This water jar must weigh at least two hundred pounds! No matter how much Lu Yang loved playing in the mountains as a child—climbing trees, wading in rivers, hunting birds, and catching fish—he couldn’t lift such a heavy jar.
Yun Zhi casually drew a symbol on the jar, and suddenly, its weight dropped to a level that Lu Yang could lift it with one hand.
She took out a puppet to supervise him.
“Just lift it for a day and see how it goes.”
With that, Yun Zhi vanished into the clouds. Lu Yang and the puppet exchanged glances, sighed, tied his shirt around his waist, and began the tough task of lifting the jar.
The puppet stood by to supervise. After a short rest, Lu Yang had to continue lifting the jar, pushing him to use every bit of his strength.
When his arms got too tired, the puppet fed him a couple of energy pills. When his arms were too sore to move, the puppet fed him more pills. When Lu Yang felt sleepy, the puppet fed him more pills…
By the end of the day, Lu Yang’s legs were shaking, his arms hung limply, and he couldn’t feel them at all. If he swayed to the left, his left arm swung like a pendulum; if he swayed to the right, his right arm did the same, and then he collapsed onto the ground with a thud.
As usual, the puppet fed him two more energy pills. Seeing Lu Yang’s lack of response, it had to end the day’s training, found a small cart, and pushed Lu Yang back, covering him with a straw mat.
As soon as he smelled the food, Lu Yang’s body reacted, and he started drooling. His awareness gradually returned.
Finally, he could eat! Lu Yang sighed in relief. If he couldn’t eat, he would have thought he wasn’t joining a sect of immortals but was instead guilty of a terrible crime, locked up in a water prison.
Being under the master’s care meant he didn’t have to worry about food. He didn’t have to take fasting pills every day, as he enjoyed delicious dishes made from various rare ingredients that quietly improved his body.
Lu Yang still couldn’t lift his arms, so the puppet fed him throughout the meal.
After eating, Yun Zhi brewed a big pot of body-enhancing medicine and told Lu Yang to bathe in it. The scent of the spiritual medicine in the air almost knocked him over.
“Here.” Yun Zhi handed Lu Yang a hollow reed.
“What’s this?”
“You need to soak your whole body in the medicine. Your head will be out of the tub while you bathe, so bite down on the reed and keep your head submerged. Use it to breathe.”
Lu Yang thought his senior sister was really thoughtful. Even though she was tough on him, it was for his own good.
After Yun Zhi left, Lu Yang stripped down, bit the reed, and jumped into the wooden tub with a splash, followed by a heart-wrenching scream.
“Senior sister, are you using boiling water for the bath?!”
…
Yun Zhi walked into the small courtyard, and a gentle breeze blew away the scent of the medicinal bath from her. She began to think about what else she might have overlooked.
Having grown up in a cave of immortals, everyone she interacted with were cultivators. Later, she joined the sect of Wenda, focusing on her training and rarely mingling with the mortal world, so she knew little about ordinary people.
To teach Lu Yang, she specifically found many books about mortals. While Lu Yang studied the knowledge of cultivating, she also learned about ordinary life.
However, it was clear that the books didn’t mention the temperature of bathwater for mortals.
Hearing Lu Yang’s hoarse cries, Yun Zhi thought for a moment. It was too late to cool the water now, so she could only…
Yun Zhi took out a bottle of burn ointment from her sleeve, placed it at the door, and knocked.
“Little junior brother, I left the burn ointment at the door. Remember to use it.”
…
Some time passed. With the relentless training, eating spiritual beast meat, and special medicinal baths, Lu Yang finally transformed from an ordinary person with burns and peeling skin into an excellent folk artist skilled in lifting jars.
He tossed three two-hundred-pound jars around like they were sandbags, creating arcs in the air.
At the same time, he could walk in circles on the edge of the jars, moving as easily as if he were on flat ground.
He even managed to lie on a rolling jar while keeping his balance, with enough strength left to juggle the other three jars!
Just this skill alone could earn him cheers on the street!
“Not bad, your body training is progressing even faster than I expected,” Yun Zhi clapped lightly, giving Lu Yang a huge boost of confidence.
Although Yun Zhi rarely showed up, she had been paying attention to Lu Yang’s progress all along.
“Can I start cultivating now?” Lu Yang set the jars down, eagerly asking, holding his breath in anticipation.
During his training, Meng Jingzhou had come to see him but was quickly sent away by the puppet after just a few words.
He heard that Meng Jingzhou and others who started at the same time as him had already begun to draw energy into their bodies and become real cultivators, meditating and training every day, rising above the mundane. Meanwhile, he was still struggling with body training, which made him feel anxious, thinking he was falling too far behind.
Yun Zhi didn’t answer. Instead, she took out a piece of tofu from her storage space. The tofu was very soft, trembling in Yun Zhi’s fair palm like a water-filled balloon.
“Hold it with your palm facing down.”
Lu Yang thought this was easy and obediently did as told. He grabbed the tofu, but as soon as he moved his fingers slightly, it squished and fell apart, making a mess.
Yun Zhi handed him another piece of tofu, signaling him to try again.
Lu Yang, not believing in bad luck, thought the first time was an accident and that he would surely succeed the second time.
But the tofu was still squished and couldn’t be held.
After failing the third time, Lu Yang realized the problem. His hands were too strong to control. Everything around him was meant for cultivators. If he used ordinary items, he had to be careful even when eating, or he might accidentally snap his chopsticks or break his bowl.
His strength was growing too fast, and his mind couldn’t keep up with his body, which caused his fingers to spasm from time to time.
So, grabbing a piece of soft tofu was not an easy task.
Yun Zhi stopped handing him tofu. She held a piece herself, shaking it casually, and the tofu wobbled without falling apart.
Suddenly, she let go, and the tofu dropped, but she quickly grabbed it again!
Lu Yang’s eyes widened. Catching the falling tofu was no small feat!
Under his senior sister’s control, the soft tofu felt as hard as iron, easily manipulated.
“You’ve already learned to lift heavy things lightly, but you’re still far from lifting light things heavily.”
Lu Yang fell silent. He knew he was still far from finishing his body training. Cultivation couldn’t be rushed; Meng Jingzhou and others had been trained by their families since childhood, which is why they could cultivate directly.
It wouldn’t be easy to catch up to them.
He had no guidance in his early years, but now he could receive his senior sister’s personal instruction and had rare resources to help him. His growth speed was already impressive. Why shouldn’t he be satisfied?
Lu Yang also remembered what his senior sister had said: cultivating was a lifelong journey. Temporary advantages or disadvantages didn’t matter; what mattered was who could laugh in the end.
Lu Yang took a deep breath, realizing he had the wrong mindset before. He adjusted his attitude and stopped obsessing over his training progress.
Then he saw his senior sister signaling the puppet to bring over a cart full of tofu.
(End of Chapter)