Riding the wind of rebirth

After dinner, everyone, led by Leran, headed towards the Moyu Sea in the back mountain.

That place belongs to the secret realm of Lingshan. Almost no outsiders know about it. The roads in and out are also very secret. Without someone to lead the way, it is impossible to find it.

The last time we came here, there was still snow and ice all the way. We could only see the glacier from a distance which was below the snow line at that time. It was impossible to get close to it.

This time it was different. I could finally get close to the lake that looked like black jade from a distance at Lingshan Temple, surrounded by snow-capped mountains.

Looking from the starting point, the snow line of the Xiaoxiangling peaks has risen a lot, revealing the part of the rock that was covered in winter. The vegetation on that part of the rock is very sparse and cannot completely conceal the handsome lines of the mountain. Further down, many white streams meander down the snow-capped mountains, flowing through a series of streams and small lakes, and connecting with a large area of ​​white at the foot of a mountain.

That large area of ​​white is much lower than the general snow line and cannot be seen in winter. As summer arrives and the snow line rises, its mysterious original appearance is revealed.

It was a glacier, called the source of Lingshan River Zhenggou on the map. It was obvious that the name was given by a geological team that did not understand romance.

The Lingshan River flowing through the glacier is still just a small stream. Finally, it forms a larger gourd-shaped lake at the foot of the Beishan Peak. That is the final destination of this trip - Moyu Sea.

"It's so beautiful!" Li Laosan put his hand on his eyebrows and looked at the wonder in the distance. At the boundary of the winter snow line of the North Mountain Peak, below the exposed rock mass, there is a gradually dense spruce forest and clumps of alpine rhododendrons everywhere.

The clusters of rhododendrons here are of only one color, a crimson deeper than flames. They are everywhere from near to far, especially at the water outlet at the bottom of the Black Jade Sea gourd, which almost forms a flower bed, making the Black Jade Sea look like a gourd held up by flames, which is extremely spectacular.

"Amitabha." Li Laosan bowed devoutly to the gourd that only immortals could use, "There's a reason why this place is called the Holy Mountain."

"In fact, the gourd is a magic weapon of Taoism." Zhou Zhi immediately explained to the superstitious Li Laosan: "Among the cultural relics, the gourd is usually decorated with vines and ribbons, with a lucky charm of 'ten thousand generations of happiness and fortune', and put together with the other seven ornaments, it is called the 'Hidden Eight Immortals', representing Li Tieguai, one of the Eight Immortals. It is said that Li Tieguai's gourd is a magic weapon given by Taishang Laojun, called the Purple Gold Gourd. It has nothing to do with Buddhism."

"Can I still tell you about the gods?" Li Laosan expressed his contempt for Zhou Zhi: "The gourd fell on Lingshan Mountain, which means that this magic weapon is from Buddhism. The evidence is in front of you, and you are still entangled in the legend?"

Liang Guangping and Liu Hongtao immediately applauded Li Laosan: "Right! What Third Brother said is the truth. We should pay attention to practical evidence and see for ourselves, rather than blindly guessing based on legends. We hate people like Elbow who use their knowledge of books to suppress others' speech the most!"

Zhou Zhi is dumbfounded. Not only are you not knowledgeable enough, but you also look down on and hate people who are more studious than you. Is there any justice in this world?

But what Li Laosan said was right. The gourd is now on Lingshan Mountain. No matter how he tries to find an excuse, he can't explain it. He can only pinch his nose and play a joke from "Journey to the West": "Maybe there were two gourds at that time, one male and one female..."

The mountain roads along the way are all mud paths and stone paths. There are also temporary bridges made of pine and fir wood beside some rushing streams. Although it is clearly in southwest Sichuan, it has a scene that is only found in northwest Sichuan.

What is somewhat different from the scenery of the plateau meadows in northwestern Sichuan is that there are often some forest belts with abundant shrubs here, which are half of the grassland and tundra in northwestern Sichuan. Many of the short clustered shrubs are beech and oak, and there are also a large number of alpine rhododendrons in full bloom.

"There are so many mushrooms here..." Mai Xiaomiao has now evolved into a mushroom picking expert: "Azi, there are a lot of big-foot mushrooms here!"

"Really?" Ah Zi was also surprised: "Why are there so many? Liao Ran, why don't you pick mushrooms?" "Because this thing consumes too much oil, and mushrooms are best paired with meat oil, onions and garlic." Zhou Zhi smiled and said: "So it is not very friendly to Master Liao Ran who is a vegetarian."

Wu Renzhong had a plan: "After the road is built, we can organize villagers to come and pick mushrooms, make them into dried mushrooms, and sell them to tourists to earn some income. Many families in our village earned their first income by buying dried mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and bracken."

"But if Xiao Miao likes it, we can pick some tender ones when we come back, bring them to the temple and stir-fry them, and we can eat them ourselves."

Although it was early summer, the mountain was still cool, even a little chilly, until the sun shone over the ridge and through the woods onto the road, the temperature became comfortable.

The scenery along the way became clearer and more beautiful.

The spruces are like tall giants, towering into the clouds, covered with usnea, and the low horizontal branches are covered with thick moss, silently telling the vicissitudes they have experienced.

Here we enter the time for popular science. Agricultural workers have a very deep understanding of plants, and they can popularize a lot of little-known knowledge to everyone from a scientific perspective.

For example, the fragility of the ecological environment can generally be analyzed through the plant species in a place.

This reminded Zhou Zhi of a phenomenon: "There are at least dozens of species of ferns in my hometown, and it takes a lot of effort to pick them; the same goes for shepherd's purse. Not many people eat shepherd's purse in my hometown. I think it may be because shepherd's purse is mixed with various field weeds, making it difficult to pick, and everyone finds it troublesome."

"It's different in Lianhe Township. There's only one kind of fern. After spring comes, you can go up the mountain and pick it just like you would in a fern field. It's very convenient."

"Shepherd's purse, too!" Mai Xiaomiao said, "Shepherd's purse grows much more on the turned land than other grasses. I can pick a whole basket every time!"

Then he added: "But there are many varieties of mushrooms..."

"The homogeneity of higher plant species shows the fragility of the ecology." Li Lu frowned when talking about plant species: "The more the homogeneity of biological species is prominent in a place, the more difficult it will be to recover once it is destroyed."

"We have experienced this deeply." Zhou Zhi also felt deeply: "After so many years of aerial seeding, except for a few places in Lianhe Township that have recovered relatively well, many hills outside are still barren."

"Moreover, the species used for aerial seeding may not be suitable for ecological restoration," Liang Guangping frowned. "The black pine forests in Daxing'anling are now infested with pine caterpillars, and pest control has become a big problem."

"So places like this must be well protected." Liang Guangping said: "This piece of native alpine rhododendron forest belt stretching for dozens of square kilometers at an altitude of 3,500 meters is really rare. It is not only of ornamental value, but also of scientific research value." (End of this chapter)