Don't farm, cultivate immortality!

He carried the small bamboo basket down the mountain. A panda poked its head out and put its little paws on his shoulder. Weeds grew on the stone steps leading down the mountain, but they didn't get in the way.

When the sun was a quarter of the way up, he finally arrived at the foot of the mountain.

The town at the foot of the mountain was deserted, or rather, that town no longer existed.

Most of the houses were reduced to charred wooden frames, with thatched roofs burned off. The few intact houses had their doors and windows tightly shut, with the gaps sealed with wooden planks.

Remnants of arrows could be found, suggesting that the area had been ravaged by bandits or perhaps a battle had taken place; in any case, no one lived there anymore.

Zhuang Xing spotted a few wild dogs, but they were just wild animals; they ran away as soon as they saw people in the distance.

Following his memory, Zhuang Xing walked the way home.

The journey was peaceful; we didn't encounter any monsters, just no one else around.

As dusk fell, he finally spotted a village inhabited by people.

However, it was more of a simple settlement than a village.

There wasn't even a decent house; most of what you could see were just shacks made of thatch and broken bricks.

A broken shield lay on the roof to keep out the rain, and rusty swords hung on the wall, perhaps for warding off evil spirits.

There are a few cultivated fields outside the village entrance, and it's harvest time. But instead of wheat, they're harvesting millet. The millet is growing sparsely on the seedlings, and the harvest doesn't look good.

Several blond-haired children were listening to an old man tell a story by the field.

The old man said, "When I was young, I first experienced a severe cold snap, then a great drought..."

Before the old man could finish speaking, the child interrupted him.

“I know, Grandpa. Back then, let alone food, it was very difficult to even survive. So we are very fortunate to have food and clothing now, right?”

“Yes, yes.” The old man nodded. “You are very fortunate.”

As Zhuang Xing approached the village, before he could even greet the old man, the old man was taken aback when he saw Zhuang Xing.

"A sword immortal, it's a sword immortal..."

The old man's voice trembled slightly.

"A sword immortal?" The children on the side looked up, and some of the more ignorant children tried to reach out and touch the sword at Zhuang Xing's waist.

"Don't be rude!" the old man quickly scolded.

"Old man, do you recognize me?" Zhuang Xing asked.

"I recognize him, I recognize him." The old man nodded and said, "Back then, the sword immortal killed that man-eating pig demon, slaughtered the pig to cook a meal, and thanks to the sword immortal, I was able to have a full meal and save my life. How could I ever forget such a great kindness?"

"Is the old man an old acquaintance of mine?" Zhuang Xing asked.

"I was among the refugees at the time, and I only caught a glimpse of you from afar. You are not an old acquaintance, not at all," the old man said.

"I haven't been here for a long time, and I've forgotten many things from the past." Zhuang Xing bowed. "Could you tell me about it in detail, sir?"

"May I ask, Immortal?" the old man said.

Zhuang Xing then inquired about the current year from the old man, only to learn that the Great Yu Dynasty had already perished.

That year, during the Great Cold, millions of people in both the north and south suffered from famine, countless died of cold, corpses littered the fields, and war raged everywhere.

Crows and wild dogs are everywhere, resentment is rampant, and evil spirits are everywhere. In addition to mountain bandits occupying the mountain, demons also run a human market, selling people by weight and calling them "vegetable people".

“Our area is alright. That year, many Taoist priests came down the mountain to eliminate demons and protect the righteous path. Other places were in a terrible state. I heard that there was a demonic tiger to the south that ruled the mountain and loved to eat women and children. It was only after a sword immortal eliminated the demonic tiger that peace was restored to the area,” the old man said.

Zhuang Xing then asked, "Old man, can you plant wheat?"

The old man looked puzzled, seemingly wondering why Zhuang Xing was suddenly asking about wheat, but he still replied, "Sword Immortal, wheat is not as tasty as millet, and the harvest is not as good, so we don't grow it."

"What do you use to keep warm when the cold winter comes?"

"Wealthy families may use sheepskin and bird feathers, but we mostly burn firewood and charcoal, and gather some cattails and rice straw."

医仙

"Grandpa, can you eat beans?"

"Food."

Have you ever heard of tofu?

"Tofu? Does the Sword Immortal mean bean rice?"

"Tofu is a processed product made by soaking soybeans in water, grinding them into soy milk, filtering out the soy pulp, and then curdling it with gypsum."

"Never heard of it." The old man shook his head. "The way the sword immortal was talking about must be from somewhere else."

"What about cotton? Have you ever seen anyone growing cotton here, old man?"

"Cotton?" The old man looked puzzled again.

Seeing this, Zhuang Xing understood.

The people in this village don't use stone mills or plaster to make tofu. They don't grow wheat, eat noodles, or plant cotton to make cotton and linen quilts for warmth.

They ate millet, which was harvested from the fields.

This should have been a common occurrence. The people of Dayu, and even those of the previous dynasty, who lived on this land, mostly ate millet, and cotton was a crop that only people from foreign lands would cultivate.

This was at least what Zhuang Xing saw during his childhood.

Zhuang Xing suddenly remembered that night at the Longmen Temple in the snowy mountains, when Qing asked him if the world was in chaos.

He replied, "No, the world is at peace now."

Qing said it seemed that she was not skilled enough and had miscalculated the date.

Perhaps it wasn't that the young attendant under Yinglong was unskilled, but rather that someone defied fate and extended the destiny of the world.

That person is probably Zhuang Xing.

It was because he himself had a craving for wheat that he asked Yunling to plant wheat in the temple and grind it into flour. Only then could Baiyu go to the countryside, cultivate the land and plant wheat. Only then could he, along with Master Qingxuzi, go to Yidu to visit his old friend, and through the prefect's connections, send the wheat seeds all the way to the palace and receive policy support.

It was he and Yunling who found cotton seeds at Aunt Chusheng's house in Yidu.

It was during his audience with the emperor in the capital that he presented the coal he had found in Hundred Flowers Valley, relieving the firewood shortage.

All three things are inextricably linked to him.

Without Zhuang Xing, wheat, cotton, and coal would not have been so easily discovered to be useful.

If the Great Yu dynasty fails to find anything to keep warm and to grow crops in the snow, the world will surely descend into chaos.

This is the natural order of things; when people are forced to the brink of despair, they naturally have no choice but to seek other ways to survive.

Zhuang Xing had read about the story of exchanging children to eat.

Not to mention the monsters in the world. People are starving to death, and the monsters in the mountains are not much better off. If there is no food in the mountains, they will come out of the mountains. People can eat each other, but monsters don't have so many rules. They just treat people as meat to fill their stomachs.

Just like the demons in the mountains and fields, although they have gained wisdom and received the teachings of their ancestors that they should not provoke humans, they are forced to unite and raid villages to kill people.

Zhuang Xing questioned the old man in front of him in detail, and from this he understood that in this land, wheat, cotton and coal were all useless to people.

The world was in chaos thirty years ago. Now the Great Yu Dynasty is gone, and war is still raging outside. There is still no decision to be made.

The area around Yidu is relatively peaceful because thirty years ago, a Taoist priest from Xuanqing Temple descended the mountain and entered the world, saving many people and killing many demons.

"Did the old man also meet me once thirty years ago?" Zhuang Xing asked.

"Yes," the old man nodded. "Back then, my family encountered a famine, and I was the only one left who died. I had nowhere to go, so I followed the starving people to Yidu to try to make a living. But on the way, we encountered a pig demon. The pig demon was as big as a house, and its tusks were as sharp as steel files. It rushed in and killed dozens of people."

"That's when we encountered the sword immortal who drew his sword and killed the pig demon, saving our lives."

"And then what? Did I send you all to Yidu?" Zhuang Xing continued to ask.

The old man shook his head: "After the sword immortal killed the pig demon, he only said, 'This demon has been slain, you may cook and eat it,' and then left. He disappeared without a trace in a moment."

Zhuang Xing nodded and then asked about the old man's subsequent movements, wanting to understand the situation here better.

The old man said, “The remaining hundred of us divided and ate the pig demon. Only after eating the meat did we survive and have the strength to walk to Yidu. Fortunately, the government provided porridge to relieve the disaster victims. However, Yidu was locked down and no refugees were allowed to enter. Some people who had relatives in Yidu and had locals as guarantors were able to go in and make a living. But people like me who had no relatives had no choice but to sign a contract with the gentry, borrow some grain seeds, and go back to find land to grow grain.”

"We went through many hardships and received help from a Taoist priest before we found fertile land and settled down here."

"Have any officials come to collect taxes?" Zhuang Xing asked.

“This place is remote, there are no officials around, and soldiers fighting here won’t take this path,” the old man said. “So we can still make a living here, and things have become much more peaceful in recent years.”

"Are there any evil spirits attacking?" Zhuang Xing asked.

“Rare indeed,” the old man said. “This place is protected by a divine healer.”

"The Immortal Physician?"

"That physician is said to have come from Xizhou. I wonder why he settled here."

"Old man, could you tell me where the Immortal Physician lives?" Zhuang Xing asked.

The old man pointed in a direction: "Go that way. If someone in your family falls ill, go that way, kneel down sincerely, and beg the Immortal Physician for mercy. If you are sincere, the Immortal Physician's rat will bring you miraculous medicine to cure you."

"Could it be that the Sword Immortal also came here to visit because of the Healer Immortal's reputation?"

"It's on my way, so I can give them a visit," Zhuang Xing said.

He looked up at the direction the old man was in, which was exactly the same side of the road he was taking home.

However, it's best to find out more before you go.

Zhuang Xing stayed overnight at the old man's house, where he was treated to a hot meal.

That night, Zhuang Xing found a large stone and used his sword energy to carve out a millstone.

"This can be used to grind rice into flour, and wheat can also be hulled and ground into powder."

Zhuang Xing demonstrated how to use it, and also taught the people here how to make tofu.

Before leaving, he drew several protective charms on bamboo strips and gave them to the villagers.

The next morning, carrying the panda in a bamboo basket and the dry food given to him by the villagers, he continued on his way.

He learned that most of the villages ahead were uninhabited and had become deserted villages.

Decades ago, during a great disaster, evil spirits ran rampant everywhere. Most of the survivors fled to Yidu, as they could not make a living in remote and impoverished areas.

Along this route, unless you head further to Yidu, it's difficult to encounter any signs of human habitation.

Zhuang Xing found out the address of the immortal doctor and headed there, only to find that it was indeed in the same location as his home.