Myths Begin From Boys' Gong

Even though it's rumored, the main ingredient of the elixir of immortality is still something that countless people, especially the strong, are eagerly seeking.

Ordinary people are already troubled by their short lifespans and have an extraordinary obsession with seeking immortality and prolonging their lives. People like martial artists, who have already come into contact with the extraordinary and even achieved the extraordinary, naturally crave it even more.

The more powerful a person is, the more they yearn for immortality. Ultimately, only a very small minority truly dream of being invincible and experiencing all the wonders of the world.

If this rumor is true, and there really is such a pearl from the East Sea in Kou Laoxi's treasure, then the value of this treasure is truly immeasurable. If it spreads, the world's top powers, including royalty, will flock to it, seeking that elusive possibility.

According to Hong Minghui, the story of this treasure has been circulating in Hebei Province for a long time. It started as a folk rumor, but later the martial arts world also got involved. Countless martial arts masters and powerful figures wanted to find Kou Laoxi's treasure.
However, without exception, all of these people failed, or what they found was a fake treasure.

Another example of this is a member of the demonic path who secretly set traps, spreading fake treasure maps to lure many martial artists to fake treasure locations. He could then easily kill these martial artists through the traps, refine the Earthly Yuan Pill, and cultivate martial arts.

Later, when the truth came out, this man calmly withdrew, and although no more of his deeds were passed down, there was also no news of his demise.

Therefore, after this incident, people in the martial arts world have become more cautious about the idea of ​​treasure and no longer blindly pursue it.

Hong Chengtong's rise to prominence is evident to all. How he became an apprentice, how he gained fame, how he started out in the martial arts world, how he and his sworn brothers founded the Hongmen, and even how he gradually expanded the Hongmen, all of these were achieved step by step and can be traced.

Logically speaking, he should never have had any dealings with the treasure left behind by this old man Kou.

The problem arose with Hong Minghui's husband, who was also Zhou Zhihan's distant relative.

This man was handsome and skilled in martial arts, but he came from a humble background and had no family connections or support, making him appear isolated and vulnerable.

He only rose to prominence after being chosen by Hong Chengtong to be his son-in-law.

His ancestor was one of the Eighteen Iron Bandits of Kou Laoxi, and his martial arts skills were inherited from his ancestors.

Kou Laoxi's treasure is indeed real. The eighteen Iron Bandits personally supervised the construction of this treasure back then. However, it was filled with traps and mechanisms. Without the diagrams, it was impossible to open the treasure; the only outcome would be death.

According to Hong Minghui's husband, Kou Laoxi was actually in his prime when he suddenly died, which was inextricably linked to the legendary elixir of immortality.

To be more precise, Kou Laoxi did indeed obtain the ancient East Sea Pearl and conceived the idea of ​​using it as a basis to refine an elixir of immortality, which he even put into practice.

He plundered wealthy households, powerful merchants, noble families, and large clans to gather the nine main ingredients of the legendary elixir of immortality. As for the specific prescription, he painstakingly dug it out of an imperial tomb.

Thus began Kou Laoxi's journey to refine the elixir of immortality.

As a result, the elixir of immortality was successfully made, but Kou Laoxi also passed away.

Yes, he died from the elixir of immortality. It sounds ridiculous and makes people laugh, but it was said by the ancestors of Hong Minghui's husband.

Zhou Zhihan, clearly not hearing this for the first time, interjected,

"I suspect that this elixir of immortality is a huge conspiracy, the purpose of which is to kill those who are capable and powerful by taking the elixir, a method of killing without shedding blood."

Hong Minghui shook her head.

"I don't know if this prescription is real or fake, or if the elixir of immortality is real or a conspiracy. Anyway, what Lu Guang told me should be true. Old Kou died because of the elixir of immortality."

After his death, the Eighteen Iron Bandits fell apart. The eighteen men, who had once been brothers who shared life and death, had now become enemies who coveted each other.

According to the message left by Lu Guang's ancestor, Kou Laoxi gathered all the enormous wealth he had plundered over the years into one place and built a huge underground palace, which was protected by countless dangerous traps.

The diagram of the mechanism was divided into nine parts by eighteen people, and only nine people each received a fragmented copy of the diagram.

Over the years, through persistent investigation, Lu Guang's family obtained the remaining seven fragments of the mechanism diagram. Combined with the one passed down from Lu Guang's ancestors, only one mechanism diagram remained.

Zhou Zhihan, a woman, was mesmerized by what she heard. She was lost in her own fantasies. All that was missing was a diagram of the mechanism to complete the diagram of the mechanism surrounding Kou Laoxi's treasure. This would be like obtaining a key to open the treasure's door. What an incredible opportunity!

To be honest, Zhou Zhihan did have feelings for Hong Minghui, but not enough to warrant risking her life to help her.

Ultimately, it is Hong Minghui herself who possesses immense value, making her a rare and highly sought-after commodity.

Zhou Zhihan herself was not particularly gifted; otherwise, a member of the prestigious Six Doors would not have willingly fallen into such a lowly position as an assassin in the Star Palace to earn merit and money to cultivate martial arts.

Of course, she knew that she couldn't possibly take advantage of this opportunity.

However, she and Meng Zhao had a close relationship. Over the past period of time, they had been tacitly aware of each other's feelings and were bound to get together sooner or later.

If Meng Zhaoruo benefits from this and obtains this enormous treasure, then Zhou Zhihan will naturally also reap considerable rewards.

And so, she risked everything to rescue Hong Minghui and bring her to Meng Zhao for help.

At this moment, Meng Zhao was also deep in thought.

Meng Zhao had heard of Kou Laoxi, and his fate was indeed beyond Meng Zhao's expectations.

In his opinion, Kou Laoxi's martial arts skills should be top-notch in Hebei Province; if not invincible, then few could rival him.

His realm, insight, and character are all top-notch. Although his style of doing things is somewhat domineering and ruthless, he is also cautious.

There's nothing inherently wrong with him attempting to refine the elixir of immortality during his prime.

If it were him, and he had the chance to try refining the elixir of immortality, he would definitely put it into practice and wouldn't leave the treasure lying idle. He would definitely try it whenever he had the chance.

The key point is that after he finished refining it, he actually ate it, and then he died, which seems a bit strange.

how to say.

Humans are not animals; they have intelligence. Faced with something unknown and whose effects are unknown, how could they casually ingest it and die so hastily?

If Kou Laoxi is already on the verge of death and his lifespan is almost over, there's no question about this; he absolutely has to take the plunge. If he succeeds, wouldn't he become immortal and a god, transcending the Three Realms and the Five Elements? But Hong Minghui made it very clear that Kou Laoxi is at the height of his power and not even that old yet, so how could he so rashly and recklessly take that so-called elixir of immortality? Doesn't that seem bizarre, even foolish?

How can you be sure that the prescription for the elixir of immortality is genuine?
How can you be sure that the ingredients for the elixir of immortality meet the standards?

Take that ten-thousand-year-old pearl for example. How is its age determined? What if it's nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine years, just one year short of ten thousand years?
What if, in this very year, the elixir of immortality turns into a death pill?

In short, the flaws and shortcomings are simply too numerous to count.

Moreover, until now, everything has been dictated by Hong Minghui, and Meng Zhao is an expert in this field, relying solely on her words.

Back then, he used a combination of deception and trickery to convince Fang Han, a servant of the Fang family, to work for him and successfully achieve his goal.

Meng Zhao will not follow in Fang Han's footsteps and be easily fooled by Hong Minghui.

“Miss Hong, what you’re saying now is just your side of the story. Without any supporting evidence, I find it hard to believe!”

Meng Zhao wanted concrete evidence to prove that what Hong Minghui said was true and that she had value.

If Kou Laoxi's treasure is real, then Meng Zhao will definitely want to take it for himself. In this way, he can greatly shorten the process of starting his own power and have the strength and confidence to continuously expand his influence.

At this moment, Zhou Zhihan also signaled to Hong Minghui to hand over the items she was keeping to Meng Zhao.

Hong Minghui hesitated for a moment, but considering the current situation where she was at the mercy of others, and Zhou Zhihan had treated her very well and they had a past relationship, she had no better ally than her.

Despite still distrusting Meng Zhao, he had no choice but to take a string of amulets from his daughter's neck and, with a special technique and skill, open the fist-sized amulet and take out the fragments of paper inside.

These parchments look exquisite, have a faint sandalwood scent, and a smooth texture; it's unclear what kind of creature's skin they were made from.

It contains densely packed small characters and individual graphic structures.

Meng Zhao became interested and placed the scraps of parchment on the table, piecing them together to roughly form the shape of a drawing.

The eight pieces of parchment match the number, but the damage is not to the edges or corners, but to a portion in the middle, which greatly diminishes the content of the drawing and limits its value.

However, Meng Zhao was still able to deduce the relevant mechanisms from these blueprints, so they should be true.

According to the blueprints, there are a total of 49 mechanisms, including seven different types of mechanisms: trapping, bewildering, illusion, suppressing, poisoning, protecting, and killing. Each type of mechanism has seven more mechanisms, making a total of 49 mechanisms. Without a special way to break them, it would be harder than climbing to heaven to solve them all.

These are not just filler items. Take the trapping mechanisms, for example. There are seven types of mechanisms and seven types of trapping methods, covering a wide range of topics, including stone-breaking mechanisms, heavy lock mechanisms, locust-flying mechanisms, Tianxuan mechanisms, and nine-palace wooden mechanisms, etc.

Only those with exceptional martial arts skills, profound knowledge, and a deep understanding of history and the present, especially those with considerable expertise in mechanical arts and formations, have a slight possibility of single-handedly breaking through the entire mechanism.

This requires not only skill, but also a bit of luck.

However, if you follow the blueprints, it's practically a complete guide to solving all the traps. You just need to follow the steps, and when you encounter a trap, you can safely reach the treasure in the underground palace by following the instructions on the blueprints. Moreover, there is a secret passage inside that leads directly to the outside world.

The Eighteen Iron Bandits knew about this secret passage, as did the three thousand craftsmen who built the underground palace. Only the master of the underground palace and the master of the treasure, Kou Laoxi, was unaware of it.

This is an age-old rule in the trade: whenever such a massive project is undertaken, one must leave oneself a way out in advance, so that if the person recruiting the craftsmen has malicious intentions, they will have a chance to escape.

As for how Kou Laoxi did it back then, Hong Minghui didn't say, nor did Lu Guang, but it must not have been a good thing.

Perhaps, this also involves some wrongdoing committed by Lu Guang's ancestors, which is why this historical truth was not passed down.

Returning to the blueprint, Meng Zhao, with his knowledge, could roughly determine that the mechanism recorded on the blueprint was real, and the method to solve it was also 99% likely to be real.

In other words, Kou Laoxi's treasure, as well as Lü Guang and what his ancestors said, are all true.

"So, is there anything wrong with this mechanism diagram?"

Zhou Zhihan had certainly seen the blueprints for this mechanism before, and naturally had her own judgment.

Over the years in the Star Palace, she has experienced a lot and gained her own insights. She can recognize individual mechanisms and their corresponding solutions without any problem, and can successfully implement them in practice.

That's why she believed it so firmly; otherwise, she wasn't a novice who had just entered the world of martial arts, and she wouldn't have been fooled by a woman's few words.

Meng Zhao nodded, gave Hong Minghui a particularly warm and reassuring look, and said,
"Indeed, to my knowledge, the diagram and the method to solve it are genuine. It's just a pity that a piece is missing in the middle, which greatly reduces the value of the entire diagram."

However, if the last piece of the blueprint is found and completed, it will be of great value. Even if one does not attempt to unlock the treasure, it can still broaden one's horizons.

"Miss Hong, do you know the whereabouts of the last piece of the blueprint?"

It must be said that the Lu Guang family is truly remarkable. Over the years, each generation has worked tirelessly, and through their relentless pursuit, they have brought the extremely intricate process to its final stage.

The dawn of success was just around the corner, but unfortunately, Lü Guang couldn't see it.

Moreover, as Meng Zhao said, this small diagram contains the essence of mechanical arts. Even if it is not the key to unlocking the treasure, one can still benefit greatly from it.

The saying goes, "True knowledge can be conveyed in a single sentence, while false knowledge can fill countless books." A single blueprint may not instantly transform someone into a master of mechanical engineering.

However, it can definitely cultivate a qualified successor of mechanical arts and lay the foundation for him to become a master of mechanical arts. With continuous improvement and absorption of external knowledge, it is only a matter of time before he becomes a master.

Even without the treasure, this blueprint is an extremely rare item, and Meng Zhao still wants to complete and perfect it.

However, Meng Zhao was very clear-headed and knew that this matter was probably not so easy.

Otherwise, Lü Guang wouldn't have fallen just one step short, right before that crucial moment. (End of Chapter)