Chapter 324: Chapter 273: Altered Reality
The first person to purchase this manuscript was a wealthy merchant.
As the saying goes, the more people lack something, the more they desire it. This merchant hadn’t read much, but he particularly enjoyed hearing others praise him for being cultured. Of course, for this enjoyment, he did make an effort to read for a few days; however, it turned out that his talents lay mostly in business, not in academics.
Fortunately, he was indeed talented in business, allowing him to buy some manuscripts and pretend they were written by him. Although this sort of thing could easily be exposed, as long as he didn’t boast about poetry or literature and only disseminated some manuscripts in small circles occasionally, who could unveil the truth?
But this time, the merchant unexpectedly found that the manuscript he bought for five guan had an influence that was a bit too large.
"Yes! This is it! This is what I’ve been wanting to see!"
After seeing the manuscript about the "Peach Blossom Paradise," the scholars of Bozhou were all captivated by it.
In the end, it was due to the poor state of the world at the time, the Southern Chen having the air of an empire about to collapse, making these scholars have the idea of retreating to the mountains and forests. At this time, they encountered this manuscript describing the so-called Peach Blossom Paradise, depicting Taoyuan Village as a true immortal’s treasure land, a reclusive sanctuary. Not to mention this moment, even in peaceful times, people would inevitably aspire to such a place.
"It’s fake! This is all fake!"
Seeing the crowd of scholars knocking at his door, questioning where the Peach Blossom Paradise was, the merchant could only respond.
"It’s fake, all of it is fake, the story is made up, how can you believe in such a thing?"
"Alas..."
The scholars couldn’t help but sigh collectively.
Even though they eagerly came for an explanation, they actually knew that the authenticity of this was questionable—after all, there couldn’t possibly be such a wonderful place under the heavens, a remote village far from the chaos of war, such places couldn’t exist in this world.
So, the article was taken as a figment of the merchant’s imagination, though the fact he imagined what everyone else was thinking proved he had some skills.
But was this really just a figment of imagination?
"It’s real, it must be real."
In Dengzhou City, an elderly elder of the Yi people held the many-times-copied manuscript, trembling all over.
"This is the place we’ve been looking for... this is our distant homeland! Far from the fires of war! No strife! The land flows with milk and honey!"
"This..."
Yi people began to pass the manuscript around, though they came from afar, they understood somewhat of Great Chen’s writing.
The more they read, the more shocked the Yi people became. Although the wording and phrases of these Chen people were very different from those of them, the chosen ones, only looking at the idyllic environment described in the manuscript, it undeniably seemed like the blessed sanctuary mentioned in their scriptures.
As for how this was similar... naturally, it was because the environment described in the manuscript was too beautiful. Such a beautiful place was as described in their scripture about the Promised Land.
It was already so similar, wasn’t it their Promised Land?
"This is it! This is it!"
The Yi people started to clamor.
"The place granted by God! Finally found..."
"Shh!"
The Yi elder gestured for silence.
Out in the world, one should not show one’s wealth, especially concerning such a significant matter; shouting was utterly inappropriate.
Luckily, there were no traitors among their ranks. After all, the appearance of the chosen people stood out too much in this land with their snow-white skin and high-bridged noses—after a careful inspection of outsiders around, the Yi elder gathered everyone in the basement of the trade station.
"This matter is extremely important to us, even more than our lives... you understand what I mean, right?"
"We understand, we do."
The Yi people nodded, their eyes sparkling with determination harder than iron.
Seven days later, the merchant who claimed to have written the article was captured alive by a group of Yi people.
"It really isn’t me! I really didn’t write this!"
Seeing these fierce and menacing Yi people had already taken out knives, the merchant ultimately chose to tell the truth.
"This really wasn’t written by me, I bought this article... what? You’re asking who sold it to me? Who would ask about that kind of thing?"
"You really don’t know? How could you possibly not know?"
The two Yi people glanced at each other, ready to spill some of the merchant’s blood to calm him down.
Pretending to be a literary man, the merchant had never witnessed such a scene and quickly confessed everything he knew, including how the person who sold him the article looked, what they wore, their characteristics, and roughly the direction they had left in—except for the name, he truly didn’t know and hadn’t asked.
After all, when trading articles, neither party would know who the other was, so there were no future worries, why would he foolishly ask for a name?
"You really don’t know?"
This time, the two Yi people genuinely pressed the knife against the merchant.
Feeling the pain, the merchant was numb, as he truly didn’t know the person’s name, what could torture yield?
But if he couldn’t find anything to say, he might be stabbed to death on the spot.
"I... know."
Recalling the content of the article, the merchant made a bold decision.
"Although I don’t know the name, I roughly know where that place is. If you kill me now, you’ll never find it in your lifetime."
"You do know!"
Seeing that torture had finally yielded information, the Yi people were overjoyed.
"Go! As long as we find that Promised Land, you’ll be guaranteed wealth and honor!"
"..."
Hearing the enticing offer from the Yi people, the merchant’s face showed no joy, as he was not desperately in need of money.
What concerned him more was whether he could survive this crisis.
"Peach Blossom Paradise... where exactly is Peach Blossom Paradise?"
Thinking about this, the merchant’s head started to ache. Clearly, what he claimed to know was merely investigating slowly using the information in the article.
But the original author of the article should definitely know where Peach Blossom Paradise is, right?
After all, the content in the article seemed so real, suggesting that the author must have visited Peach Blossom Paradise, right?
"Definitely visited! He definitely has!"
At this moment, the merchant believed so firmly.
And not only this merchant, but others who had read the article also had similar thoughts, for the fact that the merchant bought and sold articles was not particularly secretive, people actually knew that it might not have been written by the merchant himself.
So, the person who actually wrote the article had probably really been to the so-called Peach Blossom Paradise, he really had been there!
People believed in this deeply.
"Peach Blossom Paradise..."
Returning to Dengzhou, Tao Wuli was muttering.
Even though the article was altered beyond recognition by him, he was quite fond of the term "Peach Blossom Paradise" — once in seclusion, he planned to plant some peach trees outside his residence so that every blooming season the whole yard would look beautiful.
Fortunately, he was about to end it all, the immortal residence was right in front, once he returned to Forget Sorrow Village, everything would be fine...
"Wait?"
While riding along the Reversing River, Tao Wuli suddenly paused.
"When I left, was there so much peach blossom outside Forget Sorrow Village?"
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