Ang Lee drank the Heavenly Paradise Milk Wine and felt quite satisfied. The alcohol content of this wine was very low. Even if he drank too much, it wouldn't be a problem. It could be drunk as a beverage. The ancients liked to drink in big bowls when they drank wine. When they were thirsty, they would use wine to quench their thirst. This fully proved that the alcohol content of ancient wines was very low. No matter how much one drank, it wouldn't be a problem.
Especially the Heavenly Paradise Milk Wine in front of him. Due to the special production process, the alcohol content of this milk wine was lower than ordinary wines. No matter how much one drank, they wouldn't get drunk, nor would it cause any substantial harm to the body. On the contrary, because there were too many kiwis in it, it had a good health effect on the human body. The vitamin content of kiwis was very high. Eating more kiwis could replenish the vitamins the human body needed. The effect of drinking the Heavenly Paradise Milk Wine was the same. It could play a good role in replenishing vitamins.
Although this was wine, Ang Lee tasted it completely like a beverage in his mouth. He felt like he was drinking a beverage, or some fruit juice with wine. It felt very good.
Qingcheng Tea had to be tasted last. If he tasted wine and tea together, then the taste would be mixed. Between the white-fruit stewed chicken and Qingcheng Kimchi, Ang Lee naturally preferred the white-fruit stewed chicken. Qingcheng Kimchi was a vegetarian dish, while the white-fruit stewed chicken was a meat dish. Ang Lee naturally preferred meat dishes.
"This chicken … is really good. How is it made?"
Ang Lee felt that the taste was good and asked the young Daoist who came over.
"Benefactor, this is the signature dish of our Qingcheng Mountain Daoist Temple. The production process is complicated, and it also uses a secret soup. I can't explain it in a short time."
The young Daoist said.
"Oh, there's also a secret soup. It sounds very powerful. No wonder it's so delicious."
Ang Lee nodded.
Of course, other than the secret soup, the rest of the production methods were public. There was nothing strange about it. During the production, the ingredients had to be prepared first. The native white-fruit of Qingcheng Mountain was blanched. The chickens raised in Qingcheng Mountain were slaughtered and cut into pieces. There were also local red dates, onions, ginger, garlic, and barley.
In order to improve the appetite, the chicken fat and skin were separated from the chicken when handling the chicken. This way, the soup would be clearer and cleaner. There was also a small trick. Cooking wine, onions, ginger, and garlic were added to the pot. After the processed chicken was blanched, the impurities, smell, and blood could be removed.
The ingredients of the ginkgo also had to be handled well. The peeled ginkgo was fried in a heated pot until golden yellow. This way, the ginkgo would be easier to soften when making the soup. In addition, the separated chicken skin should be placed in the pot to dry fry. The chicken skin would be fried into chicken because of the heat in the pot. If such chicken fat was added to the soup, it would make the soup more fragrant. Everyone could sprinkle some seasoning on the dry fried chicken skin. It was very crispy. This kind of chicken fat would not be as greasy as vegetable oil.
In addition, the local clean water of Qingcheng Mountain should be added at one time. It was best to add high-quality spring water, followed by well water. Then, he took a clean pot, poured the chicken fat that had just been fried, turned on the fire, and added enough water. Remember, this would take more than four hours, so the water must be enough. After that, he put in onions, barley, and ginger.
When the water was boiling, he put in the processed chicken and started to stew. The fire had to be very small because it would take a long time to cook the soup. If the fire was too big, the water would run out soon. At this time, no seasoning was added.
In order to make the soup taste better, there would be white foam in the process. He used a spoon to remove it. The white foam would affect the taste and make it very uncomfortable to look at. As for putting in the ginkgo, he had to remember to turn the fire down until there was only one hour left. Then, he put in the ginkgo, red dates, salt, and a little cooking wine. After that, he continued to turn the fire down. Finally, he had to add a little honey soup.
In this way, the final ginkgo chicken stew would be the most delicious. Moreover, because of the secret soup, it was difficult for ordinary people to copy it. Unless one worked in the Taoist temple of Qingcheng Mountain for a long time, it was possible to come into contact with the recipe of the honey soup step by step.
Because the ginkgo chicken stew was so delicious, Ang Lee didn't feel anything when he ate the Qingcheng Kimchi again. He didn't think there was anything special about the Qingcheng Kimchi. Maybe he was full!
"Pack a few of these dishes for me. I need to take them away."
Ang Lee ordered.
After eating and drinking, Ang Lee and the others left the small building next to the Taoist master cave and went to Qingcheng Mountain to sightsee.
"Assistant Minister Li, the Hall of Ancestral Masters is just ahead."
The boatman had been to the Taoist temple of Qingcheng Mountain many times, so he naturally knew the situation inside.
From a distance, the Ancestral Hall didn't look any different from other places. There were no special guards. From the looks of it, Princess True Jade wasn't here. After all, if Princess True Jade was here, there should be guards outside.
The space inside was not very big, but it was not small either. It should not be a problem for dozens of people to live there. Many famous people in history had lived there in seclusion. Princess Yuzhen was just one of them. The poets Du Guangting and Xue Chang of the Tang dynasty, as well as Zhang Yu of the Song dynasty, had all lived there in seclusion. It seemed that the Hall of Ancestral Masters of the Taoist temple of Qingcheng Mountain was very suitable for famous people to live in seclusion.
Several Taoist ancestors were enshrined in this hall. There were statues of Lu Dongbin, Tie Guai Li, and other immortals. There were also some murals of the Eight Immortals Painting, as well as poetry engravings.
"Princess Yuzhen is not here either. Let's go back!"
Ang Lee also lost interest and was ready to go back.
However, Ang Lee was not willing to go back the way he came. At least, he had to take a detour and go back through a dead end. If they all took the same path, it would be meaningless. What was the point of seeing the same scenery as before?
"Assistant Minister Li, if we take other roads, we can only take the smaller ones. The smaller ones are not easy to walk on and are not very safe. It's safer to take the main road."
The boatman said.
"The smaller ones are not safe. Are there many wild beasts or bandits?"
Ang Lee asked.
Li An wasn't worried about his safety at all. He had so many guards with him, so why would he be afraid of danger?
"It seems that people have encountered both. However, not many people choose to take the smaller ones, so it's natural that they don't encounter many."
The boatman said.
Ang Lee made up his mind and said, "It doesn't matter if they are wild beasts or bandits. I'll take the smaller ones and see a different scenery."
With so many armed guards, even if they encountered bandits, the bandits would probably retreat. The wild beasts would not dare to act rashly and would be scared away.
Because these two kinds of guys bullied the weak and feared the strong. They would not easily make a move if they did not find a good opportunity. They were also afraid of losing their lives.
The boatman also knew that Ang Lee was surrounded by guards with excellent martial arts. Since Ang Lee insisted, he did not say anything. He was a native of Central Sichuan and used to work in the area of Dujiangyan. He carried stones for the Taoist temple, which were used to build the mountain roads. It was a hard work. He was able to do it before. Later, when he got older and his waist hurt a little, he went to the water to make a living. It was precisely because he had worked in Mount Qingcheng that he knew the terrain here very well. He knew all the smaller ones and the main roads.
Just as the boatman had said, there were no pedestrians at all. Moreover, this couldn't be considered a road because there was no path to be seen. There were no traces of people walking on the ground. So, where did this road come from? It was just that the boatman had been there before and knew how to leave Mount Qingcheng and reach the place where the boat stopped.
The smaller path was closer than the main road, but it was more difficult to walk. Moreover, people who were not very familiar with the road would get lost in the mountain, which was a very dangerous move. Ordinary people did not dare to try it easily.
This path wasn't completely without traces. Every time one walked on a path without traces, they would encounter a path with traces. They would also encounter some simple stone benches. The upper part of the benches was very smooth. It was obvious that people often sat on them. Those who could walk on this path were generally woodcutters and fruit farmers.
Woodcutters had to take the smaller path to cut firewood. The trees on both sides of the main road could not be cut down, otherwise it would destroy the environment of Mount Qingcheng. Since there was no one on the smaller path, no one would care about cutting small branches. In addition, there were more kiwi trees in Mount Qingcheng and they were widely distributed. Some of them were distributed in inaccessible places and could only be reached by small paths. There were also some rare medicinal materials hidden in every corner of Mount Qingcheng. The two sides of the main road had been walked by people for a long time, so it was impossible to find precious medicinal materials. The truly valuable medicinal materials grew in places where few people would appear. If a herbalist wanted to have a better harvest, he had to enter the inaccessible mountains in order to get precious medicinal materials.
Because the plants in Mount Qingcheng were relatively dense, there were more kinds of plants and a variety of precious medicinal materials. Sun Simiao, known as the King of Medicine, once did research in Mount Qingcheng. He studied a large number of medicinal materials here and successfully wrote the invaluable prescriptions, which became the compulsory classics of traditional Chinese medicine.
Ang Lee smelled a lot of medicinal materials along the way. However, the medicinal materials that could be easily encountered were not so expensive. The truly precious medicinal materials were not so easy to be found.
Ang Lee did not have much interest in these medicinal materials. Enjoying the surrounding scenery was Ang Lee's greatest pleasure. In the back of Mount Qingcheng, there was a very good health resort, which was the Qingcheng Path Hot Spring. It was definitely a good enjoyment to soak in the hot spring there. However, Ang Lee's time was limited, so he could not enjoy the hot spring. There were also hot springs in Dongnu Province. He could go to Dongnu Province to enjoy the hot spring, so as not to waste too much time in Mount Qingcheng.
"Why is it getting denser and denser here? Is there a road?"
Ang Lee found that the road was getting narrower and narrower. In many places, the trees were very dense. He was almost walking in the gap between two trees. His clothes were naturally dirty, which was inevitable.
Of course, Li An wasn't worried about his clothes getting dirty. After all, there would be someone to wash them. The problem was that in such a dense forest, what if poisonous snakes and insects were to appear and fall into his neck? Wouldn't that be terrible?
Ang Lee's worries were not groundless. When walking, he could see all kinds of small insects from the leaves of the trees. They were all very disgusting insects. Although Ang Lee was not a timid person, he still could not stand these disgusting insects. There was an instinctive sense of fear. It was really an indescribable sense of fear when he saw them.
"Assistant Minister Li, I haven't walked on this road for many years. I didn't expect it to be more difficult than before. However, it is definitely not wrong to follow this road."
The boatman said.
Since the road was not wrong, it was good. Ang Lee took out a hat from his pocket and wrapped his head and neck. In this way, even if insects fell from the trees, they would not fall on Ang Lee's neck. Instead, they would be blocked by the hat.
Fortunately, this was not a tropical rainforest. Otherwise, thousands of poisonous insects would fall from above. There would also be a large number of terrifying mosquitoes that were much larger than ordinary mosquitoes. A swarm of mosquitoes could suck a lot of blood from a person's body and spread all kinds of terrible diseases. This was also the main reason why the rulers of the various dynasties of Hua Xia were always unwilling to continue expanding their territory to the south. This was because the further south they went, the worse the climate. In such a bad environment, the army from the north would easily be infected with diseases on a large scale, which would greatly affect the army's combat strength. If an army did not have the combat strength, how could they conquer the south? They could only stop there.
This was also the regret of many Hua Xia people in later generations. They felt that if they continued to conquer the south, the Hua Xia Empire would have an outlet to the Indian Ocean. In that way, the Hua Xia Empire would be even more powerful. They would not be choked by others and would not have to rely on others to breathe.
"There's no road ahead."
Ang Lee looked at the boatman with dissatisfaction. He felt like he had been tricked.
The dense bamboo forest completely blocked the road. There was no place to go at all.
The boatman clearly did not expect this situation. He looked at the bamboo forest in front of him, sweating profusely. He muttered to himself, "There's no mistake. There's no way I'm wrong. The road is here. Why is it blocked? There was no bamboo forest here in the past! "
Clearly, the boatman felt that it was not his fault. It was impossible for him to remember the wrong road. In reality, there was no road. The road was blocked and he could not take a single step. This made the boatman very miserable.
"The world has changed. Since so many years have passed, it's normal for the road situation to change. Think about where you can go around it."
Ang Lee said very understandingly.
Because there was no point in continuing to blame him, it was better to encourage the boatman to think carefully about whether there was a solution. If they went back the way they came, it would be too troublesome.
The boatman frowned. After thinking for a long time, he said, "Why don't we just cut down the bamboo in front of us? That way, we'll definitely be able to find the original road."
This was indeed a solution. However, it was a little too much work. It would require some hard work from the guards behind Ang Lee. With so much bamboo, it would probably take a while to cut it down. Ang Lee clearly did not think this was a good idea.
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