Ming Dynasty: Gain one supernatural power every day

Zhu Gaoxi retrieved the three gourds to his side, looked down at the hell on the city wall, and his expression was as calm as still water.

He didn't originally intend to treat them like this.

But since they shot arrows at him, he had no one to blame but himself.

Stop killing with killing, use violence to control violence. Compassion is for kind people, not for fickle barbarians.

The three people in the clouds stared at him the whole time.

Pigsy's eyes widened, and his hand holding the rake froze for a long time. This is Laozi's disciple?

The old man's main business was alchemy, and he always advocated non-action and non-contention. How come his disciples have such a ruthless and tyrannical demeanor?

Freezing on the left, burning on the right, and struck by lightning in the middle—they didn't even give him a chance to breathe. This isn't Laozi's disciple; it's like they brought the Heavenly Ministry of Justice to the mortal realm.

He secretly swallowed, silently raising his level of vigilance towards this young man by two notches.

Zhu Gaoxu, holding the jade pendant, slapped his thigh in satisfaction, making the leather saddle on his tiger-like back bounce: "Good! That felt so good! You love to jump around, don't you? Jump around in the fire all you want!"

He became more and more excited as he spoke, pointing the camera at the still-burning flames and frozen ice sculptures on the city wall, while narrating, "Look, look, this is what happens when you mess with my fourth brother!"

Zhu Di remained expressionless, only slightly narrowing his eyes.

He didn't find it cruel. Back then, he had executed Fang Xiaoru's entire clan of ten generations, and had all his students, teachers, and retainers hacked to pieces. That was what he called a river of blood. Compared to that, the fourth brother was just giving him a quick death.

Annamese: Freezing on the left, grilling on the other. Electrotherapy in the middle, you call that pfft-tastic?

Zhu Di was more concerned about those gourds that could unleash thunder, ice, and fire; he would have to ask his fourth son if he could get one for himself as well.

It doesn't need to be too powerful, just enough to set off a mine.

From now on, if anyone dares to talk back to him during court sessions, he won't need to slam the table anymore. He can just unleash a bolt of lightning outside the hall and see who dares to say another word. After all, he's going to be the emperor someday.

Zhang Fu, Zheng Heng, and Qiu Fu looked up at the figure in the sky and the several gourds floating around them.

"Your Majesty's gourd is amazing! It can set off fire, generate electricity, and freeze people." Zheng Heng said with an excited expression.

Suddenly, as if remembering something, he turned to Zhang Fu and said, "Old Zhang, the Emperor said before that anyone who has rendered meritorious service can exchange it for a gourd from him. Do you think we can exchange these gourds for one?"

Zhang Fu glanced again at the embers still burning on the city wall and the frozen ice sculptures: "Whether we can get the exchange or not, I don't know, but it's never wrong to try our best to make contributions."

After he finished speaking, he looked up again at the dark green gourd in the sky that hadn't been used yet, thinking to himself, "That fourth gourd hasn't been touched at all. I wonder what's inside it."

Among the soldiers, several veterans who had come from Yingtian Prefecture were huddled together, whispering amongst themselves.

An old soldier speaking with a Nanjing accent pointed to the figure of Zhu Gaoxi on the cloud and said to his companion, "See? I told you His Highness Prince Rui was the reincarnation of Yama, the King of Hell. It was all over Nanjing back then, but you didn't believe me. Now you do, don't you?"

"I believe it, I believe it," the young soldier next to him nodded hurriedly, shrinking his neck to look at the charred marks on the city wall, then at the Annamese soldiers on the left frozen into ice sculptures, on the right burned into charcoal, and in the middle struck by lightning and unrecognizable as human.

"This is terrifying. A double shock of ice and fire, with lightning striking in between—truly the work of the King of Hell. Of all people to offend, these Annamese had to choose to offend the King of Hell himself."

He swallowed hard, then looked up at the dark green gourd in the sky that hadn't moved at all. "The first few gourds were so powerful, I wonder what this fourth gourd is for."

Everyone looked up, their eyes focused on the dark green gourd that was quietly floating.

Zhu Gaoxi raised his sword and pointed it forward.

The fourth gourd finally moved.

The dark green alchemy gourd slowly rose to its highest point and began to grow rapidly, expanding from the size of a palm to the thickness of a water vat, then to the size of a millstone, and finally hovering in mid-air, its entire body emitting a faint dark green halo.

With the gourd mouth facing down, rotate it slowly. With each rotation, the suction force of the gourd mouth increases.

Strange sights appeared on the city wall.

The Annamese soldiers on the left, frozen into ice sculptures, remained in the posture of kneeling and kowtowing or turning to flee. They were pulled out of their ice shells by the suction force and, along with the broken ice, turned into a stream of light and flew into the mouth of the gourd.

The soldiers on the right, still screaming and fleeing in the flames, had their flames extinguished by the airflow the moment they were lifted into the air. Their figures were rapidly elongated and shrunk, eventually becoming black dots that disappeared into the mouth of the gourd.

The bodies that had been charred by lightning, as well as the soldiers who were half-dead and still twitching and groaning, were sucked off the ground one by one, rapidly shrinking in the air, and disappearing into the eerie light at the mouth of the gourd like fallen leaves drawn into a vortex.

In just a few breaths, the city wall was completely cleared, leaving only the charred bricks and broken crenellations ravaged by ice, fire, and lightning; not even a single corpse remained.

The city wall was cleaned up, leaving only water stains from melting frost and scorch marks from flames.

The main focus is on the recycling and reuse of new energy sources, ensuring that not a single bit is wasted.

"They've all been put into the gourd! How can this gourd hold so many people?" The soldiers below were dumbfounded.

"What do you know? I already said it's a celestial treasure. Isn't it normal for it to be able to hold people? Marshal Tianpeng just flattened a mountain with a single rake, so it's normal for this gourd treasure to be able to hold people."

"I wonder what's inside this gourd." A young soldier craned his neck curiously, trying to see something from the dim light coming from the gourd's mouth.

"It must be pitch black. Why don't you go in and take a look?" His companion patted him on the shoulder with a mischievous grin.

The young soldier quickly shrank his neck and waved his hands repeatedly.

The soldiers and generals below were buzzing with various voices, some in amazement, some curious, and others shrinking back, afraid that the gourd's mouth would be pointed at them.

"Fourth brother, your magic weapon is amazing! It can hold so many people!" Zhu Gaoxu exclaimed excitedly, his jade pendant camera following the dark green gourd, unwilling to look away.

"Indeed. Brother, this magic weapon is truly powerful," Pigsy chimed in thoughtfully from the side.

As he looked at the dark green gourd, a scene from the journey to the West involuntarily came to mind.

When the Golden Horned King and the Silver Horned King descended to the mortal realm, they stole the alchemy gourd from Laozi. That gourd could also trap people inside and turn them into elixirs.

The way this gourd was used was remarkably similar to the alchemy gourd used by Laozi back then. He became even more convinced that this young man was Laozi's disciple.