There seems to be no end to the locusts in the sky, and there are more and more locusts as they go forward.

The Taoist rode a donkey and passed by leisurely. It was not until he saw it with his own eyes that he understood the tragedy of the disaster.

Passing some villages on the road, I found that they were all deserted. The pastoral villages in the past were now desolate and in ruins.

Some people have already left the village, and the place is covered with dust.

Some are new arrivals, and even the discarded things are neatly placed, as if they still hope to see them all when they return. At a glance, you can tell how much reluctance and entanglement each family went through when they left.

.

The field was barren, everything was eaten away, and after the locust swarm passed by, a blank ground was left.

Climb over a wasteland and walk up to a high field.

The Taoist suddenly stopped looking down.

Among the barren fields everywhere, only this one still had wheat.

The wheat was sown in October last year. After the winter, the wheat sprouted in spring, showing a green color and exuding the light of hope.

But now most of it has died, and there is a little bit of moisture on the entire field. It seems that someone is trying hard to save it, but to no avail.

At this moment, the mighty migratory locusts in the sky passed by here, falling continuously and heading towards the farmland.

In an instant, the fields were covered with locusts.

"Oh! Phew!"

"go!"

And there was a thin figure in the field, holding a gong and beating it non-stop, shouting and shouting, trying to scare away the locusts.

I want the locusts not to fall, but to fly directly over.

"Dang! Dang! Dang!"

"Go! Go! Go!"

He was an old man. Although he was thin, his dark skin was full of strength. His face was covered with wrinkles, which were brought about by hard work in the fields every day. He was also the epitome of millions of farmers in the world today.

And the hard work every day can barely get enough food, but in this disaster year, the sky will collapse and the mountains will collapse.

"Clang clang clang!"

"Go go go go!"

The old man beat the gong vigorously, ran barefoot in the fields over and over again, and yelled at the top of his lungs.

The not tall figure looked so small compared with the locusts that covered the sky and the sun.

It's like mortals are fighting against the will of heaven and against fate.

But the locusts kept falling.

This massive natural disaster cannot be undone by human power.

The old man was tired from hammering, but found nothing. Finally, he stared blankly at the locusts all over the sky, the half-dead fields and the wheat that was constantly being eaten.

I could only kneel down on the ground, cover my face and cry loudly.

When I turned around, I happened to see the young Taoist coming towards me on the ridge of the field.

The Taoist looked at the wheat field in surprise, but the old man looked at the Taoist in even more shock.

The old man rushed up with the gong, wiped his face, looked at the young Taoist priest on the field ridge, looked at the young man up and down, and then looked at the direction he came from. He knew at a glance that he was coming from outside Lingzhou.

of.

He immediately said: "Where did you come from? Others are running outside, why are you running back?"

The Taoist rode his donkey down the field, looked at the fields and asked, "Master, do you want to help me?"

The old man laughed himself, not knowing whether he was laughing at his useless actions just now, or at the world.

Only the old man himself knows the bitterness in his dry laughter.

"No, it's useless. Even without the locusts and a severe drought, the wheat seedlings won't survive."

"The old man also knows it's useless, but..."

"I hate it so much."

The old man struck the gong, making a clanging sound, and then shouted to the sky.

"Eat! Eat!"

"Eat them all!"

"After you finish eating, leave as soon as possible and go back to heaven. Don't come down again in the future."

It's like shouting to locusts, but more like shouting to the gods in the sky.

According to folklore, locust plagues are said to be sent down from heaven by the Emperor of Heaven to punish the world. After eating enough of a certain amount of land, people's sins will disappear and they will return to heaven again.

Otherwise, where did so many locusts appear from? Folks cannot imagine it and can only attribute it to gods.

The Taoist led the donkey down, but the old man took out water from the baggage beside him.

"Young man, you've been gone for a long time, sit down and drink some water."

The Taoist and the donkey sat down on the field ridge and looked at the fields and the distance with the old man.

Neither of them spoke, probably because the situation was so speechless.

After taking a sip of the water handed over by the old man, the old man took out a piece of hard cake from his arms.

After hesitating for a moment, he pushed the pancake into Gao Xian's hand.

"You can eat it, my little one, and run away as soon as you're done. You're not old, are you still growing it on your back?"

The old man persuaded the Taoist to give up the idea of ​​going further: "This is located on the border of Lingzhou. If you go south, there will be food there, and you can always survive."

"Further ahead, there is a severe drought everywhere. You, the younger generation, don't know about that situation."

"I can't go anyway, I absolutely can't go."

The Taoist was silent for a while, then took the pancake given by the old man and took a bite.

It's not delicious, but it makes people feel inexplicably precious.

The Taoist asked: "Since I can escape to the south, why doesn't my husband want to leave?"

The old man sat on the ridge of the field, touched the dent on his gong, shook his head and said, "Old man is already so old. If I don't leave, I won't be able to walk anymore."

"The old man has lived in a place like this all his life. He has lived to this age. If he doesn't want to die in a foreign country, he has to die here."

It is hard to leave one's homeland. It is said that people who die in a foreign land return as lonely ghosts. What people want in death is for a soul to return to their homeland.

The Taoist sat next to the old man and ate the whole cake silently.

When he stood up, he looked at the migratory locusts in the sky and smiled.

"It's really time for this migratory locust to return to the sky."

With a snap of his fingers, the fire snake roared out from his sleeves, and in the blink of an eye it transformed into a fire dragon dozens of feet long, hovering in the sky.

The fire dragon continued to spread, burning the sky red.

Finally, it exploded and spread out layers of rings of fire, sweeping towards the endless locusts.

Locusts were falling all over the sky one after another, like a heavy rain.

The locusts in the field also exploded and died one by one, burning to the point of emitting sparks.

The old man was so frightened that the gong dropped from his hand and fell to the ground with a loud bang.

He turned around and stared at the young Taoist next to him, his mouth hanging open.

"You...you...are a god!"

The Taoist led the donkey down the field and stood in front of the wheat field. He turned around and looked at the old man with a smile and said: "God also feels the suffering of the people in the world, so he sent the poor Taoist to take back the locusts that escaped from the lower world."

"Great! Great!"

"The gods bless us! The gods..."

When the old man heard the news, he bowed his head happily and wanted to kneel down, but was stopped by a force.

"Today, I will drink a bowl of water and a piece of dry biscuit from my father-in-law."

"One day, the locust plague in Lingzhou will be gone, and there will be sweet rain for thousands of miles."

Straighten up and look over again.

The immortal turned into clouds and disappeared in front of the withered wheat fields, leaving only a word in the wind.
Chapter completed!