everyone agreed. A Ying led the way again. The five kilometers on the map turned out to be crossing three mountains. Unable to find a suitable location immediately, they continued forward. About three and a half kilometers from Furong Town, they finally found a slightly higher mountain. Standing at the summit, they could faintly see Furong Town. They assumed no one would notice them, as they were using their naked eyes and had even started a fire outdoors. It appeared to be seven or eight scattered campfires in the surrounding woods, looking more like hikers camping.