During the severe drought in southwestern China in 1988, He Changqing broke his leg while searching for water. His adoptive parents tricked him into entering a dry well and tried to kill him, but he was rescued by a golden python he had once saved. While recovering in a hidden paradise, he learned the Mountain-Splitting Palm technique and returned home to save his wife and daughter from being sold. Using his mountain-foraging skills to make a living, he united local hunters to survive the drought. The bandits and the other villains involved in the crimes were handed over to the authorities by the villagers. He Changqing and his wife led their neighbors in protecting their grain and tending their fields until the rains finally came and the harvest flourished, allowing the whole family to live in peace.