Daomu Biji: A Thousand Faces

The Long Immortal’s biography accounted for a relatively large part of the chronicle. There were about three or four pages detailing it, which was quite a lot for a genealogy. But because the characters had been written in a large font, there wasn’t too much content anyway.

A lot of the information in the chronicle differed from what people had been spreading around, so they didn’t know which one to believe. According to the chronicle, Long Immortal’s birth name was Huang Saishun. After he was born, he didn’t start talking until he was four years old. But even though he couldn’t speak, he always acted very intelligent. When he was fourteen, he had a high fever which didn't go away for three months. During the high fever, he could constantly be heard saying, “So tall, so tall.” He later explained that he was dreaming of himself overlooking the world from the clouds. 

The fever had failed to respond to multiple treatments, but it resolved itself after three months. From that point on, he started to grow taller and said that he was able to see black spots on human bodies.

According to Long Immortal, those black spots moved erratically. They weren’t moles but areas that were shaded in dark colors. Later, they gradually realized that those were lesions inside the human body. There was a relatively detailed classification of the colors recorded: a gray area represented organs or benign lesions; a black area indicated serious illness; and a mix of black and red meant death or dead tissue. 

In the early years when Long Immortal first gained an understanding of his ability, he liked to warn people. But humans had evil tongues and often responded to him with negative words. Moreover, when Long Immortal looked at himself in the mirror, he found that his body was entirely black. As a result, he knew that his life would end soon. 

As expected, he grew taller and taller, and tumors frequently appeared all over his body. His family had exhausted their savings to treat him, but there had been no success. The disease kept progressing, which had the family falling into dire straits. They weren’t that rich in the first place, so they quickly fell into poverty. He could only wait for his death at home and take medications that would curb his body’s growth hormone secretion. At this time, he was only growing taller and his tumors were growing rapidly, but nothing was life-threatening yet.

When he grew to more than 1.9 meters, his body posture was no longer like that of a normal person. His fingers and arms were very long, but he was extremely thin. His muscles couldn’t support his skeleton, and his bones were so fragile that they often fractured. At this time, he suddenly discovered that the black lesions on his body could be moved. It seemed like he was able to remove them or enlarge them with his mind.

He used this method to remove all of the black tumor spots on his body. Sure enough, when he went for another medical examination, his disease had been cleared up, which made him extremely happy. His family thought it was a miracle, because at this time, no one knew that he could cure diseases. He then began to dispel all of the dark areas on his body. Although they would appear again from time to time, his condition had finally stabilized.

By this time, he was a little over two meters tall but had stopped growing. His muscles had finally started to grow, which enabled him to move normally.

At that time, Long Immortal began to live a normal life. No one in the world had discovered his ability and he didn’t want to publicize it, either. But everything changed when he fell in love with a girl in the village. Although he was normal, his gigantic-like body was still different from ordinary people. Moreover, he was so tall that he couldn’t have a normal relationship with a girl. It was extremely difficult, especially in that era.

And to be loved by a gigantic, high-cheekboned man who watched her every day from behind a tree that was almost as tall as him was extremely frightening. 

The girl soon left the village and moved away to the town. But at this time, Huang Saishun noticed that a black spot had appeared on the girl's chest. He hoped to explain this to the girl, but she and her family were very afraid of him. Moreover, these kinds of remarks sounded very ominous. 

So, Huang Saishun could only watch helplessly as the girl became critically ill. But the girl's family just thought that it had happened because of the monster's curse. When Huang Saishun peeped at the girl's bed from outside the hospital wall, the girl would see a terrifying head leaning over the wall, which was believed to be the main reason for her deteriorating condition.

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Yvette’s notes: Here’s a story (about the disease) to read if you are interested: I remember hearing about this clinical case when I was a kid. It was quite famous at the same. Most likely the author is alluding to this (but don’t quote me on this). Here’s a more recent update (2018). If you think this is too far-fetched, just think of Superman having an X-ray vision.