Second, Zuo Ci was a Daoist master who allegedly obtained the alchemical classics Scripture of Nine Elixirs and the Scripture of Gold Liquor from inside a cave on Mount Tianzhu, and mastering their techniques made him become capable of transforming into a myriad different forms. Zuo uses his shapeshifting ability both to amuse and to taunt rulers. Behind the amusing and the taunting lies a single lesson: transcendence-seeking adepts are of a superior order of being; rulers' appropriate response to them is respect and veneration, and any attempts to dominate or manipulate are futile. (Campany 2002: 283).