Wan Jie Hospice Care Company

Chapter 79 Alchemy Furnace

"Liu Che sought immortality." The middle-aged man tapped his fingers on his knees. "Anyone who stood in his way of eternal life, he killed. He killed them all, leaving rivers of blood. But what was the end result? In the end, he could only lie in that coffin in Maoling, rotting away inch by inch into a pile of dry bones."

"Ying Zheng sought immortality." His knuckles tapped even faster. "He died on his eastern tour, and his death was kept secret. In order to prevent the world from knowing that he was dead, Zhao Gao stuffed his coffin cart with rotten and smelly abalone, using the stench of the pickled fish to cover up the smell of an emperor's corpse."

The tapping sound abruptly stopped.

The middle-aged man suddenly opened his eyes: "Do you think these two people were successful or unsuccessful?"

"Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wu of Han? In a conventional sense, they were both successful emperors, weren't they?" Xiang Yuxian said, offering a perspective on history from the viewpoint of an ordinary person.

"Oh."

The cold laugh was squeezed out from between the middle-aged man's teeth, carrying a kind of pity that looked down on ants.

"What an idiot."

His voice suddenly rose, sharp as fingernails scraping against metal: "Any life that fails to transcend time is a failure! They are failures, undoubtedly failures! Even if they stand at the highest point in the world, even if they hold the power of life and death over millions, as long as they haven't transcended time, they are all failures!"

"Ah, I see." Xiang Yu didn't refute. He simply followed that crazy idea, like a patient angler slowly letting out the line, "But everything in this world has a lifespan. As long as it's a living thing, it will die. That's the law of nature, and there can be no exceptions."

"No!" The middle-aged man immediately became excited upon hearing this. "No, no, no! You're completely wrong!"

"There are things in this world that are immortal!" The previously calm middle-aged man suddenly became uncharacteristically adamant. "They are not bound by time, not limited by birth, aging, sickness, and death, they have no end, no destruction, and they go nowhere and move forward!"

"Ah—so what is that thing you're talking about?" Xiang Yu thought to himself, "He really is a mental patient. He starts going crazy when he starts talking about what he wants to say."

"ghost."

"!"

Xiang Yu paused, looked up at the middle-aged man, and found that the man's eyes were burning with conviction, as if he firmly believed in this statement.

ghost----

Ghosts do not die; at most, they may be trapped or contained, but they can never be destroyed.

In the world of Millennium, I never destroyed even a single ghost. I only trapped those ghosts with the system. Once I threw those things out, they would still revert to their original form.

But it turns people into ghosts —

This is truly appalling.

Furthermore, based on my experience from that previous world, ghosts are attached to objects, not transformed from dead people.

The formation of ghosts is mostly related to problems in the world itself. For example, the ghosts of the Millennium World are actually the distorted memories of Anling and the people of that time.

So—why does something like this appear in my own world?

Could it be that something is wrong with the world?

The thought flashed through his mind, but Xiang Yu remained expressionless, only slowly raising an eyebrow: "So, you want to turn yourself into a ghost?"

The middle-aged man didn't respond to that. He turned his head away and answered irrelevantly: "—We've researched many methods. For example, we previously collaborated with some professors who were interested in this to experiment with methods for turning people into ghosts, based on traditional stories."

What are the traditional methods by which a person becomes a ghost?

That's just—

At this moment, Ai Bowu quietly approached Xiang Yu and whispered, "Didn't I mention before that an old professor jumped off a building? — He was the one who instigated it."

"What instigation! We were just conducting an experiment!" The middle-aged man was furious at Alberto's words. "You idiot, you have no idea that human progress requires sacrifice! When Lavoisier was beheaded, he conducted an experiment to see how long a person could live after being decapitated—that's the great spirit of science!"

"—Then why don't you give it a try?" Ai Baiwu glanced at him sideways, his contempt almost overflowing.

"Because I've found another way to escape time," the middle-aged man said mysteriously. "Do you know what that old man found during his archaeological dig?"

"————What?" Xiang Yu had a feeling that the other person was up to no good.

"Maoling, Emperor Wu of Han, the alchemical furnace!" The middle-aged man's eyes gleamed. "Emperor Wu of Han found the way to immortality! He really found the formula for the elixir of life!"

The middle-aged man then said mysteriously, "—After that old man got the alchemy furnace, he didn't hand it over to the museum; instead, he kept it for himself—but later, the old man was sent to a mental hospital by his family, and I took his alchemy furnace."

"But weren't you sent in too?" Xiang Yu said calmly.

"Heh." The middle-aged man narrowed his eyes smugly. "I'm different from him. I hid the alchemy furnace inside, right here in this building. Even if you bunch of idiots rack your brains, you won't find it."

He looked up at the pale white light on the ceiling, his eyes unfocused and obsessed: "As long as I gather all the ingredients in the elixir formula—I can also transcend time. I can also live forever, immortal."

"This savage is crazy." Ai Bowu shook his head. "Although I'm not good at history, I know that the alchemists in ancient times made poison pills containing toxic ingredients. A lot of emperors died young because they took these pills."

"You know nothing!" The middle-aged man was so angry with Ai Baiwu that he jumped up and down, pointing his finger at Ai Baiwu's nose and starting to curse.

A barrage of foul language ensued, which even the usually mild-mannered Ai Baiwu couldn't take. He became extremely angry and started hurling insults back at the other party.

Middle-aged man: "You idiot, your education level isn't even as high as the farts of the students I teach. I really don't know how your parents could have given birth to you."

Ai Bowu: "You lunatic! When your horse gave birth to you, it used too much force and caused a problem in your head, which is why you're having this attack now!"

Clearly, the middle-aged man had encountered the predicament of a scholar encountering a soldier.

He seems unable to out-argue Alberto when it comes to profanity.

"None of you understand me!" The middle-aged man was completely exasperated. "As expected, you're all a bunch of mediocre people! Useless! What are you anyway, with just a piece of paper holding a degree, and you dare to argue with me?"

"So you start acting all high and mighty when you can't win an argument, showing off your supposed intelligence?" Ai Baiwu retorted mercilessly, "You're just like my teammates when I was playing games yesterday. As soon as the game goes badly, they start bragging about their lives, talking about Maybachs and luxury homes in the capital's third ring road—you're trash, and you're trash when you spout nonsense!"

"you!!!"

The middle-aged man was furious. As a professor, he was the one who criticized others, never the other way around. Which student, when scolded, had to smile and admit their mistake?

Just as he was about to be driven mad by Ai Baiwu, Xiang Yu stretched out a finger, telling Ai Baiwu to stop spewing insults.