Taoist priests in the supernatural world

Chapter 100 The Immortal of Penglai, Gathering Qi and Taking Elixir

Zheng Anqi's voice echoed for a long time in the mountains and forests.

The night wind rustled through the woods, causing the shadows of the trees to sway.

A moment later, a voice came from the shadows in the woods.

"Zheng Anqi..."

The old man stiffened and quickly looked up.

A young Taoist priest slowly emerged from under the shade of a tree.

The Taoist priest was tall and slender, with clean robes and a cool demeanor, making him seem out of place in this muddy, war-torn world.

His dark eyes fell on the old man, as if he could see through his origins at a glance.

"Are you a sorcerer?"

Huang Bai asked.

He could smell a hint of ingesting poison and cultivating qi on Zheng Anqi.

This aura was faint, yet extremely pure and ethereal, somewhat similar to the aura of external alchemy.

Zheng Anqi was startled and dared not conceal the truth, so he quickly cupped his hands and said:

"To be honest, I have indeed learned a little about the art of gathering qi and taking medicine."

"However, if one's skills are not refined, they can only strengthen the body and prolong life; they cannot be considered true immortal techniques."

Tell me about it.

Zheng Anqi dared not be negligent and briefly explained his lineage of teachers.

He was originally from the state of Qi, and in his early years he studied under Han Zhong, a disciple of Tian Pian.

Han Zhong did not eat ordinary grains, but instead consumed calamus and atractylodes macrocephala year-round and drank mountain spring water, thus cultivating a pure and ethereal spirit.

It is said that Han Zhong was over seventy years old, yet he still looked youthful, had sharp hearing and eyesight, and an exceptional memory, capable of memorizing a book of ten thousand words in one go.

People at the time called him Han Jun's father-in-law.

What Zheng Anqi learned was this method of gathering qi and consuming elixirs.

"I see."

Huang Bai seemed to be deep in thought.

This should be the lineage of ingesting elixirs to refine qi, which has a similar effect to the external alchemy.

However, external alchemy uses metals, stones, herbs and woods into the furnace, uses the fire of the alchemy to refine the essence and energy, and then uses the elixir to nourish oneself.

This method of consuming medicinal herbs places greater emphasis on the pure and refreshing essence of the herbs themselves.

Neither is superior to the other; they are simply from different worlds and different lineages, each with its own cultivation methods.

The world here still retains its spiritual energy, and the plants, trees, metals, and stones are rich in vital essence. Perhaps it is indeed unnecessary to rely on external elixirs for everything.

"Cough cough..."

As the two were talking, the little girl next to the stone coughed softly again.

Her breath was weak, her face was flushed red, but her lips were pale.

Zheng Anqi's expression changed, and he hurriedly turned around.

"Baby!"

Huang Bai stepped forward and reached out to press his hand against the girl's forehead.

The heat was intense; it turned out to be a high fever.

If this were in this day and age, a four-year-old girl suffering from such a sudden illness might not survive the night.

Huang Bai took out a Taiyin Talisman.

The talisman, held between the fingers, spontaneously combusted without fire.

Wow!

The cool, luminous light transformed into a wisp of moonlight, settling between the girl's eyebrows.

His previously rapid breathing gradually calmed down.

The pale lips regained their rosy color.

A moment later, the girl's eyelashes fluttered slightly, and she slowly opened her eyes.

She opened her big, bright eyes and first looked around blankly, then saw Huang Bai standing next to her.

"grandfather……"

The girl's voice was soft and sweet.

"Who is this gentleman?"

"Baby!"

Zheng Anqi quickly stepped forward, helped his granddaughter into his arms, and his eyes reddened.

"Quickly thank the immortal brother."

"It was the immortal brother who saved you."

The girl was just over four years old, an age when she was still innocent and unaware of the ways of the world.

She felt a cool yet friendly aura emanating from the man in front of her, making her want to get closer.

So she obediently cupped her little hands and said in a childish voice, "Thank you, Immortal Brother."

Huang Bai looked at her, his expression softening slightly, and smiled, "It was nothing, no need for such formalities."

He looked up at the sky.

The night is dark.

In the distant mountains and forests, the howls of wolves and the cries of birds and beasts rose and fell.

In this chaotic and desolate world, danger lurks everywhere.

Zheng Anqi carried his granddaughter on his back, while Huang Bai picked up the bamboo slips scattered on the ground.

The three of them disappeared into the depths of the mountains under the moonlight.

……

On the mountaintop.

The grass and trees are lush and green, and the clouds are rising.

At dawn, the rosy light spread across the mountains, and moist mist slowly rose from among the trees.

Beneath a towering ancient tree, Huang Bai sat cross-legged.

Not far away, Zheng Anqi was grilling fish around a campfire.

However, he was clearly not a skilled cook.

The fish was roasted until one side was charred and the other half raw, emitting a strange smell.

Zheng Bao'er didn't care about any of that.

She ran around in the open space with a bamboo dragonfly she had folded from yellow and white.

With a simple twist, a bamboo dragonfly can fly several meters away.

The little girl chased after the bamboo dragonfly, running back and forth, her laughter clear and melodious, like the sound of silver bells.

"Brother Immortal!"

"grandfather!"

"Look!"

Zheng Bao'er held up the bamboo dragonfly, her face full of pride.

Zheng Anqi quickly responded with a smile.

"I saw it, I saw it."

Huang Bai lowered his head and flipped through the bamboo slips, his mind mostly focused on their contents.

These bamboo slips record the method of consuming calamus and gathering qi in the lineage of Han Zhong.

This method is called the Everlasting Spring Technique.

By using calamus as a guide, one can absorb the pure and refreshing essence of plants, which over time can cleanse the internal organs, promote physical well-being, and prolong life.

If one's cultivation level is high, one can also use this pure spiritual energy to heal others and dispel the turbid energy within their body.

Huang Bai watched very carefully.

This method is not complicated, but it has its own ingenuity.

It does not pursue the weight of metal and stone, nor does it seek strong medicine to break through barriers, but rather it gently nourishes the body with pure and spiritual energy.

Like a spring breeze and gentle rain, it nourishes things silently.

"To heal the sick and save lives..."

Upon seeing this, Huang Bai suddenly had an idea.

Pangu Corpse Moss has the effect of repairing the physical body.

Since the Everlasting Spring Technique can draw upon the pure and spiritual energy of calamus, can it also draw upon the essence of corpse moss?

Although the essence of corpse lichen carries a sinister nature, it possesses extremely strong restorative abilities.

If one can refine away the yin and turbid nature of the corpse, leaving only the vitality to repair the physical body, and then refine it into an inner core using external alchemy, perhaps a new supernatural power can be born.

Huang Bai slowly closed the bamboo slip.

He gazed at the distant, rolling mountains, and a new approach to alchemy gradually took shape in his mind.

The medicine is made from Pangu's corpse moss, and the pure qi of calamus is used as a guide. The true essence is refined with the true fire of the sun.

If successful, one can refine an inner core specifically for repairing, prolonging life, and reviving flesh and blood.

"You can give it a try."

Huang Bai thought to himself.

However, since this method originates from the art of keeping calamus evergreen, it still requires a little calamus as a catalyst.

He looked up at Zheng Anqi by the campfire.

"Mr. Anqi".

Zheng Anqi was staring at the charred fish with a troubled expression when he heard Huang Bai speak, and immediately put down the wooden branch.

"What are your instructions, Mr. Huang?"

The Book of Rites states: "When following one's teacher, one should not speak to others while walking on the road."

The term "先生" (xiānsheng) was used at this time to refer to a person of high moral character and prestige, or a learned elder.

Huang Baidao:

"Go and gather some calamus."

Zheng Anqi quickly got up.

"it is good."

After he finished speaking, he disappeared into the mountains without looking back.

When Zheng Anqi returned from gathering herbs, a three-legged, two-eared alchemy furnace had appeared in the center of the open space.

The alchemy furnace was dark blue and heavy, standing on the grass, with mysterious patterns carved on its body.

Zheng Anqi suddenly stopped in his tracks.

When he left, there was clearly nothing here.

Such a method of creating something out of nothing is almost divine.

Zheng Anqi's heart pounded, and his eyes revealed an undisguised excitement.

Huang Bai did not ask him to avoid it.

Zheng Anqi hesitated for a moment, but still shamelessly stayed aside to watch.

He thought to himself:

If we could learn even a fraction of Mr. Huang's skills, we might have hope of restoring our country in the future.

Unfortunately, the methods of alchemy were far more mysterious than he had imagined.

The first step for Huang Bai is to create fire from nothing.

Once the fire was lit, a crimson light flowed within the furnace.

Then various materials flew into the furnace, including strange jade stones that Zheng Anqi couldn't recognize at all.

These materials constantly change in the alchemical fire, sometimes transforming into gas, sometimes into liquid, and sometimes condensing into a point of faint light.

Huang Bai's technique is extremely fast.

Zheng Anqi was dazzled by what he saw, feeling that every step contained a hidden mystery, but when he really tried to remember it, he couldn't even remember a single complete step.

In the blink of an eye, a wonderful fragrance filled the air.

The alchemy furnace trembled slightly.

The elixir has been prepared.

When Zheng Anqi came to his senses, he saw Huang Bai holding a half-ruined precious pill, looking at him with a half-smile.

"Did you learn it?"

Zheng Anqi blushed and quickly clasped his hands in a gesture of respect: "Please forgive me, sir. I did not mean to peek."

Huang Bai didn't care.

"It's a blessing that you can learn this."

Zheng Anqi felt relieved, but also somewhat ashamed.

Huang Bai looked at the pill in his hand, lost in thought.

This elixir is not yet complete.

The essence of the corpse moss and the pure energy of the calamus have not truly merged; it can only be considered a semi-finished product.

However, the direction was correct.

The Everlasting Spring Technique can indeed draw upon the restorative energy within the corpse moss.

With a few more tries, you should be able to refine the inner elixir you desire.

"Let's go."

Huang Bai put away the pills and tossed out two pieces of folded paper.

The folded paper landed on the ground, rose with the wind, and transformed into two green oxen.

The blue ox stood firmly on its four hooves, but its eyes held the hollowness characteristic of paper art.

Zheng Bao'er's eyes lit up.

"grandfather!"

"ox!"

Although Zheng Anqi was shocked, he gradually got used to Huang Bai's miraculous abilities.

And so, the three of them rode the blue ox and left the mountaintop.

……

In the days that followed, Huang Bai traveled and tested elixirs along the way.

Wherever he went, he would linger for a while, searching for herbs, minerals, and studying the changes in elixirs.

Although the country has just been pacified, chaos still lingers.

Although the State of Qi had surrendered and the State of Qin was poised to unify the world, the scars left by war could not be healed overnight.

Epidemics have occurred in many places.

Some villages suffered heavy casualties due to fleeing, famine, and war.

When refining elixirs, waste pills and half-finished pills are often left behind.

These things were, to him, merely remnants of failed experiments.

For ordinary people, however, it is a life-saving medicine.

So he dissolved these elixirs in well water or scattered them in the village as talisman water to cure the people's illnesses.

In the countryside and villages.

Beside an old well, a line of emaciated villagers stood.

Zheng Anqi stood in front of the well, his expression serious.

Zheng Bao'er carried a gourd ladle and distributed water to the villagers one by one.

"Don't rush."

"queue."

"Don't steal it."

Zheng Anqi occasionally sternly rebuked those who tried to cut in line.

"Whoever tries to take it, get out!"

The medicinal properties of the yellow-white pill dissolved in the well water.

Some critically ill people who were about to die saw their complexions become rosy at a visible speed after drinking the well water.

The villagers were both surprised and delighted, and they all knelt down on the ground.

"Thank you, God!"

"Thank you so much, God, for saving my life!"

May the gods protect us!

Zheng Anqi saw the villagers kneeling on the ground and quickly stepped aside to avoid them.

"You're welcome."

"If you want to thank someone, thank that Yellow Heavenly Lord."

He pointed to the shade of the trees in the distance.

Under the shade of the tree, Huang Bai sat cross-legged in front of the alchemy furnace, his sleeves fluttering slightly, the alchemical fire illuminating his profile.

The villagers dared not approach, and could only kowtow repeatedly in that direction.

After that, the group set off again.

Their footprints gradually spread throughout the north and south of China.

In the blink of an eye, five years have passed.

Over the past five years, Huang Bai's reputation has gradually grown.

Because he originally came from the Qi region and was often mistaken for a sea immortal, he was known as the Immortal of Penglai.

Some people also call him Huang Baijun.

It is said that this person will treat any illness or rescue any disaster.

His whereabouts are unpredictable; he may be refining elixirs in the mountains, gathering herbs by the water, or riding a blue ox through the wilderness.

His alchemy skills became his most prominent trademark.

A saying gradually began to circulate among the people.

All techniques involving alchemy, consuming elixirs, transforming metals and stones, and cultivating health and prolonging life can be called "the art of alchemy and elixirs."

Countless high-ranking officials and nobles, having heard of his name, sent people to search for him far and wide.

Unfortunately, the immortal's whereabouts are hard to find.

……

Xianyang.

Mount Li.

The Qin army, clad in black armor, guarded the mountain path, their banners fluttering in the wind.

On this mountain range, which resembles a dark blue horse, palaces and temples stand in rows, with pavilions and towers rising one after another.

Most of the people who travel through the mountains are dressed in strange attire.

Some were dressed in feathered robes, some wore strange stones on their heads, and others held jade slips in their hands and had medicine pouches hanging from their waists.

These people were mostly alchemists, sorcerers, and alchemists recruited from all over the world.

Deep within the courtyard of Mount Li, there is a hot spring pavilion.

Water vapor rises, and clouds and mist swirl around.

Through the mist, a burly middle-aged man could be vaguely seen.

The man had three long strands of beard hanging down to his chest, and his face was dignified. Just sitting there, he exuded a sense of oppression that made people afraid to look him in the eye.

The Taoist priests and attendants stood on both sides, all with their heads bowed and eyes lowered, not daring to make the slightest noise.

This person is none other than the ruler of the world today.

Qin Shi Huang, Ying Zheng.

A white-haired sorcerer knelt outside the waterside pavilion, his voice extremely low.

"Your Majesty, the messenger has brought back a message."

"They...have still not found the immortal Huang Bai of Penglai."

Ying Zheng leaned against the hot spring, his gaze calmly fixed on the sorcerer.

"Oh? I remember that Huang Bai's whereabouts have always been reported to me at any time."

Why is it that every time I find it nearby, I miss it again?

His voice wasn't loud, but it instantly made the white-haired sorcerer break out in a cold sweat.

Ying Zheng accomplished the hegemony that none of the previous rulers of Qin had been able to achieve.

The six kingdoms were unified, and the entire world fell under Qin control.

Throughout the world, no other country could rival the Great Qin.

He is the sole master of the world.

Even the most perfect empire has its regrets, and Ying Zheng's regret was that he could not live forever.

After turning forty, he gradually felt that his energy was not as good as before.

He was exhausted from official duties, traveled extensively, and was burdened with heavy administrative responsibilities, even though the country had just been pacified.

All of this was constantly draining his energy.

Therefore, in recent years, he has become increasingly obsessed with the art of immortality.

Two years ago, Ying Zheng heard that there was a Taoist immortal named Huang Bai from Penglai who practiced medicine and refined elixirs, and that he could bring the dead back to life and prolong life. So he sent an envoy to find him.

Unfortunately, each time, I missed the opportunity.

Either Huang Bai had just left, or the locals only knew his name but never saw him.

Over time, Ying Zheng became somewhat impatient.

When the white-haired sorcerer heard the emperor's question, cold sweat almost soaked through his clothes.

He immediately kowtowed.

"Your Majesty, please calm down. Your Majesty, please calm down."

"How could we mere mortals easily see immortals?"

"Since the Immortal of Penglai is a true immortal, he naturally would not reveal himself at will. Only Your Majesty, whose destiny is noble and who is the Son of Heaven, is qualified to personally receive the immortal."

"I believe that if Your Majesty wishes to meet the Immortal of Penglai, Your Majesty will need to make the trip in person to show your sincerity."

That sounds very high-sounding.

But in reality, it's just a way of shirking responsibility.

Truly skilled alchemists mostly disregard worldly wealth and status.

Those who were willing to stay in the palace to seek rewards were mostly mediocre sorcerers.

The white-haired sorcerer knew this perfectly well.

If the emperor himself goes on an inspection tour and still cannot see Huang Bai, then it can be said that the time is not right, rather than that they are incompetent.

Ying Zheng did not speak immediately.

Inside the waterside pavilion, only the sound of the hot spring water flowing gently could be heard.

After a long silence, he finally spoke.

"Issue an order to all counties and prefectures throughout the land: I will depart for an excursion immediately."