Paper airplane (7)
Masters suspicions were hard to dispel, although Ah Yi and I were quite happy.
That nights hotpot meal was punctuated with a lot of big question marks.
Luckily, the third day did not have a third eyeless person.
Thanks to Ah Yis and my rigorous protestations, Master finally switched our lightness arts practice time to night.
Ah Yi and I wanted to train in high level martial arts, not train in how to submit to shaming.
No, it wasnt how to submit to shaming, it was how to embrace it!
And so, in the dead of night, Ah Yi and I, dressed up in ninja costumes, jumped from telephone pole to telephone pole in the city center and flew about amidst the sea of trees that blanketed Ba Gua mountain.
And of course, one starry night, we actually were able to reach the top of the Giant Buddha.
Because the secrets of martial arts studies are not to be advertised, I cant reveal how exactly Ah Yi and I flew to the top of the Buddhas head. But I can tell you, it was an amazing feeling to stand up there and gaze at the stars.
After some time, when our lightness arts had begun to progress, Master tied lead weights onto our legs and required us to jump around the telephone poles without relying on strength generated by using our knees. Simply put, we werent allowed to bend our legs, and had to jump around like the stupid zombies from the movie Mr. Vampire. [133]
Why cant we bend our knees? protested Ah Yi. We cant even jump that way!
If you use your inner force, you can jump, insisted Master. Then if you add your muscle strength, youll be able to jump even higher.
What we mean is, what kind of martial arts will this help us train? In my opinion, the training method was pointless.
By training your leg strength to a high level, you can increase the stamina of your inner force. Having said that, Master threw us onto the telephone poles.
Jumping without bending your knees really was a son of a *****.
It took four nights before we could succeed. We constantly fell, and actually damaged quite a few cars and caught the attention of patrolling police on several occasions.
The failures really put a damper on the relationship between master and us disciples. In fact, our Snake Venom Expelling Qi Training, and In-room Sword Technique Creation, went on with barely a word spoken.
Thankfully, after several days, our hopping vampire jumping worked, and we were able to successfully leap a succession of ten poles. Master embraced us tearfully, and the hard feelings dissipated.
Studying martial arts was really great.
Many years later, after countless nights of shouldering chunks of cement and practicing Hopping Vampire techniques on Ba Gua mountain, a folk tale emerged: a group of hopping vampires had come from mainland China to haunt the mountains of Taiwan!
My training on Ba Gua mountain was how the legends of hopping vampires in Changsha came to be.
My training on Ahli mountain in Chiayi county was how legends of hopping vampires in Chiayi came to be. [134]
My training in East China was how the legends of fearsome hopping vampires all over the region came to be.
But that happened maybe three or four years later.
**
[133] Mr. Vampire was a Hong Kong hopping vampire movie:
http://tinyurl.com/ygvanfd. Heres some info on hopping vampires:
http://tinyurl.com/m34csc9
[134] Chiayi, a county in south Taiwan.
http://tinyurl.com/3hecde. Ahli mountain or Alishan is a mountain preserve there:
http://tinyurl.com/mu7s7za