Chapter 48: Burning the River and Boiling the Sea
Not long after leaving Qingyi Temple, Li Daoxuan saw the farmer again.
He did not leave, but placed some pears and kowtowed to the Qingyi Temple from afar.
Li Daoxuan asked curiously, " Uncle , why do you place the tribute here?"
This was also what he was curious about. The people of Yuzhang City had great respect for the Green-Robed Goddess, but there were no offerings on the mahogany table.
The uncle glanced at Li Daoxuan and said, "This is the rule of Qingyi Temple. During the Wude years, there were constant wars and chaos, and everyone was hungry, so some people sneaked into the temple and stole the offerings from the goddess to eat."
"At that time, the officials of the imperial court were furious and wanted to punish those people. Fortunately, the Green-robed Goddess appeared and not only forgave them, but also distributed all the tributes. She also ordered that in the future, when burning incense, there is no need to offer tributes, only sincerity is needed."
The uncle looked at the Qingyi Temple with a sincere look in his eyes, and said: "The Queen has pity on us. Although I, Xu Youfu, am just a pear grower, I know how to repay the kindness. I can only offer tribute here."
Li Daoxuan's eyes lit up and he asked, "Uncle, where do you grow pears?"
"It's the orchard in the south of the city. The Taoist priest must be from another place, otherwise everyone in the city knows that the pears I, Xu Youfu, grow are the biggest and sweetest!"
After a pause, the pride in Xu Youfu's eyes disappeared and turned into a trace of sadness.
"But this year it's not certain. It hasn't rained in the past few months and the land has dried up. If it continues like this, all the pears will die this year!"
"But I went to the Qingyi Temple today and prayed to the goddess. I believe it will rain soon!"
Xu Youfu kowtowed several times towards the Qingyi Temple and stood up to leave.
Li Daoxuan followed him and said with a smile: "Brother Xu, can I go to the orchard in the south of the city with you?"
Xu Youfu was a little surprised and asked, "Master, you want to buy pears? But they are not ripe yet?"
"I'm not buying pears. I just want to catch some bugs."
…
Orchard in the south of the city.
There are many fruits planted here, including cherries, grapes, pears, etc. However, due to severe water shortage and cracked soil, the fruits that were originally growing well have now become shriveled and hang there listlessly.
The same is true of Xu Youfu's opera theater.
Li Daoxuan finally understood why the owner of the tavern sold pomegranate wine at such a high price. It turned out that due to the drought, both water and pomegranates became in short supply.
Xu Youfu was a very kind-hearted person. When he heard that Li Daoxuan wanted some insects, he started digging for him himself. After working for half an hour, he caught dozens of white, tender and plump insects, put them in a jar and handed it to Li Daoxuan.
He wiped his sweat and said with a smile: "It's a pity that the pears are not ripe yet, otherwise I would pick some for you to quench your thirst."
Li Daoxuan took the jar, took out one or two taels of silver and handed it over.
Unexpectedly, Xu Youfu shook his head and said, "Master, they are just some worthless bugs. If they stay here, they will only bite rotten pears. How can I let you spend money on them?"
He refused to accept it.
Li Daoxuan was moved by his simplicity and kindness. After thinking for a while, he looked at the dry orchard and said with a smile: "I won't take your insects for nothing. How about this, since you don't want money, I will give you a rain."
Send rain?
Xu Youfu looked up and was very surprised. Could rain water be given to others as a gift?
The next moment, he saw the young Taoist gently slap the gourd on his waist, and the gourd suddenly swelled up in the wind and floated in the air, more than two meters high!
After Li Daoxuan broke through the initial stage of fasting, his magic power increased greatly, and he was able to make the Three Realms Gourd grow to nearly ten meters high.
He smiled and said, "Water!"
boom!
Streams of water spurted out from the gourd, like a water dragon rising into the sky, and finally fell from the sky, like sweet dew from the sky or heavy rain.
This is the pond water that Li Daoxuan collected on Longshou Mountain. Now it is all poured out, turning into sweet rain to nourish the orchard.
Xu Youfu was stunned. When his body was soaked by the rain, he woke up with a look of ecstasy.
“It’s raining, it’s raining!”
He ran barefoot on the land, cheering and jumping for joy. After an unknown amount of time, he calmed down a little.
"Thank you--"
However, when he turned around, the young Taoist priest had disappeared, and the gourd that could spray water was also nowhere to be seen.
The rain has stopped. It came quickly and went away quickly.
…
Li Daoxuan quietly left the orchard and came to a river.
This river connects to the Ganjiang River, one of the main tributaries of the Yangtze River, so it has not completely dried up yet.
But this place is too far from the orchard, and it is very inconvenient to get water for irrigation.
Li Daoxuan was wondering if he could use the Three Realms Gourd to absorb the water here and then bring rain?
The water just provided was just a drop in the bucket. Before long, the orchard would still not be able to escape the fate of drought.
Just as he hesitated, a voice sounded.
"Little Taoist priest, I am very thirsty. Can you help me get a bowl of Ganjiang River water?"
Li Daoxuan turned his head and saw a white-haired old woman. She was wearing cloth clothes and had chapped lips. She was leaning against a willow tree and was reaching out to hand a broken bowl to Li Daoxuan.
Seeing that she looked very pitiful, Li Daoxuan didn't think much about it. He took the bowl and scooped a bowl of water for her from the river.
Unexpectedly, the old woman shook her head and said, "This is the water from downstream, it's too dirty. I'm not in good health. Can you help me scoop a bowl of upstream water?"
Li Daoxuan didn't say anything. He looked at the mud in the water, then looked at the old woman. Without saying a word, he ran upstream and scooped a bowl of water.
This time the water was much clearer.
But the old woman still shook her head and said, "I have caught a cold and cannot drink cold water. Little Taoist priest, can you help me boil this bowl of water?"
Li Daoxuan glanced at her and thought that this mother-in-law had so many things to do.
He wanted to turn away, but when he saw her chapped lips, trembling hands, and kind eyes, he inexplicably thought of his grandmother who had passed away long ago.
Li Daoxuan sighed lightly and said, forget it, just think of it as taking care of an elderly person.
He built a simple stove with stones, found some branches as firewood, and slapped the Three Realms Gourd.
boom!
A flame flew out, landed on the branches, and quickly caught fire.
Li Daoxuan placed the bowl of water on the stone and said to the old woman, "Old lady, the water will boil in a moment. I have something else to do, so I will leave first."
He made up his mind that if the old woman had any more requests, he would definitely ignore them.
But what he didn't expect was that the old woman suddenly laughed and said, "Your magic trick of turning fire into fire is very interesting. I also have a magic trick. Do you want to see it?"
trick?
An ordinary person was not afraid when he saw himself controlling fire, but instead just said it was a magic trick?
Li Daoxuan immediately realized that this old woman was definitely not an ordinary person!
He used his Dharma Eyes to stare closely at the old woman, but found that she was ordinary and there was nothing unusual about her.
"Don't be nervous. Thanks to your fire, the water is boiling."
Li Daoxuan looked at the bowl of water and saw bubbles bubbling on the surface of the water and wisps of white mist rising.
Gurgle gurgle!
The sound of boiling water became louder and louder, and Li Daoxuan suddenly realized something was wrong. Why was it so loud?
He turned his head and finally found the reason.
I saw that the originally calm river was bubbling and white water vapor was rising.
The river water was boiled?
