Chapter 2624 Shangri-La (Part 1)

Chapter 2598 Shangri-La (Part 1)

Shangri-La, a long-standing and mysterious oriental legend, represents a distant and pure place, an oriental version of utopia, both in ancient and modern times.

Different from pure prosperity, due to religious influence, Shangri-La represents more of a pure and flawless holy place in the heart, a pearl on the snowy plateau, representing freedom, tranquility, and a mind without distractions.

Through the mouths of eminent monks, such legends have been passed down for a long time, and there are even many novels based on this. Countless adventurers with faith have found their own tranquility here after experiencing many disasters.

In fact, this legend also has a basis in reality. What many people don’t know is 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 Himalayas, at the foot of Mount Everest, the warm and humid air currents from the Indian Ocean have nurtured an oasis here, known as Mount Everest’s Little Jiangnan.

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

Sherpa actually means Oriental people. They basically live together on the border between China and Nepal, mainly in Nepal, but there are more than 1,000 people in China.

Going up along the Sherpa village and deep into the Himalayas, there are several villages in this subtropical jungle. They are Chinese residents who are not counted in the population data, just because they are the lost tribes 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 Gu Yi, and this group of mysterious villagers who have never contacted the outside world since the Ming Dynasty are Gu Yi's fellow villagers. It is the village that Gu Yi and Kalu jointly transformed when they debuted.

Due to the influence of magic, hunger and poverty have long been eliminated in the village, of course, it is the hunger and poverty of the Ming Dynasty standard.

The people here basically have no worries about food and clothing. Most of them still follow the natural law of life, working from sunrise to sunset and resting from sunset. They have avoided countless wars and still live a comfortable small farmer life to this day.

Of course, as time goes by, they naturally have some exchanges with the outside world, mainly trading with the Sherpas at the foot of the mountain, mostly bartering.

The residents in Shambhala have been nourished by magic for generations, mastering magic skills that ordinary people cannot master, and can produce a small amount of precious medicinal materials, leather and minerals. The medical methods are also richer than ordinary people. Basically, as long as a person is still alive, he can be saved.

In order to avoid inbreeding, they also intermarry with people outside Shambhala, mainly with Sherpas, and occasionally with magicians or foreigners who have pursued here. They especially like adventurers who stray here, because they can still reach here after going through many hardships, proving 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 visited here, and the residents of Shambhala did not comment on this. They did not think that outsiders were a disturbance. On the contrary, they hoped that more outsiders could help them improve their genes.

Of course, Kamar-Taj is in a deeper place, and even the residents of Shambhala cannot easily reach the magic holy land, but because there are many people who have contact with magic, there are also many children born in Shambhala who have magical talents. Ancient One cannot stop them from going home to visit their 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 the Shambhala village. Although the residents of Shambhala yearn for magic, they also know that magic is a double-edged sword. If they explore too deeply, it will be a disaster for ordinary people.

They have spent hundreds of years in peace, and the model that has been maintained is that the mages trade with the residents of Shambhala, and the residents of Shambhala trade with the Sherpas. Everyone can get what they want and live a happy life.

But after the founding of the People's Republic of China, this situation began to change gradually, mainly because the Sherpa villages in China were connected to electricity and roads were built, and the green cars of China Post began to come and go, bringing all the supplies needed for the residents here.

The village developed into a small town, and schools and hospitals were gradually established in the town. Seriously ill patients could also be taken to big cities for medical treatment by car, and people's dependence on barefoot doctors and magic medicine became less and less.

With the development of the times, the tourism industry also began to rise gradually. Teahouses, homestays, theaters and other buildings that did not produce daily necessities gradually emerged, which also meant that the town got rid of the situation of being an isolated island on the plateau and began to enter the modern era like most small 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 in the depths of the Himalayas. The old people who had seen the elusive Shambhala guardians also learned to press light switches and turn on taps.

The newly built roads allow modern cars to drive on, and people no longer need to carry things on their shoulders or hands as in the past. The younger generation no longer does heavy work, and most of them are doing live broadcasts as internet celebrities, or rehearsing Sherpa songs and dances for national tours.

With good sanitary conditions, the disease rate naturally decreases, the labor intensity is low, and it is also beneficial to life expectancy. After the popularization of education, everyone knows that they need to take antipyretics when they have a fever and antibiotics when they are seriously ill. Most people do not believe in those mysterious herbs because they have not seen them with their own eyes.

As for some small gadgets such as tools, animal skins, and amulets, they are available in shops around the tourist route and are not rare at all. Neither the sellers nor the buyers expect to buy the real thing with such a small amount of money, so naturally no one cares whether there is a real thing or not.

𝓼𝓽𝓸55.𝓬𝓸𝓶

The legends left behind by the residents of Shambhala began to gradually disappear. Young people are more concerned about how to revitalize their hometown and use the tourism industry to make money for themselves and their peers. The elderly have enjoyed the benefits of all-round modern life. In addition to telling their grandchildren about the legend of Shambhala, they also keep silent about the magical miracles they have witnessed.

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

But don't get me wrong, although they live deeper in the mountains, the place where the Sherpas live is already ridiculously remote. If roads can be built there, Shambhala is not impossible.

The land and country they live in have a strange enthusiasm for road construction. The Sherpas often say that the green car will drive to the top of Mount Everest sooner or later.

The problem is that the protective shield of Kamar-Taj covers Shambhala. This is also the main reason why only a few lucky people have strayed into it for hundreds of years, and no one has ever discovered this paradise. With this protective shield, people can't even find this place, let alone build a road here.

After the Supreme Sorcerer Strange came to power, he started a large-scale construction in Kamar-Taj. He first established the Kamar-Taj School of Magic, then the Kamar-Taj Institute of Magic, the Magic Experimental Park, and the Magic High-tech Cooperation Zone.

Although most of the building materials were transported from the portal, some miscellaneous daily necessities were traded with the residents of Shambhala.

After the completion of the Kamar-Taj School of Magic, students from all over the world were enrolled here, and the things the students wanted were varied.

Students from the United States need party supplies for gatherings, students from Nepal need Buddhist utensils for practicing Buddhism, and Chinese students study cooking in the dormitory every day, and the ingredients and seasonings they need are countless. Even students from India are looking for spices all over the mountains.

This is also unavoidable. The environment of Kamar-Taj is indeed very good and original, and the quality of all ingredients is good, but a group of children who are spoiled in modern families have nowhere to vent their energy every day in an environment without the Internet, and the noisy wizards are miserable.

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

But the Himalayas are too far away from their homeland. Even the nearby Nepalese village is troublesome to go up and down. Strange can't arrange a portal for everyone to go home, so the students still stay near the Himalayas.

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

But Shambhala can't provide what the students want. They want to go out and relax, not to farm, so the town where the Sherpas live became their first choice.

Although it is indeed a bit far from the school, it is at the foot of the Himalayas. Except for students who are too young to cast teleportation, most students would rather go a little further to the Sherpa town to play.

This place is completely different from Kamar-Taj. There are cafes, Internet cafes, couples' hotels, and even tour groups can play the Sichuan-Tibet line. It is the best place for students to spend money and have fun.

After the air transport route became popular for several years, this town also became an end point of the Sichuan-Tibet air transport line. A year and a half ago, the air rail was opened here. Although it needs to stop, it only takes two and a half hours to reach Chengdu.

So during the long vacation, students prefer to queue up to take the air rail to travel to big cities. During the short vacation, 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 these students. They think these students are studying in a university in Nepal. 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 off-season of tourism and are very popular among the townspeople.

The students spent money to enjoy entertainment, and the townspeople made money. It should be a good thing to have the best of both worlds, but the Shambhala people played an embarrassing role in it, like an octogenarian abandoned by the times.

These three villages could neither provide students with modern comforts nor maintain self-sufficiency through primitive means of bartering as before, and life became increasingly difficult.

Until about half a year ago, the head of one of the villages found his daughter who had married outside and called the census workers who went to the Sherpa town back to his village.

The staff was young and didn’t know the relationship between these towns and villages. They just thought that there were fewer people living here. They didn’t include them in the previous statistics, so they just wrote down these hundreds of people.

Now, the mayor of DJ County, the administrative unit to which the town belongs, suddenly found that there were three more villages in his administrative area.

What made his blood pressure soar was that these three villages had no water, no electricity, and even no roads.