บท 20: Sanctification of the Mortal
บรรณาธิการ: Chrissy
The satisfaction of eating his fill belatedly came, but it was a truly content and fulfilling moment when at long last, he felt full. His body was cloaked in warmth. He lay supine on the chair, cherishing this delayed arrival of unparalleled delightfulness.
The dining table had been peppered with empty plates. Chu Feng was a bit astounded. How much had I eaten? Am I actually becoming a proper rice bucket?
Near him, Yellow Ox was sleeping soundly with a bulging belly.
There was a surging feeling of drowsiness in his head. He could no longer resist the urge to sleep, so he fell asleep as soon as he went back to his room. It was a night of sound slumber. He did not wake up until noon.
His stomach growled again. It was hunger that woke him up. Chu Feng was shocked. "Am I going to spend my whole life in this vicious cycle of 'eat then sleep' for eternity from now on? How do I then differ myself from a pig?"
Yellow Ox had woken up hours before him. While Chu Feng was still deep in his slumber, the calf was seeking for food to eat all around the house. It had disposed of all the fruits and veggies from the fridge, and even these were not enough for it. It came to beg Chu Feng for more food.
"Be patient, young lad. I will make some stewed beef for you very soon," Chu Feng sourly said. He fetched a chunk of raw meat from the freezer and took it into the kitchen.
The calf looked, glared, and lurched to its hind hooves. Its pair of horns beamed with glitters as puffs of white vapors fumed out of its nostrils. It squared off with Chu Feng at the entrance hallway to the kitchen.
"Go, go, go. Don't stand here and bother me. These are pork chops," Chu Feng said with a guilty conscience.
In the end, Yellow Ox did eat up all the chops Chu Feng had prepared for it.
For himself, he stewed a pot of beef for himself with resolute determination. He told the calf in a solemn manner that he was in fact eating mutton, and because mutton did usually taste quite fishy, he advised it not to eat.
Yellow Ox was growing suspicious. It frequently looked into the pot and opened its mouth for a couple of times. No-one knew whether it was going to taste the meat or wanting to say something, but in the end, Chu Feng finished the pot of beef without much disturbance from the calf.
"What a bastard. It really has a good sense of smell, doesn't it? It will be really troublesome for me in the future to eat anything beef-related." Afraid of being found out, Chu Feng cursed under his breath.
At the same time, he also made an unspoken criticism. To him, it seemed almost absurd for a cow to be carnivorous.
But to his relief, his appetite today was no longer as prodigious as yesterday. He had eaten much less.
He then came to the yard, clutching onto the burdensome stone table with only one of his hands. He could lift the table over his head single-handedly with ease.
Chu Feng wanted to know how much strength he actually possessed. He had his eyes on a landscape stone in the yard. It was a heavy bulk of stone. Back then, it took the collaborated effort of dozens of men to settle it in that corner of the yard. It could easily weigh up to seven hundred jin.
It was a big chunk as well, which meant profound difficulty to grab it in the first place. Yet, Chu Feng still managed to grip it firmly, then with a sudden force, he lifted up this brownish hunk of stone.
Then, with a deafening bang, he slammed the stone onto the ground. Even the earth's surface trembled upon impact.
Chu Feng was spellbound. His two arms had possessed strength to an enormous scale. He had never expected himself to lift such a heavy dollop of stone. This, to him, was indeed startling.
If this were seen by another man, perhaps he would have the reaction that bore no difference to his.
"It's way more than just a tenfold increase in strength," Chu Feng murmured.
Then, he took out a timer and left the yard. He planned to test his speed. Upon setting off at a blistering pace, Chu Feng swished through the air. He could hear wind whirring and see the trees rapidly retreating beside him.
"Three seconds for a hundred meters?" Chu Feng was so awed at the sight of his own result that he could hardly speak.
Although his speed wasn't ten times that of a normal human being, but this still came as a start. It beat all the recorded limit of a human's speed by not just a narrow margin.
He was left in a trance for a long while.
Then, he made a number of other attempts. From his vision and fighting ability to reflex speed and hearing, all had improved by a wide margin. Of course, everything was roughly estimated, so the results might not be perfectly accurate.
Chu Feng was glad and afraid at the same time. His skin looked sparkling and crystal-clear as if he had been reborn for a second time. Vaguely, there was even a smell of fragrance on his body.
This was somewhat similar to the recounted stories about those priests and monks. Their bodies remained intact and fragrant even after death, and the cause of it remained as an unresolved mystery today.
In the following two days, Chu Feng quietly remained at home behind closed doors, focusing on the changes happening to his body. He performed the breathing exercises once in the morning and once in the night.
He found that his appetite had also returned to normal, and the changes within his body had also become more stable and subtler than before.
Meanwhile, Yellow Ox was getting lazier and lazier. How it wished it could sleep from sunrise to sunset. But as days passed by, it gradually returned to normal as well. It regained its interest and started fondling with Chu Feng's communicator again.
This reminded Chu Feng of the embarrassment from last time. "Demon Ox, I'm here to warn you: don't you touch my communicator, or I will bash you without a doubt!"
"Moo!" Yellow Ox took his warning for granted.
"I have things to do now, so I don't have the time to deal with you at the moment," Chu Feng said. He wanted to run another comprehensive test with Doctor Wang on his body.
Suddenly, the look on his face shifted. He looked at Yellow Ox with an uncanny smile. "Actually, if you really want to fondle with this thing, why don't I just buy you another one?" He said.
Yellow Ox was rather delighted when it heard such a promise from Chu Feng, but soon, it displayed an alarmed look and retreated back a few steps. It glared at him with its eyes wide-opened.
"Goddam it. Why are you looking at me like this? Don't use that cruel and unscrupulous heart of yours to try to fathom the magnanimity of mine!" Chu Feng shouted at it.
"Moo!" Yellow Ox replied in despise.
"How about this? Apart from the breathing exercise, what other special sorceries do you have up your sleeves? Teach me some, and in return, I will buy you a brand new communicator." Chu Feng simpered.
Yellow Ox grinned and smiled, as if it was mocking at him for so easily giving away his real character and evil intents.
Chu Feng was rather composed and calm. His face did not blush with shame at all. "Communicator is such a buried treasure. Once you have mastered it, you are basically in control of every piece of information there is about the world."
Upon completing his sentence, Chu Feng pushed the door open and walked out.
The air that ran in the atmosphere above Qingyang Village seemed especially refreshing. After taking a deep breath, one could immediately feel rested and refreshed. Chu Feng was absorbed in thought, "Was this the result of the shake-up that recently happened?"
Vaguely, he could see the multi-colored fogs and smogs that were spewing out of the mountains in the distance. The fogs were evenly distributed between the heaven and the earth, making the local region purer and fresher than ever.
To his surprise, there were actually many people queuing in front of Doctor Wang's clinic. Chu Feng stood at the back of the queue before his turn came at long last.
"So many patients, ain't there?" Chu Feng commented.
Doctor Wang signalled him to go into the adytum. Clearly, he wanted none of the strangers to know about his specialty.
"Not exactly. These people had been suffering from some mild diseases a few days back. But strangely, all of them seemed to be getting better and better without any of my medication."
"Do you think this could potentially be related to the recent upheavals and shake-ups?" Chu Feng conjectured.
"Yes, it should be. Look at those mountains in the distance. The fog emanating from that place seemed to contain some special substances that are very beneficial to a human's body." Doctor Wang nodded.
So many people came for a second-time inspection after feeling much more relieved from their earlier ailment.
"So it seems like this sequence of upheavals isn't even half bad after all. It's not as fearful as we thought it would be, isn't it?" Doctor Wang said with a sigh.
During the past few days, even the ordinary people felt that their vitality had been drastically boosted. Their spiritual essence felt vigorous, and this came as a pleasant surprise to many people.
Chu Feng looked into the distance. He was worried that one day, those ferocious beasts would be released to haunt the world, turning it into a living hell. It was a possibility, and when it eventually came true, nothing would survive under the clutches and claws of these mutated monsters.
Doctor Wang performed a comprehensive inspection on Chu Feng's health, then he also coordinated a few fitness tests for Chu Feng to perform. In the end, it came as a surprising assurance that his fitness had improved once again.
This time, Chu Feng managed to complete a hundred-meter sprint in only two and a half seconds. It really shocked that old man with a profound start.
His strength had also exceeded the standard of human beings by twelvefold. Hearing, reflex and vision had all become much more astounding than last time.
"This... this is truly a miracle. Is it going to keep improving day-by-day? Is there even a limit?" Doctor Wang murmured in a trance.
"I think it has reached its limit, because I can feel my body returning to a relatively stable and restrained state. My appetite has also restored to normal," Chu Feng truthfully informed the doctor.
"Even so, it still seems like a myth to me!" Doctor Wang could hardly restore his calm and composure. "I've been smelling a delightful fragrance this whole time. Is that you?"
He was a bit uncertain.
Chu Feng nodded.
Doctor Wang's face stiffened up after he ascertained that the fragrance was indeed emanating from Chu Feng's body. He found it hard to believe as his body had become seemingly petrified.
"How... how is this possible?" He was struck dumb in astonishment. He stared at Chu Feng in bewilderment, remaining speechless for quite a while.
"Is this a problem?" Chu Feng consulted.
"No, not at all. It is not a problem itself, but this would certainly stir up quite a sensation if it were to happen in the ancient times. Only some old priests or monks could emanate fragrance like this after the age of a hundred. Plus, you also possess power and speed of such immensity and of such swiftness. If this were the ancient times, you would be called a sanctified mortal."
"Sanctified... mortal?" Chu Feng seemed baffled.
"Yes! Sanctification of the mortal, that's how they call it," Doctor Wang assuredly answered.
Chu Feng was dumbfounded.
"We cannot just simply deny and reject all theories from the past. Although some of them seemed obscure, mystified and abstruse, some remained relatively truthful and trustworthy," Doctor Wang said.
He had a good command of Western Medicine, but he was a proper practitioner of Chinese Medicine. He had an incisive understanding of many ancient medical codes and records. He even did some desultory readings about folk prescriptions and home remedies. Amongst them, many were ancient books written by respectful Taoist and Buddhist Priests, so he knew a lot in these areas.
"The limit of human bodies can be broken, and aren't you a ready-made example of that?" Doctor Wang sighed. "So it's safe to say that some of those from the ancient times could also achieve what you have achieved. The story about Shakyamuni throwing the elephant, for instance, sounds whimsical enough for any modern readers to believe, but if one's body could acquire the power sufficient enough to break the limit, perhaps nothing is impossible."
According to his theory, the Buddha was also only a human, but because of the exceeding power he possessed, he could hurl away an elephant with ease.
"Buddha throwing the elephant, Taoist Priests lifting mountains... these were all the embodiments of the process of sanctification of a mortal's body. Their bodies will not decompose even after death, and fragrance emanated from them because of the exposure of their bodies' essence."
The more he spoke, the more visibly excited he became. Everyone could tell that he had invested much interest into these classical writings. Especially as he saw a living proof such as Chu Feng, his mind could stay calm no more.
"Of course, you're not capable enough to throw an elephant yet, but you will be. And more importantly, you make me certain that once a person breaks the limit of his body, nothing will be impossible." How he wished he could dissect Chu Feng alive so that he could scrutinize more closely into the structure and forms of his superhuman body.
Chu Feng hastily rose from his seat. He hurriedly bid his farewell to the doctor as though he were fleeing from him.
On his way back, Chu Feng thought about a lot of things.
Approaching his house, Chu Feng could hear the sound of blowing wind echoing in the yard. The blowing sound was also occasionally accompanied by the rumble of thunder.
What was happening? He was worried that the Demon Ox might have produced some serious foul-ups again.
Chu Feng marched into the yard, but he was immediately stunned by the sighting. He saw Yellow Ox standing on its hind hooves while its front hooves were expanding to form all sorts of movements. It... was shadow boxing.
Winds blew and thunder rumbled. All the sounds came through its body. Was this a particular type of fist position that the calf seemed to have mastered?
A cow throwing punching and practicing boxing styles! What a sight to behold!
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