He found it unbelievable, utterly absurd.
But seeing the earnest expression on Fang Ergou's face, Fang Yue's skepticism lessened somewhat.
And so, he couldn't help but try.
The stone weighed over three hundred pounds.
It was much larger than the water buckets at his home. It must have been washed down from somewhere when the river flooded and was left stranded on the bank when the water receded.
He focused, holding his breath.
Fang Yue clapped his hands, gripped the sides of the large gray stone, and silently shouted the word 'Up!' in his mind.
The next moment,
The stone only shuddered, but it was enough to show that Fang Yue had moved it.
But a few breaths later, he could no longer hold it, and the stone fell.
Clearly, Fang Yue wasn't strong enough.
However, despite his failure, Fang Yue wasn't discouraged.
On the contrary, he was shocked by his own strength.
'That force I just used... it had to be over a hundred pounds.'
Fang Yue stared blankly at the large gray stone before him. When he had first transmigrated over, his body had been incredibly weak.
He had slowly recovered since then, but due to long-term malnutrition and never having enough to eat, his body's development had been stunted.
He had very little strength; even drawing water was a strenuous task.
This was why Fang Yue only tended the ox and didn't join his father and older brother to work in the fields.
And yet, just now, he had almost lifted this large gray stone completely off the ground.
This meant he must have exerted at least one or two hundred pounds of force.
So, where had this strength come from?
Fang Yue couldn't help but wonder. 'Is it because I've been eating fish almost every day lately? Did my strength increase because my living conditions have improved?'
'But the change shouldn't be this dramatic, should it?'
[Time is fleeting. The Dao of Heaven rewards diligence. Talent +1]
Just then, the familiar text floated before Fang Yue's eyes.
Instantly, a faint warmth rose from some unknown place and swiftly circulated through Fang Yue's body.
It vanished in a moment, and with it, some of the fatigue and muscle soreness in his body also dissipated.
In just a few breaths, his condition had greatly improved.
'This... Could it be that the daily increase in my Talent is actually improving my physical condition?'
Fang Yue couldn't help but think, his mind racing.
He quickly realized that must be the case.
When a person's Talent grows stronger, their entire body becomes stronger as a result.
To put it simply, his physical constitution was improving, so it was only natural for his strength to increase, too.
It was like the legends from his previous life, of people born with tremendous strength, capable of lifting ceremonial tripods.
Or others with incredible stamina, who could run for days and nights without rest.
All these were examples of Talent that surpassed ordinary people.
It's just that most of these people didn't show abilities far beyond the ordinary at the very beginning.
Because a high Talent rating was more an indicator of potential.
And potential, without training, would never be revealed.
And that was precisely why.
Combined with the fact that he hadn't done anything physically demanding recently, he had never noticed the change in his strength.
"Zhi, it's just like that."
"Just lift the stone a hundred times a day for about... let me do the math." Fang Ergou counted carefully on his fingers:
"In about five months, you'll be able to lift it."
Seeing Fang Ergou's earnest expression, Fang Yue was at a loss for words.
He had just experienced its weight firsthand. The stone had to be at least three hundred and fifty pounds, maybe even four hundred.
Professional athletes from his previous life might have been able to lift heavier weights after extensive training, but none could have made it look as effortless as Fang Ergou did.
His face wasn't red and his heart wasn't pounding; he clearly had strength to spare.
That wasn't something that could be accomplished with mere weightlifting training.
'A hundred times a day?'
'And I'll be able to do it in five months?'
'Is it that simple?'
It sounded simple, but there was no way it could be that easy!
If it were really that simple, wouldn't everyone in the world be a strongman?
If he didn't know Fang Ergou's character, Fang Yue would have assumed the boy was pulling his leg.
'This must have something to do with the Martial Dao!'
Only the Martial Dao, some kind of special technique, could explain how someone as young as Fang Ergou could possess such strength.
However, Fang Yue knew that Martial Dao legacies were extremely precious.
After all, Fang Hu's family had once been great landowners, and even a family that wealthy had been ruined by the pursuit of the Martial Dao.
To think he could learn it just by teaching Fang Ergou how to fish would make him seem far too opportunistic.
Still, even without knowing the Cultivation Technique...
...if it was just a matter of simple training, it actually seemed possible for him.
The increase in his Talent allowed his strength to increase naturally.
Right now, his Talent was merely one-in-ten. What would happen when his Talent reached one hundred points, making him one-in-a-hundred? In the future, he might even be one-in-a-thousand, or one-in-ten-thousand.
By then, with his Talent in the hundreds or thousands, wouldn't his own strength become immense?
At this thought, Fang Yue couldn't help but smile.
As for lifting stones, he would treat it as exercise. He just needed to find a smaller one.
~~~~~~
And so, several more weeks passed.
The peak of summer passed, and the air began to carry the chill of autumn.
Whether it was due to the weather or some other reason, the water level of the Xiahe River began to drop rapidly.
The surface of the water, once fifty or sixty feet across, had now shrunk to a mere twenty feet.
With the volume of water so greatly reduced, the fish population had dwindled as well.
For the past several days, there had been almost no decent catches at the small river bend.
There was nothing Fang Yue could do about it.
He could only sigh that the river truly lived up to its name: Xiahe, the Summer River.
It only resembled a proper river during the summer high-water season; once the season passed, it seemed on the verge of drying up completely.
With the fishing gone bad, Fang Ergou hadn't come around much to learn, either.
It was also the busy harvest season, so Fang Yue was joining his father and older brother in the fields every day.
After finishing his work in the fields, Fang Yue would do some training.
Not lifting stones like Fang Ergou had suggested, of course, but a more systematic and well-rounded fitness routine.
Even if it didn't increase his strength by much, it could at least start to unlock his body's potential.
This afternoon, Fang Yue finished his farm work.
After dinner, he headed to the riverbank before it got dark.
Enjoying the cool, refreshing breeze, he found the Stone Locks he had made and began his workout.
Each Stone Lock weighed thirty pounds. He could now easily toss one up with a single hand and catch it again.
He could train for a quarter of an hour without even feeling tired.
'My strength must be close to four hundred and fifty pounds by now.'
His warm-up finished, Fang Yue looked toward another stone to the side—the large gray one.
He took a deep breath and grabbed hold of the large gray stone.
With a sudden surge of Qi, he flexed his muscles. Up!
This time, the large gray stone slowly rose from the ground.
"Hm? He can lift that stone without even practicing a Breathing Technique!"
"Is this... innate Divine Power?"
Just then, Fang Hu, who was passing by, witnessed this scene, and his large, round eyes narrowed in shock!