Chapter 2587

Shangri-La, a distant and mysterious oriental legend, whether in ancient or modern times, this term represents a distant, pure land, an oriental version of Utopia.

Unlike simple wealth, due to religious influence, Shangri-La represents more of a pure and flawless holy land in the heart, a pearl on the snowy plateau, representing openness, tranquility, and a mind without distracting thoughts.

Through the mouths of high monks, such legends have been enduring, and there are even many novels created based on this. Countless adventurers with faith have found their own tranquility here after experiencing many tribulations.

In fact, this legend also has a realistic basis. Many people don't know that the plateau at an altitude of 4,000 meters is not just bare mountains and snow that never melts all year round. At the southern foot of the Mount Ximalaya, at the foot of Mount Everest, the warm and humid air from the Indian Ocean nurtures an oasis here, known as the "Little Jiangnan of Everest."

In addition to dense vegetation and lush trees, there is also a human community living here for generations, known as the Sherpas.

The meaning of Sherpa is actually "Easterner." They basically live mixed on the border between China and Nepal, mainly within Nepal, but there are also more than 1,000 people in China.

Going further up along the Sherpa villages, deep into the Mount Ximalaya, in this subtropical jungle, there are several villages located. They are Chinese residents not counted in the population data, only because they are the lost tribe of the guardians of Shambhala. In terms of Chinese dynasties, they are people of the Ming Dynasty.

The so-called legendary Shambhala is Kamar-Taj under the leadership of the Ancient One, and this group of mysterious villagers who have never had contact with the outside world since the Ming Dynasty are the Ancient One's fellow villagers. It is a village that the Ancient One and Kaecilius jointly transformed when they debuted.

Due to the influence of magic, the village has long since eliminated hunger and poverty—of course, by the standards of the Ming Dynasty.

People here basically don't worry about food and clothing, mostly still following the natural life rhythm of working at sunrise and resting at sunset, dodging countless wars, and until today, still living a contented small-scale peasant life.

Of course, with the development of time, they naturally had some exchanges with the outside, mainly trading with the Sherpas at the foot of the mountain, mostly through barter.

Residents within Shambhala, having been nourished by magic for generations, have mastered magical skills that ordinary people cannot master, can produce a small amount of precious medicinal materials, leather, and minerals, and their medical means are also richer than ordinary people. Basically, as long as a person still has a breath, they can be saved.

To avoid intermarriage among close relatives, they also intermarry with people outside Shambhala, mainly with Sherpas, and occasionally with mages or aliens who pursue them here, especially liking adventurers who mistakenly enter here, because experiencing many tribulations and still being able to reach here proves that they not only have a firm heart but also a strong physique and excellent genes.

This situation continued until modern times. Many of the beautiful legends about Shambhala were spread by adventurers who had visited here, and the residents of Shambhala were noncommittal about this. They didn't feel that outsiders were a disturbance; on the contrary, they hoped that more outsiders would help them improve their genes.

Of course, Kamar-Taj is in a deeper place. Even the residents of Shambhala cannot easily reach the magical holy land, but because they have a lot of contact with magic, many children born in Shambhala have magical talent. The Ancient One couldn't stop them from going home to visit relatives, so for many years, the mages of Kamar-Taj and the residents of Shambhala have lived in harmony.

Mages can generally be self-sufficient, but there are also some things that need to be purchased from Shambhala villages. Although the residents of Shambhala yearn for magic, they also know that magic is a double-edged sword. If they explore too deeply, it is a disaster rather than a blessing for ordinary people.

They have spent hundreds of years in peace. The mode that has been maintained is that mages trade with Shambhala residents, and Shambhala residents trade with Sherpas. Everyone can get what they want, and life is contented.

But after the founding of New China, this situation gradually began to change, mainly because the Sherpa villages in China had electricity and roads, and the green small cars of China Post began to come and go, bringing all the materials needed for the life of all residents here.

Developing from a village into a small town, schools and hospitals were gradually established in the town, and critically ill patients could also be taken to big cities for medical treatment by car. People's reliance on barefoot doctors and magical medicine became lower and lower.

With the development of the times, tourism also began to rise gradually. Buildings that do not produce daily necessities such as teahouses, homestays, and theaters gradually rose, which also meant that the town got rid of the situation of being an isolated island on the plateau and began to enter modernization like most towns in the country.

This led to a problem, that is, they were no longer so dependent on the residents of Shambhala who lived in seclusion deep in the Mount Ximalaya. The old people who had once seen the elusive guardians of Shambhala also learned to press light switches and turn on tap water faucets.

The newly built roads allow modern cars to drive up, instead of needing shoulder-carrying as in the past. The younger generation no longer does heavy work, mostly doing internet celebrity live broadcasts, or rehearsing Sherpa songs and dances for national tours.

With good sanitary conditions, the disease rate naturally drops, and low labor intensity is also beneficial to longevity. After the popularization of education, everyone knows that they should take antipyretics when they have a fever and antibiotics when they are seriously ill, and most people don't believe in those mysterious herbs because they haven't seen them with their own eyes.

As for some small gadgets like tools, animal skins, and amulets, they are all available in the shops around the tourist route, and they are not rare at all. Whether it is the seller or the buyer, no one expects to buy real goods for this little money, so naturally, no one cares whether there are real goods.

The legends of Shambhala residents left here began to gradually fade away. Young people are more concerned about how to revitalize their hometowns and use tourism to make money for themselves and their peers. The elderly have enjoyed the benefits of all-round modern life. Except for telling the legends of Shambhala to their grandchildren, they also keep silent about the magical miracles they once witnessed.

However, the number of Shambhala residents is too small. The three villages together have less than 500 people. Although the land they own can grow enough food for them to eat, there is no road built in, and the trading inheritance with the Sherpas has been cut off. Some things that cannot be self-sufficient can no longer be obtained, which has had a great impact on their lives.

But don't misunderstand. Although they live deeper in the mountains, the place where the Sherpas live is already ridiculously remote. Roads can be built there, and Shambhala is not impossible.

The land they are on and the country they belong to have a strange fanaticism for building roads. Sherpas often say that the green small car will drive to the top of Mount Everest sooner or later.

The problem is that Kamar-Taj's protective shield covers Shambhala, which is also the main reason why only a few lucky people have mistakenly entered it in hundreds of years, and no one has ever discovered this peach blossom source. With this protective shield, people can't even discover this place, let alone build roads here.

It just so happens that after the Sorcerer Supreme Strange took power, he started large-scale construction in Kamar-Taj, first establishing the Kamar-Taj Magic Academy, and then establishing the Kamar-Taj Magic Research Institute, Magic Experimental Park, and Magic High-Tech Cooperation Zone.

Although most of the building materials were transported through portals, there were also some scattered daily necessities traded with Shambhala residents.

After the Kamar-Taj Magic Academy was built, it recruited students from all over the world, and the things the students wanted were varied.

Students from the United States had party needs and needed party supplies, students from Nepal needed Buddhist utensils to practice Buddhism, students from China studied cooking in the dormitory every day, and the ingredients and seasonings needed were countless, and even students from India were looking for spices all over the mountains and plains.

This is also a helpless thing. Kamar-Taj's environment is indeed very good and original enough, and the quality of all ingredients is good, but a group of children pampered in modern families have nowhere to vent their energy in an environment without any internet, making the great mages miserable.

To release their energy, Strange had to refer to ordinary schools and give them holidays according to festivals.

But the Mount Ximalaya are too far from their motherland. Even the nearby Nepalese villages are troublesome to go up and down. Strange couldn't arrange a portal for everyone to go home, so the students still stayed near the Mount Ximalaya.

Locking them in the school didn't achieve the purpose of releasing energy and reducing pressure, so naturally, they could only let them go to the village. It can only be said that Kamar-Taj has its own Hogsmeade.

But Shambhala couldn't provide the things the students wanted at all. They wanted to go out to relax, not to farm, so the town where the Sherpas lived became their first choice.

Although it was indeed a bit far from the school, it was at least at the foot of the Mount Ximalaya. Except for students who were too young to release teleportation, most students would rather run further to play in the Sherpa town.

This place is completely two worlds from Kamar-Taj. There are cafes, internet cafes, couple hotels, and you can even play the Sichuan-Tibet line with a tour group. It is the best place for students to spend and relax.

After the air transport lines were popularized for a few years, this town also became an endpoint of the Sichuan-Tibet air transport line. A year and a half ago, air rail was connected here. Although it needed to stop, it only took two and a half hours to reach Chengdu.

So when they have long holidays, students prefer to queue up to take the air rail to big cities to play, and when they have short holidays, they collect express deliveries in the town, call a few friends to play a few games in the internet cafe, or spend time in the cafe.

Many residents in the town know this group of students. They think this group of students is studying in a university in Nepal, and the students also call themselves that. After all, they are young and willing to spend money on food and drink. They are the main force of consumption in the tourist off-season and are very popular with the townspeople.

The students spent money and enjoyed entertainment, and the townspeople made money. It should have been a good thing for both parties, but the Shambhala people played an awkward role in it, like an old man left behind by the times.

These three villages can neither provide modern enjoyment for the students nor maintain self-sufficiency through the original means of barter as they did originally, and life is becoming more and more difficult.

Until about half a year ago, the village chief of one of the villages found his daughter who had married outside and called the population statistics staff who went to the Sherpa town to his village.

The staff was young and didn't know the relationship between these towns and villages. He just thought that the people living here were relatively few and hadn't been counted before, so he conveniently wrote down these hundreds of people.

Now it's good. The county magistrate of DJ County, which the town belongs to, suddenly discovered that his administrative area had three more villages.

What made his blood pressure soar instantly was that these three villages actually had no water, no electricity, and not even a road.