Hi Everyone,
I just recently finished writing my own Wuxia story and I'm in the process of editing it. I figure that as I finishe editing each chapter, I will post it here for people to read. As you read it, please let me know what you think.
Thanks,
Bai Lun
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SHUANG LONG JI - THE LEGEND OF THE TWO DRAGONS
A Wuxia Martial Arts Novel
Written by Bai Lun
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CHAPTER I: The Young Scholar
The room was filled with noise as the men drank and laughed. They had all been sitting there for several hours now, amusing each other with stories of all types. Most of the men were merchants, traveling the different roads, earning a living selling their goods. Some had been on the road for years and had families waiting for them back at home. Others were young and just starting out on their path. None of them had met before tonight. Six of the merchants shared a table in a small little inn on a road in the countryside of the Jiangxi province.
They, and those seated in tables near them, were currently being entertained by a young man called Teng. He stood out among the others because he had the appearance and behavior not of a merchant, but a scholar, someone who had spent hours reading and writing and came from different stock than the merchants.
A young girl of about eighteen came over to Teng’s table and filled the mens' glasses with more wine. One of the merchants looked up at her and grinned, his smile missing one or two teeth.
“You’re looking very pretty tonight, Xiao Hong!” The girl smiled, embarrassed at the comment, but enjoying it none the less. She spoke in a playful scold.
“You shouldn’t say such things, Cao! What would my father say if he’d heard that!” The merchant laughed.
“Out of all the inns I stay at, this one is my favorite. Not because it has good food and drink, but because you’re here to serve it!” He raised his glass in the air. “To Xiao Hong, may she always be here to tend to our needs as we rest from our journeys.” All of them raised their glasses.
“To Xiao Hong!” The girl smiled and turned to walk away, but another merchant playfully grabbed her dress and pulled her on to his lap. Being accustomed to this kind of behavior from semi-drunk men at the inn, the girl was not surprised and went with it. The merchant had foul breath and his face was covered with pot-marks.
“Xiao Hong, when are we going to get married?” He smiled. She laughed out loud.
“Now why would I want to marry you?” The merchant pondered this for a moment.
“Every good man deserves a good wife.”
“If I see a good man around here, I’ll be sure to marry him,” she said. All of the men burst out laughing while the merchant jokingly placed his hands on his chest and spoke in a humorous whiny voice.
“My heart is breaking Xiao Hong! You mean to say you don’t love me?” She went along with his act and spoke in a similar voice.
“Of course my dear, that is exactly what I mean to say!” The men burst out laughing again as the girl got up and walked away from their table.
“You’re not leaving us are you?” all the merchants said together in a teasing tone. She looked back at them and smiled.
“Just for a little while. Why don’t you have your friend over there entertain you some more?” All eyes turned back towards Teng, who had remained silent the whole time. His smile was meek. One of the merchants spoke, prodding Teng with his arm.
“She’s right. Tell us another story.” Everyone murmured in agreement. Teng took a swig of wine, placed his glass on the table and began.
“This one’s about Shuang Long Ji, the Legend of the Two Dragons, men who fight not for fame or fortune, but honor. They travel throughout the country doing good deeds where they can and fighting evil where they find it. They’re supposed to be fast. Fast like lightning.” Teng made several quick swinging motions as if he were holding a sword, pretending to jab at several of the merchants, who jumped a little as he swung at them.
“You have to be careful. If you see one of them, the other’s usually not far away. That’s how they trick their enemies. For instance, there was a road that was known to be dangerous. Thieves would hide in the nearby forest and ambush anyone who passed by to steal whatever they had.” Teng got out of his seat and began to walk around the table, lowering his voice, as if he were whispering into the ear of each merchant as he passed them.
“One of these Dragons walked down the road by himself, humming a tune and acting as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Naturally, the thieves in the woods saw this and began to follow him. Eventually, they revealed themselves and went to rob him, not realizing that they were the ones that were being ambushed.” Teng clapped his hands together so loudly it startled some of the merchants.
“The other Dragon appeared from thin air and the two of them made short work of the thieves before they even knew what had happened. But the best part is that they didn’t kill the thieves. They simply knocked them out and when they woke up, they found that their clothes had been stolen right off their backs, leaving them naked and looking like idiots. Things got worse though when the thieves, in their confusion, finally managed to stumble back to the cave where they had stored their loot. They found that it had vanished. Every last bit gone!” Teng paused and there was silence until one merchant ventured a question.
“So what happened to their loot?” Teng turned and looked at him.
“No one knows. Some say the Two Dragons hoard the loot they take from thieves, others say they give it back to the people it was stolen from. It’s hard to say for sure.” The merchant smiled and raised his glass of wine in the air.
“Well here’s to the loot. If it’s out there, may one of us poor fools be fated and lucky enough to run across it!” All the merchants raised their glasses and shouted in unison, “to the loot!”
For awhile longer they all continued to drink and tell stories. The stories were many, being short and long, about heroes, adventures, life on the road, and so forth until one by one, the merchants began to retire to their rooms for night, leaving Teng to sit by himself at the table. His soberness had faded away long ago, but he wasn't drunk enough to pass out. He just continued to sip his wine and stare around the empty inn.
He pushed back the stool he was sitting on and was about to go to bed when he noticed a thin scroll of parchment placed on the ground under the spot where his stool had been sitting for most of the night. Curious, he picked it up and unrolled it. There was a hand-scrawled message on the parchment. Teng rubbed the sleep from his eyes and began to read.
You are a gifted storyteller, Teng, and we
enjoyed listening to your stories tonight.
You have the potential to become a great
scholar one day. Perhaps we’ll meet again.
The bottom of the parchment was signed with two characters: Two Dragons. Teng’s eyes opened wide with shock. He jumped up to his feet, knocking his stool over. He read the letter over and over until the truth finally sunk in. The Two Dragons were real! They were real and they had been sitting at one of the tables in the inn tonight, listening to the stories he had told! They’d been so near, but yet he had no idea what they might have looked like. In all the stories he’d heard about them in his travels, he’d never once heard anything about what they might have looked like. Scratching his head, Teng read the letter over several more times and smiled. Then he went to his room to sleep.
* * *
The next evening, Teng was walking down one of the roads near the inn, still thinking about the night before. For most of his academic life he’d been studying the Two Dragons, hoping that he would someday be able to find out more about them, who they were, and why did what they did.
Teng’s father had been a scholar like him, but had only past the first round of imperial examinations and gone no further. He had tried several times to reach the next level, but with no success. Having resigned himself to his fate, Teng’s father became a tutor to a wealthy, high-ranking family’s children. It was his father’s earnest hope that Teng might be able to succeed where he had failed. All his life, Teng had been encouraged to become a scholar and to prepare for the imperial examinations in the hope that one day he might have the chance to become a government official.
This was all fine and good, but he wasn’t sure if it was what he really wanted. Teng had already passed the first examination and the next one was still several years away. Despite his modest income, Teng’s father had provided for Teng’s living, insisting that he should spend his time in study without the distractions of tutoring for a living. Teng had been enormously grateful for this, but still something was nagging him in the back of his mind.
He loved books and reading, but somehow, he wanted more. As a child he’d always been fascinated by stories of heroes and villains, ghosts and demons, and others. That was his passion. He wanted to tell stories, wanted to take what he heard and record it for the generations to follow him.
The Two Dragons had been the focus of this passion in recent years. Ever since he’d first heard of their existence, he’d been collecting stories about them, trying to record everything he heard. Information and details were sketchy at best. No one knew who they were or where they had come from. They were like phantoms that he was looking for, but would disappear into thin air the more he searched.
Teng pulled out the parchment he had found under his stool the previous night and looked over it again. For the first time, he felt a hint of validation in his goal to find out something of these Two Dragons. Against his father’s advice and wishes, Teng had decided to take a year off from studies and travel the various roads and provinces, searching for any truth in the stories of the Two Dragons and now the parchment that he held in his hand was the first sign that he might be making progress.
Teng looked around to discover that he’d wandered off the road and was now walking through a field filled with tall grass, gently blowing in the night’s breeze. He came to an old tree and sat down against the truck, gazing up at the stars in the sky. The Two Dragons often filled his thoughts. He admired them for their actions, for their bravery to fight injustice, knowing so few people could or would these days. He wanted to know more about them. Who were they and where did they come from?
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CHAPTER II: A New Path
5 Years Earlier
Quan Jun woke up to find himself sitting upright in bed, his skin drenched with sweat and his body shaking. He opened his eyes and glanced around his cell. No one else was there except him. His cell contained only a bed, a chair, and a window. Outside, rain was pouring in torrents from the sky, making a drumming sound on the ceiling. Jun sat still for a moment, thinking about his dream. A tear slipped from his eye and ran down his face. After rubbing his eyes, Jun got out of bed, put on a simple brown robe, tied a cord around the waist, and walked towards the window, staring out into the rain.
“It was so real,” he thought to himself, “as usual.” He moved towards a pair of sandals sitting on a crude stone floor and slid his feet into them.
As the rain continued to pour outside, Jun walked down a long hallway. In the darkness there was the faint outline of doorways leading to other rooms beyond. Jun passed them without a second glance. Although he couldn't see it, he could hear the sound of a mouse scurrying in front of his path.
“I remember every detail still, as if it had happened yesterday,” Jun thought as his mind slipped back to his childhood.
He was five years old. It was a night exactly like this one. Rain was pouring, but not as quickly as the tears streaming down his cheeks. His father knelt down in front of him to wipe his face.
“…but why Papa? Why do you have to go?”
“It’s just the way things have to be, Jun. I wish I could explain more, but I can’t.” Jun lowers his head and stares at the ground.
“Please don’t go, Papa. Please don’t go.” Tears begin to fill Jun’s father’s eyes as he grabs his little son with both arms and hugs him tightly.
“I’m so sorry, but I have to. Someday you’ll understand.” His father releases him from his hug and looks Jun square in the face, lifting his head up so that their eyes meet. “I’ll always love you, son. Remember that. I’ll always love you.” Jun’s father lets go of him and stands up, slowly backing away into the darkness until he disappears completely. Jun, begins to sob uncontrollably, sits down on the muddy ground, and puts his face in his hands.
Jun reached the end of the long hallway, walked out the doorway, and down a flight of steps until his feet touched the ground. There he stopped and stared off into the darkness, the rain drenching his robe.
“Even after all these years, sometimes I still hope with all my heart that one night I’ll walk through that dark hallway, down these steps, and he’ll be waiting for me.” Jun stared out into the darkness, standing in front of the monastery where he was left by his father fifteen years ago. “But of course, he never is.”
* * *
Several days later, Jun stood in a small garden, picking tomatoes. He carefully looked at each one as he took them from the vine. Every now and then his hand pushed his long dark hair, a stark contrast to the other bald monks, away from his face. He was a bit taller than everyone else and always carried a look of thoughtful serenity in his eyes. He picked the tomatoes at a quick pace, but gradually slowed as his thoughts drifted elsewhere.
“Quan Jun!” Jun snapped out of his thoughts and looked around behind him. A old, short monk halfway across the garden was staring at him. “Have you finished picking those tomatoes yet?” Jun glanced at the tomato vine and then down into his half-empty basket.
“Uh, yeah. Almost there, Shifu!” Jun began to pick tomatoes at a frantic pace. The glimmer of smile crossed his master's face.
“It looks like it.”
After several minutes, the other monks begin to leave the garden, baskets in hand. Jun looked around and began to make his way towards the monastery.
“Jun. Could I speak with you?” Jun stopped and turned around. His master was seated on a makeshift bench towards one end of the garden. Jun walked over to the bench and took a seat next to him, placing his basket of tomatoes on the ground. There was silence between the two of them for a minute.
“Jun,” his master paused, as if collecting his thoughts, “Something has come up that I think we need to discuss.”
“What is it Shifu?” Jun looked at his master, his face full of curiosity.
“I believe you’ve reached a turning point in your life here. Each person has a path they follow throughout their life and sometimes they realize at some point that the path they’re now walking is not the same one they started on.” Jun turned his face away from his master and stared out towards the garden and spoke with a bit of disappointment in his voice.
“You mean to say that I don’t belong here.”
“For fifteen years we have taught you all we know about life, our ideas, our philosophy, our knowledge, but somehow I sense that this isn’t enough for you. Your mind and soul are restless. You seek something different from what we have to offer. This is a place for those who have found peace, but that is something you have not found and will not obtain by simply staying here.” Jun was silent, his mind turning over what he had just heard.
“My mind would disagree with you Shifu, but my heart wouldn't. You have been good to me all these years and for that I am grateful, but I feel it would be a great disservice to you if I left.”
“It would be a greater disservice if you stayed. All of us here walk one path, but you walk another. It is a path of mystery that has yet to be revealed. I have been here for over fifty years. I can now see the end of my journey, but yours is just beginning. Embrace it to its fullest. You must find what you’re searching for.”
“I don’t know what that is.”
“Yes you do. You dream about it every night. It has consumed your every spare thought since you came here.”
“My father.”
“Yes, your father. You seek to know who he is and why he left you here. Excellent questions, but you will not find the answers here.” His master slowly got up from the bench and began to walk back towards the monastery. Jun called after him.
“Shifu, where should I begin?” His master turned back towards Jun and smiled.
“That is something you’ll have to figure out.”
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That's the end of the first post. I'll have the next one up in a few days!