In the original story, a one-hundred-ninety-thousand-year Land Dragon Golden Melon was about the size of two fists. The one before Chen Ming, however, seemed to be only around twenty thousand years old—barely the size of a single fist.
Rather than resembling a watermelon, it looked more like a golden cantaloupe.
Chen Ming crouched down, his hand trembling slightly as he tried to lift it. The moment he did, his expression stiffened—this palm-sized object weighed over a hundred pounds.
He tapped its surface with his finger.
The sound that came back was unmistakable—it was like knocking on solid metal.
Forget eating it—just lifting the thing was already a struggle. Its small size made it even harder to grip and apply force properly.
His Martial Soul pulsed instinctively, a deep resonance echoing within his body, yet the sheer physical nature of the object left him speechless for a long moment.
Land Dragon Golden Melon…
He had always thought the name was metaphorical—that "golden" referred to its attribute or appearance. But now he realized the "gold" might also describe its literal density, far surpassing that of ordinary metal.
"Land Dragon" referred to its medicinal properties and affinity.
"Golden Melon"… referred to its physical weight.
Chen Ming remembered clearly from the original story that Tang Wulin had taken this item out as a Spirit Soul to fuse with Yuanen Yehui. Simply put, there had never been any mention of how one was actually supposed to eat this thing.
Chen Ming couldn't help but speculate—Spirit Beasts with earth dragon or mountain dragon bloodlines could reach lengths of nearly ten meters at the ten-thousand-year level. For such massive creatures, swallowing something like this whole would be effortless.
Once ingested, the medicinal power would naturally disperse and transform their entire body.
But for him, if he tried to shove this into his mouth...
Beside him, Dugu Bo crouched down and tapped the melon with his finger. His expression froze almost instantly.
"…Why don't you pick something edible instead?" he said, his tone stiff. "If it didn't have a vine attached, I'd think someone dropped a chunk of forged iron into my garden."
"I'd say that ten-thousand-year Ginseng King is a much better choice. I can even get you a couple of ten-thousand-year Purple Lingzhi as supplementary herbs. Mix them properly, and you'll have enough to consume for quite a while. By the time you're done, your cultivation should be ready for a new Spirit Ring—I'll help you obtain one, then we can come back and prepare more medicine."
He waved a hand casually.
"There's a whole garden of herbs here. Even if Yan Yan and I ate ourselves to death, we couldn't finish them all. Adding you into the mix won't change that. It's not like someone would come in and strip everything bare whether they need it or not."
As he spoke, Dugu Bo infused a bit of Spirit Power into his finger and tapped the melon again.
A sharp metallic clang rang out.
He shook his hand slightly, his fingers tingling, his expression growing even stranger.
"This thing… if I don't get serious, I don't think I can even cut it open."
And by "get serious," he didn't mean simply using his Martial Soul—he meant unleashing his Martial Soul True Body and literally biting it with his teeth. Under normal circumstances, Dugu Bo absolutely could not break the skin of an Land Dragon Golden Melon.
"I… I'll think of something," Chen Ming muttered, sitting down on the ground as he summoned his Martial Soul and pulled the Land Dragon Golden Melon into his arms.
His body trembled faintly from the instinctive resonance of his Martial Soul, yet the melon itself remained cold and unresponsive.
Helpless.
His mind began racing at full speed.
Ideas flashed through his consciousness like lightning, one after another, branching, colliding, evolving.
To Dugu Bo, however, what he saw was something far more alarming.
Chen Ming's complexion rapidly shifted—from normal, to flushed, to an alarming crimson. His brows furrowed deeply, his face contorting as sweat poured down in large droplets, soaking his hair and clothes.
"Easy, easy—don't push yourself!" Dugu Bo quickly stepped closer, clearly worried the boy might lose control and suffer a backlash from overexertion.
After a long while, Chen Ming finally opened his eyes.
His face and hair were drenched in sweat, but within his gaze flickered a clear, newfound understanding.
"Senior, don't worry. I'm fine," he said, his voice steady despite his condition. "I just… had to process something complicated."
"…That's what you call 'a bit complicated'?" Dugu Bo gestured animatedly in the air, still shaken. "I thought you were about to explode! Your face just now looked like a kettle boiling dry!"
"Senior, don't worry—I've figured something out. Do you remember when I mentioned the dragon core?"
"I remember."
Dugu Bo opened his mouth and spat out his inner core. Compared to a month ago, it looked slightly fuller and smoother, no longer as rough and uneven as before.
"My Martial Soul is reacting violently to this thing," Chen Ming continued, his gaze fixed on the Land Dragon Golden Melon. "Instinctively, I can tell that if I can absorb it, my Martial Soul will undergo a significant transformation. But it clearly isn't meant to be 'eaten' in the traditional sense."
He paused, then spoke more slowly, as if weighing each thought.
"Senior, I'm starting to suspect that this thing isn't meant to be digested through the stomach at all… but rather fused directly into the body."
Chen Ming placed the melon by Dugu Bo's feet and pointed at the inner core in his hand.
"Look at these two—don't they seem similar?"
"…They're both round," Dugu Bo replied after a moment, nodding, though his expression clearly suggested he felt the comparison was a stretch.
"But think about it," Chen Ming pressed on. "As a human, your inner core is this size. Now imagine a true dragon—how large would its core be?"
Dugu Bo froze for a second—then his eyes lit up with sudden realization.
"…I see. So this is like an inner core crafted specifically for dragons? A dragon core grown from a plant?"
"Exactly." Chen Ming nodded. "I suspect that if a true Earth Dragon consumed this, it wouldn't be digested in the normal sense. Instead, it would fuse into the dragon's body through a special process, accelerating the formation of a true dragon core and pushing it toward evolution."
"And if it were already a true dragon with a core," he added, "then this would merge with that core and strengthen it further."
A thought flickered through Chen Ming's mind—one he couldn't quite shake.
He strongly suspected the reason the Land Dragon Golden Melon didn't appear in the first or second eras of the stories was that even Tang San didn't know how to "eat" it or digest its medicinal power, so he simply tossed it aside.
It wasn't until the third era, when Spirit Souls were fully established and the Land Dragon Golden Melon actively transformed into a Spirit Soul to fuse with a Spirit Master, that someone truly "consumed" this Immortal Herb.
However, because Yuanen Yehui's Martial Soul was not of the Dragon Clan, the melon's potential hadn't been pushed to its true limit.
"Very logical, very logical." Dugu Bo muttered, clearly enlightened, though a trace of confusion still lingered. "But how exactly are you planning to fuse with it? Don't tell me you're thinking of feeding it to a sub-dragon, letting it evolve into a true dragon, then killing it for its Spirit Ring—and eating the dragon afterward?"
"That would waste a lot of energy," Chen Ming replied calmly. "Unless it produced a Spirit Bone—and even then, only because Spirit Bones can be passed down through generations would it barely be worth it."
In truth, Chen Ming understood this principle far more deeply.
The stronger a Spirit Beast, the higher the chance it would produce a Spirit Bone—not by coincidence, but because of the existence of a "core." Once a beast reached a certain level, the formation of such a core became inevitable, and with it, the likelihood of leaving behind something tangible after death.
If a sub-dragon consumed the Land Dragon Golden Melon and evolved into a true dragon, it would inevitably condense a dragon core—the equivalent of that internal nucleus. Killing it afterward would almost certainly yield a Spirit Bone.
From a long-term perspective, leaving behind a true dragon's Spirit Bone as a legacy wouldn't be a loss at all. In fact, the longer such a treasure endured, the greater its value would become.
But Chen Ming had no intention of entrusting his future to descendants.
"Senior," he said at last, his tone decisive, "cut the vine here. Make the incision as clean as possible."
He pinched the melon's stem. Compared to the nearly indestructible body, this part was merely tougher than ordinary plant matter—not invincible.
Dugu Bo gathered his Spirit Power, shaping it into a blade at his fingertips. With the overwhelming strength of a Titled Douluo, he sliced cleanly through the vine.
Chen Ming flipped the melon over, inspecting the cut surface before nodding in satisfaction. Then, without hesitation, he pressed the exposed end against his dantian and began circulating his Spirit Power.
Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the energy within the Land Dragon Golden Melon began to resonate with his own.
Thread by thread, guided with precision, that energy flowed into his body.
To the melon, this was an insignificant loss.
To Chen Ming, however, it felt like biting into ice on a scorching summer day—an indescribable sense of clarity and exhilaration surged through him.
His plan was simple.
If he couldn't eat it… then he would refine it externally.
He would draw out most of its internal energy first—then feed the emptied shell to a Spirit Beast, kill it, and absorb the resulting Spirit Ring.
...
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