Chapter 22 Chapter Twenty-Two — The Immortal Artifact: the Three-Realms Gourd

Upon the rocky mountain, the great serpent demon spoke in human tongue, its pupils blood-red, gazing at Li Daoxuan with utterly venomous hate.

It had never imagined a man could be so base and shameless!

Was he not a Daoist? Ought he not try to save those people? Yet he had ignored human life entirely, and even used it to poison the serpent — on purpose!

In this moment it felt, strangely, a little wronged. Between the two of us, now — which is the demon?

Li Daoxuan paid no heed to its curses. He smiled coldly and pasted Five-Thunder Talismans one by one upon the serpent demon's bloated body.

The serpent demon was now sunk in utter weakness; it tried to lash its tail in attack, but could not even lift it, let alone dodge.

"Base? For a demon like you, who slaughters the innocent and toys with women — no method used against you is too foul!"

As Li Daoxuan pinched the thunder seal and dark clouds drifted into the sky, the fierce and savage serpent demon at last began to fear.

"Foul Daoist, you cannot kill me — do you know who I am?"

Li Daoxuan sneered. "Were your father the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea, I would still slaughter you today!"

A gleam of lightning flashed in his eyes.

Boom!

A full five bolts, each as thick as an arm, came down and struck the evildoing serpent demon; scales and armor flew, flesh was mangled, and its shrill cries echoed through the mountain, startling countless birds to flight.

After the five bolts, the serpent demon was flayed and broken, at its last gasp.

Li Daoxuan drew a breath, somewhat spent — his mana was still too little; to this point he had barely a single year of cultivation.

Once he had taken the master successfully, he must find a way to raise his cultivation without delay.

Looking at the great serpent lying motionless, Li Daoxuan did not approach at once; first he retrieved his Fish-Intestine Sword, then walked to its side and hacked and stabbed without restraint!

The sound of the dagger sinking into flesh and blood rang again and again; the serpent's body trembled faintly, its struggles growing smaller and smaller…

At last Li Daoxuan drove one sword into its crown, piercing the brain, and utterly ended its sinful life.

In the next breath, the Heaven-Subduing Demon Scripture in his mind blazed with brilliant light, and line upon line of script appeared — more than ever before.

"Early Zhenguan, fifth month — at the Rocky Mountain, slew an aberrant serpent demon bearing the bloodline of the ancient Black Dragon. This yaoguai had cultivated two hundred thirty years, and would have become a great demon to plague the realm; now slain. Reward gained — 【Immortal Artifact · the Three-Realms Gourd】!"

At the sight of the words "immortal artifact," Li Daoxuan's spirit shook, and an incredulous light rose in his eyes.

An… immortal artifact?

A single high-grade artifact, the Fish-Intestine Sword, had already greatly boosted his combat strength; if he gained an immortal artifact…

Li Daoxuan swelled a little with pride. Daoist Zhang Qianyang — why not take me as your master instead…

But when he read the Three-Realms Gourd's description, he learned it was not so simple as he had thought.

An understated source note: the author publishes this chapter on the official page, while this copy was unauthorized.

Three-Realms Gourd 【Immortal Artifact · Damaged】

Li Daoxuan knitted his brows, feeling he had brushed against some tremendous secret.

A great war?

What great war could leave Tieguai Li — foremost of the Eight Immortals — unable to preserve even his own enlightened treasure?

So much so that a startling thought rose in Li Daoxuan's heart: was Tieguai Li truly still alive? If he lived, would he suffer his precious gourd to drift down into the mortal world?

After much turning it over, he resolved to keep this secret in his heart for now, and sound out his master on it later.

Mount Longhu, as the orthodox line of the Celestial Masters, traced its founding to Zhang Daoling, one of the Four Great Celestial Masters of the Heavenly Court; on such matters, his master might know more.

He reached out a hand, and a verdant, dewy gourd appeared in Li Daoxuan's palm — cool to the touch, wreathed in green vines. Regrettable, though: fine cracks ran across its surface.

A gleam of excitement lit Li Daoxuan's eyes.

This was a legendary immortal artifact?

The Three-Realms Gourd shimmered with flowing light, enveloped in misty violet qi; one breath of it and the spirit lifted, the mind cleared.

Li Daoxuan bit through a fingertip and let a drop of blood fall upon the gourd.

In the next breath the blood was absorbed, and a feeling of kindred blood rose in Li Daoxuan's heart.

Treasures fall into four grades — artifact, treasure, numinous treasure, and immortal artifact. Of these, only the artifact may be used directly without bonding; the rest all require a blood-drop bond of ownership.

Once bonded, the Three-Realms Gourd trembled faintly and withdrew into Li Daoxuan's body; at a turn of his thought it emerged again, and hung of its own accord at his waist.

Li Daoxuan closed his eyes and beheld the space within the gourd.

First, its vastness — boundless, near infinite. Second, its desolation: the gourd had been a world of its own, teeming with endless life, but now the earth was shattered and the seas dried, as if in the collapse of doomsday.

Li Daoxuan opened his eyes, and his heart filled with regret.

This Three-Realms Gourd, worthy of being a treasure of the immortals, had within it formed its own cosmos — seventy-two veins of flame-bearing mountains, and forty-nine great oceans and marshes. Once its mouth was opened, it could pour forth inexhaustible fire and seas that could drown ten thousand li of hills and rivers.

Beyond that, it could of itself draw in the essence of sun and moon and nurture wondrous elixirs — able to revive the dead and regrow flesh upon bare bone.

It could serve as a flying treasure besides, passing from the mortal into the underworld, a thousand li in a single thought; when the Eight Immortals crossed the sea, Tieguai Li had used it to ferry the Eastern Sea.

It could even take in and trap foes, or draw its master inside for defense; and if one camped in the wilds, it could be dwelt in as a grotto-heaven.

Yet such a treasure of inexhaustible wonders, fallen into Li Daoxuan's hands, now retained but a single function: storage.

And it could store only dead things, not living.

Its sole virtue was a near-infinite space.

But Li Daoxuan was not downcast; rather a spark flashed in his mind. He thought: the gourd could no longer command fire and water because the flame-mountains and ocean-marshes within were gone — but if one thought differently…

Li Daoxuan's heart quickened. He took out a Tier-One Five-Thunder Talisman, stuck it on a cypress, and summoned the thunder.

With a boom of thunder the tree was struck and caught flame.

Li Daoxuan pulled the stopper. "Take in!"

In the next breath the flames on the cypress swiftly flew into the gourd's mouth and vanished; at a turn of his thought they congealed within the gourd's space.

He turned the gourd's mouth toward the serpent demon's corpse. "Release!"

Boom!

Flame flew from the gourd's mouth, fell upon the serpent demon's corpse, and burned; before long the air was filled with the scent of roasting meat.

Li Daoxuan laughed aloud and hastily recalled the flame, fondling the Three-Realms Gourd with delight.

Fine treasure — truly a fine treasure!

By this method he too could command fire and water, only he must store them up beforehand against need.

"Pity — this gourd is far too conspicuous. If only it could be more modest."

Li Daoxuan murmured to himself.

No sooner had he spoken than the precious light about the Three-Realms Gourd faded, and its color turned gray-black — plain and unremarkable, quite inconspicuous.

Li Daoxuan's eyes lit; he suddenly recalled the Monkey King's Golden Cudgel.

"Can you shrink?"

The Three-Realms Gourd at once shrank by a few inches.

"Smaller!"

"Shrink!"

"Smaller still!"

…

After a moment the Three-Realms Gourd became a tiny gourd, no bigger than a fingernail.

It could shrink further still, but that would cost Li Daoxuan his own mana.

Li Daoxuan's eyes shone, like a child with a beloved new toy, and he began all manner of experiments.

He found that, without spending his own mana, the Three-Realms Gourd's smallest was a fingernail's breadth and its largest some three meters.

If his mana sufficed, the Three-Realms Gourd, like the Golden Cudgel, could shrink or grow without limit — which gave him an idea: perhaps the gourd's true use was, like the Overturning-Sky Seal, to grow to the size of a mountain and come crashing down upon the foe's head?

One gourd to suppress the cosmos!

Mm — the very thought stirred a little thrill…