"Holy crap, a monster!" Meng Jingzhou yelled, swinging his arm wide as he prepared to strike.
One could hardly blame him for reacting this way. The backyard was supposed to be where Lu Yang practiced his boxing. Now Lu Yang had vanished and a tiger had appeared in his place, easily leading one to think that the tiger demon had revived and eaten him.
The tiger demon spoke with human words, producing Lu Yang's voice: "Monster your grandpa! It's me!"
"It actually has Lu Yang's voice!" Meng Jingzhou said in surprise.
One man and one tiger leapt into the air. Stunned by the tiger demon's voice, Meng Jingzhou failed to react in time and was swatted straight to the ground by Lu Yang's paw.
Lu Yang snorted coldly. There wasn't even a trace of a struggle in the courtyard, so how could the tiger demon possibly have eaten him? That grandson Meng Jingzhou clearly knew it was him and was just playing dumb.
Meng Jingzhou clicked his tongue. Lu Yang hadn't struck him with real force just now, and with his thick skin and solid frame, it didn't hurt in the slightest.
He pushed himself up, brushed the dirt off his clothes, and eyed Lu Yang suspiciously. "What on earth happened to you? Weren't you comprehending Imitation Fist? How did you switch to learning transformation techniques?"
"Hang on, let me figure out how to turn back." Tiger-demon Lu Yang tried to scratch the back of his head in frustration, only to realize his front paws couldn't reach. He would have to sit on the ground and scratch with a hind leg... Forget it. Too damaging to his image.
Tiger-demon Lu Yang bared his teeth and grimaced. Who knew practicing boxing could cause so much ridiculous nonsense?
Come to think of it, only his swordsmanship was somewhat normal.
Should he say, as expected of a Sword Spiritual Root?
Meng Jingzhou clattered up the stairs and called Man Gu down.
"What is it? I'm in the middle of monitoring Qin Yuanhao."
"There's something fun for you to see."
Baffled, Man Gu was dragged down to the backyard by Meng Jingzhou, where he caught sight of the familiar tiger demon.
"Monster, give Brother Lu's life back!"
Man Gu let out a thunderous roar and threw a punch. His brain hadn't caught on at all—this was a blow delivered in earnest.
Seeing this, Meng Jingzhou hastily grabbed Man Gu by the waist, pleading with the big barbarian brother to calm down. "Don't hit, don't hit! That's Lu Yang!"
Hearing the commotion in the backyard, the two chang ghosts skewering meat in the main hall curiously crept over to take a peek, only to be scared half out of their wits.
The tiger demon really had revived this time!
Tiger-demon Lu Yang rolled his eyes. Having no patience to deal with this crowd, he focused entirely on figuring out how to dispel the tiger-demon state.
He closed his eyes and chanted three times in his mind: *return to original form.*
When Lu Yang opened his eyes again, he was back in his true appearance.
After that chaotic ordeal, the three finally sat down to carefully reflect on what had just occurred. The two chang ghosts let out a sigh of relief as well and returned to skewering meat.
Business was bound to be even better tonight than yesterday, so they needed to prepare more skewers.
"Here's what happened. I was practicing Imitation Fist just now..." Lu Yang began to explain leisurely.
Hearing Lu Yang claim he had just been practicing Imitation Fist, Man Gu felt his worldview shatter. He blurted out, "Is that Imitation Fist or Transformation Fist?"
The sages were right indeed—reading ten thousand books was no substitute for traveling ten thousand li. Where in any book would such a thing ever be written? He really had to spend more time following Brother Lu and Brother Meng around.
His eyes were truly opened.
Meng Jingzhou was hardly handling it any better than Man Gu, looking at Lu Yang with a bizarre expression.
I thought you were cultivating a spell, and you're telling me you were just boxing?
Whose martial arts training produces results like yours?!
Meng Jingzhou had already thought it absurd enough when Lu Yang's ghost-banishing technique ended up producing an out-of-body Yang Soul a few days ago, but he never expected something even more bizarre to follow.
Lu Yang spoke with absolute conviction, sharing his exclusive insights into Imitation Fist: "Think about it. Isn't the essence of Imitation Fist just mimicking animals? Like Tiger Fist, Monkey Fist, Crane Fist, and the like—imitating tigers, monkeys, and cranes, right?"
Meng Jingzhou and Man Gu nodded.
Lu Yang continued, "Exactly. Then the more lifelike the imitation, the better the results and the greater the power, right?"
Meng Jingzhou and Man Gu nodded again.
"I just fought a tiger demon, so I'm most familiar with Tiger Fist, and I picked it up the fastest and imitated it the most accurately, right?"
Meng Jingzhou and Man Gu continued nodding.
Lu Yang added, "So I practiced with that mindset. And as I kept practicing, I ended up turning into a tiger. Completely reasonable, right?"
Meng Jingzhou was just about to nod when he yanked his head to a dead stop. "Reasonable my ass! The difference is massive, all right?!"
Man Gu, on the other hand, was still foolishly nodding along.
Lu Yang threw his hands out. He was the most helpless of all. He had practiced by the book according to the manual, only adding a tiny bit of his own personal comprehension. "Why don't you two give it a try? Who knows, maybe you can learn transformation techniques this way too?"
Excitement gleamed in Meng Jingzhou and Man Gu's eyes. If they could learn a transformation technique just by practicing boxing, that would be fantastic.
Although transformation techniques were typically used by sneaky, underhanded cultivators, having one more skill in their repertoire wouldn't hurt. Who knew when it might come in handy?
Under the guidance of Lu Yang, the "boxing master," the two quickly grasped Tiger Fist. Their strikes brought forth gusts of wind, looking quite imposing.
However, when it came to the crucial transformation, they couldn't grasp it no matter what.
While the two were practicing, Lu Yang wasn't idling either. Watching their movements, another thought sprouted in his mind.
Imitation Fist was an art of imitation, so why restrict it to mimicking animals? Wouldn't imitating humans work too?
This idea was like a runaway wild horse that couldn't be reined in.
The prerequisite for Imitation Fist was being deeply familiar with the target of imitation.
Seeing the two people focused intently on their boxing, Lu Yang's eyes lit up. Weren't they the perfect examples right here?
He had already grasped the core essence of Imitation Fist. It was time for innovation.
"Progress only comes from weeding through the old to bring forth the new!"
No sooner said than done.
Lu Yang closed his eyes again, recalling Man Gu's movements, and his body began to move.
Practicing his punches, Man Gu noticed Lu Yang's movements and thought they looked awfully familiar, though he couldn't quite place where he had seen them before.
*Isn't that me?* Man Gu soon realized, utterly baffled by what Lu Yang was doing.
Lu Yang immersed himself once more in that wondrous comprehension. His body gradually shifted, and he actually turned into Man Gu's likeness!
"Haha, it worked! I knew my theory was right!" Lu Yang laughed heartily wearing Man Gu's face, creating a jarring sense of discordance.
Man Gu: "! ! !"
What just happened? In the blink of an eye, he had turned into him?
How was this anything like the Imitation Fist in his memory? Could Imitation Fist imitate humans too?!
"Brother Man Gu, since when did you laugh like... Holy crap! Which one is the real Man Gu?!" Meng Jingzhou, who was also practicing punches, heard the uncharacteristic laughter and instinctively sensed something was off. When he turned his head, good grief—two Man Gus.
"No, wait! The newly appeared Man Gu is Lu Yang in disguise!"
Meng Jingzhou looked Lu Yang up and down. His appearance indeed looked identical to Man Gu, but his expression and demeanor were completely off.
One look at Man Gu told you he was a simple, honest fellow, while the Man Gu that Lu Yang turned into looked like a rogue whose belly was brimming with wicked schemes.
Meng Jingzhou gave up on learning Imitation Fist. If he had harbored any hopes of learning transformation through boxing earlier, seeing Lu Yang like this told him he would definitely never master it.
This no longer had anything to do with Imitation Fist!
Having mastered the trick, Lu Yang switched from Man Gu to Meng Jingzhou, seamlessly and without a hitch.
"That really is a transformation technique, isn't it?"
"This is the Lu Clan Imitation Fist."
Lu Yang clasped his hands behind his back and tilted his head forty-five degrees to gaze at the sky, carrying the unmistakable demeanor of a martial grandmaster.
(Don't ask why Lu Yang still had clothes on after turning back from a tiger demon to human form; this is a wholesome novel.)
Chapter 59