Chapter 1  - Lightning

A conference is being held in the tower hall of Heaven where many people of importance have gathered.

“Everyone, a new generation of Shen Nong has awakened, do you have any suggestion on how to train them?”

The Jade emperor, sitting at top, gazed down upon the immortals,having indescribable majestic aura.

“Your majesty, this new generation of Shen Nong can be directly shifted to heaven, and with the resources here, we can upgrade the Shen Nongs quickly.”

“Yes, it has already been several thousand years we didn’t have a Shen Nong, and now, various high- quality raw material have become scarce…. if this goes on any longer, we will have to stop the celestial operations, we must now upgrade the Shen Nongs as soon as we can.”

“I also agree, with the Shen Nongs, we can reduce the present crisis in the Heavens”

“Shen Nongs are very important for Heaven, for thousands of years of there not being a Shen Nong, has dropped the majesty of the heavens.”

“Yes I want to have a batch of high grade elixirs, but because of lack of high-grade raw materials,we have not been able to brew the elixir”

Many immortals have spoke in succession, all having excitement on their face.

Constraints for several thousand of years, finally the Shen Nongs were born, meaning that auspicious days are to arrive.

They will cultivate Shen Nongs very carefully.

“This is wrong, this is very wrong.’

Suddenly there was a voice of opposition.

Many deities looked back, it is actually Taishang Laozi.

The position of Laozi is high, even the Jade emperor must respect him, Laozi is the incarnation of Daode Tianzun and is representative of saints(Taoist).

“Your majesty, all previous Shen Nongs slowly walked into the path of the Shen Nong, they experienced the worldly life, understood the world’s sufferings, slowly got enlightened, and finally reached the position of Shen Nong, if this generation of Shen Nong is directly received to the heaven, it will be only destructive, because they have lost a complete growth process, if we cultivate Shen Nong by this way they can never achieve greatness.” he said, giving a slight bow a the emperor and then looking back at the immortals.

Jade emperor and many celestial beings fell silent, as what Laozi stated was very reasonable.

Those deities, everyone had gone through the long process of cultivation, they underwent through suffering and difficulties to attain this present attainment.These words of Laozi directly persuaded the Jade emperor and many other gods, soon they discussed about a plan to cultivate the new generation of Shen Nong.

……..

A small, peaceful village in China, which goes by the name Jing Yufeng, and which is connected to the outside world only by means of one single narrow road, has exceptional soil quality which is a very good news for the locals residing there, since the major occupation in that decent little town is farming. The folk here are simple. few go out and work, only to come back home and enjoy homely things. The constructions here are not fancy, just red tile and white ceramic tile houses.

Today, there is a thunderstorm.

This month, it has rained heavily, cultivation of many crops have been affected, even in june it’s going to rain heavily.

Ye Xiaochen sat in a shabby Tin House, looking at the weather, he was very depressed.Not far away, there are two big lazy dogs lying, sticking out their tongues.

He has studied his undergraduate in the Southern province of the agricultural university, jobs there are not easy to get and he has no relations,finally he can only enter a sales company, as a salesman, but he is introverted, he is clumsy with words and often faces trouble while communicating with others, while communicating with other people he faces huge obstacles.

For two months, he didn’t manage to sell anything, in the end, he had to resign.

He returned to his hometown, and planned to put up a fruits and vegetable farm, anyway he is of agricultural origin, and is most appropriate for this profession.

His parents did not understand his logic, in their eyes, life in the city is honorable.But, to come back,continue their traditional work , to be farmer? It made no sense to them.

Ye Xiaochen said lots of bad things about city life, but his parents still think it’s an ideological work.

Finally, his parents took out savings which they were going to use during Ye Xiaochen’s marriage. Well it was actually not much just twenty to thirty thousand yuan, his father and mother work on various fields, occasionally going out to do coolie job, annual revenue is not much, they also must supply Ye Xiaochen and Ye Ying’s school expenses and living expenses.

The father has high blood pressure, mom has rheumatism, when both the medical expenses are added, it is not a small figure.

To be able to save twenty thousand to thirty thousand is not very easy.

Ye Xiaochen uses this sum of money, in addition with the amount borrowed from other relatives, which came up to a fifty thousand and then contracted a large area of field.

The wild field did not take much money, and it was few hundred acres long.

Most of the money was spent on the construction of fence and greenhouse.

Even if Ye Xiaochen tried to save money, by the time the greenhouse and fence were built and the seeds and fertilizers were bought, he was not left with much.

Now, Ye Xiaochen’s current farm species are seasonal fruits and vegetables, such as cucumber, beans, green beans, rorippa, watermelon, muskmelon etc..

As for sales, he does not have to worry about it for now, because his uncle’s son opened a large supermarket in the county, the vegetables and fruits here can be sent there and sold.

Because of this, Ye Xiaochen dared to build the farm, and he invested all his savings on it.

“Mom , the weather will greatly affect the yield and quality of fruits and vegetables.”

Ye Xiaochen looked up at the vast sky, the occasional thunder has made him very depressed.

Seasonal fruits and vegetables demand high amounts of sunlight, if water is too much it will affect the quantity and quality of crops.

Agricultural productions largely depends on the Gods.

He was thinking all this, when suddenly his phone starts ringing in his pocket.

He quickly took it out and saw, his cousin Chen Hao was calling him, this Chen hao is the eldest son of his uncle, he opened a supermarket in the town, his father-in-law is in the government department of retired veterans, he is the director of health bureau. Chen Hao took advantage of his relationship, to get settled in the county.

“Hey, elder brother Hao, how do you have time to give me a call today?”

“Xiaochen, there is one thing I need to tell you about”

On the other end, Chen was silent, then he said:”Originally, I have promised to always buy your farm’s fruit and vegetables but your sister-in-law did not agree, she…”

Ye Xiaochen did not wait for Chen Hao’s sayings , his head started to ache, he understood the matter immediately and in his heart he felt bitter pain.

It seems to sell his fruits and vegetables in his cousin’s supermarket is impossible, cousin Chen’s wife Li Yan…. she is a powerful woman, very snobbish,she considers low of Ye Xiaochen like poor relatives, even uncle and aunt both have always been bullied.

Cousin can have today’s achievements because, a large part of the reason is by relying on his wife’s relationship and because of this cousin’s wife is a powerful lady, Chen Hao must please Li Yan everywhere.

“Xiaochen, really sorry, but rest assured, I will try help you with other ways possible.”

Chen Hao was sorry, after all, he had promised, now going back on this word, he felt embarrassed.

“Elder brother Hao, It’s all right”

“Ah, Xiaochen, then I am hanging up, when I have information, I will inform you.”

Chen Hao sighed, then he hung up the phone.

Ye Xiaochen suddenly had a muddled feeling, the bright future suddenly seems eclipsed, and sure enough, wanting to depend on others, it is really hard!

He put down the phone, suddenly in the dark sky, a lightning struck from the sky, Ye Xiaochen did not react in time, and he was struck by lightning,he seemed like a lightning rod.

It was strange that small shed did not get destroyed by lightning.

The two lying dog suddenly stood up, their body hairs raised,stared at Ye Xiaochen, and issued a low roar.

Note: Laozi itself is an honorific title: 老 (Old *r?u?, “old, venerable”), he is founder of taoism and is considered ot be the incarnation of Daode Tianzun.

Daode Tianzun (道德天尊) is the official title for Tàiqīng (太清): the Grand Pure One, which is one of the Three Pure Ones. He is commonly known as Taishang Laojun (太上老君) “The Grand Supreme Elderly Lord”. His other names include Daode Zhizun 道德至尊 “The Universally Honoured Virtuous One”, Daojiao Zhizu