Physical Cultivation
The rooms provided to the guests were wide and works of art. Mu Yu sprawled out on his bed. Cheng Yan poured a cup of tea he brewed for their shifu and asked, “Mu Yu, do you want a cup?”
“I’ll pass. Tea tastes horrible.” Mu Yu considered tea bitter and inferior to even Uncle An’s soups.
Feng Haochen smiled. “Tea can calm one’s mind. The art of tea is about what you reap after the bitter taste. Drinking tea isn’t about appreciating its taste but what it does mentally.”
Mu Yu touched his head. “That is too profound. Profound things are not for me.”
Cheng Yan shook his head and sat down in front of his shifu. Mu Yu let his mind wander to the upcoming competition and queried, “Shifu, can I participate in tomorrow’s competition?”
“Sure. It’s a learning experience.”
“Awesome. Shifu, what sort of competition is it? Is it a literature, martial arts or combination of both?”
Mu Yu thought he was well educated after spending two years with Feng Haochen. Occasionally, he’d recite, “As the sun sets, birds sing one final song.”
“Cheng Yan, you tell him,” Feng Haochen instructed.
“The rules are simple. Among the twenty sects, each sect will send out one member to spar with the other nineteen in a round-robin tournament format. Each sect is permitted seven entrants. Each contest is decided between seven contestants. In other words, seven competitors will have to fight nineteen matches. If two sects share the same placing, the two sects will have another contest. That is how placings are decided.”
“Will you join me?” questioned Mu Yu. “We can be Team Cheng Mu Yan Yu. Who knows? We might win.”
Cheng Yan chuckled under his breath and shook his head. “To ensure it’s fair, the entrants are young disciples under twenty-five and restricted to those no more advanced than Foundation Establishment Realm. As soon as I fight, the Golden Core Realm elders will pick up on my real cultivation level. If you wish to compete, you will have to fight nineteen sects in nineteen matches. They’ll have substitutes, but you’ll be on your own.”
Mu Yu’s smile froze. “Man, we should’ve brought Ling’er and Xiang Nan.”
“It’s not as if you need to win. You can pick your fights and quit.”
“What are the cultivation levels of the other twenty year old cultivators?”
Cheng Yan paused to think, then answered, “Normally, cultivators of our sect’s calibre should’ve easily reached Foundation Establishment Realm’s Ninth Layer. I’m sure the top few sects have one or more of them. The lower-ranked sects would be around Foundation Establishment Realm’s Fifth Layer. Some of them may have only just reached Foundation Establishment Realm or are still at Qi Refinement Realm. One of the four from Universe Sect is at Qi Refinement’s Ninth Layer.”
“Are you in your twenties, Senior Brother?”
Cheng Yan nonchalantly shrugged.
Mu Yu rolled his eyes. “Have you almost caught up to Uncle An?”
Cheng Yan pursed his upwardly curved lips. “Stay focused because Xiang Nan and Ling’er have almost ascended to Golden Core Realm. You’ll fall behind if you slack off.”
“So what? Are we going to summon a divine dragon or something after the six of us ascend to Golden Core Realm?”
The dragon summoning with seven swords and eight deities crossing the ocean was a story the village chief told Mu Yu when he was younger. He was only at Foundation Establishment Realm’s Fourth Layer, but he was far ahead of the twins. If Lie Shang joined them, they’d have seven.
Feng Haochen explicated, “Concede if you bump into Universe Sect. Daoist Bo Yang is a good man and helped me out a few years ago. We don’t care about winning or losing but others do.”
Mu Yu nodded, not finding any issue with the request. Triumphing against Universe Sect would only create a snowball effect that’d send the latter down a miserable rabbit hole.
Up until then, Mu Yu had only bumped into a few cultivators at his level who could challenge him. He had yet to tell anyone about the loss of control he experienced during his tussle with Li Yuan.
Mu Yu went out for an early morning stroll after attaining permission from his shifu. In front of the courtyard was a small forest. Further up ahead was where Green Pine Sect’s disciples resided. Not interested in them, he turned beforehand and came across an old red tower. The plaque on the tower emitting a solemn ambience read “Library”. The text was engraved in gold. He tried to enter and find out what was within, but two disciples from Green Pine Sect stopped him.
“This is Green Pine Sect’s forbidden zone. Outsiders are not to trespass,” warned the disciple, condescendingly.
Mu Yu turned around and walked off, muttering under his breath, “Library of what? Pornographic books? Grandpa said those things would ruin your mental health, genius.”
The library was where Green Pine Sect stored all of their cultivation methods reserved for their members. Every sect had a place similar to it – besides Dustfallen Sect. That was why Mu Yu didn’t know what a library was.
Mu Yu kicked a stone. Upon looking up, he spotted a youth sitting on a stone chair underneath a tree. Mu Yu recognised the youth who was cleaning his ordinary-looking iron sword carefully with a piece of cloth. He was Universe Sect’s disciple, a seemingly aloof individual who piqued Mu Yu’s curiosity. Mu Yu went over and across the stone table.
“Hi, I’m Mu Yu.”
“Universe Sect’s Gu Yitian.” Gu Yitian glanced up at Mu Yu, still indifferent as before, reminding Mu Yu of Uncle An’s expression.
“How come you carry your magic weapon on your back instead of storing it away?”
“It’s not a magic weapon; it’s just an ordinary sword.”
That was the first time Mu Yu heard any cultivator concerned himself with an ordinary sword. “So… how do you fly?”
“Will Cheng Yan be competing tomorrow?”
Mu Yu was dumbstruck for a second upon hearing the unexpected question. Whilst thinking Gu Yitian was in over his head, he queried, “What, you want to train with him?”
“I have a hunch he’s strong, so I want to challenge him.”
Mu Yu shrugged. “You’re going to be disappointed, then. Our sect isn’t interested in competitions, so he doesn’t plan to partake in it. I will, however. Maybe we can have a spar.”
“You’re not my target. I’m after the ones deemed to have aptitude. We’re all grey-rank disciples; there’s no reason for us to spar.”
Daoist Bo Yang recruited the grey-rank disciples back then to make up numbers. Since Dustfallen Sect was ranked dead last, Gu Yitian concluded Mu Yu was inferior to himself.
“You’re also a grey-rank disciple? Oh, man, how come nobody chose me? I’m not ugly.” Mu Yu slapped himself gently after realising how ungrateful he sounded.
“If nobody thinks highly of you, why would you be here?”
“I was kidding. Are you really a grey-rank disciple?”
“Aptitude is a worthless measure. Have you heard of body cultivation?”
Physical cultivation, a difficult cultivation style, was a last resort for those lacking innate aptitude. Simply put, the cultivator had to subject their body to tremendous pain to break their limits and go beyond. Obviously, unwavering willpower was a compulsory component if one was to deliberately subject themselves to pain daily.
Unlike cultivators who wielded spiritual energy, they used their sheer physical might. Upon reaching a certain threshold, they would possess might comparable to cultivators wielding spiritual energy. The majority of those who attempted physical cultivation quit due to the excruciating pain. Gu Yitian’s persistence to pursue it was a testament to his mental fortitude.
“You’re a physical cultivator?”
Gu Yitian placed his sword down on the table. Its weight tipped the table onto an angle. Hence, he used a hand to balance it out: “This sword weighs a thousand kilograms, so I have to carry it on my back. I lack the spiritual energy to use Sleeve Universe.”
Mu Yu was wowed.
Gu Yitian picked up his sword and left. Mu Yu was eager to witness the power of body cultivation tomorrow.
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