The mythical mountains and rivers of Huaxia, almost every one of them carries a mythological color.

For example, Wudang has Master Zhang, and rumors say Zhang Sanfeng lived for over two hundred years, or even ascended to immortality in certain tales.

Actually, such legends are alright if circulated among the folk, but the key is it has an odd official corroboration:

During the 276 years of the Ming Dynasty, except for Chongzhen, all other emperors searched for Zhang Sanfeng, the entire process lasted over two hundred years.

Among them, Ming Chengzu Zhu Di admired Zhang Sanfeng the most. He painstakingly searched for Zhang Sanfeng without a trace, and decided to employ three hundred thousand laborers to build the Wudang Mountain palaces.

The palace was of enormous scale, taking seven years to complete.

Upon completion, a statue of Zhang Sanfeng was erected inside to be worshiped, calling him "Youlong Six Ancestors Hidden Immortal Yuhua Xuwu Pudu Celestial Venerable".

It's understandable for the first few emperors to search, purely out of personal desire for the supernatural.

But when even emperors like Zhu Youtang, one hundred seventy-eight years later, and even Zhu Changluo did the same, it becomes very peculiar.

Aside from Wudang Mountain.

Qingcheng has a sword that ascends as an immortal, while Dragon Tiger Mountain is the Ancestral Court of the Zhengyi school of Daoism, where Zhang Daoling, Old Zhang, is considered one of the immortals.

How does that saying go, the immortals belong with the immortals, the mortal world belongs with... uh, uh.

As for Mount Song, it's even more notable, a holy place for Buddhism, with countless high monks throughout history.

And aside from the various folk legends passed down orally, many ancient mystical events are recorded in the official history of Huaxia.

For instance, the "Book of Later Han - Biographies of Wizards" details the marvels of Zuo Ci, describing him akin to Iron Man.

The "Song History" outright wrote an independent account "Chen Tuan Biography" for Chen Tuan, and its content somewhat resembles Su Wen:

"Over a hundred years old yet has a youthful appearance."

Regarding Lv Dongbin, we won't discuss.

Though Ming Dynasty Daoist Lu Xixing claimed to have seen Lv Dongbin over five hundred years old, there's no actual evidence for it.

Most likely it was self-aggrandizement.

Aside from these examples, the most solid record of immortals in official history actually comes from Zhu Yuanzhang, as it was a record personally written by him.

Initially, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered his subordinates to burn Zhou Dian twice without him dying, imprison him for a month without food and he didn't die, drown him in water and still he didn't die.

In the end, he had to concede, and personally wrote "Imperial Edition Zhou Dian Immortal Biography".

This is different from situations where some suspected later additions like those in the "Tui Bei Tu"; it's currently acknowledged by everyone as Zhu Yuanzhang's own creation.

However, there is an opinion in literature and history circles that Zhu Yuanzhang actually fabricated this book, as the internal details involved his concubine Princess Consort Hu's son, namely King Zhao of Chu Zhu Zhen.

For example, a certain famous professor Liu from Nankai once posed this question:

If Zhou Dian was truly an immortal, then why didn't Zhu Yuanzhang seek a chin from him?

Uh, uh...

But regardless.

The concept of immortals has never ceased in the cultural heritage of Huaxia, and is indeed an unchanging fact.

You can find their presence in folklore, unofficial history, and official history.

Of course.

No matter how fantastical or frightening these legends might be, we should always maintain a dialectical attitude towards them.

From the perspective of dispelling feudal superstition, those mystical antics that serve no purpose must be discarded.

Take for example the rumors of water monsters in Mao Ren around the 1950s, spreading anxiety to the brink of societal collapse, halting production, with various ill-intentioned individuals taking advantage to fish in troubled waters.

Therefore, this kind of harmful feudal superstition must be eliminated, otherwise it can easily cause unrest.

But on the other hand.

After the discovery of the Damo Realm, some relatively less elusive ancient legends, which do not significantly affect the current social stability, may have potential research value.

Although nowadays many famous mountains and rivers have gradually become commercialized, the local culture of cultivation has started to change flavor.

There are truly few who meet the criteria among these outsiders.

But even though there are few of such individuals, they are ultimately present, and under the mobilization of national forces, Ou Shaoping found suitable candidates with little effort.

At this moment.

The members of this special task force were brought to another small laboratory, where the staff took samples for testing.

This process was informed prior, so the thirty-six outsiders did not show resistance, but rather cooperatively went through the process.

Considering the initiation phase has been completed, the cultivation technique of 'Three Days Initiating Spirit, Five Days Guiding Energy' has also been distributed to the warriors.

Thus Director Feng, along with Lin Ziming and Wei Fan, joined the group at the laboratory, while the venue was entrusted to Ou Shaoping.

As testing requires time, Director Feng took this opportunity to supplement other information to Wei Fan and Lin Ziming:

"Among these thirty-six outsiders, the oldest is 67 years old, the youngest is 16 years old, with an average age of 32.3 years.

What's noteworthy is that the oldest and youngest Daoists are actually grandfather and grandson."

Lin Ziming blinked, curiously asking:

"Grandfather and grandson? Aren't outsiders supposed to be celibate?"

Director Feng laughed and shook his head, saying:

"Colonel Lin, this is a typical misconception from some misleading news.

Daoists can indeed marry, or why do you think Zhang Wuji came about?

His father was a Daoist of Wudang, and so was Song Qingshu and his father."

Lin Ziming blinked and thought for a moment, realizing it was true.

Just as they were speaking, Bian Wenyi, the team leader of Ju Mang Base's life sciences laboratory responsible for sample analysis, walked briskly over.

Bian Wenyi, a newly emergent expert in the field of life science, is in his early forties this year.

His academic standing doesn't match Lin Li's, nor is he an academician-level scholar, but his capabilities are still quite formidable.

Given another ten to fifteen years, he is almost certain to become a significant leader.

Actually, one could already see.

Lin Ziming noticed a hint of doubt on Bian Wenyi's face, his brows slightly furrowed.

After arriving in front of them, he handed over a report:

"Director Feng, Colonel Lin, and Instructor Wei, according to our tests...

Among these outsiders, a few seem to have unusual affinity with spiritual energy."

Seeing that the others were puzzled, Bian Wenyi took a deep breath and continued:

"Take Daoist Huang from Qingcheng Mountain as an example.

Daoist Huang is 45 years old this year, without a family, a true cultivator in solitude.

According to our tests, the average absorption speed of spiritual particles by ordinary cultivators with four spiritual roots is approximately 0.0002694 cubic meters per minute.

Moreover, due to spiritual root attribute ratios and concentration factors, there might be certain discrepancies between individuals.

But under extreme conditions, the range is about plus or minus 10%.

However, the peculiar thing is...

Daoist Huang's absorption speed per minute reached 0.0003442 cubic meters, which is comparable to some cultivators with less favorable attributes of three spiritual roots."

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