Chapter 55: Returning Home in Glory, the Five Zhis Immortal Medicine (Seeking Monthly Tickets and Follow-up Reading)

By the end of August, the sun was scorching.

Hangcheng, known in ancient times as Lin'an, Qiantang, and Wulin.

It is the cultural and economic center of Jiangnan Province, and even more so, a gathering place for high-tech industries in the new era.

Binjiang District.

Jiang Yan wore a black outfit and sunglasses; beside him, Zhao Yinman was still in that same Ming-style Hanfu, her talisman earrings swaying in the breeze, cold and clear as snow.

The pair of handsome man and beautiful woman attracted many gazes.

"Hangcheng, your beast of burden has returned!"

Jiang Yan looked at the familiar high-rise buildings; he had thought that after resigning, he would embrace freedom and never return to this heartbreaking place.

But he hadn't expected to be back in just over a week, and for...

A work trip.

Because the location for the mission where Old Ba told him he could obtain a life-extending item was right here in Hangcheng.

Jiang Yan glanced at the surging calamity Qi above Hangcheng; as expected, big cities had more opportunities than small places, and he asked curiously:

"Are we considered to be crossing districts to poach performance targets?"

Zhao Yinman narrowed her phoenix eyes, like a cold, aloof kitten basking in the sun, and replied:

"Everyone at the History Correction Bureau is easy to talk to. Old Ba said to treat them like family and not be too formal, as long as we give them a heads-up in advance.

For the past month, the Hangcheng History Correction Bureau has been so busy dealing with several large-scale disease domains that they haven't had a moment to spare for the present world. They should actually thank you for coming to do this mission and relieving their pressure."

"That works."

Jiang Yan nodded, looking at the familiar office building before him with a sense of nostalgia.

This was where he used to work.

When he was a child watching TV, he always thought a company was a whole building where people worked inside, but he only realized the truth after growing up.

It turned out that ordinary companies didn't even have a single floor; they had to share office space with several other companies, relying on squeezing the beasts of burden to survive in this steel forest.

"Jiang Yan?"

Suddenly, a tentative call came from behind him.

Jiang Yan turned his head and saw a sweet-looking woman dressed in office attire with black stockings, holding a Luckin Coffee.

He smiled and said: "Xu Xiaoman, buying beast-of-burden feed at your own expense again!"

This was his former colleague, and the woman who sat only ten centimeters away from him.

Referring to their workstations.

"What else can I do? Workers are bound to get sleepy when they get up early and come home late. If you want to blame someone, blame the capitalists for not acting like humans."

Xu Xiaoman grumbled a few times, then said happily: "I saw your back just now and thought to myself that since you'd already resigned, it was impossible for you to be back, but not many people are as handsome as you. I didn't expect it to really be you."

Xu Xiaoman had a naturally outgoing personality; at this moment, she also noticed Zhao Yinman beside Jiang Yan. That near-perfect face made her feel inferior, and she stammered:

"Is this your... girlfriend? She's so beautiful, congratulations."

Although she knew such a handsome man was unlikely to belong to her, she would occasionally use him as material for late-night fantasies.

Now, seeing an excellent woman appear by his side, she couldn't help but feel a bit sour inside.

Men and women are the same; essentially, it is a longing for beautiful things.

"This is my new colleague."

Jiang Yan shook his head to deny it, not offering much of an introduction.

"I see. Did you come back here to work again? It looks like you jumped ship, got a promotion, and a raise, becoming a high-level beast of burden!"

Xu Xiaoman said with a smile, then glanced at the lady's watch on her wrist, her expression changing:

"I can't talk anymore, lunch break is ending, and I'll get my pay docked if I'm late. Let's grab a meal when you're free, bye."

Xu Xiaoman left in a rush.

Jiang Yan smiled, and he and Zhao Yinman arrived at an office building.

Ancient Medicine Technology!

As soon as they walked in, a manager came up to greet them and asked respectfully: "Are you Mr. Jiang and Ms. Zhao? The chairman is still in a meeting; I will take you to the reception room to rest for a while."

Jiang Yan followed the manager and took the elevator to the 19th floor.

He looked around with a sigh; this was a place where he couldn't even get his resume past the door, yet now he was being invited up.

The reception room was luxuriously decorated, filled with expensive custom-made items, antiques, and many precious medicinal herbs displayed in glass cabinets.

"The chairman will be here shortly, please have some water."

Jiang Yan took the tea handed over by the manager, thanked him, and took a sip. He said to Zhao Yinman, who was standing beside him with a calm expression:

"This should be tea from the local tea mountains; it carries a certain high-mountain charm."

"Mm."

Zhao Yinman took a sip and said flatly: "Bitter, and it tastes a bit like traditional Chinese medicine."

Jiang Yan smiled, "High mountains and bitterness produce good tea... never mind, I can't make that up. It's not even as good as regular tea; they added powdered Chinese medicine to it. Even a medicinal herb tycoon doesn't need to be this health-conscious."

The person he came to see today was the helmsman of Ancient Medicine Technology, Gong Yuntao, a medicinal herb merchant with immense influence across Jiangnan Province.

After all, medicinal herbs are linked to pills and cultivation techniques, making it easier to come into contact with the extraordinary world.

Gong Yuntao had no spiritual talent and could not awaken as a History Walker, but he was very smart and took the initiative to provide low-cost, high-quality medicinal herbs to the Jiangnan Province authorities, successfully making connections.

With this relationship, he used money to recruit many History Walkers as guest retainers, becoming a small power walking in the cracks between the two worlds.

'I didn't expect the extraordinary to be so close to my former self.'

Jiang Yan said leisurely: "A rich man like this wouldn't be willing to give up chasing the extraordinary, right?"

Having witnessed the brilliance of the sun, how could one endure the darkness?

"People only look at the beautiful side of things and ignore the price behind them."

Zhao Yinman said calmly: "This mission involves Gong Yuntao's ten-year-old grandson, who suddenly disappeared within the company. They checked all the surveillance footage and found no traces of him leaving, and they haven't received any ransom demands in twenty-four hours. They've ruled out kidnapping and suspect an extraordinary event, so he came to the History Correction Bureau for help.

After he reported the information, the artificial intelligence in the Hangcheng database accidentally discovered an overlap with another mission.

In the last three months in Jiangnan Province, nine children have gone missing. They initially thought it was a trafficking case, but through AI information comparison, they found that everyone, including Gong Yuntao's grandson, was born around the same time—in a year, month, and day of Yin—and all possessed extraordinary fates. It cannot be ruled out that there is a connection between them."

"As long as you can find my grandson, Gong Pengfei, I am willing to offer the [Zhiren Grass] with both hands."

Suddenly, the door to the conference room was pushed open, and a steady, deep voice came from outside.

A thin old man with white hair wearing a Tang suit walked in, his gaze sharp; it was Gong Yuntao.

Behind him followed a middle-aged man with a seven-tenths resemblance, and a plump young woman in a cheongsam whose eyes were red from crying, looking pitiful.

Besides them, there were four other History Walkers.

Jiang Yan stood up to shake hands and asked: "Zhiren Grass, does it have anything to do with the Zhiren and Zhima?"

He had only heard Ba Lie say there was a life-extending item here, but he didn't know exactly what it was.

He didn't expect it to be... Zhiren.

In legends, they are tiny people seven or eight inches tall riding Zhima (spirit horses); consuming them can extend one's life or even lead to immortality. Their prototype can be traced back to the "Five Zhis" immortal medicine in the *Baopuzi*.

The *Shenyi Jing* also mentions "red clothes and black crowns, riding carriages and horses"; consuming them can expel the "Three Corpse Worms" from the body and lead to the Dao and immortality.

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(End of chapter)