Deep in the mountains, Phoenix Village is so poor it can barely put food on the table. When young Shi Yunzhong is left gravely wounded and near death in the hills, an old dragon visits him in a dream and passes on the art of acupuncture, then points him toward a divine dragon spring. But the spring produces only ten units of power a day, so he has to ration it for healing and accelerating crops. If he draws too much attention, its secret could attract corrupt officials, the powerful, and even Miaojiang poison masters.
Laidi’s mother is gravely ill, but they have no money for treatment. Zhao Laidi, who grew up alongside Shi Yunzhong, nearly gets sold off to pay a debt. Meanwhile, village bully Xu Lianghui throws his weight around in the fields. Shi Yunzhong holds the power of the spring in his hands, yet he dares not let anyone know.
So he starts by planting a single mu of vegetables. He uses the spring to ripen the crops overnight and save the day. Then he turns the spring water into medicine and drives the bully away. Once he has saved up three hundred taels of silver, the whole village joins him. They grow vegetables, fruit, and medicinal herbs, and raise fish. Soon, the muddy ponds are teeming with plump fish, and the fragrance of medicinal herbs from a hundred mu of fertile fields carries for miles. He solves one crisis after another, from incurable diseases and poisonous parasites to an epidemic of plague-carrying rats, and his reputation spreads from the county seat to the provincial capital.
But the more the spring’s power is exposed, the more people come after it. A crooked merchant uses poison, the county magistrate orders a shutdown, the merchants’ association demands that he “present the spring to his superiors,” and even a Miaojiang poison master sets a trap to seize it. The spring’s power could run dry, the fields could be burned, and the secret cannot stay hidden forever. Shi Yunzhong has no choice but to lead the entire village in transforming their impoverished mountain home into a legendary estate so successful that even the powerful in the provincial capital have to bow their heads and beg to do business with them.
