Chapter 13: Cultivation is Hard, Body Refining is Harder (Part Two)
Chapter 13: Cultivation is Hard, Body Refining is Harder (Part Two)
In the blink of an eye, an hour had passed. Tang Jinbiao had already run three circuits back and forth. Forget that he was just a fifteen or sixteen-year-old boy; even an ordinary adult would find doing it twice back-to-back strenuous enough.
“Big… pant… Big Bro… I… I mean… what… when… when is this… this gonna end?”
Tang Jinbiao spoke weakly, panting heavily as he forced his legs to move.
“Keh keh, Young man, can’t handle just three trips? This pitiful state and you dream of cultivating a Heaven-rank Cultivation Technique? Looks like you have a death wish! Shut your trap and keep running! Run until you literally can’t move, got it?!”
The little figure formed by Huang Biaozi’s soul remained perched within Tang Jinbiao’s mind, sneering contemptuously.
“Fck your ancestors!”
Tang Jinbiao was so exhausted that he was barely drawing breath, with no strength left to speak aloud; he could only stew with silent fury inside.
“Damn me, are my morals this rotten? Others reborn into another world either get talent or stumble onto some incredible treasure through dumb luck. Me? Stuck in a half-crippled body the moment I arrive. Barely manage to find something, thought it was Han Paopao’s little bottle, but turns out after all that it was… Aw hell!”
Tang Jinbiao cursed inwardly, but his footsteps didn’t stop at all. Though nowhere near the long, swift, graceful strides he managed at the start, they were still surprisingly rhythmic. Of course, this wasn’t due to the current Tang Jinbiao’s efforts, but rather remnants of the previous Tang Jinbiao’s physical conditioning.
Ordinary Cultivators focus on Magical Power, and though their bodies also become quite robust as their power increases, they are far inferior to those who specialize in Body Refining, the Body Refining Cultivators.
“Up and at ’em, up and at ’em! No stopping, no stopping! This is just the warm-up!”
Huang Biaozi noted that Tang Jinbiao hadn’t collapsed but was persisting. A trace of satisfaction appeared on his face as he continued to encourage him.
“Stop bugging me!”
By now, Tang Jinbiao utterly despised Huang Biaozi. He had a feeling he was stepping onto a path of no return starting today.
“Hahaha…”
Huang Biaozi wasn’t angered in the least and just laughed heartily.
…
“Don’t just let gravity take you on the downhill! Use your body to control your pace! It must be like your heart and feet are one! You stop when I tell you to stop! Taking even one extra step means failure!”
“Idiot, you pig! When I say stop, you STOP!”
“Bullsht! Don’t blather at me about momentum! It’s purely you not trying hard enough! Again! Start over!”
…
Tang Jinbiao ran back and forth, over and over again. Sometimes sprinting, sometimes jogging. He ran for more than five hours straight. Only when the sky darkened did Tang Jinbiao finally collapse, his entire body completely exhausted.
“Fck me! I quit! Not running anymore! This Body Refining Technique isn’t for humans!”
Tang Jinbiao plopped down onto the ground, arms throwing wide as if washing his hands of the whole affair. Logically, he should have been far past the point of exhaustion, yet he still somehow found the strength to vent.
“Hahaha! How’s that, kid? Had enough of the suffering? Come on, then! Listen to this old man! I’ll impart to you the Way of Deception! Just apply yourself seriously! With your innate qualities, this old man dares to guarantee you’ll reach the Second Step within three years!”
Seeing Tang Jinbiao suffer a setback actually made Huang Biaozi happy. That insidiously tempting voice once again resounded within Tang Jinbiao’s mind.
“Piss off! I’m a good student! I’m not learning that crap! That’s enough for today! Run any more and I’ll ruin my kidneys for sure!”
Tang Jinbiao struggled back to his feet and staggered step by step towards his own room.
After eating dinner and taking a shower, Tang Jinbiao did absolutely nothing – he simply fell straight onto his bed and blacked out.
…
He slept straight through until noon the next day. The moment Tang Jinbiao woke up, waves of aching soreness immediately surged out from every part of his body.
“Ah, fuck, why was it so painful?”
Tang Jinbiao wanted to get up, but then he discovered that his body just wouldn’t obey him at all.
“Hehe, kid, you admit you were wrong, right? To go so hard in the very first training session, and not even do any massage or soak in medicinal liquid afterwards—what a fucking genius you are! Hmph, not even the legendary barbarians have anyone like you!”
While Tang Jinbiao was suffering immense pain, Huang Biaozi’s voice echoed in his mind again, with a tone of utter contempt.
“You fucking knew this would happen? Why didn’t you fucking tell me yesterday?”
Hearing this, Tang Jinbiao flew into a rage. If Huang Biaozi were really standing in front of him right then, and he truly had a watermelon cleaver in his hand, he would’ve hacked him over seventy times!
“Hmph, joke, who do you think I am, old Huang Biaozi? Known as the ancestor of the Way of Deception—how could I not know about this? I sincerely intended to pass on the great Dao to you, and yet you, kid, still picked over every detail! Hmph, truly so ungrateful, not recognizing a kind heart!”
Seeing Tang Jinbiao apparently getting angry, Huang Biaozi mocked him even more derisively.
“I Bought a Watch Last Year!”
Tang Jinbiao hated it so much that his gums itched.
“Young Master, Young Master, do you still want lunch?”
Just at that moment, Little Lv’s voice came from outside the door.
“Eat, eat, eat? Eat shit! Always thinking about food all day—are you a pig!”
Tang Jinbiao was boiling with anger right then, and the soreness and pain across his body surged over him in waves after waves. He had no appetite at all, so he simply yelled and cursed.
“…”
Outside the door, Little Lv was speechless.
…
If an ordinary person suffered such torment, they surely wouldn’t have been able to get out of bed for three to five days. Fortunately, Tang Jinbiao’s father was a pill refiner and a Core Formation Cultivator himself, so to him, this little matter was a piece of cake. After a simple massage and one dose of elixir, he was bouncing back lively into a healthy young man.
…
After being cured by Tang Zhantian, Tang Jinbiao didn’t give up and headed out to run that mountain path again. But that day turned out much like the previous one, with roughly ten round trips completed.
Luckily, based on the first day’s experience, after finishing his run, he didn’t seek out his father. Instead, he went to the Third Elder. After a brief account, the Third Elder readily gave him many elixirs and medicinal herbs, explained their uses, and also handed him a special storage pouch.
What made this storage pouch special was that even a Mortal could use it—unlike regular storage pouches that required Spiritual Energy to activate.
Tang Jinbiao naturally didn’t hold back. He accepted all the items, returned home, and soaked in the medicinal bath while taking the elixir.
…
“Fuck, back when I read novels, the protagonists were rich, but only through killing and robbing, swindling and stealing, or by sheer dumb luck in various risky chances that took life-threatening dangers to get wealthy. But me? Once Huang Biaozi possessed me, with just a few wild exaggerations, everything came rolling in. What the hell kind of world is this?”
Tang Jinbiao was soaking in a huge wooden tub full of medicinal liquid then—it should’ve been perfectly enjoyable, but he felt deeply unbalanced inside.
“Haha, kid, now you see the benefits, right? Old me tells you—when you learn the Way of Deception arts to a certain level, forget about these puny Cultivators, even the gods in the sky would live and die for you at your word! And if you reach the legendary final stage, cats and dogs would obey you! What do you think? Learn the Way of Deception with me! Old me won’t charge you 998 tuition, and won’t make you shout ‘teacher’ all day long! What do you say? Tempted, huh? Wanting beats just wishing! Come on, young man, learn the Way of Deception with me! As long as you learn the Way of Deception, this world will lie beneath your feet; as long as you learn the Way of Deception, every Goddess will belong to…”
Huang Biaozi’s voice echoed in Tang Jinbiao’s mind yet again, relentlessly determined to achieve his goal, fully embodying the spirit of drilling in wherever needed like a stubborn nail.
“Go away, go away! You make it sound all nice. But what if people ignore your bullshit? If they come at you fighting and killing from the start, wouldn’t you just get sacrificed in vain?”
Tang Jinbiao dared not trust Huang Biaozi’s tactics in such moments. If the other person wouldn’t listen from the beginning and attacked outright, he’d be dead without even knowing who to accuse for injustice.
“Haha, kid, you’re tempted, right? Actually, learning this Way of Deception stuff is dead simple. As long as you study seriously, old me will teach seriously!”
Noticing Tang Jinbiao was a bit swayed, Huang Biaozi instantly spoke to tempt him, acting as if learning his Way of Deception arts guaranteed boundless prosperity every single day.
“Teach your damned sister! I’m going to rest now—practice again tomorrow!”
Tang Jinbiao didn’t want to deal with Huang Biaozi any longer. He climbed out of the medicinal tub and put on his clothes, but suddenly remembered something and asked, “Hey, Huang Biaozi, if I keep training like this, how long will it take before I can cultivate the simplest Huang-rank low-level Body Refining Technique?”
“Hmm… hmm…”
Huang Biaozi didn’t answer Tang Jinbiao right away but muttered in hesitation.
“Fuck, Huang Biaozi, you weren’t tricking me, were you?”
Tang Jinbiao felt a heavy thud in his chest with an ominous premonition.
“No, no, old Huang Biaozi is fair to all and cheats no one—how could I mislead you? And stop defaming the term ‘trick’ from now on—what you call ‘trick’ and what I call it aren’t on the same level at all. Still, if you train as hard as you have been, probably at most three months, and you’ll be able to cultivate it!”
Huang Biaozi seemed conflicted, but hearing Tang Jinbiao likely misunderstood him, he quickly spoke up to deny it.
“Three months? Why the fuck don’t you go rob someone instead? Three months—you’ll exhaust me to death!”
Learning it would take that long, Tang Jinbiao cursed savagely in his heart.
“Haha, it wasn’t me forcing you to train—you chose it yourself! Whether you exercise or not is your call. Old me doesn’t know anything else, won’t teach anything else—only the Way of Deception. Take it or leave it. Others kneel and beg me to teach them, and I detest it. But you, kid? Holding a gold brick yet gnawing steamed buns daily—deserve to be a total loser forever!”
Huang Biaozi privately felt immense bliss over it, especially upon seeing Tang Jinbiao’s frustrated look, which multiplied his joy infinitely.
“Fuck off! I’m going to sleep!”
Tang Jinbiao cursed and couldn’t be bothered with Huang Biaozi anymore. He withdrew his focus and started walking toward his own bedroom…