Chapter 103: A New Training Regime

“I don’t understand,” Zen said as he sat down on the couch. They were in the cottage that had been given to Jao Cong. The boy had started a fire to chase away the cold and placed a pot of water in a cooking flame. “Why didn’t you ask your sister to teach you to fight?”

“I did and she has… it’s just that…” Cong fidgeted as he struggled to find the right words, “her method of teaching is much too slow, too gentle. By the tie I become proficient, I fear it may be too late.”

Zen nodded. He suddenly understood why Lu Daomeng had left him to master the art on his own. His words still echoed through his mind, ‘Yes, teach, not coddle. I am not your mother, I am your shifu. So I will not spoon feed you your education.’ Although Zen thought that Lu Daomeng was one extreme, he could imagine Cong’s overprotective sister being another. One was too withdrawn from teaching to be of use while the other was too motherly to be of any use.

“And you are one of the best hand to hand fighters of our year.”

“What?” Zen said. “Really?”

“Yes. The teachers speak of you highly. They say you are definitely number 5 of the top 5.”

“Yeah?” Zen smirked in pride. “And whose number one?”

“Chen Jian.”

“Of course,” Zen frowned in annoyance. “Alright, coz, I’ll teach you to fight. And one day you’ll surprise that sister of yours with the skills you learn from me. Yeah, you’ll give her a good beating.” Zen smirked and rubbed his hands together, absentmindedly.

Under the firelight, Jao noted that he looked rather sinister. “Uh… I think you are missing the point. I do not want to wallop my sister just learn how to defend myself.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Zen waved dismissively, not hearing a single word. “How many fighting classes do you take?”

Cong hesitated to answer but he finally said, “One… and I’m doing badly at it.”

“Alright, then we’ll go through the forms they teach you in that class and then do some light sparring.” Zen said as he began walking out of the warm cottage.

“Wait… now?”

“Yeah.”

“In the cold?”

“Better to fortify your body with.”

“But I have tea to prepare.”

“We’ll drink it after you can lay a hit on my face.”

Cong sighed in sadness and reluctantly followed Zen back outside into the cold night.

Jao Cong was awful. His forms were horrible and his fighting was sloppy and bogged down by fear and nervousness. It amazed Zen how someone who had accumulated so much ki was so bad at fighting. He would need a lot of work before they would start practicing with Zen’s mannequin.

Soon this became a habit. After school, Zen would attempt to master the Swirling Swath and after he would go to Jao Cong’s cottage where they trained in secret from his sister. After he would add his own intense training with the mannequin before he slept for 4 hours only to get up early, meditate in the mountains and then attend classes. And so this cycle continued for weeks, becoming his training regime.

Zen had his eyes closed and his brows knotted as he focussed his ki. A murky swath of ki spun around him and swivelled, its path getting smaller as it faded from existence. The next came a few seconds later and so on and so forth. He sighed in hopelessness as once again, he failed to produce a constant stream of swirling swaths that would create the whirlwind effect.

Although he did not want to, he knew he would have to see his shifu for some guidance. He had given up the hope that he could figure the technique out on his own.

“Might as well see him tonight,” Zen sighed before he got up from the floor of the empty dorm room.

Shibi jumped on is shoulder as he made his way out. The sun was slowly setting in the horizon, colouring the sky above the academy in a deep orange colour with a few stars already twinkling against the darkening sun. Shibi walked a little ahead of him, exploring the hardy brown grass beneath his feet.

“Zen’er!” Jao Fuu shouted as they met on the path. She was followed by her twin brother who carried a book under one arm.

“Jao Fuu. Jao Cong.” He greeted. “Where are you two going?” he asked, knowing that Cong would have to eet him in a little while for training.

“I’m accompanying my brother to renew a book he took out of the library.” Fuu said. “Father is refusing to pay one more of his library fines.”

“They should extend their loan times.” Cong grumbled.

“I guess we can walk together,” Zen said. “I’m going to the faculty offices.”

“Agh! What did you do now?” Fuu said.

“Nothing!” Zen said, feeling insulted. “I’m not always in trouble, you know!”

“Right.” She sang sceptically.

Shibi yelped, breaking their concentration.

Zen rushed to the orange furred monkey to see what was wrong. When he was behind him, he saw the problem, a hissing green snake with a black pattern on its body hissed at the monkey.

“What is that?” Zen said, inviting Shibi to climb up his arm, which the monkey did where it made threatening sounds at the coiled snake.

“An Emperor Serpent!” Jao Cong said.

“You know your serpents well, boy.” The snake said, surprising everyone. “The same cannot be said for that foolish monkey. I almost ate him whole.”

“Hey… w-wild beasts are not allowed on campus grounds.” Fuu remarked.

Zen noticed that the snake had black eyes and not silver ones which would denote that it had a master.

“Perhaps you should tell that to the monkey.” The snake said. “It has no master and yet it is still here as I am.”

“Shibi is different,” Zen said. “He is with me!”

“Then I too am with someone.”

“Bull!” Zen said. “Who would keep a belly crawler as ugly as you?”

“Watch your mouth boy, for I will eat you up.” The snale reared up and stopped. “Ah, the person I’m with is coming now.”

Zen and the group looked towards where the snake was looking at and they saw Chen Jian coming up. Shibi screamed a warning and Zen instinctively jumped back, barely dodging the Emperor Snake’s fangs when it lunged at him while he was distracted. He crashed into his cousins, sending Cong to the floor and almost doing the same to Fuu.

“Li Ao Po!” Chen exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”

“This overgrown worm is yours?” Zen said in anger. “It tried to kill me!”

“You dare, boy!” The snake came closer to Zen who took a fighting stance.

“Stop this,, Po!” Chen said. “Did you come here to cause trouble.”

“No. I came here to ask that you take me in. I have come to respect your power and honour and wish to assist you in your journey.” Po said. “This boy obviously does not share the same respect for you and I. I can sense it by the feint killing intent he emits. If you wish, I can prove myself by fighting him and his weak ape.” Po slithered towards Zen, threateningly.

Shibi leapt off Zen’s shoulder and challenged the snake, stopping its progress.

“You shall be the first to fall ape!”

“Shibi, come back.” Zen reached out to him.

“Well,” Chen smirked. “Seems like your afraid your weak ape will get torn apart.”

“You know nothing about Shibi!” Zen said, his killing intent rising a notch.

“Then let him fight, it seems like he wants to.”

“I don’t need to be told by you!” Zen said.”Shibi come…”

“Zen!” Shibi’s voice instantly drove Zen to silence and surprised everyone. “I fight!” Shibi looked back at him, determination shining in his angry eyes.

“Are-Are you sure?”

Shibi faced the snake.

“This will not last long,” Po said before he lunged…