The Legend of the Condor Heroes: From Being Expelled from Peach Blossom Island

Chapter 299 The State of the Secret Cave
Wu Chengyu secretly calculated that the platform was about 500 meters high, and they had climbed more than 300 steps to go downstairs.

The steps are very high, about one meter high for every three steps. That means you have to descend more than 100 meters from the platform. This valley, hidden inside the mountain, is 400 meters away from the foot of the mountain, making it an isolated place suspended in mid-air.

He looked around, but the valley was silent and he did not see any living people.

The valley is about the size of four football fields. Two football fields of the area are open to the public, while the rest is inside the mountain, giving it a somewhat secluded, cave-like feel.

He first explored the open area, walking all the way to the end, and was shocked to find that there was a cliff below. From the perspective of the location, it was the same cliff as the small waterfall formed after the second flow of the waterfall. Looking down from 400 meters high, he could only see a dense forest at the foot of the mountain.

Looking further into the distance, it was all deep forest within the Ziwu Ridge. Without a tool like a drone, if you looked at the mountain peak where he was from other parts of the Ziwu Ridge, the cliffs would just be a dark expanse, and you wouldn't be able to tell that it was a valley at all.

What an incredibly well-hidden place! In terms of security alone, this secret cave is simply impeccable.

As long as the stone hole connected by that giant tree is blocked, no one will be able to discover this secret cave.

However, if you want to make this place your home in the future, a secluded location is not enough.

Thinking of this, Wu Chengyu turned and walked towards the part of the space that went deeper into the mountain. He hadn't gone far when he saw several wooden houses, but the houses were completely dilapidated and had definitely not been lived in for many years.

Wu Chengyu couldn't help but start to guess that the valley was clearly half natural and half artificial. The open part outside was natural, while the part wedged into the mountain was widened by humans. The artificial traces on the mountain wall were very obvious, indicating that the project was quite large and took a long time.

Judging from the decay of these wooden houses, they are at least a hundred years old. So who came here a hundred years ago, and how did they discover this secluded valley and develop it into a base?

There's also the question of why the leader was looking for this place, and what arrangements he made after finding it. Unfortunately, Wu Chengyu didn't know about the existence of the secret cave at the time, so he didn't interrogate him, and naturally, the leader wouldn't tell him on his own initiative.

"Chief, look, there are many caves over there."

The deer interrupted Wu Chengyu's thoughts. He looked up and followed the direction the deer pointed. Sure enough, on the innermost stone wall, there were many caves. Some of the cave entrances had dilapidated wooden doors, which looked like the cave dwellings in northern Shaanxi.

The Ziwu Ridge is not far from Yan'an, so it is not surprising that the same architectural concept appears there. It's just that these caves are all carved into the rock walls.

These caves were dug into two levels, some larger, probably over forty square meters, while others were only a dozen square meters in size. The large and small rooms were connected, and the upper and lower levels were interconnected, totaling more than a dozen. All of them had ventilation openings to ensure air circulation.

Moreover, the people here must have put some thought into it back then. Wu Chengyu even discovered a design similar to a fire wall between these stone caves. There was a blast furnace-like structure on one side of the mountain wall. As long as the blast furnace was lit, the fire walls connecting these rooms would ensure that it would not be cold in winter.

Wu Chengyu now feels like God's own son. It's already autumn, and winter will arrive in less than two months.

If these children were still hiding in the caves, lacking food and clothing, countless would die over the winter. This place, however, is the best place for them to spend the winter. These children don't ask for much; a large cave with a shared sleeping area can comfortably accommodate a dozen or twenty of them.

In addition, Wu Chengyu also discovered two wells on the other side of the cave. Although a long time had passed, the wells still contained water. Considering the existence of a waterfall on the mountaintop, this indicates that the people here found an underground river in the mountain, which ensured the water source for this area.

It's a great place, absolutely a great place. But it's definitely not suitable as a base for expanding our territory.

After all, it's not a hidden troop cave. A hidden troop cave can not only hide troops, but also has a passage that allows for rapid troop deployment. It would never completely isolate itself from the world.

This place seems more like a secluded haven secretly created by some hidden family to escape the chaos of war. It's just a pity that so much time has passed that few people know about it anymore.

However, if the goal is to ensure the safety of these children under his command in the early stages, a few years of quiet development would be more than enough. Wu Chengyu couldn't think of anywhere better than this place.

Moreover, the open-air area in front is enough for the children to practice in, and they can even cultivate a lot of land.

Thinking of this, Wu Chengyu immediately decided that this place would be his base from now on. Of course, there were still many problems to be solved. In addition to food, there were other living supplies. It was extremely difficult to transport these things into this deep mountain forest. Wu Chengyu still had many difficulties to solve.

Never mind that, let's deal with the most pressing problem first. Next, we need to figure out how the boss found out about this place, whether there are any risks, and find a way to bring in a batch of supplies before winter.

Wu Chengyu immediately took the deer and left, returning by the same route to the giant tree. He carefully covered the tree hole again, and the deer, being very meticulous, even scraped off the Western Xia script on the bark.

Once they returned to the cave, Wu Chengyu immediately had Xiao Lu bring out the letters and translate them for him one by one.

The first few letters were replies from the Western Xia to this leader, assigning him tasks and reprimanding him for not finding the escaped young prince.

However, the tone of the subsequent reply changed completely, and the handwriting was also different. It seemed that the leader's backer in Yipintang had fallen, and the leader must have applied to return to Xixia many times, but his superiors there had sternly refused and asked him to continue to go undercover.

One letter even had a very strange tone, saying that the leader's old friends in Yipintang were all gone, and almost no one recognized him. If he wanted to go back, he had to make a contribution, either by finding that little prince or by helping Xixia find a suitable location here to build a small, hidden military base.

Upon hearing this, Wu Chengyu immediately knew that he had found the problem: the secret cave must have been found by the leader to be used as a military base.

Of all the letters, only the last one was written by the leader himself. It was probably a reply to the Western Xia, but he lost his life before he could send it because of Wu Chengyu's appearance.

This letter details the origin of the secret cave.

(End of this chapter)