After finding the little rhinoceros, Li Er went mad.

Wang Ergou was an honest and simple farmer from Dengzhou, whose ancestors had relied on a few acres of meager land to make a living for generations.

For him, the most important things in the world are the solar terms and the rain.

But half a month ago, his life was completely disrupted.

A conscription order from the government sent him and several hundred other able-bodied men to the seaside.

The task was strange: to boil seawater.

"They're insane! Absolutely insane!" During a break, Wang Ergou complained to his fellow villager Zhang San while munching on a dry, hard wheat cake. "They won't let us farm perfectly good land, but they drag us to this godforsaken place to boil water. Have these officials lost their minds?"

Zhang San spat out a blade of grass from his mouth and said weakly, "Who says otherwise? Look over there, the skilled craftsmen from the Ministry of Works are so worried their hair has turned white."

After burning firewood for more than ten days and boiling hundreds of pots of water, all that was left were piles of black, bitter mud, even more bitter than bitter melon!

I secretly tasted a little, and almost threw up my bile.

The bitter mud they spoke of was the only result they had achieved in the past two weeks.

That stuff was not only inedible, but it also had a disgusting, fishy stench that livestock would avoid.

The soldiers certainly received their fair share of whippings, but no matter how much they were whipped, the mud remained mud.

Gradually, a sense of despair and resentment permeated the entire construction site.

Everyone felt that the current emperor must have believed the nonsense of some sorcerer to have put on such a wasteful and extravagant farce.

"If this continues, the autumn harvest will be delayed, and the whole family will starve in the winter." Wang Ergou sighed, looking at the gray sea with a sense of confusion in his eyes.

Just when everyone thought the matter was going to be dropped, something unexpected happened.

That day, a troop of fast horses galloped from the direction of Chang'an. The riders carried a scroll wrapped in yellow silk on their backs, their expressions solemn, as if they were holding the Imperial Seal of the State.

All the officials at the construction site, from the Vice Minister of Works to the County Magistrate, knelt on the ground to greet him.

Wang Ergou and his fellow peasants were driven far away, only daring to crane their necks to watch.

He saw that the scroll was being carefully unrolled; it was enormous and covered with all sorts of lines and shapes that he couldn't understand.

Strangely, the previously worried craftsmen from the Ministry of Works, upon seeing the blueprints, were as if struck by lightning. They were first stunned, then burst into excited gesticulation, some even weeping uncontrollably, kowtowing repeatedly towards Chang'an, shouting, "A miracle! A miracle!"

From that day on, the entire construction site changed.

The old cauldron was overturned, and everyone was assigned new tasks.

Wang Ergou's task was to dig a hole.

As per the blueprints, a series of stepped pools were dug out of the beach, each one higher than the last, and connected by ditches.

The craftsmen call this a tidal flat, saying that it's to let the sun help to partially dry the seawater.

Zhang San was assigned to sift sand, spreading the finest yellow sand into newly built wooden troughs, with drainage outlets at the bottom.

The craftsmen say this is called sand filtration, which can remove dirt from the water.

No one complained anymore. Although no one could understand the incomprehensible blueprint, everyone sensed something unusual in the fervent eyes of the skilled craftsmen.

Everyone was talking about it privately.

"Have you heard? That picture was a gift from the gods in heaven!"

"That's right! I heard from a relative of a member of the Imperial Guard that His Majesty can talk to the gods in heaven! When we failed to boil salt, His Majesty went to beg the gods, and only then did they draw out this 'divine method'!"

"No wonder, no wonder those skilled craftsmen were acting like madmen... they've obtained some kind of magical power!"

These rumors quietly ignited a spark in the hearts of Wang Ergou and all the able-bodied men who were working.

They worked even harder, as if what they were participating in was no longer a drudgery, but a ritual in which mortals witnessed a miracle.

Two weeks later, the new salt-making process finally reached its final stage.

After being exposed to the sun on the tidal flats and filtered through sand, the seawater became crystal clear and was carefully poured into a brand new small pot.

This time, there was no billowing smoke, only a small cluster of gentle charcoal burning at the bottom of the pot.

Everyone on the construction site stopped what they were doing and crowded around, holding their breath for fear of disturbing this crucial moment.

Wang Ergou squeezed into the crowd, standing on tiptoe, staring intently at the pot.

As the steam evaporates, the water in the pot decreases and becomes increasingly viscous.

Finally, a layer of white stuff began to slowly emerge from the bottom of the pot.

It's not black, it's not gray, it's white!

As white as snow!

"The salt...the salt has been produced?"

Someone asked, trembling.

The chief craftsman of the Ministry of Works, an old man in his fifties, was trembling so badly that his hands were shaking like a leaf.

He carefully scraped a spoonful of the white powder from the bottom of the pot with a copper spoon.

Under the sunlight, the powder was crystal clear and as fine as the finest flour.

The old craftsman trembled as he brought the spoon to his lips, stuck out his tongue, and gently licked it.

The next second, his cloudy tears instantly welled up in his eyes!

He didn't speak, but burst into tears, then suddenly knelt on the ground and kowtowed three times heavily towards the pot and the blueprint placed not far away.

"It's salt!"

"It's divine salt!"

In the crowd, a bold man grabbed a small pinch and tasted it, then burst into a thunderous roar: "Sweet! It's top-quality salt, sweet with a hint of saltiness! Not bitter!"

"boom!"

The entire beach erupted in excitement!

People cheered, hugged, and cried.

Wang Ergou was hugged by the ecstatic Zhang San beside him. The two men, covered in mud, cried and laughed like children.

They succeeded!

Mortals, using divine magic, created divine salt!

Wang Ergou grabbed a small pinch of salt and put it in his mouth.

The pure and intense saltiness instantly swept over his taste buds, without a trace of bitterness.

He had only ever eaten coarse, black salt sold by the government all his life; he had never tasted anything so delicious!

He suddenly realized that this was more than just salt.

This is the taste of grain, the guarantee of winter, the smiles of wife and children, and... the hope of survival!

Like everyone else, he involuntarily knelt down and kowtowed heavily towards Chang'an, towards the ethereal celestial beings who bestowed endless blessings.

From that day on, the legends of the Heavenly Curtain and the Immortals were no longer a secret among the high-ranking officials and nobles of Chang'an.

Along with the snow-white divine salt, and with the strong men who had witnessed the miracle returning to their hometowns, it began to spread like the wind to every corner of the Tang Dynasty.