"How much weight can you lift now?" before he started another martial arts training and sparring session, Jianmen asked Caroline and Jason.
"Don't know, I haven't gone to the gym for a while." Jason answered.
"And neither have I." Caroline shared Jason's sentiment: "In fact I've never been to the gym since I came to California, because you know, expenses and stuff."
"Okay, then I'll give you weights based on my estimates." Jianmen handed out some soft weighted bracers, weighted vests and other small portable weights to both his students and said: "Now, put them on, you will practice your moves with half the time today but you'll have to keep these on."
"What are the sprinklers for?" while they were putting the weights on, Jason pointed to four sprinklers and four newly erected wood pillars around him and Caroline, "And the wood pillars?"
"The sprinklers are to spray you with my special concoction. Similar recipe of your medicinal bath water only a little bit more intense." Jianmen circled around them and put a small piece of diamond shaped shiny metal plate that reflected lights in blue, purple, and red on each of the pillars, "And these pillars, they help you concentrate and fight with both your body and your mind."
"Okay, that does not sound good. Anything we should know beforehand?" Caroline asked.
"Just that try your best to finish your set." Jianmen snapped his finger, and both Caroline and Jason felt a strange sense of weight and intensity upon them, not only physically, but also mentally. Then Jianmen turned on the sprinklers and yelled to them: "There will be reward if you finish. But if you did not, there will be a little bit of punishment as well. Starting… NOW!"
At first Caroline and Jason did not understand why Jianmen would set the bar so low - in their usual training sessions, doing one set of moves was their warm up routine. But as they continued, they were made aware how wrong they were: with each move they completed, the weight on their bodies and minds somehow became heavier.
The weight on their bodies were not limited to the weighted equipements they wore, in fact what they were wearing seemed largely secondary, while the air around them got denser as they moved and all their body parts became harder to move.
At the same time, they started having visions - visions that only occurred to them while they were practising visualization.
"What the fuck is this?" Jason yelled: "What's with the visions?"
"Focus! Your mind should control your body! When your mind becomes the master of your body, you will brave these weights and tension and pressure." Jianmen shouted, waving his bamboo stick.
The liquid spewing from the sprinklers felt weirdly hot on their bodies, it seemed to provide very small amounts of relief to the sore they were feeling, but after a while, neither Caroline nor Jason was able to move a muscle and fell face down on the ground.
"That was barely one third of the whole set!" Jianmen turned off the sprinklers and said loudly: "Okay, take a break. You did better than expected. Not enough for the reward. But enough for your first try. You should be happy and proud."
"What was that? The tension and the sudden pressure?" Jason struggled to remove the weights he wore, "Is that because of these pillars and the stuff you put on there?"
"Keen observation, young Jason." Jianmen mimicked an English accent: "I will explain the details when you are ready. But you guys basically just dipped your toes in a limbo."
"Limbo?" Caroline took off her weighted vest and asked: "The kind of limbo in the Bible?"
"Not really. No." Jianmen circled Jason and Caroline again to take the diamond shaped metal plates off from the wood pillars, "Think of them as bubbles in the air. As you become better cultivators you will be able to venture in some of them and even construct your own. It is pretty common for great cultivators to leave limbos in their personal realms to pass on their knowledge onto future generations of cultivators."
"I have a couple of questions but I guess you'll just say you will give us the answer when we are ready." Jason sat up on the ground and wiped his face, and smelling the liquid on his face and hands: "And what would the punishment be?"
"Punishment is you will try again tomorrow. And every morning until you can finish a whole set."
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"Hello, gentlemen." when Jason just got started with his shift and Caroline took a break in her room, a grey car with two men armed with a long range camera and other surveillance equipments inside got a visit from Jianmen.
"Woah." the two men tried to hide everything in a hurry, and the taller and bulkier one at the driver seat asked in an unfriendly tone: "What! Can't you see we are in the middle of something?"
"I can see that. You are peeping my guests." Jianmen brought out another two small brown paper bags.
"What? No!" the shorter and slimmer man on the passenger seat denied in a weirdly high pitch tone.
"We are not peeping your guests, sir." the man in the driver seat said to Jianmen in a serious tone, emphasizing on the "sir": "We are here on some other business, can you step away from the vehicle?"
"Don't worry about me. I can tell you are law enforcement. If you are here it must mean there might be some bad people around." Jianmen said in an exaggerated Chinese accent: "I am always trying my best to keep my inn out of trouble, you know? It's my life's work here. I spent my whole life's savings on it, so I will absolutely cooperate with law enforcement to catch the bad guys."
"We are not law enforcement, and we are not trying to catch anyone here, okay?" the man in the driver seat spoke through his teeth: "Please step away from the vehicle."
"Ah, 'step away from the vehicle', right? " Jianmen smiled and pushed the two brown paper bags in his hand forward: "Not 'get off my car', not 'stay the fuck away from my car', so technical and formal. Anyway, I bring my homemade matcha cakes, to thank you for your service."
"We are not going to accept your gift. And we ARE NOT law enforcement!" the man in the driver seat tried to grab and push away Jianmen's reaching hand, but Jianmen's hand was way too fast for him. He had to give up after a few tries to avoid further embarrassment, and asked with frustration: "What, the hell, do you want?"
"I just want to, um … put these right here.". Jianmen said hesitantly as he placed the two brown bags on this man's lap: "Homemade and fresh out of the kitchen! Please try! Don't waste food! My mother always said, wasting food will take all your good luck away."
"Alright, we'll consider it. Can you go away? We are here on business." the man in the passenger seat took a look at the man in the driver seat and said : "Can you go away?"
"Yes, sir. Hope you catch the bad guy!" Jianmen gave them a clumsy salute and ran away.
"Wait wait wait wait!" the shorter man in the passenger seat stopped the taller man in the driver seat from throwing the two brown paper bags out: "Let me just take a look."
A sweet, savory and slightly bitter smell came out of the paper bags as they carefully opened them.
"Maybe just one bite?" the shorter man asked.
The brown bags were thrown out of the car window moments later.