"Immortal? What"s wrong?" Emperor Qin asked urgently.
Was he really treating me like an immortal?
Heh heh...
He looks about thirty or forty… already in his later years.
I remembered that the emperor died just over the age of fifty, which was already considered a long life.
People must have fallen into a terrible state due to the pursuit of immortality.
Wait a minute.
My mind spun rapidly.
An exaggerated expression appeared on my face.
"Oh no, oh no," I despaired.
"What happened?" Emperor Qin raised his brows in question.
"The immortality drugs" have all been burnt," I informed him dully, looking at the Emperor out of the corner of my eyes.
Five seconds...
Ten seconds...
Dead silence.
"Immortality drug? The human would be able to live forever after eating it?" The corner of the Emperor"s mouth curled up.
"Aye, do you know how old I am?" I asked.
"No."
"2069 years," I lied smoothly.
"2000 years? Really?" The emperor was in shock.
"My name is Xu Fu, an immortal of Penglai Island. Because of the explosion, I hid in the rock but I was ejected. Actually, this immortality drug isn"t that powerful. It only extends your life and slows the aging process. Why else do you think my hair has turned white?" I told him.
"Long life? So there"s such a drug in Penglai?" Emperor Qin asked nervously.
"No more. There"s nothing left due to the fire," I answered, clenching my fists tightly.
I was about to succeed.
"You"re an immortal. Don"t you have any solution?"
"I do but I"ll need a lot of things."
"A lot of things? I"m the Emperor. I can give you anything. Speak."
"3,000 virgin males and females, a hundred carpenters, scholars, officials, boatmen, and doctors."
The island state may be gone but I can still disguise myself as Xu Fu and get the virgin males and females to rebuild it.
"Wise Emperor, this isn"t right. Why harm the country?" the advisor warned.
I knew it wasn"t going to be this simple.
"Why do you need the virgins?" Emperor Qin questioned.
"I need their spiritual influence, but of course, the mysteries of heaven mustn"t be revealed."
"Let me consider. It"s not a small number after all."
"You won"t believe this, but I can use a tenth of the resources to create a small pill for you first. The real pill can guarantee 500 additional years of life but a small one can only guarantee 50 additional years."
"So that"s 300 virgin males and females, 10 carpenters, scholars, officials, boatmen and doctors for a small immortality pill?" the Emperor smiled.
"How does that sound?" I enticed.
"Alright, but you cannot leave the palace, and I"ll only give you a hundred days to complete it," the Emperor stated.
I nodded.
Inside the side chamber, I drew a picture of a cannabis leaf with a writing brush.
Yup, cannabis.
Breathing it would make them happy, develop hallucinations and also make time move slower.
Chewing it would be less effective but still feasible.
I looked at the ancient map and made a guess as to where Yunnan should"ve been positioned at that time. "Here."
A scholar elaborated, "A nation with a hundred rivers and little land."
"Bring the children there to search for this." I folded the portrait and stuffed it into the official"s hand.
I stayed in the palace for 63 days, each day pa.s.sing like a year.
When the scholar returned to open the pouch, I saw all kinds of herbs.
He cried out, "Thirty kids died for these."
I categorized the herbs, leaving only the real cannabis.
I smashed them into powder to create twenty pills.
I consumed one. Bitter.
The result wasn"t obvious but I did feel light-headed and my world started to slow down.
I called people in after the effects wore off.
I kept eighteen pills and offered one as a tribute.
At the main palace hall, Emperor Qin split the pill into two.
He gave one to the old eunuch beside him.
The eunuch swallowed it with half a cup of tea and immediately became floaty.
He started mumbling gibberish about how time was slowing down and how he was flying.
We waited for the effects to fade.
The Emperor looked at me. "This is the immortality drug?"
I pointed at the eunuch, smiling. "Yes or no, ask him."
"Long live the Emperor, thank you immortal for the gift," the eunuch cried as he knelt down by the Emperor"s feet.
The old eunuch had been following the Emperor since he was young and he was very much trusted by the Emperor.
The Emperor swallowed his pill as well.
After half a cup of tea, the Emperor started laughing uncontrollably.
"It"s slowing down, it"s slowing down. Time has slowed down. I can live longer."
I smiled bitterly. "You ate only half so that"s an additional 25 years. The real pill can give you 500 years."
The Emperor yelled, "The immortal"s right. Get me the drug, get me the drug quick!"
I smiled. "3,000 virgin males and females, a hundred carpenters, scholars, officials, boatmen, and doctors."
"The small pill is enough, the real one is too extravagant," the advisor whispered to the Emperor.
The Emperor got angry. "How dare the advisor disrupt my immortality plan? Behead him!"
The guards immediately dragged the advisor out.
The Emperor nodded toward me, asking, "How long do you need to make a real pill? You can be my advisor."
"The real pill is complicated so I"ll need 10 years. I don"t need the t.i.tle. I"m an immortal and I have no desire for such glory."
"You act the part, indeed, but 10 years is too long."
"I"ve already extended your life by 25 years so what is 10?" I challenged.
The Emperor stared blankly into s.p.a.ce for a moment before bursting into laughter. "You"re right, you"re right."
It was then that I realized that this emperor who conquered six nations was a good emperor; I was the cause of his stained name, but in order to save the world, I couldn"t possibly stop now.
Half a year later.
Emperor Qin seized 3,000 virgin males and females by force.
I brought all 3,500 over people over to Penglai Island. Of course, by Penglai, I meant the island state outside of it.
Indeed, nuclear radiation was strong on this island state.
There were still some small problems even after thirty years of radiation.
The children on the island couldn"t grow tall. They also started developing bow legs and buck teeth.
These negative issues did not affect my plan.
In order to accelerate the population, I allowed them to reproduce freely.
Tilling, hunting.
Teaching, building.
Every ten years, I would send someone to the palace to present a cannabis pill to Emperor Qin.
Outsiders only saw ordinary people sending the pills but couldn"t find Penglai, now coined the island of the immortals, simply because the island state was very far from Penglai.
I handed down all my knowledge.
Mathematics, literature, language.
Geometry, science.
Another twenty years pa.s.sed.
I was severely deteriorating with age.
I received the news of the king"s demise.
Of course, this matter had long been mystified since the old eunuch who had swallowed half a pill had indeed lived till the ripe old age of 63.
Well, a ripe old age in that era at least.
As such, many versions of the story spread around.
Some believed that the immortal and immortality pills were real and that the emperor had died because of robbers who had seized the pills during the deliverers" journey back to the palace.
Whatever it was, I"ve already done what I was supposed to do.
It seemed that under my guidance and strategizing, I"ve advanced the science and technology of this world ahead of schedule.
It was too bad that I won"t be able to witness it since I"m not immortal...