Chapter 12: Lifting Heavy as Light, Light as Heavy

Translator: yikaii Editor: yikaii

“This water tank must weigh at least two hundred pounds!” Lu Yang thought. Even though he grew up playing in the mountains, climbing trees, swimming in rivers, and catching birds and fish, he couldn’t lift such a heavy water tank.

Yun Zhi drew a symbol on the water tank, reducing its weight to a level that Lu Yang could just manage to lift with one hand. She brought out a puppet to supervise him.

“Let’s see how it goes after lifting it for a day,” she said casually before disappearing into the clouds. Left alone with the puppet, Lu Yang sighed, tied his shirt around his waist, and began the arduous task of lifting the tank.

The puppet strictly oversaw the training, pushing Lu Yang to continue lifting the tank whenever he rested, squeezing out every bit of his strength. Whenever his arms were too weak, the puppet would feed him strengthening pills; when they were too sore to move, more pills; and when Lu Yang was too tired to stay awake, yet more pills…

After a day, Lu Yang’s legs trembled, his arms hung limply, and he could no longer feel them. He swayed left and right, his arms swinging like pendulums, before collapsing to the ground.

The puppet routinely fed him two more pills, but seeing no response, it ended the day’s training. It fetched a cart, placed Lu Yang on it, covered him with a straw mat, and pushed him back.

Smelling the scent of food, Lu Yang’s body reacted by salivating, and his consciousness gradually returned.

Relieved to finally be able to eat, Lu Yang thought that if it weren’t for the meal, he would have believed he was being punished in a dungeon for committing heinous crimes, rather than training in an immortal sect.

Being a disciple of the Sect Leader, Lu Yang didn’t have to worry about food and didn’t need to take Fasting Pills every day. He was served various unfamiliar and rare delicacies, silently improving his physique.

Lu Yang still couldn’t lift his arms, so the puppet had to feed him throughout the meal.

After eating, Yun Zhi prepared a large pot of body tempering medicinal bath and instructed Lu Yang to bathe in it. Smelling the strong medicinal aroma in the air, Lu Yang almost fainted.

“Take this,” Yun Zhi handed Lu Yang a hollow reed.

“What’s this for?”

“You need to soak your entire body in the medicinal bath, including your head. Bite on this reed and use it to breathe while your head is submerged.”

Lu Yang appreciated Yun Zhi’s thoughtfulness, even though her methods felt like torture. They were for his benefit, after all.

After Yun Zhi left, Lu Yang stripped naked, bit on the reed, and jumped into the wooden tub, only to let out a blood-curdling scream.

“Senior Sister, are you using boiling water for the bath?!”

…

Yun Zhi, back in her courtyard, felt the breeze blowing away the medicinal scent from her body. She pondered what else she might have overlooked in Lu Yang’s training.

Growing up in a celestial realm and surrounded mostly by cultivators, then dedicating herself to cultivation in the Dao Seeking Sect, she had little experience with mortals. To teach Lu Yang, she had specifically sought out books describing mortal life. While he learned about cultivation, she learned about mortals.

However, it was clear that the books on mortals did not mention the appropriate temperature for a mortal’s bathwater.

Hearing Lu Yang’s hoarse screams, Yun Zhi pondered for a moment. Realizing it was too late to cool down the water now, she took out a bottle of burn ointment, placed it at the door, and knocked.

“Junior Brother, I’ve left the burn ointment at the door for you. Remember to use it.”

…

Time passed, and after relentless training, nourishment from spirit beast meat, and special medicinal baths, Lu Yang transformed from an ordinary mortal with burns and peeling skin into an exceptional civilian artist, adept at juggling heavy water tanks. He tossed three two-hundred-pound water tanks effortlessly, creating arcs in the air. He could also step on the edges of the tanks, walking in Ba Gua steps as if on flat ground. He even stood on a rolling tank as steady as Mount Tai, juggling three other tanks with ease. This skill alone could draw rounds of applause in the streets. (TL Note: Ba Gua steps is a footwork technique https://www.internalartsinternational.com/member/mastering-ba-gua-footwork-linear-mud-stepping-ba-gua-video-lesson-with-tom-bisio/)

“Not bad, your body tempering progress is even faster than I anticipated,” Yun Zhi applauded lightly, boosting Lu Yang’s confidence significantly.

Although Yun Zhi rarely appeared, she always kept a close eye on Lu Yang’s progress.

“Can I start cultivating now?” Lu Yang asked eagerly, placing the tanks down and waiting quietly for the answer without even gasping for breath. During his body tempering period, Meng Jingzhou and others from his cohort had visited him, only to be chased away by the puppet.

He heard that Meng Jingzhou, Barbarian Bone, and others had already begun cultivating, elevating themselves above the mundane world, while he was still toiling away at body tempering. This made him somewhat anxious, feeling left behind and struggling with a sense of inferiority.

Yun Zhi didn’t respond but took out a piece of tofu from her storage space. The tofu was extremely soft, trembling in her fair hands like a water-filled balloon.

“Hold it with your palm facing down.”

Lu Yang, thinking it was easy, complied and grasped the tofu. But the moment his fingers moved slightly, the tofu crumbled and fell to the ground.

Yun Zhi handed him another piece of tofu, signaling him to continue.

Lu Yang, refusing to believe it was impossible, thought the first time was an accident and that he would succeed the second time. However, the tofu still crumbled and couldn’t be held.

After failing the third time, Lu Yang realized the issue. His strength was too great, barely controllable. Everything around him was made for cultivators, but if he were to use ordinary objects, he’d have to be extremely careful not to break chopsticks or crush bowls while eating.

His strength had grown too quickly, and his mind hadn’t caught up with his body’s speed, causing his fingers to spasm occasionally.

Holding a piece of tofu as soft as water was not as easy as it seemed.

Yun Zhi stopped handing him tofu. With a downward gesture, she held the tofu and shook it gently. Despite the shaking, the tofu remained intact.

Suddenly, she let go of the tofu, and as it fell, she caught it again with incredible speed!

Lu Yang watched in awe, wondering how one could catch falling tofu without destroying it.

Under Yun Zhi’s control, the soft tofu was as easy to handle as a piece of iron, freely manipulated.

“You’ve mastered lifting heavy as if it’s light, but lifting light as if it’s heavy is still far beyond your reach.”

Lu Yang remained silent, aware that he was far from completing his body tempering. Cultivation couldn’t be rushed. Meng Jingzhou and the others had been trained by their families from a young age, allowing them to start cultivating directly.

Catching up with them wouldn’t be easy. He had grown up without guidance, but now, with direct instruction from Yun Zhi and the aid of heavenly materials and treasures, his progress was already astonishing. What reason did he have to be dissatisfied?

Lu Yang remembered Yun Zhi’s words, saying that cultivation was a lifelong journey. Temporary advantages or disadvantages didn’t matter; what counted was who lasted till the end.

Taking a deep breath, Lu Yang adjusted his mindset, no longer obsessing over his cultivation progress. Then he saw Yun Zhi instructing the puppet to push over a cart full of tofu.

(End of the chapter)