Ball of Nothing

Chapter 239 Endurance is a Skill, Patience a Virtue 1

Zero let out a long burp. Lunch was delicious and now that he was full of energy, he turned his hopeful eyes towards Hua Tuo. The physician knew that look. Zero gave him this expectant eyes whenever he was promised lessons about something new.

With the brilliant boy’s intelligence, it was sometimes difficult to keep up with his hunger for knowledge. Thankfully, this lesson was going to be a much simpler one for Hua Tuo to teach. It didn’t consume his limited energy and stamina. Perhaps this would be the week Hua Tuo could finally enjoy meaningful peace and tranquillity with Zero’s special trials.

They warped over to the new training ground and Hua Tuo was impressed with the amount of thought for luxury his student had catered for. The room was practically flawless with the sound barrier, smooth walls and water-free stone floor. His student had clearly taken Mitchnew’s suggestion about reinforcing the ceiling and loose parts of the wall too. It was a very homey cave that Hua Tuo wouldn’t mind visiting from time to time even after the training had ended. Perhaps he could practice his own cultivation here while Zero undergoes the trials.

Zero was quick to change into his swimming costume and shivered a little. The teenager’s body was still rather skinny despite how much he ate and Hua Tuo didn’t realise how underdeveloped Zero’s body was. The teenager was still very much androgynous and if Hua Tuo looked closer, he could now understand why Zero never needed a bathroom break.

Zero didn’t possess any genitals.

Still, Hua Tuo found it odd. His student was capable of performing feats that big muscled warriors sometimes found difficult. Removing the magic buff effects and qi enhanced strikes, Zero was also several hundred times stronger than the average human. Hua Tuo was a Sage God but not even he had Zero’s crazy resilience towards falling boulders from cliffs without aid. The strangest part about this was how Zero didn’t have any toned muscles despite the harsh combat training. Zero didn’t complain about muscle aches and the Sage God was suddenly curious about Zero’s physical composition. No wonder some things didn’t add up when he was teaching the boy about basic anatomy. Zero couldn’t relate to the things he was talking about simply because it didn’t apply to him.

Didn’t that mean Zero was actually a gifted magician and doctor if he wasn’t able to relate to what the experience was like but still accomplish the same things others did?

The physician was mind blown. Zero might be the Great One’s incarnation of sorts but this wasn’t simply about power. Zero didn’t have his memories and this spoke of pure talent to be able to learn things so easily without relying on past achievements.

"I’m ready!" Zero called out.

Hua Tuo snapped out of his thoughts and looked over to the three waterfalls. There were no bridges and the physician sighed.

"Let’s build you some bridges here before we start training," he told his apprentice who eagerly nodded.

With Hua Tuo’s guidance, the master and student duo worked quickly to grow some branches from the cliff face to act as temporary walkways without disturbing the marine life in the water.

"Shifu, will these branches hold steady? The waterfalls are very strong..."

The Sage God looked over to the branches and studied it. While the waterfalls are vicious, the plants will hold steady after a while. These waterfalls aren’t ordinary after all. They held the important catalyst for speedy cultivation. Anything that possesses life will benefit from being exposed to the water here for long enough. Hua Tuo didn’t know where the water came from but he understood that some of the good things in life shouldn’t be questioned. Ignorance was bliss and often the peace and prosperity received by others had been built upon the blood and lives of others.

"Don’t worry," he told his apprentice. "They will grow stronger in a bit. Right now, I need you to get accustomed to the water. Go for a swim."

Zero stared at his teacher wide-eyed. Swim? In this water? It’s mind-numbing cold! The look in Hua Tuo’s eyes told Zero that there was no room for negotiation. The teen hesitated for a while before taking the plunge again.

Hua Tuo wasn’t very surprised when Zero started doing laps in the freezing water without surfacing at all. In fact, the physician had lost sight of his student about two minutes ago when Zero decided to start exploring the bottom of the spring. He kept an eye on the communicator to track Zero’s location while he readied the meditation spots for Zero’s training. His student was going to wake the monster in the spring at this rate but Hua Tuo wasn’t too worried. Bob and Mii were there to pull Zero out of trouble if necessary and his apprentice was strong enough to take care of an oversized goldfish.

Zero was having fun. After the first minute, he had grown used to the numbing cold. Maybe it was slightly cheating to transform his body a little. While he wasn’t very good at controlling his transformations, Zero was confident growing a few new scales in exchange for some mana wouldn’t hurt. What’s the worst that could happen? The scales would fall off and Zero would be cold all over again.

Silver scales started to cover Zero’s body and his eyes transformed to accustom itself to dark vision while gills grew out at the side of Zero’s neck. The teen also took a page out of Douglas’ book and tried to replicate the webbed fingers and feet to help him swim faster. He was looking more like an awkward land merman than a fish in the spring but Zero didn’t mind. He was actually rather proud of his first transformation and was pleased to find out how little mana the transformation consumed.

"That’s because you’re simply adding things to your existing physical form. If you needed to alter the size of it, you’d be using a lot more mana. For instance, shrinking into a bat will consume at least five times more mana than what you’re using now," Bob explained.

Zero hummed and continued swimming downwards. By now, the sound of roaring water could not be heard. The darkness made it hard for Zero to tell what colours he saw. However, there was some strange current beginning to pull Zero away from his intended destination. The teen looked up and could only see a dim glow of something from above. He was so deep down that light no longer passed through easily and wondered how deep the spring truly was. According to the fish’s memory, there was a monster lurking somewhere underneath so Zero decided to dive deeper. He wanted to catch a glimpse of that monster for himself.

On the surface, Hua Tuo was ready with the preparations. All he needed was for Zero to resurface before he introduced him to the strange formation. The order of training would be Aggression Falls, Progress Falls then Regressions Falls. The physician would bet his right arm that Zero would spend the longest time mastering the Aggression Falls simply because of Zero’s impatient nature. While the water tries to drown the person in contact with it, the true challenge lies in the ability to let go of control and allow the water to assault the victim. Plants often pass the challenge of this first waterfall easily simply because they were helpless and cannot move. Animals, on the other hand, will shun the waterfall and often conquer the Progression Falls first.

Aggression Falls was good for enlightenment and helps basic cultivators to open up their meridian channels forcefully with the help of this water. While it wasn’t beneficial for Zero to train under this waterfall because of his well-developed channels, Hua Tuo thought that Zero could learn how to properly enter a zen mode in meditation instead of drifting towards the void and making strange friends during his sessions. It was important for Zero to know his inner world that didn’t consist of his mindscape friends in times of self-doubt.

The teacher looked around and raised a brow. The app said that Zero has been in the same area for about twenty minutes now. Was his idiot student really going to try hunt that giant goldfish?

Several hundred feet down in the water, Zero felt a movement behind him and paused. He spun around only to see nothing behind him. Then again, the movement was now behind him and the brunet called out his map.

Mii detected many presences in the vicinity but there was one that spoke of potential danger. It was huge!

"Zero, there’s some kind of monster near you now, be ready for combat and escape if necessary. It could potentially swallow you whole..." the strawcherry fairy warned.

Zero grinned. It sounded like a perfect hunt for lunch and Zero wondered what kind of monster it was. According to the fish’s memory, the monster had very big eyes and an ugly mouth with sharp teeth that caved inwards.

For the next ten minutes, Zero played hide-and-seek with the spring monster but didn’t manage to catch sight of it. He tried to lure it out into the open but the monster preferred to hide behind the huge rock formations in the dark. The teen caught sight of its tail once or twice but wasn’t too sure if that was the tail. It looked far too thin to be a tail and Zero raised a brow. What exactly did this monster eat? Perhaps Zero could lure it out to catch a glimpse of it if he knew what it ate.

Although it was dark, Zero’s intuition prickled. Something was sneaking up on him from behind with the intention to kill him. This time, the brunet didn’t turn. He waited for the attacker to come close and make its move before pulling a last-minute escape by swimming upwards.

The spring monster gnashed its teeth and let out a furious roar at losing its prey when Zero zipped past its ugly jaw. Zero was excited and turned around to look at his potential murderer with a huge grin. What he previously thought was its tail turned out to be a whisker. The spring monster was a huge koi fish who looked extremely mad as it chased Zero.

The boy took this opportunity to lure the fish upwards and swam in a zig-zag fashion to avoid other marine creatures who were darting out of the monster’s path. The monster koi was adamant and didn’t give up its pursuit of Zero who had lost some of his scales in the race. He shivered as the cold permeated his bones once more but ignored it with adrenaline numbing the discomfort. He had only one thing on his mind and that was to fish up this huge monster.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a snack after training?

"It’s COMING!" Mii shrieked as the koi monster opened its huge mouth and gained in on Zero.

The young doctor was ready for it. he deliberately slowed down as he neared the surface and allowed the huge carp to gain on him. Hua Tuo was nearby and Zero wanted to show his teacher how brilliant this monster was. If they could fillet it, he probably wouldn’t need to fish for about two months.

"Shifu! Look at what I caught!" Zero screamed as he shot out of the water with the huge carp right behind him.

Hua Tuo wasn’t prepared for the guardian of the spring to surface with his student squealing in tow as it snapped its jaws in the air. Zero did a twist and avoided becoming the carp monster’s food for now.

The Sage God felt his jaw fall. While he knew that Zero was going to hunt the monster guardian, he didn’t think the teenager would lead it out of its hiding to the surface.

"Zero!"

The boy somersaulted in the air and yelped as gravity took its toll and sent him plunging into the cold water again.

In the water, the boy skillfully evaded the carp’s attacks and swam in circles. Hua Tuo didn’t know what to do and watched as his student tried to teach the big fish some tricks. Wasn’t the cold water enough to calm his student down enough for the first training? With so much adrenaline, the boy was just going to go berserk when he trains under the Aggression falls.

Having enough of the big fish’s attempt to bite his legs off, Zero aimed a kick to the fish’s tender underside and sent it shooting upwards into the air almost as high as the cliff. The boy then propelled himself upwards and booted the big fish with his butt to a clifftop and landed with a huge splash in the middle of the spring.

Hua Tuo was thoroughly soaked from that amazing cannonball dive and cursed. He should have known that this would happen but the physician was too complacent and neglected to bring a set of dry clothes. He squinted at the sky where the giant spring guardian was flopping on the edge of the cliff and felt a headache forming.

Zero swam to the surface and shivered at the cold. By now, all his scales had fallen off from the water chase. He made his way over to his teacher who looked like he’d gone swimming in his robes. Zero ignored it completely and asked if they could fillet the monster fish before they begin their training.

Hua Tuo felt his eyes bulged when he heard about what Zero wanted to do with the monster koi.

"You will do no such thing! This is a huge disrespect to the guardian of this spring. You will return it to the spring immediately and apologise to it!"

Zero was stunned. After so much effort trying to catch the monster, he was told to release it. Why would anyone go fishing only to release the fish caught? It was such a waste of time and effort. however, Hua Tuo’s words were final and Zero begrudgingly let the carp back into the water.

As a proud carp monster, it had never been beaten before. Being defeated by what it thought would be a good meal made the spring monster realise how much trouble it was in. The moment Zero pushed it off the cliff and into the water, the carp swam away into the depths of the spring, never to return again. Zero watched sadly as the big fish ran away and sighed. He felt his stomach growl a little and the young doctor patted it as if t0o comfort the disappointed organ.

Hua Tuo waited for his apprentice to come down from the cliff in yet another magnificent splash. He was not amused when water rained down upon him again. His apprentice had once more established how far from normal he was. Cliff diving was a sport that only daredevils dared attempt. On the other hand, his student was treating it like a children springboard to an inflated pool. Still, the physician kept the thoughts to himself. It was none of his business what Zero thought of as normal, he would soon find out when he travelled that being normal is boring.

"I’m ready now, shifu. What are we going to do?"

Hua Tuo pointed to the nest formed by tree branches right beneath the Aggression Falls.

"You will meditate there until dinner. Remember that this waterfall will try to drown you. It will also bring up a lot of illusions to try and shake your emotional foundation. You must not be swayed by them and always hold on to your centre as you meditate. Ignore the feelings, ignore the sounds, ignore the sensations you will feel and focus on nothingness."

Zero nodded and climbed over to the meditation spot with the help of some vines. The water made it slippery to cross safely and Zero was glad that he learnt how to use friction buffs. They were simply too handy to not know.

As Zero sat down in his crossed-legged position and shivered underneath the steady flow of water, Hua Tuo decided to keep an eye out on his student. The first hour was crucial. If Zero was unable to build a resistance to the illusions and negative feelings that the waterfall induces, they would have to skip it in favour of another waterfall for now.