Don't farm, cultivate immortality!

That day, Zhuang Xing was teaching her addition and subtraction within ten when he suddenly heard the sound of a carriage outside.

The rumbling sound of the wooden wheels was not hard to distinguish amidst the rain. He got up, listened carefully, and knew that the carriage was coming towards this courtyard.

“Someone’s coming, Xiao An, you should hide first,” Zhuang Xing said.

Xiao An nodded, said nothing more, and darted into the rock.

Zhuang Xing and Yunling walked out of the door together. The carriage stopped in front of the courtyard, and the water on the road slowly submerged the bottom of the wheels.

Eunuch Li was helped down from the carriage and stepped onto the raised stone steps.

“Immortal Master, I’ve found it,” said Eunuch Li.

When he got out of the car, he also asked someone to bring out several volumes of records.

The volumes were carefully wrapped in oilcloth. When they were taken down, someone held up an oil-paper umbrella to keep them from getting wet in the rain.

Only after placing the scroll on the table in the room did I notice that the pages had a weathered, brownish-yellow hue.

Chapter 213 Senior Brother's Belonging

Zhuang Xing helped carry the old files into the house. A musty smell, as if they had been left untouched for a long time, filled the air. It was clear that they had been placed in some forgotten corner and hadn't been touched for many years.

There was tea in the room, so Yunling poured tea for Eunuch Li and the guests.

In the earthenware teacup, white steam swirls, and a tea stem floats vertically in the pale green tea.

Eunuch Li sat down and took a sip of tea. The old man's lips were chapped, and he seemed to have no time to even drink water. After finding out the results, he came to the courtyard to find the person without stopping.

"Please speak slowly, Eunuch Li," Zhuang Xing said, placing a teacup in front of the old man. "What exactly did you find out?"

After taking a sip of tea and catching his breath, Eunuch Li opened a file.

"Immortal Master, please look, this is the list of names from the treasure ship back then."

Pointing to the somewhat blurry handwriting on the file, Eunuch Li slowly began to explain.

"Back then, the late emperor was already old and was determined to find immortality. He mobilized the entire nation to build a treasure ship and offered huge rewards to gather people from all over the world to go to sea in search of the elixir of immortality."

“Last night, I took the Red Tassel that the Immortal Master gave me and went to the civil official in charge of the treasure ship. The civil official then took out these volumes, which contained a detailed list of the people who boarded the ship back then.”

"Today, I asked someone to check with me, and we indeed found a Taoist priest from Xuanqing Temple in the list. The priest's name is Song Yu. When he boarded the ship that year, he was not yet thirty years old and came after answering the call for help."

"Back then, the late emperor summoned talented and extraordinary people, and this Mr. Song Yu passed through many selections and won the championship in the martial arts test."

"After he won first place, he was summoned by the late emperor to the palace to meet him. It was probably at that time that the old eunuch took him for a tour of the palace."

As he spoke, Eunuch Li took out the red tassel that Zhuang Xing had given him yesterday. In his hand, he also had another black sword tassel, which was covered with a little dust, but because it was a black tassel, it was not very clear.

Besides the black tassel, someone else took out a Taoist robe, which also looked weathered and worn.

“These are all things left behind by Master Song Yu,” said Eunuch Li. “Before leaving the capital that year, Master Song Yu left his Taoist robe and sword tassel in the storeroom, only instructing people to put them in a corner, but not to keep them properly. I don’t know what his intention was, so I took both of these items and showed them to the Immortal Master.”

Zhuang Xing's gaze shifted to the old Taoist robe and sword tassel, as Xuanqing Temple did not have the tradition of keeping sword tassels and robes.

Unless, of course, the disciple died in an accident.

When venturing down the mountain to exorcise demons, unexpected events are sometimes unavoidable.

Just like when the tiger demon broke into Chenzhou, several villages along the way were killed by it, and more than ten disciples of the temple were also slaughtered by the tiger demon.

If the body cannot be found, the only thing that can be used as a sacrifice is the items left behind: clothes, sword tassels, and swords. Most of the time, these items can only be brought back to the temple.

These items will be enshrined in the main hall of Xuanqing Temple. When Bai Sui disciples perform the kowtow ceremony, it is in that hall, where many memorial tablets are enshrined, and many of these tablets are adorned with sword tassels of blue, red, black, and purple.

Senior Brother Song Yu left behind the sword tassel and Daoist robe, which was probably for the same reason.

Perhaps the senior brother felt that he had run away from the mountain without permission and was too ashamed to let the master enshrine his sword tassel in the main hall. However, with the day of departure approaching, he still wanted to leave something behind, so he placed the sword tassel and the Taoist robe in the imperial city's storeroom.

Before he set off, he had already decided that this trip would be a one-way trip.

The reason why he left behind the sword tassel and the Taoist robe is something that Zhuang Xing, who came after him, can only guess.

I wonder if he ever imagined that, many years later, a junior disciple would find what he left behind.

Zhuang Xing solemnly accepted the Taoist robe and sword tassel. No matter what, now that the items were in his hands, he should take responsibility and bring them back to the Taoist temple.

Senior Brother Song Yu was also a disciple of Daoist Qingxuzi and the parents of Zhuang Xing. However, they had only stayed on the mountain for a year or two and done some odd jobs. Even after more than ten years, the old Daoist could still call out their names without any awkwardness. The old Daoist must have never forgotten that there was once a child named Song Yu who had practiced swordsmanship on the mountain.

"Thank you, Eunuch Li, for bringing Senior Brother Song Yu's clothes and sword tassel." Zhuang Xing stood up and thanked him. "Seeing Senior Brother's old belongings might ease our minds a bit."

"Alas, I wonder how Mr. Song Yu is doing now." Eunuch Li shook his head. "After the treasure ship set sail, there was no news of it. All I could do was bring these things with me."

"Are these other two also directories?" Zhuang Xing asked.

“That’s a detailed record of the martial arts test back then,” said Eunuch Li. “I thought the Immortal Master might be interested, so I brought it along.”

"I see." Zhuang Xing said, "May I keep these files to take a look?"

“Of course,” said Eunuch Li. “The palace has long since stopped interfering with the matter of the treasure ship. Immortal Master, please take a look. You can return it when you’ve had your fill.”

"Is no one paying attention to that treasure ship anymore?" Zhuang Xing asked.

“After the late emperor passed away, no one took care of it anymore,” said Eunuch Li. “Speaking of which, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen such heavy rain. Is the Immortal Master living comfortably in this courtyard? Is it leaking?”

“It hasn’t leaked at all,” Zhuang Xing said.

"That's good." Eunuch Li nodded.

The old man wasn't particularly interested in the ship that was going out to sea.

Decades ago, this incident caused quite a stir, but now few people remember that such a ship ever existed.

Indeed, compared to the treasure ship, we should be more concerned about whether the roof tiles in this house are properly laid.

The old man stayed in the house for a while longer, exchanging a few polite words.

He brought the cook and servants with him, saying that it was raining so hard that it was not advisable to come over from outside the courtyard.

Zhuang Xing politely declined. With outsiders in the house, it wouldn't be appropriate for Xiao An to show herself. Zhuang Xing and Yun Ling were both able-bodied; they only needed to taste the palace food, there was no need to eat it every day. He felt that his cooking skills were not much worse than those of the imperial chefs, and he probably knew more dishes than the imperial chefs.

He saw Eunuch Li off, and then went inside to read the two volumes of documents.

Before we knew it, the rain stopped and the sky cleared.

They didn't wash the clothes and sword tassel left behind by their senior brother Song Yu. They simply folded them as they were and packed them into their bags.

"My senior brother was only in his twenties when he went to sea. If he were still alive, he would be an old man in his fifties by now," Zhuang Xing said. "Yunling, do you think he ever regretted going to sea?"

Yunling shook her head: "I don't know."

Yes, how could they possibly know whether Senior Brother Song Yu had ever regretted it?

At least he left full of expectations; otherwise, he wouldn't have rushed down the mountain so hastily.

That's enough.

Chapter 214 The Secrets of the Treasure Ship

The sudden downpour finally stopped in the early hours of the following day.

When Zhuang Xing woke up, he could no longer hear the pattering of rain outside.

When the sky cleared and the sunlight shone down, the courtyard had turned into a pond.

The water flowed gently through the drain, and after another half day, the water in the yard was almost completely drained, leaving only a few small pools.

Zhuang Xing saw a small carp swimming in a small pond under the slender bamboo. This carp had come out of the original pond, but now that the water had dried up, it was trapped in that small world.

The little carp darted around frantically, but the pond was only the size of a palm, and even though it was in a panic, it couldn't find its way back to the pond.

If we leave it alone, it will die on the bank when the water in the pond dries up.

Zhuang walked forward, intending to catch the small carp and throw it back into the pond.

But after taking only a couple of steps, the little carp jumped out of the pond.

The carp landed on the bluestone slab and swayed its body up and down.

There was still enough water in the small pond to sustain it for a while, but it still jumped out of it.

Perhaps out of ignorance, perhaps out of curiosity, or perhaps because it felt bored in that narrow pool where it couldn't swim freely, it just jumped out stubbornly.

The outcome of a fish jumping onto the shore is predictable: no matter how hard it tries to wag its tail, it can hardly move its body an inch.

It can no longer return to the small pond that could hold it.

Zhuang Xing squatted down and picked up the little carp. Its scales were slippery, and the little fish was still struggling. He could feel the resistance in his palm.

Zhuang walked a few steps to the edge of the pond and threw the fish into the water.

The little carp came back to life as soon as it encountered water, but it didn't stay for even a moment and immediately went back to the depths of the pond.

It swam happily in the water, and perhaps at this moment, it finally understood how good the place it used to be was.

...

The day after the rain stopped, I saw Eunuch Li again.

Zhuang Xing returned the dossiers intact. He had read them through briefly. The account of his senior brother Song Yu was only a few words. After all, this was not a novel or biography, but just a notebook. A single sentence summarized everything that happened back then.

The main record is about the manpower and resources consumed in building the treasure ship. After reading it, Zhuang Xing realized how much effort was put into building that treasure ship. Moreover, the treasure ship did not travel alone. In addition to the largest ship, there were several smaller ships accompanying it.

This project began in the sixteenth year of the Zhengde reign and lasted for six years. During those six years, the ship was being built. It was not until the twentieth year of the Zhengde reign, two years before the ship was almost finished, that the government began to recruit talented people from all over the country.

When the treasure ship set sail, the old emperor was already very old.

A total of 3,672 people accompanied the fleet on its voyage, which also carried enough food to feed the more than 3,000 people for two years. It was truly a fleet built with the full strength of the nation.

The old man put all the files back into the carriage. He hadn't come for the files; these old records were irrelevant whether he took them back or not.

The old man came to invite Zhuang Xing to the palace. After three days of heavy rain, the emperor and his officials had made preliminary arrangements for coal mining. The decree would be issued immediately, and the rest would be left to local officials and various civil servants to implement and gradually improve the policy.

The weather cleared up today, and the emperor once again invited Zhuang Xing to the palace.

The old man said that the emperor already knew about Mr. Song Yu, and that there were still some undisclosed details about the treasure ship from back then, and he wanted to invite the immortal master for a chat.

When the emperor invited him, Zhuang Xing had no reason to refuse.

Yunling didn't come along this time. Although she accompanied Zhuang Xing when meeting the emperor, she actually spoke very few words to him.

Seeing that Yunling didn't want to join in the fun, Eunuch Li didn't say much. He had been in the palace for twenty years and had become the emperor's personal eunuch. He wasn't just doing this for nothing. As a servant, he was very good at reading people's expressions and knew the importance of doing things.

The Emperor only wanted to invite Zhuang Xing; whether Yunling, who was accompanying him, came or not was not important.