Chapter 2635: Shangri-La (Part 2)

It's not that no one really lives that way; at least in the town center, where tourists can see, everything has undergone retro renovation to display Southern Tibet's charm as much as possible, especially showcasing Sherpa culture.

Ordinary people in their own homes don't hang so many decorative items on their doors; they usually just bring them out to look at during festivals, like putting up couplets for the Spring Festival. But tourists love to see this sort of thing, so the Culture and Tourism Bureau requires that the decorations be impeccable.

Activities like hand-threshing Highland barley are also popular with tourists and have been turned into experiential projects. Then there's Sherpa song and dance, normally performed during agricultural downtime, but with tourism income proving substantial, there's practically downtime all year round, so dancing is constant.

Strange had quite a good time and thought the town was in good shape, but he did not agree with allowing tourists to visit Shambhala, not only because the three villages were too small to accommodate them, but also because of the high altitude of Shambhala.

Shambhala is essentially located halfway up Mount Everest, almost six thousand meters above sea level, with an oxygen level less than half of that on normal land. Tourists would be lying down as soon as they arrived; there's simply no room for developing tourism.

And magic isn't something to be flaunted; Strange knew that the country beneath his feet had an attitude toward magic of simply informing citizens about its existence without encouragement or suppression, mainly adopting a policy of incorporating those capable of magic and providing ample positions for them.

But the magic of the Kamar-Taj is nothing like the minor tricks of the common folk. Simply being able to control the weather, be immune to natural disasters, and maintain crops in an optimal state of growth would most certainly have sent any historical government into an uproar.

It is one thing to hear about Shambhala in legends and another to confirm with one's own eyes that such a place truly exists. If Shambhala's actual existence were to be revealed, it could cause a significant impact on the nation's society, and Kamar-Taj could not take on that responsibility.

Fortunately, they reached an agreement on this issue in the end; Shambhala will undergo minimal transformation, just enough to satisfy the needs of modern daily life while building a basic road for transportation of supplies.

Additionally, the county mayor suggested establishing a flying shuttle station at Kamar Shambhala Taj to let students commute to and from school, to avoid the scenario where three out of every ten students make a mistake with their teleportation spell and use up the townspeople's police and medical resources.

In mentioning this, Strange himself blushed; using the suspension ring was not as easy as it seemed, yet it was his decision to make it a basic course. This led to various teleportation accidents, not just in town but within Kamar-Taj itself.

Strange rarely used it himself; as a modern man, he preferred to just board the flying shuttle. Why bother using magic that requires concentration and drains magic power, especially when the further the distance, the less precise the landing?

Strange agreed to this request and also proposed that he wanted to get Kamar-Taj connected to the internet.

The other party found this request most challenging. Strange failed to see where the technical difficulty lay and asked about it, only to be told that they could only connect to the domestic network, not the international one.

After some bargaining, the other party finally revealed their true intention. They had heard that Kamar-Taj had no official language for instruction. If Kamar-Taj agreed to introduce Chinese as one of its official teaching languages, they could establish two network connections for it.

Strange didn't have a clear concept of this; he vaguely knew they aimed to export culture, but in his view, language was not the core of magic. Kamar-Taj was home to people from various countries, so it didn't matter to him which language was used for teaching.

And lastly, the other party made their most crucial request: Strange had to help the three villages make money.

It wasn't about catching up to the town at the foot of the mountain; they at least couldn't be so poor. Strange very much wanted to argue that they were actually not poor, but when it came to GDP, he also knew the ledgers would definitely be blank.

Then he understood; it was probably because the county and town mayors didn't want their average standards to be dragged down.

Strange readily agreed, although putting it into action was a bit troublesome. Fortunately, as soon as he returned to Kamar-Taj, he heard that Loki had arrived. The two put their heads together for half the day and managed to come up with a simple charter.

They felt it was not very realistic for the three villages to change their industries at this point, so they might as well capitalize on their existing fame.

What was their advantage? Of course, it was fame.

The legend of Shambhala was very famous, so famous that even Strange, a Westerner, had heard of it. Everyone knew this was the purest and most sacred place in the Snowy Plateau. So, it would be normal for locally produced goods to be a bit expensive, right?

Although they couldn't let tourists visit, it was possible for them to take a distant look with oxygen tanks at hand, as long as they saw but did not understand the reasons behind it, achieving the goal of not exposing too much while still establishing a reputation.

What they produced was crucial; for villages located at altitudes of six to seven thousand meters, it was unrealistic to offer snacks or ornaments known to be wholesaled. Therefore, something unique to this place was necessary – medicinal herbs.

Cordyceps, internationally renowned for its unique properties, needs no elaboration. Tianshan Saussurea is quite well-known in the East, as is Himalayan Ganoderma.

In fact, Shambhala doesn't actually produce any of these things. The herbs grown there are not considered spiritual medicine in the eyes of ordinary people; they mainly work due to the magical properties within the herbs.

But Strange dared not give ordinary people magic-infused herbs, so he had to actually develop some proper spiritual medicine that fit the public's stereotypes.

The issue was that both Strange and Loki were clueless about this, they were not Easterners at all and had no idea what kind of gimmick would be the most attractive.

Later, New York was short of doctors, so Strange urgently went back to lend a hand, and Shiller also became a psychiatrist, and the matter was temporarily put aside.

After some time had passed, the emergency situation for medical resources had been substantially alleviated. Shiller's graduate students, along with those attracted by Nick's interstellar psychology, had begun to graduate and the shortage of psychiatrists began to ease. Finally, Strange had the chance to talk to Shiller about it.

"So you want me to find someone?" Shiller said, blowing on his tea, "And then help you think of some industry that could lead the village of Kamar-Taj out of poverty and into wealth?"

"Something like that," Strange maintained his surgeon's coolness but still sighed, "I won't lie to you, I'm good at running a scam, and so is Loki, but when it really comes down to creating a solid industry…"

Shiller saw an emotion known as 'utter frustration' on Strange's face and guessed that some experiments were not going well. He asked, "Are the magical herbs not growing well?"

"The effective ones have no fame, and the famous ones are ineffective," Strange said succinctly. "Cordyceps are indistinguishable from the wild ones, Tianshan Saussurea has no medicinal value, and Himalayan Ganoderma is just ordinary woody tissue. I don't know who spread the rumor that they are magical herbs."

"Are you insisting on these specific ones?"

"They sell the best, I've done my research," Strange replied. "Tourists in the towns below keep asking for Cordyceps, oh, and also for Saffron, which is a rare plant unaffected by magic. We tried for a long time to enhance its medicinal properties but failed."

"Can't you just not enhance it? These things are scarce enough as it is. Just being able to grow them..."

"The problem is we can't even grow them," Strange said. "According to the Grand Mages' analysis, only wild herbs contain some unique components; the ones we produce in the lab don't, which means not only is there no enhancement in medicinal properties, they're utterly useless."

"If it was just about making money, you could sell them as is, but Shambhala is an isolated place. We don't have our own company, and to sell we have to rely on others. If it gets found out, it wouldn't just be Shambhala's reputation getting smashed."

Shiller nodded in understanding. In his view, it was clear: since the town's and county's leaders knew he could use magic, they didn't want him to hold back but rather quickly produce some results, and everything else would be easy to discuss afterward.

Considering that this country would someday build a sky-road right over their heads, Strange felt he should cooperate. Not to mention anything else, even a faster internet connection would be a boon.

So he definitely couldn't sell fake products. It was not about claiming the effects were tens of times the original, but the efficacy had to be at least stronger than the original, and the output larger. Only then would it be competitive.

Shiller thought it was also a troublesome matter, since in the Marvel Universe, China was very powerful. Just the fact that the Mandarin, owner of the Ten Rings, was chased like a desperate fugitive and well-known figures like the Supreme Magician and Iron Fist were from China is proof enough.

Rather than saying the Marvel Editorial Department leans more towards a threat theory, it's more accurate to say they needed a mysterious and powerful Eastern backdrop. And since they couldn't write about that particularly powerful entity, they just had to make do with tearing something else apart.

Shiller fully understood why Kamar-Taj didn't want to have a direct conflict with the big neighbor next door. After all, they were already occupying someone else's land and piggybacking on their network, so it was only right to do something in return.

Or maybe The Ancient One didn't act because they were essentially on the same side, no point in airing family matters in public, but Strange was an American after all, and having recently arrived, started major constructions on the Himalayan Mountains. Naturally, the locals would come to probe the reality of the situation.

Shiller laughed gleefully, "Who would have thought our smooth-sailing Godhand Mister could also have moments of scratching his head in an exam room without having reviewed. Well, that's the Yankee way."

"Can you stop with the cold remarks?" Strange felt quite annoyed as he stood up and said, "I knew coming to you was useless; aren't you a Yankee too?"

"I'm mixed," Shiller said.

"Isn't your mix with the Soviet Union?"

No sooner had Strange made the remark than he wanted to slap himself. A mix of the Soviet Union and America would still be Caucasian, right? Wait, does Shiller have American blood?

Strange displayed a probing expression, and Shiller stood up, saying, "Which country I'm mixed with isn't important, what's key for doing business is that you need to find a professional."

"Aren't you a professional?"

"I'm a psychiatrist, not a businessman. You need to go find Tony Stark for this."