On a summer night, the Qianli Wine Pool is sparkling with waves, and the full moon in the sky is reflected on the water. In the distant reed marsh, groups of fireflies are dancing in groups, stretching into the distance like starlight.
In Huan County, near the Chengjiazhuang not far from the Qianli Wine Pool, a high platform was built with wood and lanterns hung high to illuminate the platform. This year, another person from Chengjiazhuang went to the capital to take the exam and was named on the list of successful candidates. The patriarch of the Cheng family invited a troupe from the county town to perform for the whole clan for two consecutive days.
Men, women, young and old from the entire village came, carrying wooden stools and bamboo chairs and sitting on the open space, making the scene very lively.
It is rare to see such a lively scene in the whole village. The opera being sung on the stage is called Jin Yuansheng Zhong Zhuangyuan, which tells the story of Jin Yuansheng, a great sage who won the top spot in the imperial examination in the academy of the Great Zhou Dynasty decades ago. It also includes many fictitious stories about noble sons from poor families, and about love, hatred, and vengeance.
However, the more bloody the plot is, the more widely it spreads, and the more people like to watch it. Even though the mosquitoes on summer nights are particularly annoying and the frogs are croaking, everyone still can't help but applaud loudly when they see the exciting parts.
“Boom!”
At this moment, there was a sudden thunder in the clear starry sky, and a lightning snake fell from the sky, illuminating the entire starry night, and the cold surface of the wine pool reflected the light.
The sound was so loud that everyone's eyes sparkled and their ears buzzed. They were unable to recover for a long time.
"It's thundering! It's thundering!"
"It's going to rain! Do you want to continue the performance?"
Even the characters performing on the stage stopped their actions and looked into the distance bewilderedly, only to see that the originally cloudless starry sky was suddenly filled with heavy thunderclouds.
That was a real thundercloud, not a dark cloud. The dense lightning completely covered the cloud layer, and the deterrent power of thunder could be felt from afar.
The thunderclouds continued to spread and looked extremely terrifying. Many people stood up in fear and some children were even scared to tears.
One after another, bolts of lightning fell from the sky and crashed into the deepest part of the Thousand Mile Wine Pool. From afar, only dancing silver snakes and exploding light could be seen.
"What's going on? Why is there a sudden thunder?"
Some young people in Chengjiazhuang were at a loss as to what had happened. After all, the last time such a situation occurred was a few years ago, and many people present were just children and had forgotten everything long ago. However, some middle-aged and older people stood up immediately and knew what had happened. It was not the first time for many of them to have experienced such a scene.
"Here it comes again! Here it comes again!" Several old men stood up tremblingly and said excitedly.
"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, this is the immortal in the fairy pond showing up!" an old woman in the village shouted.
"The gods inside will bless us. Our area now has good weather and good harvests every year, all because of the gods in this fairy pond!"
The villager with a dark complexion said, "Don't you remember? Legend has it that this wine pool was formed from a wine pot thrown down by an immortal in the sky. It is said that at the deepest part of this wine pool, there is a fairyland. When people row their boats to the deepest part, they sometimes accidentally fall into the fairyland."
Speaking of this, who in the village doesn't know about the rumors about Jiuchi? "I know this, he's from the village next door. We looked for him for several months and thought he capsized in the lake, but he came back a few months later."
"He said he entered a fairy mountain. That mountain was higher than the clouds. At the foot of the mountain was a city that was ten times larger than the county town. He stayed in the city at the foot of the mountain for a few days. When he came back, he found that several months had passed outside. He had fallen into a fairy cave."
The boy who looked quite smart and was attending a private school said, "I have also heard some rumors that our Cheng family's ancestor, Cheng Tuo, is in there!"
"Is it the ancestor Cheng Tuo who is placed at the top of the ancestral temple?"
While everyone in Chengjiazhuang was talking about it, the old patriarch of the Cheng family in Chengjiazhuang held up a torch and led everyone to the lakeside. He knelt on the ground with an extremely pious look on his face and kowtowed to the Qianli Wine Pool.
Thunder exploded one after another, and even across a hundred miles of lake, it made people feel uneasy, and they became more pious.
Not only Chengjiazhuang, but also the areas in the surrounding three counties and eight prefectures, close to the Qianli Jiuchi, especially the fishermen and ferrymen, came out of their homes and cabins one by one, burned incense and worshiped devoutly in the distance.
After all, their whole family depends on this Thousand Mile Wine Pool for their livelihood, and they believe in the legend of this wine pool very much.
But at this moment, the most shocked people were not these mortals, but the city gods of the three counties, the surrounding mountain gods and river gods, and the officials of the Imperial Observatory who were responsible for supervising this place.
At this moment, all the gods and monks looked at the thunder disaster in the center of the thousand-mile wine pool in the distance in horror. The thunderclouds covered a hundred miles, and from the beginning, the thunderbolts fell one by one, and then hundreds and thousands of them fell.
The silver snake of thunder danced wildly, and it bombarded the center of the thousand-mile wine pool like the wrath of God. Its power grew stronger and stronger, but it was all swallowed up by a mysterious realm in the center of the wine pool.
What shocked them was not the power of this thunder tribulation, but the fact that it was the sixth thunder tribulation, the last of the three disasters and six tribulations!
"It's the sixth level! The sixth level of thunder tribulation!" Inside the City God Temple, a golden figure held a jade sceptre in his hand and looked towards the end of the sky.
"Three disasters, six calamities, and nine levels of immortal calamity, is this the last one today!" On the bank of the river, waves rolled up, and a divine body made of water stood on the water. He did not dare to get close to the thunder in the distance and could only let out a shocked sigh.
On a tall tower in the distant Hedong County, the armillary sphere was spinning violently, as if it had sensed the powerful force of thunder at the end of the sky, which was about to destroy this world. It was spinning so fast that only its afterimage could be seen, and buzzing and friction sounds could be heard continuously.
Several officials who were sorting books raised their heads together, walked up the wooden stairs to the tower, and looked at the thundering clouds at the end of the sky.
Even though this scene has been seen many times, it still makes people feel afraid every time they see it. However, the immortal saint in the depths of the thousand-mile wine pool, facing such terrifying power of heaven and earth, remains unmoved, as if he enjoys it.
"You're here so soon! I really didn't expect it!"
"So, the Immortal Lord of Fengdu will ascend to heaven in the next few days! He will take the entire Xundu area of a thousand miles and all the sages of Xundu with him!"
"After going through the three disasters and six calamities, one will become a true immortal god from the upper realm. He cannot stay in the human world for long! Fengdu will definitely ascend to the upper realm within a few days!"
One of the officials from the Imperial Observatory wearing an official hat turned around and said to the person beside him: "Hurry up and send a message back to the capital! Tell the chief Observer!"
Flying swords carrying letters and carrier birds carrying messages flew out from the three counties of the ancient Dahuan kingdom and headed towards the distance.
Most of them flew to Yangjing, the capital of the Great Zhou Dynasty, some flew to Lingshu Mountain in the north near Tianyang Pass, and some flew to Tianshi Sect in the northwest.