CHAPTER FOUR

“No, I’m not getting in that,” Li Feng says, taking a step back and being stopped by Lam Bai. “I am not climbing into a cauldron of boiling water.”

“The water isn’t boiling,” Zhong says and enters his hand into the cauldron. “It’s just hot enough to steam. Not boiling, but steaming.”

“You have to do it, young master,” Lam Bai says, pushing Li Feng forward. “Even I had to undergo the Boiling Cauldron of Nine Transformations ritual when I turned five years old.”

‘Damn,’ Li Feng curses, not seeing any way out of the situation. He could use his magic to break out of the room, but all monks are training from a young age to be especially powerful cultivators. If he tried to overpower Zhong standing on the other side of the cauldron, Li Feng knew he’d be no match.

Reluctantly, Li Feng walks over to the cauldron. As he gets closer, the temperature in the room gets higher, making Li Feng sweat. The water is indeed not boiling, but a steady stream of steam is being produced, indicating that the water is not far from boiling. The water in the cauldron is leagues hotter than a hot bath.

As Li Feng takes off his clothes, he hands them to Lam Bai. The servant turns her head to face the wall of the room, reaching out with one hand to take whatever Li Feng hands her. After removing his tunic and shoes, Li Feng is entire undressed, and he climbs into the cauldron.

The hot iron cauldron is the first thing to assault Li Feng’s body. The rim of the cauldron is smooth and burns Li Feng’s palms as he touches it. He pulls his hands away, looks at Zhong, then sighs. ‘Maybe a little magic wouldn’t go unnoticed,’ Li Feng thinks and uses ice magic to reduce the temperature of the metal he’s touching.

He climbs into the cauldron, and the next heat to hit Li Feng is the steaming water. The cauldron rim could be cooled without showing any change for Zhong or Lam Bai to notice, but the water cannot simply be cooled down with magic. If Li Feng did reduce the temperature of the water, the steam would stop.

Li Feng is hesitant before fully entering the water, his legs and waist already burning from the hot water. Right now, his choices are to go fast and fluently, dunking his body in one go, or gradually lowering himself into the water. Either way, the pain will be immense.

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Just then, Li Feng gets an idea and dunks himself into the water. It hot water is painful for a few seconds, but then ice magic cools it down enough so that it’s not painful. At the same time, Li Feng uses fire magic to reheat the top few inches of water, resulting in only his hair getting singed.

After Li Feng completely submerges himself, Lam Bai turn back to facing the cauldron, and Zhong turns around. Behind him is a lever on the wall with a tap next to it, and bucket under the tap. By pressing the lever down, boiling water comes pouring through the tap and into the bucket, filling it quickly. Once the bucket is full, Zhong turns around and dumps it into the cauldron.

“Transformation number one!” Zhong shouts as the bucket empties over the cauldron. The boiling water cascades around Li Feng’s head, burning his face where it touches him. The sudden sensation makes him need to breath, and he ascends from the water.

“Ah!” Li Feng gasps, breathing in hot, steamy air. His body receives another wave of pain as the inflamed skin contacts the air.

“You must stay submerged for all nine transformations!” Zhong says and forcefully dunks Li Feng into the cauldron’s water. Zhong holds Li Feng down for a few moments before refilling the bucket with boiling water.

‘This is madness!’ Li Feng wants to shout, but he doesn’t want to offend Zhong. The monk does not have to respect Li Feng as a young master of the Li family, and is protected from honor-bound duels by the temple. If Li Feng offends any monk and is punished accordingly, he knows he’ll have no recourse available to him.

Zhong finishes filling the second bucket of water and dumps it into the cauldron. Like last time, Li Feng is assaulted by the boiling water across his face and scalp. The only fortunate thing about the situation is that the water already in the cauldron helps reduce the temperature of the boiling water enough so that it won’t cause permanent damage. However, if he wasn’t using magic to cool the water under the surface, Li Feng doesn’t know how he’d survive.

“Transformation number one!” Zhong shouts with the second bucket being dumped. He refills the bucket again, dumping the full contents on top of Li Feng, in the cauldron. Water overflows the cauldron sides, but it flows back toward Zhong, not getting Lam Bai wet. With the second bucket, Zhong shouts, “Transformation number two!” and he goes to get the third bucket.

On the last bucket of boiling water, Zhong shouts, “Transformation number nine!” and pulls Li Feng from the water by his queue. Li Feng gasps for air and shivers as cold hits his body. “The Boiling Cauldron of Nine Transformations ritual is now complete! Go buy a Heavenly Mirror Stone to check your cultivation, and leave,” Zhong says, replacing the bucket on the floor, and leaves the room.

“Young master,” Lam Bai says, holding out Li Feng’s clothes, and turns around to face the door.