BXBX NOVEL Chapter 13 - 12 Lifting Heavily as if Lightly, Lifting Lightly as if Heavily_1
This water vat alone weighs at least 440 pounds! No matter how much he, Lu Yang, enjoyed playing in the mountains as a child, climbing trees and diving into rivers, hunting birds and catching fish, he could not lift such a heavy vat.
With a casual wave, Yun Zhi drew a talisman on the vat and it became much lighter, just enough for Lu Yang to lift it with one hand.
She took out a puppet to supervise Lu Yang.
“Let’s see how it goes after carrying it for a day.”
Yun Zhi left behind these indifferent words and disappeared into the clouds. Lu Yang and the puppet stared at each other before he sighed, tied his shirt around his waist, and began the torturous task of carrying the vat.
The puppet supervised him, making him continue to carry the vat after each short rest, exploiting every ounce of his strength.
When his arms were so tired they could not move, the puppet would feed him two Great Restoration Pills. When the pain in his arms was unbearable, the puppet would feed him two more pills. When Lu Yang was too tired and wanted to sleep, the puppet would again feed him two pills…
By the end of the day, Lu Yang was trembling, his arms limp, utterly unable to sense his arms anymore. If he swayed his body to the left, his left arm swung like a pendulum, if he swayed to the right, his right arm swung in the same way, and then he collapsed on the ground with a thud.
As usual, the puppet fed him two Great Restoration Pills. Seeing that Lu Yang showed no reaction, it ended the day’s training and arranged a cart to take Lu Yang back, even covering him with a straw mat.
Smelling the delicious aroma of food, Lu Yang started drooling, and his consciousness gradually returned.
Finally able to eat, Lu Yang sighed in relief. If he hadn’t been able to eat, he would have thought himself not an apprentice of a cultivation sect, but a criminal whose major crimes could not be pardoned and imprisoned in a dungeon.
As an apprentice of the Sect Leader, he did not need to worry about food. Instead of taking fasting pills every day, Yun Zhi prepared various dishes made from rare ingredients he did not recognize, subtly improving his body.
Lu Yang still couldn’t lift his arms, the puppet had to feed him.
After dinner, Yun Zhi made a large pot of body-refining concoction for Lu Yang to bathe in. The smell of spiritual herbs in the air almost made Lu Yang faint.
“Take this.” Yun Zhi handed Lu Yang a hollow reed.
“What is this?”
“You need to immerse your whole body in the body-refining concoction when you bathe. Your head will obviously stick out, so when you’re ready, dip your head in and breathe through this reed.”
Lu Yang felt that it really was just like Eldest Senior Sister to think of everything. Although she was torturing him, it was for his own good.
After Yun Zhi left, Lu Yang stripped naked, bit down on the reed, and jumped into the tub with a splash, instantly releasing a scream that resembled a pig being butchered.
“Eldest Senior Sister, are you bathing with boiling water?”
…
Yun Zhi arrived at the courtyard where a cool breeze blew, dispersing the smell of the medicinal bath lingering on her. She started to consider what else she hadn’t thought about.
She grew up in a Cave Heaven occupied by cultivators, and later joined the Seek Dao Sect to focus on cultivation, seldomly interacting with ordinary people, so she knew little about them.
For the sake of teaching Lu Yang, she purposely found many books describing ordinary people’s lives. While Lu Yang was learning about cultivation, she was learning about the lives of ordinary people.
However, it was clear that the books describing ordinary people did not include the temperature of their bath water.
Hearing Lu Yang’s hoarse screams, Yun Zhi thought for a moment. It was too late to cool the water now, so the only option was…
Yun Zhi took out a bottle of burn ointment from her sleeve and placed it by the door, then knocked on the door.
“Junior Brother, I left the burn ointment at the door, remember to use it.”
…
After some time, with the relentless cultivation exercises, the special medicinal baths, and eating spirit beast meat, Lu Yang had transformed from an ordinary person to an outstanding artist skilled at juggling vats.
Lu Yang juggled three vats, each weighing 440 pounds, as easily as if they were sandbags, forming an arc in the air.
At the same time, he was able to walk around the rim of the vat in Eight Diagrams steps as easily as if he was walking on flat ground.
Even when he tipped a vat over and steadied himself on the rolling vat, he was as stable as a mountain and had enough strength left to juggle three more vats!
With this skill alone, he could attract cheers on any street!
“Not bad, your body refinement progress is faster than I expected.” Yun Zhi gave a light clap, greatly boosting Lu Yang’s confidence.
Though Yun Zhi wasn’t often seen, she had been keeping an eye on Lu Yang’s progress.
“Can I start cultivating now?” Lu Yang put the vat down and asked excitedly, waiting for the result without breathing hard.
During his body refinement period, Meng Jingzhou came to see him, but the puppet chased him away after a few words.
He heard that those in his cohort like Meng Jingzhou and Man Gu had already started channeling Qi into their bodies, became real cultivators and meditated every day, detached from the world, while he was still stuck in the hard process of body-refinement. This caused him some anxiety, feeling like he was lagging far behind, and the psychological gap was huge.
Yun Zhi didn’t answer, pulling out a piece of tofu from her storage space. The tofu was extremely soft, trembling in Yun Zhi’s fair hand as if it was a water-filled balloon.
“Turn your palm down and grab it.”
Lu Yang didn’t think this should be hard and obediently followed her instruction, gripping the tofu. However, his finger slightly moved and the tofu crumbled, dropping to the ground.
Yun Zhi gave Lu Yang another piece of tofu, signaling him to continue.
Lu Yang refused to accept his failure, thinking the first time was an accident and that he shouldn’t make the same mistake the second time.
Yet the tofu crumbled again, impossible to hold.
After failing for the third time, Lu Yang realized the problem–his current strength was too great and naturally hard to control. The things around him were all tools for cultivators; if replaced with ordinary items, he would have to eat very carefully to avoid accidentally breaking his chopsticks or his bowl.
Moreover, his strength had grown too quickly, and his mind hadn’t caught up with his body yet. His fingers spasming from time to time underscored this issue.
Given these conditions, it was not going to be easy to hold something as soft as tofu.
Yun Zhi didn’t give Lu Yang any more tofu. Instead, with her palm down, she held the tofu and shook it casually. The tofu trembled but did not break apart.
Suddenly, Yun Zhi released her hand, and as the tofu fell, she quickly grabbed it once more!
Lu Yang’s eyes widened. Catching the falling tofu? How could it be easy?
Under Eldest Senior Sister’s control, the soft tofu was as malleable as iron, easily manipulated.
“You have mastered lifting a heavy weight as though it were light, but you are a long way from lifting light weights as though they were heavy.”
Lu Yang fell silent, knowing that he still had a long way to go in refining his body. The process of cultivation cannot be rushed. Meng Jingzhou and the others have been trained since childhood, enabling them to start cultivating directly.
Catching up with them would not be easy.
He had nobody to coach him as a child, but now, under Eldest Senior Sister’s personal guidance, and supported by the best resources, his progress was amazing. He had no reason not to be satisfied.
Lu Yang remembered what Eldest Senior Sister told him: cultivation is a lifelong process, and temporary advantages or disadvantages didn’t matter. What mattered the most was who could persevere until the end.
Lu Yang took a deep breath, realizing that his previous mindset was wrong. He readjusted his mindset by not focusing solely on his cultivation progress.
Then he saw Eldest Senior Sister instruct the puppet to push over a cart full of tofu.