魔阴身考 A Study into the Mara-Struck

一份丹鼎司的论文，作者考证了仙舟人「魔阴身」的来源和研究。 A thesis by the Alchemy Commission verifying the origin of and research into mara afflicting the Xianzhou natives.

（序） (Preface)

魔阴身考 • 弁言

A Study into the Mara-Struck: Introduction

自「建木」显化，仙舟人获得无尽形寿，联盟对抗「魔阴身」的历史已逾六千年之久。

Since the manifestation of the Ambrosial Arbor, the Xianzhou natives have acquired an endless lifespan and the Alliance has been exposed to and resisting the mara for some six thousand years now.

一如最初仙舟的启航，是人类对抗衰老、死亡这场漫长战争的尾声。那末至帝弓垂迹，三族共盟，仙舟人开启了与不死身、丰饶之孽的无尽对抗。

Just like the maiden voyage of the Xianzhou, it represented the end of humanity's long war against aging and death, it's not until Reignbow Arbiter interfered that the three races allied, and the Xianzhou people began their endless conflict against the undying and Abominations of Abundance.

也许历史就是一个永不止息的循环，仙舟人摆脱了一个对手，又迎来更艰难的敌人。只是这场战争的尾声不知伊于胡底。

Perhaps time is just a flat circle. The Xianzhou people shook off one opponent, only to welcome an even more powerful foe. But nobody knows from whence the end of this war will come.

拙作试图梳理「魔阴身」这一概念的发现源起，仙舟人对它的认知变化与相关研究成果，意在让读者更清楚、客观地理解仙舟人长生不死的本质，了解「寿瘟祸祖」对仙舟无法磨灭的影响。

This humble manuscript attempts to address the origins of the concept of being "mara-struck," the Xianzhou people's changing perceptions toward it, and related scientific breakthroughs. The intention is for readers to understand the nature of Xianzhou native's longevity more clearly and subjectively, and to understand the Plagues Author's indelible influence on Xianzhou.

此书撰写的过程中获得了来自丹枢大人及众多医士的帮助，也从丹鼎司「观颐台」的案牍卷宗中摘取了许多一手资料。贤达友朋，馈益良多，恕不在此一一感谢。

Lady Dan Shu and several healers assisted me in piecing together this book, and I also plucked plenty of first-hand information from the Elixir Research Terrace at the Alchemy Commission. O great friends, you have given me so much that I cannot thank you individually here.

丹鼎司丹士 华玥

Alchemy Commission Alchemist, Huayue

（其一） (I)

源起

Origins

众所周知，「神降时代」的黄金岁月终结于一瞬间的崩溃：八大仙舟在转变为长生种后繁衍相续，生民孳长，最终抵达了人口临界值。

As we all know, the golden age of the Theophany Era collapsed in an instant: After becoming long-life species, the eight Xianzhou ships reproduced exponentially, eventually reaching the maximum threshold for a population.

享寿千载，尸位素餐的「耆宿」把持着仙舟大部分权力与财富。而另一边则是近三千亿底层「褐夫」沦为不知存在意义的肉块。「建木」带来的仙迹也不能填满人类的贪欲，仙舟成了负重不堪，行将沉没的舰队——无论如何开辟洞天，也无法赶上人口增长；而将褐夫阶层流放于拓荒星球上纾解人口压力的方案则更是杯水车薪。按照演算，不出三代这些世界就会坠入同仙舟一样的苦境。

With thousand-year lifespans, the venerable had monopolized power and wealth aboard the Xianzhou for doing nothing. Meanwhile, on the other side were some 300 billion of the coarse, reduced to pieces of meat, who barely comprehended their own existence. The celestial traces granted by the Ambrosial Arbor could never satisfy human greed, and Xianzhou became a bloated, sinking fleet — not even all the delves in the world could keep up with the population growth, and the plan to colonize new frontier planets with the coarse to ease population pressure was like trying to boil the ocean. According to calculations, these worlds would suffer the same fate as Xianzhou within three generations.

最终，后世所成的「阋墙之战」爆发了。八大仙舟内，手足相残，褐夫举事，其后又有圆峤仙舟坠入红巨星覆灭的惨祸。有史可查的第一宗魔阴身记录便发生在这危如累卵的时刻。

Ultimately, what later generations called the Civil War broke out. Families and cliques on the eight Xianzhou ships bickered and fought each other, the coarse rioted, and the Yuanqiao was tragically destroyed as it plunged into a red giant star. It was precisely at this delicate moment in time that the first case of mara-struck was recorded in history.

按照《仙舟通鉴 》中「三劫纪」一卷的记载，曜青仙舟的洞天之主（作者按：此为贵胄尚存时代的爵禄封秩，现已不存。）长桓喜爱宴饮作乐。即便在民众强攻洞天的时刻，他依旧兴致不减地置办自己的千岁寿筵，广邀宾客。欢宴之上，贵胄们却面目愁苦，停杯投箸。唯有双目无神的主人吞下了数十倍于人类体重的饮食，但那些佳肴仿佛只是被投进了无底洞，丝毫不能填满其食欲。

Based on records from "The Three Sufferings" chapter inside the History of the Xianzhou, the Xianzhou Yaoqing's Master of the Delves (NB: This rank of nobility, back when such things existed, has been lost to the annals of time.) Changhuan loved to wine, dine, and make merry. Not even an attack on the delve could stop him from hosting his thousandth birthday party, and he invited many guests. At the banquet, the nobles looked forlorn as they barely touched their dishes. Only the host, with glazed eyes, swallowed everything before him as he ate several humans' weight in food and drink — as though consigning it all to a bottomless pit, yet still not satisfying his appetite.

及至守军溃散，宫门被打破，闯进其中的民众发现此处人迹全无。殿陛角落间，充塞着蠕行不休的肉须，无数眼、耳、舌、齿、肢节、毛发、脂肪……疯狂地增生又脱落，让人无从联想所有这些血肉来自于一具人类的躯壳。

By the time the guards had been routed and the palace gates bashed down, those who broke in found nobody there. The corners of the room were filled with wriggling pieces of flesh: Countless eyes, ears, tongues, teeth, limbs, hairs, fat... Swelling up or sloughing off like crazy, making it hard to connect all this fleshy matter with having once belonged to a human body.

这则「腴肉连城」的记录一时被视为荒诞传言。但很快人们意识到异状不止一例。

This record of Fatty Flesh was regarded as an absurdist fable for some time. But people soon came to realize that this was not an isolated incident.

面对汹涌民情和暴乱，那些自诩「仙人」的耆宿不是如死尸般无视，就是如妖魔般祭出奇术疯狂镇压。种种骇人听闻的暴行史不绝书——朱明的「赤怒焚王」、虚陵的「白骨夏宫」、玉阙的「碧血山茔」……每一桩惨剧背后都昭示着一件事：在漫长寿数的尽头，有些人失去了为人的同理心，转而堕入疯狂中。

Faced with public outrage and riots, the self-proclaimed "Immortal" venerable either ignored them like bodies in a morgue, or tackled them with witchcraft as though they were possessed. History is littered with countless atrocities: The Zhuming's "Red Ragelord," the Xuling's "Bone Palace," the Yuque's "Bloodbath Tomb"... Behind every tragedy lies one key component: At the end of a long life, people lose empathy for humanity and descend into madness.

我们原以为这是独属于位高权重者的暴虐。但在随后数百年间，挣扎求生的褐夫们也步入后尘。这一时期被称为「空劫时代」，仙舟文明自「建木」生成后的辉煌，堕进了最深的黑暗中。

We thought that it was the tyranny of the powerful. But over the following centuries, the coarse fighting for survival also fell into the same rut. This period came to be known as the "Age of the Null," and the glorious Xianzhou civilization with its Ambrosial Arbor fell into its darkest days.

后世所称的「魔阴身」狂症，如梦魇般盘踞在每一个仙舟长生者的心上，挥之不去。

This madness — later coined as mara — began to plague the minds of every long-life Xianzhou native like a living nightmare that is impossible to rid.

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