1. Do You Know the Herb of Immortality? (4)
A traveler appeared over the ridgeline of Mount Nanhua.
In one hand he held a staff half-wrapped in silk; in the other, a length of silk cloth. He walked with his steps measured, his gaze fixed upon the silk with painstaking care.
As he went, however, he finally tore his eyes from the cloth and lifted his head to look ahead.
At the end of his gaze lay a valley — a blessed spot where sunlight fell generously and valley waters ran cool and clear.
At the center of that valley rose a colossal boulder, and upon it sat a figure as white as snow.
Even from a distance, the presence was otherworldly.
The traveler's eyes went wide at the sight, and he bit down hard on his lip. It was all he could do to swallow the cry that had nearly escaped him.
Blood beading at his lip, he drew a long, deep breath to steady himself, then straightened his attire with deliberate care.
Only then did he set his steps toward the valley, until at last he stood before the great rock.
"…!"
The figure of the snow-white immortal came into vivid focus before his eyes.
Just as the old man had said, the immortal bore hair as white as an elder's, and skin as flawless as snow and ice.
Seated in silent meditation with eyes closed, she looked as gentle and beautiful as a maiden, and for a long while the traveler could not bring himself to look away.
"…So you have come."
As though she had been waiting all along, the snow-white immortal opened her eyes and met his gaze.
Her eyes were a blue so pale it chilled, and clear as a mirror.
The traveler caught his breath the instant their eyes met, but recovered his composure almost at once. Nodding slowly, he spoke.
"I have. I am grateful for your hospitality, Immortal One of Mount Nanhua."
"………."
After that first greeting, the immortal said nothing more. She simply gazed upon him in serene silence.
But that gaze itself was utterly uncanny.
Though their eyes had merely met, the traveler knew instinctively that she was looking into him — reading the very depths of him.
And so, wearing a grave expression, he squared his voice and began.
"This humble one is a man of Yan, called Noh Saeng. I was once a fangshi who wandered the Central Plains, but…."
At the traveler's introduction — the fangshi Noh Saeng — the immortal's brow twitched ever so slightly. Observing this, he chose his next words with great caution.
"I now submit to the Emperor's decree, and have come to this Mount Nanhua in search of the Immortal Maiden. I beg of you — might you grant me your aid?"
He bowed his head in formal courtesy. The immortal regarded the gesture in silence for a moment before she spoke.
"…Noh Saeng, is it."
Socheong murmured the name the traveler had given and lapsed briefly into thought.
Noh Saeng. A name I remember… one of the fangshi who fled from the First Emperor, wasn't he?
Among the names of the fangshi she had read of in the records of her former life, Noh Saeng had indeed appeared.
He had been trusted considerably by the First Emperor — but in the end, unable to bear the Emperor's excesses any longer, he had fled. That was the name he carried.
Socheong rifled swiftly through her memory, unearthing what other records she could find.
He resented the First Emperor and fled together with Hu Saeng. And before that….
Hmm… and so….
Having sorted her thoughts in a single breath, Socheong let her gaze drift back to the man before her — and there stood Noh Saeng, looking distinctly nervous.
Though his name was inscribed even in the Records of the Grand Historian, his appearance was remarkably ordinary.
Hair and beard grown out untended, skin browned by the sun. Judged by his face alone, he seemed gaunt, almost frail —
…But if I matched hands with him wrongly, he could kill me in one blow.
The shoulders spreading beneath that face, the thick arms and barrel torso — his frame was powerfully built.
If a man intended to roam the Central Plains under the name of fangshi, he would need bones and muscle of exactly this sort — or so the sinews rippling along his arms seemed to shout.
Socheong swallowed her unease inwardly and held her expression serene. Then, still seated in meditation, she addressed him.
"You've come seeking me, you say…. Is it the secret of immortality that you desire?"
"…! It is, Immortal Maiden of Nanhua! The First Emperor has commanded me to obtain the method of immortality — or an elixir of it — from an immortal."
As Noh Saeng cried out in excitement, the blood surged visibly at his throat.
Truly, his vigor could not bear comparison with a woman who did nothing but meditate in the mountains without so much as a hint of exercise.
But Socheong had no intention of meekly granting his hopes.
She shook her head slowly.
"I regret to say that I have no interest in such matters. Indeed, I could not help you even if I wished to."
At her words, Noh Saeng jolted upright and cried out again.
"…You cannot! I beg you, reconsider!"
With the staff clutched in his hand and his whole body pitching forward, he looked quite threatening — so Socheong cloaked herself in calm and pressed on.
"How can a practitioner who claims to follow the Dao behave so carelessly? Moreover, if I heard you correctly, the one who desires immortality is the First Emperor himself…."
She glanced up, narrowing her eyes until her gaze met his. Within those meeting eyes she read a whole tangle of emotions, and she spoke aloud the fear he harbored.
"It seems to me that you fear punishment from the First Emperor should you return without the secret of immortality. To grant immortality to a man who inspires terror even in his own fangshi — the whole world would surely be plunged into ruin."
"Wh-what… how dare you speak such…!"
At her words, Noh Saeng's face drained to a deathly blue. To speak of the Son of Heaven, the First Emperor himself, in such terms — it was an utterance for which his head might be lopped off on the spot, and the extermination of three generations of his kin would scarcely pay the price.
…Was that too harsh?
Seeing his expression, Socheong felt a sudden flare of alarm herself. But the words were already out; better, then, to push forward brazenly than to retreat.
Rummaging into the recesses of her memory, she cleared her throat — and a soft, beautiful voice rolled out like pearls spilling across jade.
"Fangshi Noh Saeng. Listen well."
Calling him so, Socheong recalled the way her own master had once delivered his teachings.
At her summons, Noh Saeng forgot even the pallor draining his face; his eyes glittered as he leaned in to listen.
"However great the power a single man may wield, so long as he is human he cannot accomplish the works of Heaven. The more one forces the works of Heaven, the further they recede beyond reach. The affairs of men can be accomplished by human hands — but the works of Heaven can be accomplished by Heaven alone…."
"What do you mean by that?"
"The immortality the First Emperor seeks is an attempt to force exactly such a work of Heaven."
"Hm…."
At that, Noh Saeng's face darkened once more. He seemed half to believe her words, and half not to.
But Socheong, as though she understood his hesitation perfectly, spread a benevolent smile across her face and continued.
"Most people resign themselves to such works of Heaven, or turn their eyes away. But men like the First Emperor you serve — they seek to defy it with the power they hold."
"………."
"And they demand the means through their power, pressing it upon their fangshi — and the fangshi wield their arts for them in turn. But fangshi are human in the end. Do you imagine that altering the works of Heaven could ever be easy?"
"…No. It would not."
At her words, Noh Saeng's gaze wandered this way and that before he finally gave a small nod. Truthfully, he had long grown weary of the Emperor's extravagant commands — of expeditions like this one, hunting for immortals.
Observing his reaction, Socheong smiled brightly.
"Precisely. It is not easy. And so the fangshi who step into the mundane world, laboring to force the works of Heaven, drift gradually away from the path of the Zhenren — the True One — and of the sage."
"Wh-what did you say…?"
Noh Saeng, who for an instant had been lost in her smile, found himself echoing her words before he knew it.
He had trained in the fang arts and become a fangshi, roaming the land in search of immortals — and not solely because of the First Emperor.
The power and prestige won as the Emperor's fangshi had been welcome enough. But what he truly desired was the path of the immortal — the way of longevity without end.
"Oh my — you didn't know, Noh Saeng?"
Gazing at him, Socheong rounded her eyes in mock astonishment and smiled with them. She looked for all the world like an innocent child.
It was an act, yes — but only partly.
"Humans live by talking with one another, and in doing so they naturally gather filth. That filth cannot simply be condemned as evil — and yet the Zhenren and the sages carry not a single wisp of this turbid qi."
As she spoke the teachings learned from her master and refined through her long solitude on Mount Nanhua, Socheong found herself, before she noticed it, genuinely delighting in the conversation.
"The Dao and Heaven joined to bestow form and shape upon humans — and yet how is it that these same humans age so, and die so easily? It is all the work of that turbid qi."
Naturally, Socheong did not believe this theory could truly grant eternal life. She had never desired immortality in the first place.
She had attained it against her will through the Herb of Immortality, and had simply gone on living, one thing after another.
And so she spoke on to Noh Saeng, merrily and at length.
"…And that is why I left the mundane world behind, to keep my solitude and quietude here on Mount Nanhua — to live long and free of turbid qi. So I regret to say that the method of immortality, or the elixir, that you seek is not something I can give you."
When her talk finally wound to a close, dusk had somehow already arrived, the evening sky dyed red with sunset.
"Oh — it's grown this late already. Did I talk for too long?"
"………."
Socheong asked in genuine surprise, but Noh Saeng gave no answer. He simply stood frozen, his face still locked in shock.
"…Noh Saeng?"
When she called again, tilting her head, he finally opened his mouth.
"Ah……. It was… a fine teaching. Immortal… Maiden of Nanhua…."
But though his mouth had moved, he seemed still far from regaining his senses.
…And he looks even thinner now than before?
He seemed markedly more haggard than when their conversation had begun — and
Huh?
Socheong stared at him, nonplussed.