There are many mysteries surrounding Zhou Xuan, and An Guoqing really can't see through this young man, but Zhou Xuan is just as unfathomable to him.
"Hehe, how could a country bumpkin like me possibly be worthy of Mr. An's presence? May I ask how old you are, Mr. An?" Zhou Xuan asked casually.
An Guoqing looked at Zhou Xuan and smiled, "Hehe, Mr. Zhou, why don't you guess how old I am?"
Zhou Xuan hesitated for a moment, then smiled and said, "Mr. An, I have a strange feeling. You seem to be in your forties, but also like you are two or three hundred years old. It seems that you have so much experience and knowledge that you give people this feeling."
An Guoqing paused for a moment, then chuckled and said, "Mr. Zhou's feelings are really strange. Hehe, I'm forty-nine this year. Sigh, when you get old, you can't help but admit defeat. The older you get, the more afraid you become of death."
Zhou Xuan laughed and said, "That's true. Who isn't afraid of death? It's said that a miserable life is better than a good death. Otherwise, why would those emperors of ancient times have been digging tunnels to find the elixir of immortality?"
"Mr. Zhou, speaking of immortality, I'd like to ask you something," An Guoqing turned his head and stared at Zhou Xuan, "Do you think immortality, eternal life, is possible?"
Zhou Xuan immediately laughed: "Hehehe, Mr. An, I think this question is like telling a story. As it's passed around, things naturally become distorted. According to scientific theory, the process of human cells going from newborn to aging is a natural law. Birth, aging, sickness, and death are inevitable. Everyone will die sooner or later. No one can achieve immortality. Ancient emperors did this many times. The most famous one is Qin Shi Huang, right? With the power of an emperor, he used the resources of the whole country to search for the secret formula and medicine for immortality. But in the end, didn't he still end up buried in a pile of yellow earth?"
An Guoqing smiled and said, "That's true. But in this world, such legends only increase. Immortality elixirs, secret techniques for cultivating immortality, and so on. With so many stories circulating, one can't help but believe some of them."
"Mr. An, this is how I see it: the human body has a limit, like a bucket filled with water. This bucket of water is like a person's lifespan. The amount of water used directly determines the length of life. Those who are economical and restrained use water for a longer time, while those who are unrestrained use it up faster. If the bucket is rusty, has holes, or leaks, it will be consumed even faster. This is similar to illness, which will also accelerate the shortening of lifespan. However, no matter what, the water will eventually run out, it's just a matter of sooner or later. Even if not a single drop of water is used, it will evaporate over time. Therefore, a person's lifespan is limited, and no matter what, it has an end, only the length varies."
An Guoqing calmed down and said after a long while, "Indeed, elixirs and cultivation techniques are nothing but ethereal legends. Modern technology is highly advanced, but even if we can change human genes and improve aging and disease through scientific technology in a hundred, a thousand, or even ten thousand years, it will only prolong life for a while. In the end, we still cannot escape the devouring of time, and death is the final result."
"I also saw in a magazine that scientists speculate that if we exclude illness, excessive aging, and various environmental factors—that is, if no accidents occur—the longest human lifespan could reach 800 years. However, this is also impossible because many factors are unavoidable, and the human body is born with various defects. With the help of methods, money, and medicine, the longest human lifespan could reach around 100 years. This is the longest lifespan ever recorded on Earth, but it seems that 150 years is already an unattainable limit."
Zhou Xuan chatted casually with An Guo about these topics, all of which he had read in newspapers and books. To be honest, it wasn't difficult for him to use his ice-energy ability to stimulate the old man's physical functions and allow him to live for another ten or twenty years. However, this couldn't be used repeatedly. If the old man's potential was stimulated and his physical functions became younger, he would reach his limit after aging again. Even if he used his ability to stimulate it again, it would be useless, and the person would still die.
However, Zhou Xuan's medicine can increase the lifespan of the elderly without any medicine. If it were sold as medicine, it would be priceless and impossible to buy with money.
Zhou Xuan's current stage of ice-qi ability is very helpful for injury recovery and can also stimulate the body's potential. However, it cannot transform and devour. It can still rejuvenate an elderly person's body, but if it is a late-stage cancer like the old man's, without the stage of transformation and devouring, it cannot be cured. Fortunately, he went to treat the old man after returning from the United States. It was only after absorbing the huge energy in the golden stone that the ice-qi evolution was able to achieve this. If he had not gone to the United States, Zhou Xuan would not have been able to cure the old man's disease.
After hearing Zhou Xuan's words, An Guoqing fell silent, lost in thought. Zhou Xuan found An Guoqing truly mysterious, exuding an air of mystery that he couldn't quite put his finger on. Could it be that he really wanted to live forever? How ridiculous!
The car traveled on the expressway from Wuxu Airport to Fengshan, and it only took forty minutes to reach Fengshan. An Guoqing's people had already booked rooms in the best hotel in Fengshan.
From that day to the next, An Guoqing took Zhou Xuan and a few others to visit the company he had invested in.
An Guoqing is not from Fengshan. Zhou Xuan did not expect him to invest so much here. Restaurants, hotels, tourism companies, and many tourist attractions in Fengshan have all been developed by the An family. For example, the Fengshan Grand Hotel where they stayed was a wholly-owned company in which he invested 700 million yuan.
In fact, An Guoqing's largest investments in Fengshan are tourism companies and resorts. Most of these tourism companies are tourist attractions that cooperate with local businesses. Therefore, whenever An Guoqing appears in Fengshan, bigwigs from both the official and business circles flock to him.
When they were at Chongkou, Zhou Xuan felt that An Guoqing was in a great hurry, eager to come here immediately to begin the search for the Nine Star Pearl. But when they actually arrived at Fengshan, An Guoqing was not in a hurry at all. He took Zhou Xuan and the other two out to play and eat and drink every day, without mentioning that matter at all.
Zhou Xuan was puzzled. What exactly was An Guoqing up to?
The places An Guoqing took the three of them to visit were mostly his company or his cooperative investments. They didn't go to the most famous tourist attractions in Fengshan, such as Sanmenhai, Tianchuang, and Xianrenqiao. But that's where they were going to go, right?
Zhou Xuan wasn't sure, but estimated it should be near Poxin River, because An Guoqing kept mentioning the skylight of Sanmenhai and the longevity village by Poxin River.
On the third day, An Guoqing finally took Zhou Xuan and a few others to Sanmenhai for sightseeing. During these few days, Zhou Xuan had not seen Yang Huaiyuan and did not know what he had been doing.
Upon arriving at Sanmenhai, An Guoqing's men had already rented yachts. Because Fengshan Geopark does not allow industrial factories to be built here in order to protect the ecological environment, and the boats in Sanmenhai are all rowed by manpower, there are no motorboats. An Guoqing's men rented two boats, with two people rowing on each boat.
Zhou Xuan, Fu Ying, and Wei Xiaoyu were all visiting this place for the first time, and they were all captivated by the spectacular skylight scenery of Sanmenhai.
It's a large lake, thousands of square meters in size, surrounded by green mountains and numerous caves, but the most peculiar thing about it is the lake water.
The lake water appears to have light shining through its bottom. Looking down at it from the surface is like looking at jade under a lamp, with light penetrating through the jade, deep blue yet translucent white, or like looking up at the blue sky. That's where the name "Skylight" comes from.
There are three large skylights, which are also the three skylights accessible by boat. These three large skylights are connected by karst caves. The boat guide explained that this is known as "Three Lakes and Three Caves, Three Grotto Heavens of China".
The Three Caves of China in Sanmenhai cover a total area of more than 25,000 square meters and are 690 meters long. They extend from southeast to northwest in a winding manner. Outside the caves, the water flows rapidly, but inside the caves, the water is as smooth as a mirror, bright, and well-ventilated.
The tour guide rowed the boat into the largest skylight cave, which was 40 to 50 meters long and about 30 meters wide. As the boat turned forward, it suddenly lit up. Sunlight and white clouds were overhead, and sheer cliffs surrounded us on all sides. Green trees grew on the cliffs. This pool seemed to reach the sky, and the entire area was about 5,000 square meters. This was the first skylight.
The tour guide stopped rowing and introduced with a smile, "This is the first skylight, also known as 'Jade Makeup Lake.' It covers an area of 4,900 square meters and is 18 meters deep. However, the underground river beneath the surface is much deeper than that. Diving experts from China and abroad have already detected the underground currents of five skylights, and they are all interconnected."
Then, following the Sanmenhai Cave to the right and along the rock wall for about 100 meters, you will enter the Second Window. The Second Window is connected to Lotus Lake, which is surrounded by lush greenery, forming a slope, which is different from the four cliffs of the First Window.
Next, we entered the inner pool from the western rock entrance. The cave was pitch black, but the tour guide was prepared and turned on a light. The water area inside the cave was about six or seven hundred square meters. The water was calm and the bottom was not visible, as if we were in an underwater dragon palace.
June weather is usually unbearably hot, but inside this cave it was chilly, making the hairs on my skin stand on end. If it weren't for the other tour boats, this place would have been quite frightening. The tourists on the other boats were clearly very scared, and the occasional soft voices of girls echoed in the cave, only adding to the fear.
The tour guide continued rowing south. After more than ten minutes, a sudden bright light appeared before them, and they arrived at the third skylight. This lake is called "Gold and Silver Lake." It is only a little over 2,000 square meters in area, but it is the deepest, with a depth of more than 30 meters. The surface of the water is like the previous two skylights, and the bottom is a bright sky blue. It is like a window opened in the sky, except that the light comes up from the bottom of the water. It is indeed very peculiar.
However, the boat can only navigate through these three skylights; the remaining skylights are located in dangerous terrain and can only be viewed from a distance.
After disembarking at the artificial roadside near the third skylight, An Guoqing said to Zhou Xuan with a smile, "Now I'll take you to Poxin Village, which is a famous longevity village. The source of the Poxin River in Poxin Village is also the most mysterious place. It is said that the people in the longevity village live long lives because they drink the water from the Poxin River."
Zhou Xuan didn't believe that claim. If water contained any minerals that the human body lacks, it could only be said to be beneficial to the human body and prolong life, which was all nonsense. Even if you poured a lot of spiritual herbs into an underground river, they would all be diluted and could not possibly have that effect.
Volume 1, Chapter 380: The Well Water of Poxin Village
Chapter 380 Well Water in Poxin Village
Poxin Village is located in Paoli Township, west of Sanmenhai. The villagers' buildings are predominantly old-style, with few new houses. Surrounded by green mountains and trees, it is a picturesque and tranquil place.
In Poxin Village, Zhou Xuan, Fu Ying, and Wei Xiaoyu saw many elderly people sitting in front of their houses enjoying the cool air. An Guoqing told them that most of them were in their seventies or eighties, and that in this village, being in their seventies or eighties was not considered a long life.
In longevity villages, only those over ninety are considered elderly, and almost all the elderly people in these villages can easily live past seventy or eighty years old.
In front of a house in Poxin Village, Zhou Xuan saw that there were many tourists queuing to enter the house, and on the other side, people were coming out. With so many people coming and going, he wondered what they were doing inside.
"Do you know why?" Seeing Zhou Xuan and the two girls' curiosity, An Guoqing spoke first, "Actually, they came here to see someone, a long-lived old man."
"An elderly person who has lived a long life?" Zhou Xuan exclaimed in surprise. "So many tourists have come to see an old person? Their enthusiasm is comparable to that of seeing a big celebrity."
An Guoqing smiled, and An Jie explained from the side, "Mr. Zhou, this old lady is no ordinary person. She is a well-known figure in Poxin Village and even Fengshan. This is 117-year-old Li Taixian, a living symbol of the Longevity Village. If tourists come to Sanmenhai and don't visit this old lady, they might as well not have come at all. The villagers even say that if you shake hands with this old lady, you can get some longevity."
So that's how it is. But can shaking hands really grant longevity? Unless it's your own supernatural ability, ice energy, that activates someone else's bodily functions, then a little longevity isn't surprising. But does this old lady also have ice energy abilities?