Chapter 6: Smart Cultivation

Huff, slowly breathe in,

Fuuh, slowly breathe out.

Huff huff huuuff, three quick successive inhaling,

Fuuh Fuuuhh, twice quickly exhaling.

Imagine your body to be like a pagoda,

Imagine the firmness of a pagoda,

Imagine the weight of a pagoda.

How cringy...

Seated on the wide straw mat on the yellow tiled floor, I was practicing the early steps of 'Copper Pagoda Body' technique. The next step was,

Regulate your breathing,

Strike like a pagoda!

"Huah! hua- oh f*ck no!"

"I can't do this!" I hollered. It was too cringy. I wondered how those wuxia characters did this.

'Maybe I'm not the main character. Everybody says you're the main character of your own life, but... What am I?'

'No no, this is not the time for seeking identity! Time is limited.'

At first, I thought cultivation would be easy as long as I had the means and dedication. Yet, I seemed to have forgotten something.

Originally, I was from earth. Although I had the memories of someone who had practiced cultivation, I myself didn't have any real experience. Even though I know how it works (it really works), I had that uncomfortable feeling due to being educated and raised in a different environment.

If I was born in this world, I wouldn't have found this cringy. I had to adapt. I had to think of an alternative for now.

'If it's just to temper the body, even push-ups work. I'll think of the "dao meaning" behind this technique at a later date.'

As there was no qi involved, this was still within earthly standards. I just had to train my body and understand the 'meaning', in a way that was more comfortable to me.

O-one, tu-twooo, thth-threeee...

And so, I began. My cultivation journey started with neither swords, meditations nor any fancy kung fu. It started with push-ups and squats!

For an hour, I diligently excreted sweat as I repeatedly alternated between push-ups and squats. At the third rank of body tempering, I could go on for two hours but I chose to take a ten minute break in-between.

During that time, I examined this 'cultivation chamber' and found heavy lifting logs, a large iron cauldron with visible punch marks on it, and many other 'equipments' such as whips, real swords and even needles (lots of 'em).

'This couldn't be a torture chamber, could it?' I wondered.

I tried lifting the logs but after just 10 tries, I found myself exhausted. I then started punching the iron cauldron and surprisingly, it didn't hurt as much.

I figured I wasn't punching with the required force, so I started hitting it more fiercely.

For a while, 'tong! tong!' sounds resonated inside the chamber but after sometime, I felt my fingers getting numb. I couldn't open my fists for a while.

In the end, I wasted more than half an hour testing out the various 'equipments.'

"Oh, what are these?" as I came near one of the corners, I found some herb paste inside ceramic jars.

Written neatly below one of those jars on a white tablet was, 'For healing the body, no more than one spoonful.'

"These are spoons?" I picked up a few terribly crafted wooden 'spoons' as I questioned myself. Well, as long as they were usable, I couldn't complain.

Likewise, there were other jars of paste as well. One of the large jars had the powder for literally 'tempering' the body. Out of curiosity, I stripped and spread a handful of it all over my upper body.

I again started doing the push-ups but couldn't notice any difference. After a few minutes, I changed my methods and punched the cauldron a few times.

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Tong!...tong!...tong-TONNNNG!

A loud resonating sound suddenly came as I accidently hit it with much greater force than before.

The vibration spread all over my body and I stumbled a few steps behind due to the sudden opposite force. Yet, despite all my worries, it didn't hurt!

On the contrary, it felt wonderful. It was like finally getting to breathe after being choked up for so long. I felt the pressure of air against my body. My sense of touch seemed to have increased. I felt the pores on my body and my perspiration.

'Again!'

I hit the cauldron but this time, instead of punching, I chose to tackle it with my body.

I felt the same vibration again. It spread through my skin to my flesh and muscles, disappearing as it passed inside me.

Unknowingly, I had assumed the stances of Copper Pagoda Body, and started hitting the cauldron.

An hour passed like that before I started feeling itchy and a little tired. I then noticed that my body was red all over. The powder I smeared on my body was washed over by my profuse sweating.

I stopped my training and slowly touched my skin.

"Ahhh, no worries, no worries, it's just the redness of skin." I doubt anyone could imagine how relieved I was when I realized it wasn't my own blood. Now, that would've been troublesome.

Tired, I sat on the straw mat and carefully examined my body.

'Still, isn't my skin too red at the moment? It feels as if... as if it's made of Copper.'

It was a ridiculous thought, but I really felt the toughness of copper as I touched my skin. Even if I only felt that for a brief moment, I knew it was progress.

I knew Copper Pagoda Body technique like the back of my own hand. The redness of skin meant I might advance in rank.

However, I doubted that was the case. To breakthrough, my skin had to become reddish brown. I was quite not there yet.

'I should try the breathing technique,' as I tried to practice the first steps of Copper Pagoda Body, which I had deemed as too cringy, I noticed something amazing.

I was breathing in the same pattern! All this while, without even realising.

I tried to stand up again, but this time my body felt unbelievably heavy. I was too tired.

Laying flat on the straw mat, I rested for a while. Despite my efforts to not fall asleep, my eyelids annoyingly betrayed me.

...

I didn't know how much time had passed when I woke up. Thankfully, the sun was still on the sky. That meant I had more time.

However, I couldn't bring myself to train again. I was feeling hungry. No mortal could do anything with an empty stomach.

I picked myself up from the floor and donned my robe. Noticing I stank quite a lot, I wanted to take a bath.

'That's enough cultivation for now.'

I went outside and found the corridor as empty as before. Chunu's door was still locked, so I went back the way we came from.

On the way, I saw many practitioners between rank 3 and rank 4. I didn't see anyone who was at rank 5 or above.

After a while, I came before a staircase that led to the second floor, but I was barred from going up. I had to be at least rank 5 in body tempering before the guards let me enter.

So I took a long way to the reception again. I wanted to find that clerk. He still hadn't given me my five silvers change.

Luckily for me, I found him talking to a practitioner dressed in grey robes. Seeing me come over, he ended his talk with her and came to greet me.

"Fellow practitioner, I forgot to give you your change." He took out five silvers from his pouch and handed it to me.

However, instead of taking it, I pushed the money back to him, saying, "Don't be in such a hurry. I'm more interested in learning about the contents of that scroll on Guoguo's hand."

That brown robed practitioner (also known as young master Chai), was really secretive about the 'generous mission'.. It had piqued my interest for a while now.

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