chsdbacks Chapter 23: The Battle of the Golden Gourds and the Pack of Red-Maned Jackals
Chapter 23: The Battle of the Golden Gourds and the Pack of Red-Maned Jackals
In the blink of an eye, the platform was piled high with the carcasses of the red-maned jackals.
Countless streams of blood flowed down the sloping platform, landing on the ground and forming small bloody craters.
Despite the deaths of so many of their kind, the pack of red-maned jackals behind them still charged forward recklessly, as if they were bewitched by something.
The giant golden gourd vine quietly extended its tendrils from the ground, silently piercing into the corpse and greedily absorbing the essence of the red-maned jackal's flesh and blood. The corpse shriveled and withered at a visible speed, turning into ashes.
The red-maned jackals were so focused on attacking Little Golden Melon that they didn't notice the unusual situation under their feet.
Cai Xuan had already fallen asleep, but was awakened by the loud noise of the red-maned jackal attacking the little golden melon.
He rolled over, not wanting to pay any attention. It was normal for the woods to make all sorts of animal roars and bird calls at night; he was used to it. But suddenly something felt off. Those sounds… were so close, as if they were right at the door.
Cai Xuan felt a sudden tightness in his chest, and all sleepiness vanished.
He sat up silently from the bed, grabbed the spear from the bedside table, tiptoed to the wooden door, and peered through the crack in the door panel.
Instantly, his eyes widened in surprise.
He froze on the spot, forgetting even to breathe.
Under the moonlight, on the platform, eight small golden gourds hanging from the wooden frame spewed fire, water, thunder, and explosive attacks, relentlessly slaughtering the red-maned jackals. The ground was littered with the corpses of red-maned jackals, blood flowing freely, a scene as gruesome as a battlefield of carnage.
Holy crap! What kind of world have I ended up in?
Was it the prehistoric era?
He remembered that in the primordial world there seemed to be a primordial gourd vine growing on Mount Buzhou, bearing seven primordial gourds: one each of red, gold, green, cyan, blue, and purple. These were obtained by Nuwa, the Three Pure Ones, Lu Ya, Hongyun, and Hongjun, respectively. The red one was the Nine-Nine Soul-Scattering Gourd, which was obtained by Hongyun; the gold one was the Demon-Summoning Gourd, which was obtained by Nuwa; the yellow one was the Immortal-Slaying Flying Knife, which was obtained by Lu Ya; the green one was obtained by Yuanshi; the cyan one was obtained by Tongtian; the blue one was obtained by Hongjun; and the purple one was the Purple-Gold Gourd, which was obtained by Laozi. In addition, Nuwa also used the gourd vine to create humans, and it eventually transformed into a treasure of merit.
But this is a golden melon, so it doesn't match up.
Did I somehow travel to the set of Calabash Brothers?
Legend has it that a scorpion demon and a snake demon were imprisoned in Calabash Mountain. A pangolin accidentally broke through the mountain's cave, allowing the two demons to escape, causing suffering to the people. The pangolin nearly died but was saved by an old man. The pangolin told the old man that only by growing seven-colored gourds could the two demons be defeated. The old man received a gourd seed and grew seven large gourds of red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple.
Seven boys, each with their own unique abilities, were born from the seven gourds.
The eldest brother is a strongman; the second brother has eyes that can see a thousand miles and ears that can hear the wind; the third brother has a head of bronze and arms of iron; the fourth brother knows how to use fire; the fifth brother is good at swimming; the sixth brother knows how to become invisible; the seventh brother has a magical treasure, the Purple Gold Gourd, which can absorb everything.
But that's not right either, that's a gourd, it has nothing to do with the little golden melon in front of me.
Cai Xuan quickly searched his memory, but no story, whether from myths, legends, local tales, or fantasy novels, mentioned anything about such a powerful golden gourd, let alone eight of them.
After thinking for a long time without coming up with a solution, Cai Xuan stopped thinking about it.
He peered through the crack in the door, gripping his spear tightly, ready to rush out and help in case of danger, lest the eight little golden gourds be harmed by the red-maned jackals.
But when he looked again, he found that there were no longer any living red-maned jackals on the platform.
Is everything resolved?
Cai Xuan's eyes widened again, almost popping out of their sockets. These...these little things...are they...that powerful?
Suddenly, what he saw next sent chills down his spine and made his hair stand on end. Below the first floor, countless thick roots stretched out, densely packed, writhing like a swarm of snakes, burrowing into the carcasses of the jackals and greedily sucking their blood and flesh.
In a short while, the red-maned jackal's corpse on the platform turned to ashes.
The third golden gourd spat out a jet of water, gently washing away the ashes from the platform, which then disappeared into the vast night.
The moonlight shone brightly on the platform, reflecting off the clean ground. Not a single drop of blood could be seen; it was as if nothing had ever happened.
Cai Xuan's eyes were wide open, his mouth was agape, and his jaw almost dropped to the ground. The shock he felt was beyond words.
At this moment, the eight little golden gourds suddenly twisted their vines, turned around, and all "looked" at the crack in the door where Cai Xuan was hiding.
Eight gazes, eight different kinds of divine light, all fell upon him.
Cai Xuan sprang open the door with a "whoosh," jumped back onto the bed, turned around, and pretended to be asleep.
"Hehehehe—"
The eight little golden gourds laughed happily, their bodies swaying merrily in the moonlight.
Cai Xuan, who had been pretending to be asleep, finally realized that the cries of those "strange birds" at night these past few days were not strange birds at all, but rather the laughter of the eight little golden gourds outside.
For a moment, I felt both angry and amused, and I was utterly speechless.
That night, Cai Xuan didn't know how he slept. He tossed and turned until dawn, but he couldn't fall asleep any longer. So he got up, dressed, and quietly opened the door and went out, like a thief.
The air in the mountains is incredibly fresh in the morning.
However, Cai Xuan did not start practicing his skills as before. Instead, he walked to the melon trellis and looked at the eight small golden melons.
After looking at it for a while, I walked over to the fence to look at the giant pumpkin vine.
He remembered that the tendrils from last night were growing from below. Although he didn't know what they were, they should be related to the large golden pumpkin vine. Indeed, if the eight small golden pumpkins were all so extraordinary, there was no reason for the large golden pumpkin vine that nurtured them to be ordinary.
Cai Xuan touched the thick vine with his fingernail, and after finding nothing unusual, he boldly reached out to touch it.
He touched it and, seeing that there was no danger, breathed a sigh of relief.
He glanced at them, then walked back to the melon trellis and looked at the eight little golden melons. The eight little golden melons were quiet and still, as if they hadn't been the ones fighting the red-maned jackals yesterday. After watching them for a while, Cai Xuan went to get a chair, stood on it, and touched each of the little golden melons one by one.
That strange feeling of blood connection came back.
As Little Golden Melon grew up, that blood connection grew stronger. But he really didn't develop any inappropriate friendship with Big Golden Melon. Like I said, he wasn't like Xu Xian; he didn't have that kind of appetite.
But why would this happen? Cai Xuan was completely baffled.
However, since he was able to travel through time and the little golden melon could breathe water and fire, it didn't seem like much to have another person connected to him by blood.
At this point, even if a stunningly beautiful woman suddenly popped out of the little golden gourd, he probably wouldn't find it particularly surprising. This is the downside of reading too many novels; they conjure up all sorts of wild ideas, making him completely unfazed when faced with real-life situations.