Object Manipulation Art

On the morning of the eighth day after completing the stone-carrying mountain run, Goten stood on the training ground. Seven stones of different sizes had been laid out in front of him.

They weren't the thousand-pound boulder from before. These seven stones ranged from fist-sized to watermelon-sized, arranged in a row. Patriarch Bodhi stood beside them, holding a leaf.

"Today's lesson has a name: Object Manipulation Art."

Goten nodded seriously.

This was the first real Immortal Art he'd learned since coming to this world—not something for fighting, but for cultivation.

"The basic principle of Object Manipulation Art isn't to pick something up with your hand. It's your Origin Energy that 'picks it up.'"

Patriarch Bodhi laid the leaf on his palm, then wrapped it in Origin Energy. The leaf slowly rose, hovering above his hand. "First, try to make this leaf move."

Goten took the leaf and placed it on his palm. He stared at it and summoned his Origin Energy, but the leaf didn't budge.

He increased the flow of Origin Energy. The leaf still didn't move.

"You're trying too hard." Patriarch Bodhi's voice came from beside him. "Object Manipulation Art isn't about strength. It's about resonance between you and the object. First, sense it, then invite it to move with you."

Goten took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

He stopped trying to "push" the leaf with his Origin Energy and focused on sensing its presence instead.

It was a leaf that had fallen from the Old Locust Tree. It was half withered, its veins clearly visible, and morning dew still clung to it. He sensed it—the faint Origin Energy inside the leaf.

It wasn't energy he'd put there. The leaf had its own. Every leaf—even every stone—contained Origin Energy. The difference was that living things had more active energy, while inanimate objects' energy was quieter.

He gently touched the leaf's Origin Energy with his own. He wasn't trying to push it—just saying hello.

The leaf quivered slightly. He opened his eyes. It had really moved. He hadn't pushed it; it had responded on its own.

"Keep going." A hint of approval, almost too faint to notice, entered Patriarch Bodhi's voice.

Goten continued communicating with the leaf through his Origin Energy. His energy wrapped around it, and the leaf's energy sensed a kindred presence. The two drew together, and the leaf slowly lifted from his palm, hovering an inch above it.

Goten held his breath, afraid the leaf would fall if he exhaled. It hovered for three breaths, then drifted lightly back down onto his palm.

"I did it—"

"It's only a leaf." Patriarch Bodhi pointed at the seven stones. "When you can make the biggest one float, you'll be ready to graduate."

Goten looked at the largest stone, which was a head taller than he was, and swallowed.

Goten spent the entire morning struggling with the leaf.

He went from keeping it aloft for just three breaths, to ten, and then to the time it took for a stick of incense to burn.

By nearly noon, he could make the leaf fly a circle around his body before landing steadily back in his palm. He began challenging himself with the fist-sized stone.

The principle was the same: sense its Origin Energy, establish a connection, wrap it in his own energy, and guide it into the air.

But the stone's energy was much quieter than the leaf's, as if it were asleep. He needed far more patience to rouse it.

He pressed his palm against the stone, closed his eyes, and sensed it for a long time. Then he gently tapped it with his Origin Energy.

A muffled response came from inside the stone. He guided it upward. It trembled, lifted an inch off the ground, then dropped heavily back down.

"Again."

He tried once more. This time, the stone rose two inches. He tried again. Three inches.

By afternoon, he could keep the fist-sized stone hovering above his palm.

He began challenging himself with the second stone, which was twice the size of the first. This time, he spent longer sensing it. He discovered a pattern: the larger the object, the "heavier" the Origin Energy inside it—not scarcer, but denser. He needed more energy to wrap around it before he could make it float.

He lifted both stones at the same time, one large and one small, hovering above his outstretched hands. He held them there for five breaths, then both stones fell to the ground.

"Take a break." Zixia's voice came from the edge of the training ground. She carried over a bowl of water and sat beside Goten. He took the bowl and drank it dry in one gulp.

Zixia looked at his dusty hands and sweaty forehead and suddenly found it a little amusing. Someone who had once sent the Bull Demon King flying with a single punch was now struggling with a stone.

"What are you laughing at?"

"You." Zixia took the empty bowl. "When you first arrived, you sent four Demon Kings flying with one punch. Now you can't even lift a stone."

Goten laughed at himself too. "It's different. Before, I used strength. Now I'm using... how do I put it? My heart."

Zixia froze for a moment, then smiled. Her smile was different from before—not one of approval, but of remembrance. "The way you just spoke... you sounded a lot like him."

"Sun Wukong?"

"Mm. He was the same when he learned something. Even when he could take a shortcut, he insisted on going step by step, mastering every basic until it was second nature before moving on."

Goten fell silent for a moment, then asked the question he'd always wanted to ask but had never dared to voice. "Sister Zixia, did you love Sun Wukong?"

Zixia didn't answer.

She gazed at the Old Locust Tree in the distance. Sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting dappled shadows on the ground.

After a long while, she spoke. Her voice was as calm as if she were talking about someone else. "I did."

"What happened after that?"

"Afterward... he chose to journey to the West for the scriptures. I chose to wait."

"Wait for what?"

Zixia lowered her head to look at the empty bowl in her hands. A few drops of water remained at the bottom. "For him to come back. But in the end, all I got was news of his death."

Goten fell silent.

He hadn't known the word "wait" could carry so much weight. It was a light, simple word, but Zixia had spent five hundred years making it heavier than any mountain.

"Goten..." Zixia stood up. "I'm not telling you this to make you sad. I want you to understand that some people can wait five hundred years and still never see the one they're waiting for. But some people... you don't have to wait for. They'll come to you on their own."

She left.

Goten sat on the training ground, watching Zixia's retreating figure. Her words circled in his heart for a long time.

He turned his gaze back to the stone before him.

He placed his hand against it, sensing the Origin Energy sleeping within. This time, his perception went deeper than ever before—so deep that even he was astonished.

The stone slowly rose from the ground. Not an inch, not two—it rose a full yard.

This wasn't brute force. It was a breakthrough in his understanding of Origin Energy. The stone hovered steadily in midair, as if it had never fallen at all.