Legend has it that a long time ago, at midnight on the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th, there was a flyover stretching across the Xiaoshui River from the west side of the river, and it was placed at the Daximen Wharf. Two lanterns illuminated the Daximen Wharf. People who walked on this flyover could go to heaven and become immortals. Therefore, on this day every year, many good men and women bathe fast, dress up, and board the flyover to become immortals.

That year, Liu Zongyuan was demoted and came to Yongzhou to be Sima. After hearing this legend of the common people, he thought to himself that there was no such strange thing, and decided to find out.

On August 15th of this year, Liu Zongyuan had dinner and came to Daximen Wharf. At this time, the bright moon rose from the east mountain, illuminating Yongzhou City as if it were daytime. I saw the huge crowd of Daximen, so lively, men, women and children, wearing red and green, bustling like a temple fair.

Liu Zongyuan talked to the people in vernacular very easily and asked them if there was any news of those who had become immortals in the past. The people said that they only saw people go up, but no one came down, and they had never heard of anyone.

As they spoke, midnight had arrived, and people were pointing to the river. Liu Zongyuan looked in the direction of the people's fingers, and saw that on the opposite hill, a flyover suddenly stretched out, connecting to the Daximen River. Two lanterns hung high on the top of the bridge, shining brightly at night.

At this time, some people stepped on the bridge and walked up. Liu Zongyuan stood aside and observed carefully, only to see that the end connected to the "flyover" was a large python. The "flyover" was protruding from the python's mouth, which must be the snake's letter, and the two lanterns were eyes of the snake.

What kind of "flyover" was that? It was clearly this evil serpent who did evil. He saw it in his eyes and hated it in his heart, so he decided to get rid of this big harm to the people.

In order not to alarm the evil snake, Liu Zongyuan hurriedly asked his followers to go back to Fahua Temple and bring a large bow and arrow, aiming an arrow at the bright eye of the python. The python shouted, and the ground shook immediately. He retracted his tongue, and the "flyover" was broken.

The python was blind in his left eye and injured in his right eye. He showed his true form, crawled and fled into the woods. Only when people saw it clearly did they know that they had been fooled. The relatives and friends of those who had "become immortals" in the past could not help but cry.

Liu Zongyuan knew that although the python was blind in one eye, it was not dead yet. It was estimated that he would come out to seek medicine for his eyes, so he informed all the medicine shops in Yongzhou City overnight to pay strict attention to those who came to buy medicine, and only poison was allowed.

As expected, the next morning, an old man walked into a pharmacy with a cane in his hand, blindfolded his left eye, and wanted to buy eye medicine.

When the pharmacy owner saw it, he remembered Liu Sima's instructions and knew that the old man must have been changed by the python, so he did as Liu Sima said.

The old man took the medicine and hurried back to the woods in Hexi. He quickly wiped the medicine from his eyes. The pain caused him to roll all over the ground, roll down the big trees with thick bowls, and escape into a cave.

Afterwards, someone passed by the cave and smelled a stench from afar, which went straight to his nostrils. It turned out that the corpse of a python was rotting.

People also found many copper buttons and silver buttons from this cave, which were on the clothes of the people who were eaten by the python. Who knows how many lives the python swallowed?

From then on, Yongzhou was peaceful, and everyone was grateful to Liu Sima for his great kindness in killing the people.