After Liu Mingyuan stormed off, the people of Anping County did not give up.
Since the authorities forbade them to act openly, they carried out their plan secretly under the cover of night.
A few days later, in a remote mountain valley far from the county town, a simple yet thoughtfully designed mountain god temple was completed.
The temple was small, built with only rough wood and thatch, and there wasn't even a proper statue in the shrine. Instead, there was a wooden plaque engraved with the words "Goddess of the Wild Mountain".
However, this did not diminish the people's piety in the slightest.
The news spread like wildfire, and people from all directions flocked to the temple after hearing about its completion.
The scorching sun continued to bake the earth, and outside the mountain god temple, a long queue stretched all the way to the mouth of the mountain valley.
On the faces ravaged by the drought, now sallow and haggard, a fervent hope lingered.
One by one, they knelt respectfully before the wooden plaque, kowtowing devoutly and chanting prayers for the mercy of the Mountain Goddess.
"Mountain Goddess, please appear and save us!"
"Please, Your Majesty, bestow upon us rain to save our crops!"
Just then, the sound of rapid hoofbeats approached from afar.
"Stop it, all of you!"
A furious shout rang out, and Liu Mingyuan, accompanied by several constables, stormed in with faces full of rage.
He looked at the sea of kneeling people before him and the ridiculously simple mountain god temple, and trembled with rage.
"You unruly people! You're utterly absurd!"
Liu Mingyuan pointed at the people and shouted sternly, "Have you all ignored my words? What's the use of praying to gods and Buddhas?"
"Instead of wasting time kneeling here in prayer, you should spend more energy searching for water sources in more distant places!"
The people were startled by his sudden outburst of anger.
But soon, the last glimmer of hope that had been building up in their hearts gave them the courage to persevere.
An elderly farmer with gray hair was the first to step forward, his voice trembling as he said, "Your Excellency! We know you are doing this for our own good!"
"But with the drought so severe, how much water can we possibly find?"
"The Mountain Goddess is our hope!"
“Yes! Your Honor!” another man shouted, his neck stiff with arrogance. “Even if you try to stop us, we will still kneel before the Mountain Goddess today and pray for favorable weather!”
"Praying to gods and Buddhas is a normal activity for us farmers! In the past, we would hold a procession of gods every spring to pray for a good harvest. Why can't we build a mountain god temple this year?"
"Exactly! We didn't steal or rob anything, we just wanted rain, what's wrong with that!"
The people started to refute him all at once, their words filled with incomprehension and resentment towards Liu Mingyuan.
Hearing these ignorant remarks, Liu Mingyuan felt a surge of anger rising to his head.
He took a deep breath, trying to suppress his anger, and tried to persuade the crowd with what he believed to be the right reasoning.
"Foolish! Utterly foolish!"
Liu Mingyuan said with great distress: "The best way now is to pool the resources of the whole county, follow the example of the ancients to dig ditches, and find a way to draw water from the abundant water system in the south for irrigation!"
"Only human will can conquer nature! Do you understand? How could there possibly be a true god in this world!"
He looked around and saw those still stubborn eyes, and his disdain grew stronger.
"Fine! Since you're so stubborn!" Liu Mingyuan sneered, crossed his arms, and stood to the side.
"I'll see today just how powerful your Mountain Goddess really is!"
"If kneeling before this mountain goddess today can bring rain," he paused, his tone dripping with sarcasm, "then I, this official, will kowtow to every single one of you present!"
Upon hearing this, the surroundings fell silent for a moment.
The yamen runners all wore expressions of anticipation, as if they were watching a good show.
The people looked at each other, some with a hint of hesitation in their eyes, but for most, the anticipation in their eyes burned even brighter.
Liu Mingyuan stood with his arms crossed under the shade of a tree next to the mountain god temple, coldly watching the crowd of people continue to line up and kneel down one after another.
The weather grew increasingly hot, with the scorching sun hanging in the sky, relentlessly baking the earth.
The people kneeling outside the mountain god temple were sweating profusely, and many were exhausted and swaying precariously.
A young woman nearly collapsed as she stood up after bowing in prayer, but was caught by someone nearby.
Seeing this, Liu Mingyuan's cold smile deepened.
"Hmph, they really are a bunch of feudal and superstitious fools!"
He whispered to the constable beside him, "He's about to faint, and he's even begging for divine intervention! It's utterly ridiculous!"
A quick-witted constable immediately chimed in, "Your Excellency, you have a brilliant idea! In my humble opinion, they certainly won't be able to get rain today!"
Another constable chimed in, "That's right! Where in our Liang Kingdom are there any real immortals? If there were, this natural disaster would have been over long ago!"
"If this could bring rain, the sun would rise in the west!"
As Liu Mingyuan listened to his subordinates' flattery, his sense of being the only one who was sober in a world of drunks grew even stronger.
He even started planning how he would righteously reprimand the people when their prayers for rain failed, and how he would guide them onto the right path.
Just then, a clear bird song suddenly rang out from the sky.
The sound was ethereal and peculiar, unlike that of ordinary birds.
Everyone instinctively looked up.
A strangely shaped, one-legged bluebird, with its wings outstretched, was seen circling in from the distant horizon.
The bird was entirely green, with only one leg, and its posture was elegant with a touch of holiness.
It was the divine bird of Shangyang that was enlightened by Yu Luo and could summon rain with its dance!
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