save the bachelors

Chapter 4386 [The Art of Immortality]

Cui Wenzi lived in the villa in Zhongnan Mountain for half a year, mainly to exchange medical experiences with Xiang Nan.

Xiang Nan then learned that Cui Wenzi was actually the descendant of Qin He, a famous doctor in the Spring and Autumn Period who was once as famous as Bian Que and Yi Huan.

Qin He once treated the Marquis of Jin who was obsessed with beauty, but after diagnosis and treatment he found that it was useless. The Marquis of Jin asked him the reason, and he said, "Lust leads to six diseases, and excessive lust will lead to disasters. Yin lust leads to cold diseases, yang lust leads to hot diseases, wind lust leads to physical diseases, rain lust leads to abdominal diseases, dark lust leads to confusing diseases, and bright lust leads to heart diseases." Sure enough, the Marquis of Jin died soon after.

Yi Huan also treated Duke Jing of Jin, but he was also unable to cure the disease. When Duke Jing asked him the reason, he said, "The disease is above the liver and below the fat. It cannot be attacked, it cannot be reached, and the medicine cannot reach it. It cannot be cured."

Hence, there is the idiom “病入肓” (ill-death case), which describes a person’s illness reaching a point where it cannot be cured, or a situation deteriorating to a point where it cannot be reversed.

Cui Wenzi studied under Qin He and learned good medical skills from him. From then on, he traveled around the world, curing diseases and saving lives. His biggest dream was to make an elixir of immortality.

Because in ancient times, shamans and doctors were inseparable, and even in the Qin and Han dynasties, shamans and doctors were still mixed together.

For example, the "Shennong Bencao Jing" written in the Eastern Han Dynasty also records a large number of absurd sentences, including many words such as "health preservation", "longevity", "light body" and "becoming immortal".

Therefore, Cui Wenzi is not only a miracle doctor, but also a wizard, or a "alchemist". His dream is to make an elixir of immortality so that there will be no more illness and pain in the world.

……

Xiang Nan exchanged medical experiences with Cui Wenzi and learned from him how to make the elixir of life.

The alchemists believed that everything in the world had a spirit, and humans were also spirits of all things, but they were just rolling around in the mundane world, being tainted by vulgarity, and thus their spirits gradually faded away. Just like an oil lamp, it would go out once the oil was used up.

Therefore, they collected treasures that contained spirituality, such as bezoar, dog treasures, night pearls, blood of spiritual animals, etc., extracted the spirituality from them, took the essence and removed the dross.

After taking it, people will naturally live longer, just like adding oil to an oil lamp. As long as you add more oil than what is burned, people will naturally live forever.

It's just a theory, but he has tried it many times and it never works. At most it can make people healthier and live longer, but death is still inevitable.

After Xiang Nan heard about his "adding oil" theory, he was very impressed by his brilliant ideas.

To be honest, it's not surprising that he thinks so.

Because European wizards thought so too, and they actually used humans to create the magic stone that could prolong life.

Moreover, modern medical research has also shown that in order to stay healthy, people must absorb sugar, fat, protein, vitamins, amino acids and trace elements from the outside world.

Balanced nutrition can indeed help people prolong their lifespan. And a bad living environment can indeed shorten a person's lifespan, such as sewage, exhaust gas, smog, and so on.

……

And Cui Wenzi learned even more from Xiang Nan.

Xiang Nan was well-versed in both ancient and modern times, and had a comprehensive knowledge of both Chinese and Western medicine. He was proficient in Chinese medicine, Western medicine, shamanism, internal medicine, surgery, toxicology... He was well-versed in everything.

His research on pathology alone was far beyond Cui Wenzi's knowledge. For example, although Cui Wenzi knew that typhoid fever was transmitted through human excrement, he did not know the principle behind it. With Xiang Nan's help, he saw those extremely tiny typhoid bacilli and suddenly realized it.

"So that's how it is. These are the so-called 'external evils'." After seeing the germs under a microscope, Cui Wenzi couldn't help but exclaimed, "The ancients really didn't deceive me."

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that human illness is caused by two factors: "internal evil" and "external evil".

Internal evil refers to a person's own problems, such as anger hurts the liver, joy hurts the heart, worry hurts the lungs, fear hurts the kidneys, eating too much or too little can easily hurt the spleen and stomach, looking for a long time can hurt the blood, lying for a long time can hurt the qi, sitting for a long time can hurt the flesh, standing for a long time can hurt the bones, and walking for a long time can hurt the tendons...

Exogenous evil refers to unfavorable external factors, such as wind, cold, heat, dampness, dryness, fire, and epidemic and evil qi.

For example, if you stay in a damp and cold environment for a long time, you are prone to rheumatism; if you stay in a cold environment for a long time, you are prone to catching a cold; if you stay in a hot and dry environment, you will have a dry mouth and dry eyes; if you are in an environment with plague, you are also very likely to be infected...

When internal and external evils combine, people will get sick, so Chinese medicine emphasizes "strengthening the foundation and nourishing the vital energy" and "supporting the body and eliminating evils." It is believed that if the body is full of vital energy and positive energy, it can overcome internal and external evils, maintain good health, and achieve longevity.

Cui Wenzi believed in these theories, but had never seen them with his own eyes.

Now that he saw these germs, he realized that there were indeed "external evils" in the world. It was these external evils that invaded the human body and caused people to suffer from the plague.

Moreover, these external evils are everywhere, in the water, soil, food, and even in the air. No wonder people live in this filthy and evil world and their life spans are so short.

"Fellow Daoist, your medical skills are truly amazing." Cui Wenzi was impressed. "I have learned so much from you. I think I can save more people."

He learned a lot of medical skills that he had never known before from Xiang Nan, which really benefited him a lot, but he had to choose to leave the Zhongnan Mountain Villa.

"Fellow Daoist, isn't it a very happy thing for you and I to exchange medical skills on the mountain?" Xiang Nan asked in confusion, "Why do we have to rush down the mountain?"

He has a lot of medical knowledge that he wants to share with Cui Wenzi.

"My life is limited, but my knowledge is limitless. To pursue the limitless with the limited is dangerous." Cui Wenzi waved his hand and smiled, "The way of medicine is endless. It is not easy to learn it all.

I can’t learn everything even if I study for ten lifetimes, let alone a lifetime. But the people of the world can’t wait for me for ten lifetimes, so I have to go. Knowledge should be learned, but the most important thing is to be able to apply what you have learned and to integrate knowledge and practice. ”

"I see." Xiang Nan nodded and smiled, "Well, if that's the case, I won't try to keep you."

As Cui Wenzi said, the art of medicine is indeed endless. Internal medicine, surgery, Chinese medicine, Western medicine, witch doctor, poison doctor... Each of them is all-encompassing and not easy to learn. You may not be able to learn them all in your lifetime.

The divine doctor Xue, the enemy of the King of Hell in "The Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils", has very high medical skills, but compared with his master Su Xinghe, he has only learned the basics.

Compared with Su Xinghe and Wuyazi, he had only learned the basics. And compared with the medical books stored in Lingjiu Palace, Wuyazi was also far behind.

Xiang Nan's knowledge has far surpassed that of the founder of the Xiaoyao Sect, so even if Cui Wen Ziguang studied medicine from him for his entire life, he might not be able to learn all of it.

He also realized this, so he stopped studying and decided to go down the mountain to put his knowledge into practice. After all, no matter how advanced the medical skills were, if he just studied in the mountains, it would be useless to the people living down the mountain.

Xiang Nan understood his mentality, so he did not try to persuade him to stay. Fortunately, he had already learned Cui Wenzi's method of refining the elixir of immortality, which was also the most valuable knowledge.