"No... I won't eat..." Mr. Li's voice became lower and lower, and he struggled for a long time before lowering his head.
This is a choice.
The Taoist priest chose to live forever as neither a human nor a ghost, but Mr. Li chose to die like a human being. I'm afraid only they can judge what is right or wrong, right
The Taoist priest stood silently for a long time before Master Li's body, then slowly shook his head, and finally stood up and walked outside along the edge of the cave.
I kept watching the Taoist priest go in and out of the cave. Sometimes he would go there for a day, and sometimes he would go back in half a day. I didn't know what he was doing.
I don’t know how long it took before the Taoist priest stopped, stretched out his finger and wrote on the wall of the cave: "The gates of heaven are closed and the gates of ghosts are open. The moon passes but the blade of the knife cannot reach the sea. The living will die and the dead will come. It is better to go to despair than to go in vain." .”
"Song of Survival"
Ruan Dalong and I immediately looked at each other and froze: "Did he write "Song of Life"?"
Before the two of us could react, the scene in front of us was like the tide receding in all directions. Ruan Dalong and I were still standing on the deck of the Tang Dynasty warship. The warship was still floating on the sea not far from the top of the mountain.
In that illusion, we experienced several days and nights, but in reality only a few minutes passed.
Ruan Dalong hesitated and said: "What should I do?"
"Lower deck!" I turned around and got into the cabin. Everything in the cabin was exactly the same as what I saw in the illusion. The only difference was that the Taoist priest meditating in the cabin had turned into a mummy.
When the Taoist priest saw me walking in, he slowly opened his eyes and said, "I am a poor Taoist, Li Qingyang is so polite."
I said in a deep voice: "Did you create the illusion just now?"
"A little trick of the rivers and lakes made me laugh." Li Daoshi said with a smile: "If Pindao hadn't relied on some illusions, how could he have won His Majesty's trust and gone to sea to find immortals?"
Li Daoshi sighed and said: "Actually, the warlocks who deceived Qin Shihuang and Han Wu Emperor back then were just proficient in illusions. Forget it, let's not talk about this... "
Li Daoshi's statement is tenable in a sense. The guards in the palace may not be proficient in Jianghu magic, but they still have good eyesight. General magic cannot be hidden from their eyes, but it is another matter to be proficient in illusion masters.
During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, didn't the Taoist priest who claimed to be a white bat spirit convince the emperor of all ages
There is also the idiom "chickens and dogs ascend to heaven" left by King Liu An of Huainan. Could it be interpreted that Liu An ascended to heaven after attaining enlightenment? Maybe Hachigong, who taught Liu An the secret of alchemy, was also a master of illusion.
Li Daoshi continued: "Everything you saw just now is what Pindao has experienced. The secret of this island is all in the word elixir?"
I said in a deep voice: "Is this really the Penglai Immortal Island?"
"Probably not!" Li Daoshi shook his head and said: "But this must be the gathering place of ancient alchemists. Countless alchemists have made alchemy here. There are many relics of alchemists on this island, but there are also Protected by strange beasts.”
I looked at the other person again: "What do you mean?"
Li Daoshi said: "Where do you think the strange beasts on the island come from?"
Daoshi Li explained without waiting for my answer: "Those rare birds and animals on the island are nothing more than eating the remains of the elixir, or simply eating the elixir to become what they are now. Isn't that the same for us?"
I couldn't help but think of the legend Ruan Dalong said about the immortal imprisoning the sea monster on the island.
If we speculate based on what Li Daoshi said, it might be a different story.
Thousands of years ago, ancient alchemists discovered a small island with abundant spiritual energy and a secret location that was extremely suitable for refining elixirs. So they occupied the island and searched for the way to immortality on the island. They wanted to practice it. The elixir of immortality.
The Danshi who occupied the desert island refined the elixir over and over again, and poured the residue of the elixir into the sea. The nearby creatures were affected by the elixir and discovered mutations. After reaching the Jedi point of view, the mutated sea beasts became monsters.
However, the mutated sea beasts could no longer leave the environment changed by the elixir, and could only survive near the island, occasionally going out to hunt for food. Over time, the so-called "immortals imprisoned monsters" became a legend here.
But in the eyes of Xu Fu and others, this island is the so-called Penglai Fairy Mountain.
Someone once questioned whether Xu Fu went out to look for the fairy mountain. First, why did Xu Fu have to go to sea to find Penglai? Second, how did Xu Fu conclude that Penglai must contain the elixir of immortality.
The first question has been explained by later generations, that is, mirages often appear near Penglai City today due to geographical reasons. The ancients regarded the ethereal mountains and islands in the clouds and mist as fairy mountains. This is the origin of Sanxian Mountain overseas.
The second question can probably only be explained by Li Daoshi's words. This island was originally an alchemy place for ancient alchemists. The status of this small island in the minds of later Danshi was like Shaolin and Wudang in the minds of martial arts practitioners. It was a holy place that everyone yearned for.
Xu Fu should know the approximate location of this island, so he crossed over to find the immortal.
But how should I explain the vortex surrounding the island
While I was thinking about it, Taoist Li continued: "There is nothing edible on this island, let alone drinkable water. Even if you grab a handful of grass to eat, you are taking poison. The only food on the island is edible The thing is the elixir."
I stared at the other person closely and said in a deep voice: "Where are you after taking the elixir? Have you become neither a human nor a ghost like you?"
"No!" Taoist Li shook his head and said, "We became like this entirely because we took the wrong pill."
Taoist Li said quietly: "It is said that thousands of alchemists once gathered on this island, and the alchemy cauldrons they left behind are all over the island, and they have used them to study all kinds of unbelievable and even absurd things. There are all kinds of elixirs on the island, and the higher you go, the more magical the elixirs become."
Li Daoshi said: "Of course, you can also be like Mr. Li and would rather die than take the elixir. But can you do it?"
I glanced at Ruan Dalong, who was shaking his head slightly.
In fact, this truth is very clear. When there is enough food, no one will let anything that may be poisonous into their mouth. But when they are about to starve to death, even if they know that they may die after eating some things, they will still bet on whether they are that big. toxicity.
Li Daoshi smiled bitterly and said: "I didn't do this at the beginning, and that's why I ended up like this."
I hesitated for a moment and said, "You said the pills become more magical as you go up. What's going on?"
Li Daoshi said: "This island is like a nine-story pagoda. The higher the status, the higher the position. Those who stay on the ground floor are just low-level alchemists."
As Li Daoshi spoke, he lowered his head and looked at himself: "But such a group of low-level alchemists can actually turn me into this."
I couldn't help but take a breath of cold air: It's just that low-level alchemists can refine the elixir of death, but what about high-level alchemists
Li Daoshi probably saw my doubts: "I am immortal now, right? But I am also not a living person, at most I can only be regarded as a moving corpse. This is not the immortality pursued by those alchemists. Like normal Living like a human being is the first step to immortality, and ascending to the fairy world is the ultimate goal of immortality. There is probably such a pill on the top of the fairy island, right?"
I stared closely at Taoist Li's rolling eyes and said, "Have you been up there?"
Taoist Li shook his head and said, "No. They didn't allow me to go up."
"Them?" I was suddenly shocked: "Is there anyone else on this island?"
"Yes." Li Daoshi smiled and said, "I am still alive today after taking low-level elixirs. Is it possible that there are no powerful ancient elixirs on the island?"
"I have tried to go to the island several times, but I was stopped all the time. However, you still have a chance to go to the island."
Taoist Li raised his head and said word by word: "Because you haven't taken the pill yet."
I couldn't help but frown: "What do you mean?"
Li Daoshi said: "According to my observation, the people on the island want people to test the results of the elixir. Only people who have never taken the elixir will be allowed to go to the island. It is best to be boys and girls."
I quickly asked: "Has anyone been on the island before?"
"Yes." Li Taoist affirmed: "Many years ago, people often came down from the island and quietly sneaked into nearby towns to bring back boys and girls. Those children never came down after going to the island, and only the guides were still going back and forth on the sea. "
The legends match up again. Ruan Dalong said that there are two legends here. Among them, the God of the Sea led people into the sea. Doesn't it match what Taoist Li said? The people who appeared nearby to plunder the boys and girls were Danshi hiding on the island.
Ruan Dalong couldn't help but ask: "How often do those people come out?"
Li Daoshi thought for a while and said: "In the past, it was about once every thirty years. Recently, they rarely go to sea. Many times they return empty-handed. At most, they only bring back three or two people."
It may be a coincidence that the Detective Hand Trial bumped into Umishima Danshi. In the era of war and chaos, even the government would not pay attention to trying to get people away. Who would go to sea on a large scale to find people
What time is it now? The police's "Skynet system" is everywhere. If they want to rob people by force, unless they catch a person and run away, they will never be able to escape the police's pursuit. If they want to bring back boys and girls on a large scale, Island Danshi will of course have to change their thinking.
This trial of the Detective Hand coincided with their ideas. They probably directly killed the local contact person of the Detective Hand, and then replaced the cruise ship that was supposed to appear on the beach with the ghost ship.
I was silent for a long time before saying, "What's going on with those Qing soldiers outside? They're the ones wearing round hats."
Li Daoshi said slowly: "They came in to chase someone."