Chapter 19- The Difficulty of Simple Things

“This is a deathtrap!”

“It’s a pond, Brother Tian. A shallow one. Look, the crane is only up to her knees.”

“You wouldn’t believe the danger that lurks under the surface of ponds…” Tian muttered.

“In this case, I can see the bottom. So. You know. Get in the damn water.” Hong said, with sisterly warmth and encouragement.

Tian grumbled and started stripping off his robe.

“It suddenly occurs to me that I should mention you need to leave your loincloth on. With most people, I wouldn’t feel the need to mention that.” Hong added.

“That’s dumb. Then my clothes will be wet.”

“Change afterward. I’m not having you run around naked. Look, just treat it as the uniform for swimming, okay? No underwear equals breach of discipline by not fulfilling the dress code.”

Tian blinked “Oh. That makes sense. Alright.”

He quickly stripped off the rest of his robes and neatly packed everything into his storage ring with no further discussion. He was so intent on it, he missed the look of divine revelation crossing Hong’s face, before she refocused and stripped down to her under-robe. Then she took another look at Tian.

“You are going to keep the bun up?”

“If I take the pin out, the hair will float around and get in my face. At least that’s what happens in the bath.”

“Huh. Makes sense now that you say it.” She shrugged.

Tian stretched out an arm, examined it critically, and sighed. “Still so damn thin.”

“I’d call it athletic.”

“You haven’t seen my brothers in the bath. Trust me. I’m thin. One of these days, I’m going to be carried away by a high breeze.” Tian slapped his hands against his face to drive out the negative thoughts.

“Well, being lighter will help you float, so there is that. Now all you are going to do is lie back. Just bend over backwards, and let yourself land on the surface of the water. I’m going to kneel here with my hands under you, so you physically can’t go under the water.” Hong kneeled down in the pond, not minding the mucky bottom. Nothing in there could possibly poke her hard enough to really hurt.

Tian trusted his sister. He leaned back and-

“Just how damned flexible are you?!”

“What? I’m leaning back.”

“Most people can’t lean back at ninety degrees from their waist. Do spines even bend that way?”

Tian sighed and, rather than argue, he lifted both feet up and went flat in the air. A second later he slapped into the surface of the water, and Hong’s waiting hands.

“Good, good. Spread out your arms and legs. Wider. Good. Now. I’m going to lower my hands just a little, just a couple of inches, and you are going to float. Remember, you cannot possibly go under the water, so you have nothing to worry about.”

“Mmm. I’m not worried with you here.”

He closed his eyes and focused on just floating, not seeing Liren’s suddenly poleaxed look. She shook that off too, and gently lowered her hands.

Tian sank down into the pond with her hands.

She raised them and tried again. And again.

“Sis’ Liren?”

“You aren’t floating.”

“I’m trying!”

“No, I know, but you really should be floating. At least a little bit. I’m not looking for perfection here, just… some amount of floating. And you aren’t. At all. How much do you weigh?”

“I don’t know. Where am I going to find a scale big enough to stand on?”

“Hang on, I’m going to lift you out of the water. I want to see something.” She stood, carrying Tian in her arms. She held him for a moment, then gently set him on the side of the pond.

“This is going to take some thinking. Brother Zihao, you weigh more than two hundred pounds. Which is a neat trick for someone who will never bang their head on a doorframe and has no visible fat on him.”

It was his body cultivation. Tian couldn’t imagine what else it could be. The Supreme Virtue Hell Suppressing Body Refining Sutra used yin qi to refine the fleshy body, and yang qi to refine his meridians, dantian and vital energy. It didn’t make his cultivation increase, it was just… dense. He could fight for longer and push harder than most. He was far stronger than he looked. And he was heavier too, it seemed.

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Swimming lessons were put on hold for a while. Using Light Body Heavy Hands while he was swimming seemed like the obvious answer, but it was an unsatisfying one. Little Treasure could swim a little. So could Censor Henshen. Worst of all, Liren could swim like a fish, though she hated getting her head under the water. It shouldn’t require a light body art.