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Story 153: The Legend of Gaxian Cave
The Legend of Gaxian Cave
Author: Anonymous
Long ago, this place was a primeval forest. In summer, the green pines and birches cast thick shades, and wild flowers bloomed everywhere, brilliant as brocade; in winter, the mountains and forests were covered with white snow, creating a silver world, with musk deer, roe deer, leopards and deer running freely in the snowy forests. The Oroqen people, who make a living by hunting, have lived a peaceful and happy life here for generations.
Unexpectedly, one day, a huge, hideous man-eating demon suddenly appeared. It lived in a cave on the top of a mountain cliff, spying on people’s actions. As long as it found hunters entering the forest, it would stretch out its magic hand to kill people.
The Oroqen people suffered countless victims. In order to eliminate this evil spirit, the brave Oroqen people organized young hunters to go up the mountain to fight the demon many times, but they failed because of its powerful magic. The Oroqen people did not lose their courage and confidence in the struggle. Every year, they still selected excellent hunters to fight the demon, and persisted in the struggle for many years. The unswerving fighting spirit of the Oroqen people finally moved the heavenly Gaxian.
One day, Gaxian came down from the sky on a cloud and floated to the entrance of the demon’s cave. He said to the demon in a stern voice: “Don’t be arrogant because of your powerful magic and cruelly poison the people. I advise you to turn over a new leaf. Otherwise, let’s see who is better!” How can the demon, who has always been extremely vicious, be persuaded by kind words? The demon shouted frantically: “Who do you think you are? How dare you compete with me!
Come on, let’s compete! If you lose, I will swallow you into my stomach. I will not lose. If I lose, I would rather jump into the sea!” Gaxian said: “Okay, you first move this huge stone at the entrance of the cave from here to the mountain 150 miles away in one breath.” The demon picked up the stone without hesitation and walked away. Sometimes he lifted the stone with one hand, and sometimes he held the stone under his arm, wanting to show his ability to Gaxian. When the demon walked 100 miles and was still 50 miles away from the mountain, Gaxian secretly chanted a spell, and the stone suddenly became 10 times heavier. The demon could not move, and the stone fell to the ground.
Gaxian smiled slightly, walked over and kicked the stone up with his toes. The stone turned a few times and fell into his hand. Gaxian put the stone on the top of the mountain lightly, then glanced at the demon with contempt and said, “How about it, you admit defeat?” The demon said angrily, “This competition cannot determine the winner, let’s compete again. Let’s shoot this stone from the forest to see whose archery is more accurate.” Gaxian said, “Okay, you shoot first!”
The demon used all his strength, and with a bang, he shot the upper right corner of the stone. At this time, the demon opened his mouth like crazy, trying to swallow Gaxian. Gaxian said nonchalantly, “Don’t be happy too soon! Although you hit the stone, you missed it. Now I’ll show you my archery skills!”
After that, Gaxian calmly held the bow in his left hand, put the arrow in his right hand, and shot it with a whoosh. The huge stone was pebbled everywhere. It turned out that a round hole as big as a wheel was shot through the center of the stone.
When the demon saw that Gaxian had such great power and knew that he could not resist, he screamed in despair and ran to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. People knew that the demon was vicious and insidious, and feared that he would return to the forest again, so they built a stone statue of Gaxian holding a bow and arrow at the entrance of the cave where he lived. Sure enough, the demon looked across the sea three times, but when he saw the majestic figure of Gaxian standing tall, he dared not come back and jumped into the rolling sea again.
From then on, the Oroqen people hunted and lived freely in the dense forests of the Greater Khingan Range. For the first time, they set up the “Immortal Pillar” and lived a peaceful and happy life. In order to commemorate Gaxian, who eliminated harm for the people, people renamed the cave where the demon lived as Gaxian Cave, and the mountain with a hole in the big stone as Kulong Mountain.
