There is an old couple in Daheishan who make a living by planting melons and beans. They are still in their sixties, and they live a deserted life without children.

The butterflies in the wild field look down on them, and the couple without children are angry with others. The poor old couple often sigh at the toads in the field: they don’t want good men, they don’t want beautiful women, and they can also make people happy to have a toad-like son or daughter.

One year, an old couple had a large pumpkin in the melon field. They took the pumpkin home and chopped it with a knife. A toad big as a bowl of it jumped out of the pumpkin.

The toad landed without a "gu" sound, but it spoke human words.

The kiss called "Dad" warmly, then "Mom", and said to the old couple: "I am your son, I am your baby."

The old couple did not think that toads were ugly, nor did they think that toads were ugly. They held the toads in their arms, and you hugged them over and I hugged them over.

When a toad grows to eighteen years old, it knows everything about the world; it knows everything about the work on the earth.

The old husband felt drunk as if he had drunk rice wine, and the old mother felt like she had eaten honey, so happy that she couldn't stop.

Unexpectedly, one day the toad said to the old couple: "Dad, mom, I want to ask for my wife. Let her wife bring you food and water so that you can enjoy a few days of happiness."

The old couple hurriedly said, "Good man, you just lose this idea. Which girl from a family will come to our house to be a wife?"

The toad smiled and said, "I heard that the princess of the monarch's family is very beautiful. I want to ask his princess..."

The old couple said anxiously: "Oh, don't say it, you're worried that it will be a beheading when you hear it when it is heard in the king's ears."

The toad said with confidence: "Don't worry, you won't be beheaded. As long as I go and tell me personally, the king will marry his princess to me." After that, he jumped away.

The toad came to the palace and said to the king: "Dear King, please marry the princess to me as your wife."

When the king heard this, he was furious: "You are simply a toad who wants to eat swan meat. Pull it down for me and chop it into meat sauce!"

The toad said, "Dear King, I am worried that I will use the sun to roast your whole family to death."

The king yelled at the guard again, "Don't listen to his nonsense, just drag it down!"

Before the guards rushed over, the toad screamed in a "gulp" to the sky. In an instant, the sun turned into a big fireball, roasting the entire palace hot. The king, queen, prince, and princess were so hot that they were crying like rain, and they opened their mouths and gasped.

The king had no choice but to agree to marry his daughter to the toad, and said while panting: "Oh, the toad will spare me, I will marry the princess to you, you will be married in three days."

The toad screamed again in the sky, and the sun returned to its original state.

Three days later, the toad rode a tall horse and came to the palace to get married.

The king immediately sent a team of men to the toad's house, raising the bride in front of him and protecting him.

Unexpectedly, when I opened the red sash, I saw that the bride was not the princess of the king, but a one-eyed girl.

So the toad became angry, rode a tall horse, rushed into the palace, and questioned the king: "Hmph! You are so great, you dare to deceive the people and marry a girl as a princess!"

Seeing that he had never deceived the toad, the king said, "Toad, don't you think about it. You are covered in scattered slurry, ugly and weird, like a devil. How can you marry my princess? Well, I'll give you some more pearls and some more shell coins as a dowry gift, so you can marry that girl."

The toad sneered and said, "Don't treat me as a little baby, I just want your princess to be your wife. If you don't give it to me, I will drown your whole family with water!"

The king sank his face and said, "If you don't give it, don't give it!"

The toad screamed at the sky twice, and it started to rain heavily in an instant. The entire palace was soaked in water. The king was so scared that he begged for mercy and said, "Okay, okay, okay, I will marry the princess to you. In three days, you will get married."

The toad cried out twice to the sky, and the rain stopped and the water retreated.

Three days later, the toad rode a tall horse to pick up the bride, and the king still sent a team of people to escort the bride to the toad's house.

Halfway through the way, the toad was suspicious and afraid that the king would deceive it, so he uncovered the red veil on the bride's face and saw that the bride was a black, thin and old beggar.

The toad was furious, turned his horse's head, rushed into the palace, and questioned the king: "Okay, you don't trust. This time I will make the earth shake, destroy all your palace, and buried all your house."

When the king heard this, he was frightened and said, "Uh! Don't beg, don't lie to you again in the future. You can come and pick you up in three days."

Three days later, the toad rode a tall horse to the palace again. This time, it really brought the princess home.

The old couple were so happy that they smiled, as if they were thirty years younger. They treated the princess as their biological daughter, and the toad was very considerate to the princess.

At first, the princess only wandered around her home all day, not willing to go out or meet others, she was frowning every day and was sad every day.

Later, she also changed. She felt that although the toad was ugly and had a good conscience, and although the family was poor and warm, she was filial and thoughtful to her parents-in-law and cared about everything about the toad.

One day, Toad wanted to try whether the princess really fell in love with her, so she came up with an idea.

He took some money for the princess and asked her to go to the street to buy something. When the princess left, the toad took off the toad skin and turned into a handsome young man. He took a shortcut and rushed to the front of the princess.

When he saw the princess, he sang a folk song, but the princess ignored him.

He said to the princess again: "I heard that you are the princess of the King's family. Your man is a thick and short ugly monster with a covered body of scaly slurry. If you are such a beautiful princess, would you willingly marry it?"

When the princess heard this, she was angry and spitted out in a "slap" and said, "No matter how ugly my man is, he is better than your shameless thing." After that, she left.

The next day, it was dawn and the princess woke up and saw that the guy who was sleeping beside her that she met on the way yesterday, and she didn't know what to do.

Just as I wanted to get up and escape, I found a toad skin beside the bed.

She understood that her man was a young and beautiful young man.

In order not to let him become an ugly monster again, she quietly threw the toad skin into the fire pit.

At this time, the young man also woke up and saw that the toad skin was burned by the princess. He told her that he was originally the plowing star in the sky, and he came to the world because of his sympathy for the old couple.

From then on, the couple loved each other and lived a happy life together.

In ancient times, grains and weeds grew together, medicines and flowers bloomed together, and no one could tell which grains could be eaten and which herbs could cure diseases.

The people live by hunting. The fewer birds in the sky are fighting, and the fewer beasts in the ground are fighting, so people have to go hungry.

Whoever wants to get sores and get sick, without any medicine, and even if you don’t die, you will have to peel off the skin! Shennong sees the sufferings of the people and the pain in his heart. How to satisfy the people’s hunger? How to cure the people’s illness?

Shennong thought hard for three days and three nights and finally came up with a solution.

On the fourth day, he led a group of subjects to set off from his hometown of Lishan, Suizhou, and walked towards the northwest mountains.

They walked, their legs were swollen and their feet were calloused, and they kept walking. They walked for 49 days and came to a place.

I saw the mountains one peak after another, the canyons one after another, and the mountains were covered with strange flowers and plants. The fragrance could be smelled from afar.

Shennong and the others were walking forward when suddenly a group of wolf, insects, tigers and leopards rushed out of the canyon and surrounded them.

Shennong immediately asked his subjects to wave the divine whip and attack the beasts. He took away a group of people, and then rushed up another group. He fought for seven days and seven nights before he drove all the beasts away.

The tiger, leopard, pythons were whipped out of scars, and later turned into marks on the skin.

At this time, the subjects said that this place was too dangerous and advised Shennong to go back.

Shennong shook his head and said, "You can't go back! The people are hungry and have no food, and are sick and have no medical treatment. How can we go back!"

He said, leading into the canyon and came to the foot of a vast mountain. Half of the mountain was inserted into the clouds, with knife-cut cliffs on all sides, and a waterfall hanging on the cliff, with moss growing and slippery. It seemed that there was no ladder that could reach the sky.

The subjects advised him to forget it and go back as soon as possible.

Shennong shook his head: "You can't go back! People are hungry and have no food, and are sick and have no medical treatment. How can we go back!"

He stood on a small rocky mountain, looking up, down, left, right, and made up his mind and figured out his way.

Later, people called the small mountain where he was standing "Wangnong Pavilion". Then, he saw a few golden monkeys crawling over along the hanging ancient vines and the rotten wood lying on the waist of the cliff. Shennong had a sudden inspiration and had it!

He immediately called his subjects, asking them to cut wooden poles, cut rattans, build a rack against the cliffs, put on one layer a day, from spring to summer, from autumn to winter, no matter windy or rainy, snow and freezing, they never stopped working.

It took me a whole year and 360 floors to reach the top of the mountain. Legend has it that later, the scaffolding used by people to build buildings was to learn from Shennong's method.

Shennong took his subjects to climb the wooden frame and went to the top of the mountain. Hey! The mountain is really a world of flowers and plants, red, green, white, yellow, all kinds of colors, densely packed.

Shennong liked it very much. He asked his subjects to guard against wolves, insects, tigers and leopards. He picked flowers and plants himself and put them in his mouth to taste. In order to taste the herbs here, find food for the people and find medicine, Shennong asked his subjects to plant a few rows of fir on the mountain, as a city wall to protect against wild animals, and build a thatched hut inside the wall. Later, people called Shennong the place where he lived "Mucheng".

During the day, he led his subjects to the mountains to taste the herbs. At night, he asked his subjects to set up a bonfire, and he recorded it in detail in the fire: which grass is bitter, which is hot, which is cool, which can satisfy hunger, and which can cure diseases. They are all clearly written.

Once, he put a grass in his mouth and tasted it, and it was suddenly dizzy and fell to his head. The subjects hurriedly helped him sit up. He realized that he was poisoned, but he could no longer speak, so he had to use his last little effort to point to a bright red Ganoderma lucidum in front of him, and then point to his mouth.

The subjects hurriedly put the red Ganoderma lucidum in their mouths and chewed it into their mouths. Shennong ate Ganoderma lucidum grass, and the poisonous gas was relieved, and he stopped dizzy and could speak. From then on, people said that Ganoderma lucidum grass could bring about death.

The subjects were worried that it would be too dangerous for him to taste grass like this, so they advised him to go back down the mountain.

He shook his head and said, "You can't go back! People are hungry and have no food, and are sick and have no treatment. How can we go back!" After that, he continued to taste the herbs.

After tasting one mountain of flowers and plants, he went to another mountain to taste it. He climbed up with wooden poles and tasted it for 49 days, and walked all over the mountains and ridges here.

He tasted wheat, rice, millet, and sorghum that could satisfy hunger, so he asked his subjects to bring the seeds back and let the people grow them. This was the grain that came later.

He tasted 365 kinds of herbs and wrote them into "Shennong Bencao", asking his subjects to take them back to cure diseases for the people of the world.

After tasting hundreds of herbs, Shennong found grains to satisfy hunger and herbs for the people. He came to Huisheng Village and prepared to go back down the mountain.

He looked around and saw that the wooden frames all over the mountains disappeared.

It turned out that the wooden poles that were built on the ground took root and sprouted from the rain. After years of age, they actually grew into a vast forest.

Shennong was in a dilemma, and suddenly a group of white cranes flew into the sky and took him and the guardian subjects to the heavenly court.
Chapter completed!