Chapter 888 Immortality

Queen Elizabeth still said in disbelief. "Can you really give up these rights?"

Yannick smiled. "If I could live for thousands of years and be immortal, I would definitely hold on to them tightly." Now he finally understood why the ancient emperors were so keen on searching for the method of immortality, and even spent their entire lives pursuing the elixir of life.

The most famous of them was Qin Shihuang. In his later years, the pursuit of immortality reached a somewhat crazy level, so countless alchemists at that time heard the news and moved to Qin Shihuang's favor to refine the elixir of life in order to defraud Qin's official position and wealth. There was a particularly famous alchemist named Xu Fu. He claimed to be a Taoist who practiced immortality and could breathe and refine immortality medicine. He said that as long as you eat the elixir he refined, you can become an immortal and live forever.

Xu Fu told Qin Shi Huang that there were three immortal mountains in the vast East China Sea, namely Penglai, Yingzhou and Fangzhang; immortals lived on the mountains and hid the elixir of life. Qin Shi Huang was very excited after hearing this, and prepared a large number of ships, fresh water and food for Xu Fu, and gave Xu Fu 3,000 boys and girls, and then sent Xu Fu to the sea with these boys and girls to find the elixir of life. So Xu Fu had to go to the sea, and everyone knew that there was no elixir of life at all, so Xu Fu lost his trace.

According to the "Historical Records", after Xu Fu arrived at Pingyuan Guangze, there was no news. However, in the later island country of Kyushu Island, Saga Prefecture, there are various cultural relics and sites where Xu Fu landed.

It is rumored that there were some indigenous people in the island country at that time, but the production technology level was very backward. Xu Fu was accompanied by the warriors of the Qin Dynasty, as well as doctors, craftsmen and others. He was equivalent to carrying the advanced technology of the Central Plains. In the eyes of the local aborigines, Xu Fu was almost like a god. Xu Fu was warmly welcomed by the islanders and settled in the island with 3,000 boys and girls to reproduce.

Since then, all the kings of all dynasties have been interested in immortality. Some emperors even did not do their jobs properly and closed their doors to make elixirs all day just to get the elixir of immortality. Although there are always endless levels of various elixirs, almost without exception, most emperors ended up "dying quickly". You must know that these so-called "elixir" contains some heavy metals, such as mercury, chromium, etc. These substances can treat some diseases when used lightly, but long-term use will accumulate in the body and be harmful to the body.

Westerners also cannot get rid of the temptation of immortality. For example, the goddess of youth in Norse mythology is responsible for the golden apple that keeps the gods young. There is also the Holy Grail that Jesus used at the Last Supper. It is said that anyone who touches the Holy Grail can obtain eternal life.

During the period when religion flourished, people were more eager to go to heaven after death. After all, heaven is much more pleasant than living on earth. You can have whatever you want and be whoever you want. Interestingly, Taoism and Buddhism in China also have similar concepts of going to heaven after death (Taoism is to go to heaven, Buddhism is to become a Buddha), but the ancients still tirelessly pursued immortality. It seems that the Chinese nation does not really believe that people can be what they want after death; at least they don’t really believe it, they just want to fool themselves into believing it.

In the Middle Ages, Westerners developed the famous "alchemy". Since gold does not rot or change color, people want to obtain the characteristics of gold that is not old and not rotten by taking gold, so as to obtain immortality.

The ancestors of China began to study the relationship between gold and immortality very early. The Zhouyi Cantongqi written by Wei Boyang in the Eastern Han Dynasty once recorded: "Gold is indestructible, so it is the treasure of all things. The sorcerer took it and lived a long life." This shows that the ancient Chinese Taoists and alchemists worshipped gold. The Compendium of Materia Medica also recorded the method of "frequently gargling with boiled juice from gold utensils", which means that gargling with something boiled in a gold vessel can make people healthy and long-lived.

Relatively speaking, these attempts are safe. At least gold is insoluble in water, and people will not really swallow gold. However, in the West, the style of painting is different. With the rise of the alchemy craze, people began to work hard to find drinkable gold, but because the nature of gold is too stable, people have never found a solution that can dissolve gold. It was not until around 1300 that an alchemist discovered aqua regia (aqua regia is a mixture of concentrated nitric acid and concentrated hydrochloric acid. The solution is bright orange-red and has deadly corrosiveness).

Relying on this super strong oxidizing property, aqua regia can dissolve gold and turn it into a chloride salt - gold chloride (AuCl3).

Gold finally turned into a liquid state as people wished, but it was still not drinkable - this gold chloride was highly corrosive. If you swallowed it in one gulp, you would not be able to live forever, and it would be a problem whether you would still be alive.

But people at that time did not know this. The discovery of this golden solution inspired them, as if immortality was just around the corner.

In the 16th century, a sorcerer named Paracelsus began to vigorously promote this solution. He believed that this was a good medicine that could make people's bodies immortal, and even began to advocate that it could cure all diseases and even resurrect the dead. In fact, it could not resurrect the dead, and it might even burn the bones of the dead. For the living, this solution not only cannot bring health, but also cause serious kidney damage and cause a disease called "gold fever".

As time went on, people gradually realized that immortality was an impossible thing to achieve. If you can't live as long as the heaven and the earth, at least you have to live healthily.

If it were the 21st century, Yannick might have devoted all his efforts to promote genetic technology research; unfortunately, biological science at this time has just opened the door to the genetic world. If you want to reach the technological level of gene therapy, there is still a long way to go, perhaps thirty to fifty years, or perhaps one or two hundred years.

"What are you thinking about?" Seeing him suddenly sigh, Queen Elizabeth asked curiously. "If you don't want to give up these rights, you don't have to delegate them. No one dares to force you."

"Nothing, I just want to live longer." As he said, he reached out and gently stroked her cheek. Although she was over 40 years old, her skin was still smooth and elastic because she was well-maintained, and she looked like she was in her early 30s. "Does your British royal family have any secret recipe for longevity?"

The British royal family is famous for its longevity. The later British Queen ****** is still in good health at the age of more than 90; and her husband Prince Philip has also passed his 99th birthday. The queen in front of her can live for more than 60 years, and she herself doesn't know if she can live another 40 years.

"Secret recipe for longevity?" Queen Elizabeth couldn't help but laugh. "How could there be such a thing? It's just that we royal family members eat better and live better than ordinary people."

"..."Can the dark cuisine of Britain be considered good?