Chapter 12 Grown-up Children
"Master Mountain God, is there really an endless universe beyond the sky?"
"Instead of fire, is there anything else that can emit light?"
"Also, Master Mountain God, you said that as long as civilization develops, mortals will be able to fly to the sky?"
"Is the story you told us true?"
The once naive Tiger Boy has now grown into the strong Zhang Xiaohu.
He was about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, with bright eyes and a magnetic voice.
Li Yuan leaned against the old tree on the top of Anshan Mountain and was stunned for a few seconds.
If this question were asked in his original world, he would definitely answer yes immediately.
But in this different world...
When the child asked about what was beyond the sky, he couldn't answer.
Because he himself has never flown out of the sky, and can't even reach the second heaven.
"Does it matter whether it is yes or no?" Li Yuan could only answer carelessly.
Zhang Xiaohu said in a low voice: "It really doesn't matter. I'll be in this wasteland for the rest of my life. It's useless to ask these questions."
"I just hope Niuniu is doing well out there."
Li Yuan sighed softly.
Anshan regained some vitality, and his body became solid and no longer illusory.
Niumei once pinched Li Yuan's arm out of curiosity to see if it was flesh and blood.
The conclusion is: although it looks like flesh and blood, its essence is still a ball of immortal energy emitting golden light.
Talking about Niumei, Zhang Xiaohu became excited again.
"Niuniu has married a good family and left this desolate hellish place. I, Zhang Xiaohu, don't ask for anything else, I just hope that Niuniu will be happy in the future!"
"Happiness... Hehe, this word was taught to me by you, Master Mountain God!"
Zhang Xiaohu's mother passed away last year due to overwork. When Zhang Xiaoniu got married, she also left this desolate desert.
Li Yuan recalled Zhang Xiaoniu's bright, curious eyes and smiled:
"Niuniu is very smart and learns things quickly. She will definitely have a good life out there."
"Yes, her husband loves her and her whole family treats her very well, so we feel relieved." A bearded young man was sitting nearby.
The young man used to run around the mountains, but now he stays in the small village and works as a teacher.
Li Yuan once forced the villagers to wash themselves regularly, and in the long run, this really benefited the villagers a lot.
The used water can also be retained and used to water the trees.
They fell sick less often, and the girls no longer looked grim.
Clean and pretty girls can marry outside and no longer have to live the hard life of scarcity in this wasteland.
In the past, water resources were severely scarce, they did not dare to use water to wash, and they were often sloppy about personal hygiene.
This brought about many troubling diseases, but the villagers were poor and could not afford treatment.
This vicious cycle has led to a decreasing population in the village.
Now twenty years have passed, and the villagers have adhered to Li Yuan's instructions and used water when necessary, reducing the chances of many diseases.
Also, because Li Yuan appeared as the mountain god, villagers from other difficult villages nearby moved here after hearing about him.
This caused the population at the foot of Anshan to gradually stabilize and even increase.
Therefore, after going out to explore the world, the young man chose to come back and stay in the village to teach.
The children here need a teacher.
"Master Mountain God, the world outside is really wonderful."
The young man sat next to Li Yuan and looked at him, still with the admiration he had in his youth.
For them, Li Yuan is the person who changed their impoverished lives and also the mentor who taught them knowledge.
"Well, I'll go take a look when I have a chance."
Li Yuan is also very interested in the outside world, but he also has responsibilities.
The area of thousands of miles around Anshan is under Li Yuan's responsibility.
Lian Anshan has not yet recovered its prosperity. If the mountain god leaves his post without permission, he will probably be captured and taken to heaven for execution.
Besides, the debt has never been repaid.
Li Yuan got a headache when he thought of this.
Twenty years passed in the blink of an eye, and even though the villagers were very frugal, the water in the cave had run out again!
In the area of a thousand miles around Anshan, there are only a dozen acres of windbreak forest and a few acres of fruit forest on the main mountain.
He shook his head and decided not to think about this difficult question for the time being.
Li Yuan turned his head and looked at a few silent young men nearby.
"How many of you are there?"
"Why, you talk less now that you've grown up?"
Li Yuan smiled brightly, without any airs of a mountain god.
He watched these children grow up.
The young men smiled embarrassedly.
"Master Mountain God, will you grow old?"
The silent young people finally raised the question.
Li Yuan smiled as he picked some fruit from a nearby tree.
"Why, you want to see me with white hair?"
"Hehe, this mountain god has an eternal life span. You probably won't have the chance to see it!"
The young men chuckled and scratched their heads.
"That's great! Then the Mountain God can live forever and watch our bloodline being passed down from generation to generation!"
"They will still have your blessing in the future, and they will definitely be happier than they are now!"
The young people's eyes were full of gratitude, yet there was a hint of sadness hidden in them.
Mortals have a limited lifespan, and they will never be able to see the wasteland covered with green forests.
Li Yuan touched the heads of these young people lovingly.
"A bunch of stupid kids."
He threw a few fruits to the young people and said, "Try them! These are new fruits this year!"
Zhang Xiaohu and other young men caught the unripe fruit and took a bite.
"Woo!!"
"It's been twenty years, and the fruit is still sour!"
Zhang Xiaohu threw away his maturity and steadiness, his facial features became squeezed into a ball, and he jumped up sourly.
The other young men also had strange expressions and were dancing with joy because of the sourness of the fruit.
Li Yuan laughed so hard that his belly burst into laughter.
The soil in Anshan is poor, the fruit trees planted there are malnourished, and the fruits they produce are green and sour.
It was like this when the crops were first planted twenty years ago, and it is still like this twenty years later.
But every time Li Yuan threw fruit to these children, they would take a bite without hesitation.
Night slowly falls.
At the foot of Anshan, there is a candlelight.
Most of the villagers gathered together, watching the young man in the middle perform shadow puppetry.
This shadow play was also taught by Li Yuan, but Li Yuan only provided the ideas and the general form.
The specific details were made by the children and villagers themselves.
The villagers named this shadow play "The Birth of the Mountain God and the Clever Gift of Water in the Mountain God Temple".
Li Yuan couldn't bear to break the atmosphere, fearing that the villagers would stand up and kowtow to him, so he sat quietly behind the villagers, hidden in the night.
The young people danced with the little figures in their hands, sat behind a white cloth, and performed vividly.
After a while, another scene appeared: [The mountain god prays to heaven to save mortals from suffering].
The villagers watched for a while, their eyes reddened, and they cheered.
Those days of planting trees may be just a moment in Li Yuan’s long life, but for these villagers, it is twenty years full of sweat!
Many of them are experiencers.
There are also many people's parents and elders who devote the rest of their lives to this.
Now, they have no shortage of water for the time being, and they can also sell some dried fruits made from sour fruits to make some extra money.
Although the fruit is dry and astringent, and several kilograms are only worth ten copper coins, it is still a stable income!
If they were not in a hurry to use the money, they could even use traditional methods to preserve these sour fruits and exchange them for some clean water in the border town.
The border town is only a month's round trip away from Anshan area.
Sour fruits are green and astringent, and many of them will go bad on the road, but many of them can be ripened a little after being processed using traditional methods.
The people in the border town were not happy at first about the water from the river near the town being taken.
But seeing that the villagers were sincere and presented many fruits, the mayor agreed.
Anyway, it's just river water.
However, water is worthless outside, but it is priceless in the wasteland!
Experiencing lives that are much more fulfilling and happier than before, how could the villagers not be grateful to the mountain god?
They are all simple people, and they remember everyone's kindness and goodness in their hearts!
The old mountain temple has now been rebuilt and expanded.
The clay statue of the mountain god was also re-sculpted by the villagers using solid bluestone.
The bluestone statue is more than two meters tall and is covered in linen clothes of various colors.
The villagers all voluntarily paid money and were willing to offer incense to the Anshan Mountain God for the rest of their lives, and Li Yuan could not stop them.
He did need some incense to consolidate his merits and virtues.
Nowadays, there are candles burning and incense burning in the temple.
This time the stone statue of the mountain god had a face, which looked exactly like Li Yuan.