After the crisis at Lost-Trace Lake had been temporarily resolved, Cheng Xinzhan and the other four stayed a while longer, guarding against the demon fiends returning and helping Hong Changbao rebuild the Mountain-Guarding Grand Array.
Redwood Ridge's Mountain-Guarding Grand Array was quite interesting. Its foundations relied on a kind of red fir that the people of Redwood Ridge called Coiling Dragon Brocade Fir. Its needles were fine and soft, looking like fire when the wind blew, or like brocade dragons coiled around the trees. It was a spirit tree the Red-Haired Ancestor had found overseas.
The original Redwood Ridge had earned its name from the red firs planted all over it, and Lost-Trace Lake was now full of the same trees.
Although red fir belonged to fire, it was an island tree from overseas whose roots loved water, making it well suited to Lost-Trace Lake. After Hong Changbao led his disciples in planting them, he had used secret arts to hasten their growth, and they had already grown into a forest.
The red firs were not planted only on the scattered little islands in Lost-Trace Lake. The place was too small: even housing the remnants of Redwood Ridge made it feel crowded, never mind Hong Changbao's wish to recruit all the unorthodox cultivators of the Southern Wastes.
This time, therefore, Redwood Ridge's people planted red firs over a dozen or so mountains on the northern bank of the Wu River. The Mountain-Guarding Grand Array also encompassed the stretch of river containing Lost-Trace Lake, along with those dozen-odd peaks.
Song Jishu presided over the new Mountain-Guarding Grand Array, harmonizing yin and yang. There was a great deal to it, with many adjustments and improvements made to Redwood Ridge's original Mountain-Guarding Grand Array. Mountain roots and water veins, above the water and