"Drug poisoning?"
"I suspect that Your Majesty regularly took pills. Any medicine is toxic to some degree, and substances like lead and mercury are inherently highly poisonous. After prolonged use, toxins naturally accumulated in your body," Jiang Hao explained.
"Pills? The ones I took were all Immortal Pills. They were refined for me according to Daoist alchemy methods." Qin Shi Huang frowned.
Damn, his own kind had caused trouble again.
No.
They could not really be considered fellow disciples. Those people were not yet Daoists; they should be called Artesian practitioners. Daoism did not yet exist at this time. What they cultivated was called Fangxian Dao. Fangxian Dao arose near the end of the Warring States period, when some people blended beliefs in immortals and occult arts with Daoist teachings and Zou Yan's yin-yang and Five Elements theory, forming Fangxian Dao. It was mainly popular among the upper classes of Yan and Qi. Its methods involved dissolving and transforming the physical form, relying on ghosts and gods, and seeking immortality and ascension. At the same time, its practitioners possessed knowledge of astronomy, medicine, immortals, divination, physiognomy, and feng shui.
It was not until the Eastern Han that Zhang Daoling founded Daoism, using Daoist teachings as its foundation while absorbing and integrating much of Fangxian Dao. Only then did the later Daoism come into being.
Jiang Hao knew that although Artesian practitioners had deceived Qin Shi Huang many times, Qin Shi Huang still treated them with the attitude of, "Though you abuse me a thousand times, I still love you as I did at first sight." Even now, his harem housed a large number of Artesian practitioners who specialized in refining pills for him.
Jiang Hao's mind raced, and he immediately said, "Your Majesty, Daoist Immortal Pills also come in different