Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Soft Body Technique
After daybreak, the scar-faced prison guard viciously threw open the cell door. "Time to eat, you mutt!"
Luo Kai suppressed the hatred in his heart and silently went to eat. The food today was two slices of somewhat moldy bread and a bowl of thin gruel. While not good, it was far better than what he’d had before.
The scar-faced prison guard stood at the door, his expression shifting rapidly. He drew the pistol from his waist, then lowered it, wondering whether he should just kill Luo Kai right then and frame him for attacking a guard.
Before this batch of prisoners arrived, he had received a subtle order from the old Prison Director to find a way to kill them indirectly. But the new Prison Director, upon taking office, had explicitly ordered them spared. This meant he couldn’t use ordinary methods like starvation, and killing them outright would incur the new Prison Director’s wrath. After hesitating for a long time, he abandoned the idea and turned to leave.
Luo Kai had no idea he had just walked the razor’s edge of death. After eating, he returned to the corner and curled up. He felt no desire to sleep today. ’I was clearly dead, yet I’ve inexplicably become someone in the future. The crucial part is that, apart from language, all of this body’s other memories are a blur. And what are those Fierce Beasts, able to ignore guns and cannons? And the Sea Race, the Titan Race... it all sounds like something out of mythology... And history books say humanity lost a vital energy source from before a great cataclysm, causing a fracture in civilization. What was that missing thing?’
A mind full of questions kept him from sleeping. His only hope was to wait for nightfall and find Shui Su for answers. Then he began to wonder about the man himself. ’Who exactly is this Shui Su? He doesn’t seem like a prisoner, yet he willingly confines himself underground...’
After darkness had completely fallen, Luo Kai returned to the Underground Space. The old man named Shui Su was sitting upright at a desk, flipping through a thick book by the dim, yellow candlelight.
Luo Kai was just trying to find the right words when Shui Su, who was in no mood to answer any questions today, looked up and said directly, "My time is limited. I only have three days to teach you Body Techniques. Normally, practicing the Soft Body Technique requires a special Loosening Bone Fish Oil from the ten-thousand-meter depths of the sea. This oil greatly increases the flexibility of bones and muscles, making the training twice as effective with half the effort. However, your constitution is decent. You can practice even without the Loosening Bone Fish Oil, but it means you’ll have to endure a bit more physical suffering. Your body is stiff right now. I’ll have to loosen your bones first."
Shui Su stood up. His withered, skinny arms reached out and grabbed Luo Kai’s arm directly.
"AH!" A bloodcurdling scream escaped Luo Kai as a series of CRACKING sounds came from his hand and arm bones. Shui Su’s dry fingers were like a pair of pliers, his Power Piercing through muscle straight to the bone marrow. The pain nearly made him pass out.
Luo Kai’s screams were incessant as he collapsed into a heap. ’This is more than a bit of physical suffering—this is trying to kill me!’
Shui Su paid no mind to his screams, coldly working his way from Luo Kai’s arm, up his shoulder, and toward his chest. Everywhere his fingers went, CRACKING sounds followed, until he reached the spine. By then, Luo Kai had already passed out from the excruciating pain.
An unknown amount of time passed. When Luo Kai woke up, he was back in his cell, his clothes soaked with sweat. A tingling, numb sensation spread through his muscles and bones, making him feel as if he were in Heaven, while the memory of last night was like Hell.
He struggled to stand up, only to find his body was like noodles, even his bones feeling soft and sore. The soreness didn’t begin to fade until the afternoon, at which point he could barely manage to sit up.
That evening, Luo Kai hesitated about whether to go to Shui Su’s place. The previous night had been too excruciating; it felt like Shui Su had crushed every bone in his body.
He used the dim moonlight to carefully study the postures on the Beast Hide Paper. The more he looked, the more shocked he became. The poses were unbelievable; the person in the diagrams seemed to be made of modeling clay, able to be folded and stretched at will. It was terrifying, because people, after all, have bones. He had originally thought these Body Techniques were something like yoga, a way to shape the body and cultivate the self, but now it was clear it wasn’t that simple.
’These Body Techniques must be a Fusion of many physical training methods from my past life, all of them improved to be more effective. After last night’s bone-loosening, I feel... different. It’s like I have more flexible control over every part of my body.’
He hesitated like this until late at night, when he finally crawled into the tunnel and made his way toward Shui Su’s location.
Seeing Luo Kai appear, Shui Su’s face held a half-smiling, half-mocking expression. "What, thinking of giving up? If you can’t even bear this little bit of pain, you might as well leave."
Luo Kai shook his head quickly. "No, I can take it."
Tonight was destined to be another night of agony. Luo Kai felt like a lump of unkneaded dough, being pulled and stretched over and over.
His wails echoed throughout the Underground Space all night long. One moment he would pass out from the pain, the next he would be jolted awake by it. By the end, his entire body was like a puddle of softened modeling clay. In the final instant before he lost consciousness, a strange question surfaced in his mind: ’They say the human brain has a self-preservation mechanism—once the pain reaches a certain threshold, consciousness automatically shuts down, kind of like a circuit breaker tripping. Have I been hovering on the verge of tripping that breaker all night?’
When he woke up during the day, Luo Kai wondered if he was still alive. He gave himself a hard pinch, only to find that his fingers bent upward with the slightest pressure. Not just his fingers—his arms and legs could also bend in unnatural ways, as if his bones no longer existed. This terrified him. ’What in the world did that old man do to me?!’
A few hours passed before his bones gradually regained their hardness, and only then did his heart settle.
On the third night, Luo Kai dragged his sore, soft body back to the Underground Space. Shui Su was at his desk, using a World Ruler to draw on a blueprint. Compared to yesterday, the wrinkles on his face were deeper, and his already withered body seemed even more stooped, as if he had aged many years in a single day.
Luo Kai walked over and glanced at the blueprint on the desk. It showed an egg-shaped craft, somewhat similar to a submarine. Unlike a submarine, however, it wasn’t fully enclosed; the cockpit and a fearsome-looking cannon barrel were exposed to the open.
Shui Su didn’t seem to mind Luo Kai watching. He was frowning, seemingly dissatisfied with the blueprint. After a moment, he looked up and asked Luo Kai, "By the way, I still don’t know your name."
"I... I’m Luo Kai." Luo Kai didn’t know what this body’s name was, so he could only give the name from his past life.
"Oh. And where do you live? Do you have any family?"
Luo Kai hesitated for a moment, then shook his head.
"Alright. I mentioned before that I needed a small favor. If you ever leave this place, go to Shangjing City in the Dongyuan Upper Country when you have the chance. Find a place there called Yunluo Manor, and give this ring to someone named Yun Ye for me."
Shui Su took a simple ring from his robes and handed it over. Luo Kai reached out and took it. The ring looked as if it had been fashioned from a twisted piece of iron wire; it was completely unremarkable.
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