The principle is such, but this servant can’t do it.
And really, how many in this world can?
Little Fatty lifted his head to look at Shang Xiulin and asked, "Master, will you still test me?"
"Test," Shang Xiulin said aloud.
Shang Xiulin turned to look at Tang Fei and instructed, "Go to the refrigerator and bring out a block of tofu."
Tang Fei instantly understood the content of Shang Xiulin’s test, nodded his head, and responded, "Got it."
Tang Fei soon entered the house, brought out a block of frozen tofu, and said, "Dean, I’ve found the tofu."
"Mm. Place it on the stone table," Shang Xiulin pointed to the stone table in the courtyard and said.
Once Tang Fei had placed the tofu on the stone table, Shang Xiulin pointed at the snow-white block of frozen tofu and said to Little Fatty, "I want you to smash down with all your might, but the block of tofu must not break... do you have the confidence?"
Little Fatty still smiled foolishly and replied, "Master, I’ll give it a try."
Little Fatty picked up the hammer and stood in front of the stone table. This time, he took even longer to prepare than before, and pondered for an extended period.
After a good while, his pupils expanded, his eyes were wide open, his face turned purple-red, his cheeks puffed up again, and the veins on his forehead seemed as if they were struggling to pulse out.
With both hands, he lifted the hammer and smashed down...
A muffled sound echoed.
The hammer heavily struck the tofu, but the block of tofu remained intact with no visible damage on the surface.
It was as if the hammer hadn’t touched it at all.
Yet everyone saw clearly that the hammer indeed solidly struck the block of tofu.
Everyone’s eyes widened at the scene.
Even Shang Xiulin, who had proposed the test, involuntarily took a few steps forward to closely examine the block of tofu.
Clearly, he had suggested the task, but he hadn’t expected Little Fatty could truly do it.
"Master..." Little Fatty, still with his simple and honest smile, looked at Shang Xiulin and asked, "Is this okay?"
Shang Xiulin did not speak.
He reached out to touch the surface of the tofu, and that block of frozen tofu instantly disintegrated, turning into a puddle of water that flowed toward the edges of the table.
The stone legs under the table could not withstand such force and also crumbled into dust, collapsing toward the ground.
Only the hard tabletop fell heavily to the floor, emitting a deep sound.
Shang Xiulin looked at Little Fatty and asked, "How did you do it?"
"Master, I just thought... thought that I mustn’t break the tofu..." Little Fatty looked nervously at Shang Xiulin; he knew what to do, but he didn’t know how to explain or understand why it worked, "So, while releasing my strength, I was also controlling it..."
"My requirement was for you to use all your strength, so you had to fully release it. But you couldn’t break the tofu, so you had to control it... You cleverly directed your force inside the tofu without damaging its surface..."
"Yes, yes, that’s it..." Little Fatty nodded repeatedly.
Master explained it much better. That was exactly the idea.
"But this is easy to say, hard to do..." Shang Xiulin looked at Little Fatty and said, "I might even say, this is somewhat more difficult than using Yin Yang Qi... Yin Yang Qi has a procedure to follow, methods to learn from... Did you discover this entirely on your own?"
Little Fatty nodded and said, "Ever since I was little, I’ve been smashing stones. After doing it so much, I felt it was just too boring... Then I started thinking about shaping the stones into various forms..."
"At first, I smashed straight lines, one strike and the stone split in two, forming a straight line. Later, it was about the number of pieces; in my mind, I’d think I want eight pieces from this stone, ten from that one, and a strike would make the stone split into the number of pieces I wanted..."
"Later, as I grew stronger, I thought about breaking them into particles of various sizes, all the way down to turning them into dust..."
"I’d never tried this method of smashing before, I couldn’t even think of it myself... It was the Master who reminded me. From now on, I’ll smash in this way..."
Little Fatty knew he had passed the test from everyone’s stunned expressions.
His face flushed with excitement, and even his speech began to stutter.
He knew, his years of hard work had not been in vain.
He had earned the recognition from his master, his big brother, and Mr. Ran.
He was truly overjoyed.
"You did very well, so well that you’ve exceeded my expectations," Shang Xiulin patted Little Fatty’s shoulder forcefully, repeatedly praising, "Excellent."
Little Fatty had succeeded, which meant his success as well.
The path they had chosen was viable.
His ideas were correct, just as the initial idea of the ’godfather’ who first made Little Fatty smash stones was correct.
Shang Xiulin once again thought of Little Fatty’s godfather. What kind of person was he?
If he had the chance to meet and talk with him, they would definitely have much in common.
Tang Fei looked at Little Fatty with a satisfied expression. Little Fatty’s performance today was profoundly shocking to him, but he felt it was only natural that Little Fatty had come this far.
No one knew better than him how much hardship Little Fatty had endured, how much he had struggled.
When they were four or five years old, while he went hunting, Little Fatty would be hammering away at stones.
Back then, he couldn’t even lift such a heavy hammer, so the old man had a blacksmith especially make a small hammer for him.