Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Steps of the Celestial Dragon ❯ Part 3: ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Date : 030609

Disclaimer : All Ranma and Jin Yong characters and concepts belong to respective creators and owners.

Ranma suffers from the Ultimate Moxibustion Point. To correct the problem, he uses the Nanban Mirror to travel to the past. But will this action truly help him? A part of the Timerunner series ...

STEPS OF THE CELESTIAL DRAGON

Part 3:

Meanwhile, in the courtyard of the temple, a stand off was taking place between the new arrival and the five heads of the different orders in Dragon Temple.

"Jiu Mo Zhi, we are all followers of Buddha. Why do you attack us?" one of the monks asked.

"Honour Buddha. Peace upon the Enlightened One. I do not wish for violence but I must carry out the last wishes of Master Mu Rong Ba. So please I beg you once more, for the sake of peace, do not get in the way of this lowly monk," the monk in saffron robes warned.

"You, who come to fight for the Six Meridian Divine Swords technique, are you not considered to be a high one then since you strive against your fate to acquire it against all odds?" another monk asked.

Jiu Mo Zhi laughed.

"That has yet to be determined," he answered by way of reply.

"You are a visitor from Dalun Monastery. We at Dragon Temple have no quarrel with the monks from Dalun Monastery," a second monk added.

"I know that. But I promised Master Mu Rong Ba to bring the Six Meridian Divine Swords manual to him and a lifetime promise must never be broken," Jiu Mo Zhi answered.

"We are at an impasse then. But we cannot in good conscience allow anyone from outside Dragon Temple to get their hands on the Six Meridian Divine Swords manual. If you do not leave, we will be forced to use the Six Meridian Divine Swords on you," the first monk warned.

"In that case, I am deeply honoured to be among the first to experience its true capability! I have heard many stories about the unrivalled power of the Six Meridian Divine Swords technique and I hope that the monks from Dragon Temple would not disappoint me in their teachings of the techniques from the Six Meridian Divine Swords manual," the monk in saffron robes replied sinisterly.

Closing his eyes, Jiu Mo Zhi slapped his palms together. His aura glowed in the sunlight as he threw his prayer beads into the air to form a complete circle around him.

"Allow me to demonstrate one of the 72 lethal skills of Shaolin Temple ..."

A stone the size of a fist floated into the air in front of him between his palms before crumbling into dust with a small application of ki.

"This is the Finger of Random Flowers ... It is rather coarse and unrefined compared to Master Yun Ci's Blossom-Picking Finger, of course ..." Jiu Mo Zhi announced maliciously with fake modesty.

"Adopt the five stances of the Six Meridian Divine Swords!" one of the monks who seemed to be the leader ordered.

The five monks moved into position joining their hands together before firing a sustained beam of ki from their palms at the monk in saffron robes. The five beams of ki shot towards Jiu Mo Zhi who did not even bother to move from his position. They struck the circle of prayer beads around him but did not seem to penetrate the circle in any way.

The five monks increased the strength of their sustained ki beam attacks on the monk in saffron robes but none of their attacks penetrated the circle that had formed around him.

"I am seeing the basic stances of the Six Meridian Divine Swords but not the actual attack moves of the technique. Come on, show me the much vaunted attack moves of the Six Meridian Divine Swords. I want to experience it firsthand," Jiu Mo Zhi sneered in derision.

After another minute of failing spectacularly in penetrating his defenses, Jiu Mo Zhi opened his eyes and threw his palms forward. A massive wave of ki erupted from the circle to smash headlong into everything in front of him. The ground ruptured and part of the wall of the temple shattered as the ki wave crashed straight into it. The five monks barely managed to escape harm from the attack.

"Resume formation!" the five monks linked together once again to form the attack stance of the Six Meridian Divine Swords.

"Like I said before, this is not the actual attack moves of the Six Meridian Divine Swords. Come on! Show me the real attack moves of the Six Meridian Divine Swords! If this is the best that Dragon Temple can offer, then there is no more hope for the future generation," Jiu Mo Zhi commented in mockery of what he saw in front of him.

The five monks leaped to the attack. Like before, Jiu Mo Zhi did not even bother to dodge.

"The five different animal styles. Tiger, eagle, leapord, snake and crane. You are still using the formation of the Six Meridian Divine Swords but not the actual attack moves itself. Though the formation that you are doing is good, without the actual attack moves of the Six Meridian Divine Swords itself, it is barely adequate and cannot be called an unrivalled skill. This is a waste of time," he laughed as the monks gathered their inner force before him.

Before they could attack, he threw the floating prayer beads around him at the five different monks who scattered as they tried to avoid the projectile attacks.

They were unsuccessful this time and they were sent flying in all directions across the courtyard of the temple. Jiu Mo Zhi was about to finish them off when he narrowly avoided a beam of ki coming from the inside of the temple though it still managed to tear a hole in the right corner of his robe. Raising an eyebrow, he entered the temple to see another monk standing in his way.

Behind him, lay an unconscious girl at his feet.

"Honour Buddha. The temple is a holy place. There should be no killing in the courtyard of the temple," the monk declared.

"May I know your name, sir monk?" Jiu Mo Zhi asked respectfully.

"I am Ben Chen," the monk answered.

"How curious. Ben Chen, your style is different from all the rest. Care to show me the rest of it?" Jiu Mo Zhi remarked sinisterly before launching into a fast strike at the monk before him.

Fire erupted from his fist as he lashed out at the monk in front of him. The monk countered with another deadly ki beam attack from his fingers. Jiu Mo Zhi evaded the blow and kicked under the monk who leaped into the air.

"In fact, it is so different that I've had yet to come across a practitioner of it. Until now. I believe the martial arts technique is unique. Isn't that right Duan Zheng Ming?" Jiu Mo Zhi asked as he compressed a ball of ki in between his palms.

"Huh?!!" the monk in front of him answered.

"Don't look so surprised. If I'm not mistakened, the Yi Yang Finger technique is known only to the Duan family," Jiu Mo Zhi explained before throwing the compressed ball of ki at his opponent.

The monk in front of him easily evaded the fast moving ball of ki but just as it passed him it exploded with tremendous force, throwing him hard into the wall with the force of the explosion. A scroll fell out of the monk's robes to land on the ground in front of him. With a simple hand gesture, the scroll flew into his palm. Opening the scroll, he glanced through the contents quickly.

"How interesting. The I-Ching Tome. What could the Emperor of Dali be doing with the I-Ching Tome in Dragon Temple I wonder?" Jiu Mo Zhi asked as he turned to look at the unconscious girl on the floor.

Tucking the scroll into his robes, he advanced on the former Emperor of Dali's position. The injured Emperor coughed some blood out onto the floor before getting to his feet. Jiu Mo Zhi raised his palm forward and several twigs flew towards his palm. He gestured and the twigs struck the former Emperor through the legs and hands. The former Emperor cried out in pain and Jiu Mo Zhi gave a shout.

"Listen here all you Shaolin monks! I sincerely hope that you value this man's life! If you do not surrender the Six Meridian Divine Swords technique to me, I will take the former Emperor of Dali back to the ruling prince of my kingdom! You know what kind of fate awaits him there!"

There was a scurry of feet and the abbot, the Crown Prince and his father appeared in the hall of the temple.

"Leave my grand-uncle alone!" Duan Yu shouted before moving to attack.

Shadows wrapped around the Crown Prince as he moved to attack Jiu Mo Zhi as the very light seemed to flee from the interior of the temple.

"The Northern Hand of Darkness. I didn't know that the Duan family had dealings with the people of Xin Chiu. Let's see your level of mastery in the technique, shall we?" Jiu Mo Zhi commented before throwing his prayer beads on the ground.

They dropped and separated to hang individually in the air in the form of a circle around him. He slapped his palms together and they flew towards Duan Yu in a large circular formation. The Crown Prince struck forward with his palms and and they blew away from him back at Jiu Mo Zhi. Jiu Mo Zhi simply dived to one side before moving into a series of hand and leg combination attacks on Duan Yu.

"The Transcendantal Palm! Duan Yu! Becareful! He is using the one of the advanced techniques from the Seventy-Two Movements of Buddha Dharma!" a monk commented to Duan Zheng Chun.

The Crown Prince avoided the blows and struck back with his own, shadows launching themselves from his hands at Jiu Mo Zhi. Jiu Mo Zhi dropped to the ground into a lotus position and his aura flared into being. Duan Yu struck forward but was repelled by Jiu Mo Zhi's aura. Shadows from his palms continued to hit the aura but remained unable to penetrate.

"You haven't learned all the movements of the Northern Hand of Darkness, haven't you? It seems you have only mastered the Third Set. Maybe, you should go and ask Master Ding Chin Chiu to teach you all the remaining five sets before coming back to face me," Jiu Mo Zhi snickered.

Jiu Mo Zhi raised his palms and all the furniture around them rose into the air. He flipped his hands over and they flew towards Duan Yu's position at breakneck speed. The Crown Prince launched into a series of movements that sent a massive distortion wave at all the flying furniture destroying them in a powerful explosion before cutting through the walls of the temple faster than a hot knife through butter.

"An actual attack move from the Six Meridian Divine Swords," Jiu Mo Zhi answered.

For the first time, he looked serious.

Jiu Mo Zhi opened his palms making a claw-like gesture. The floor tiles in front of him erupted in a shower of stone and mortar. Water droplets streaked through the air towards the Crown Prince and Duan Yu was forced to dodge. Flames blazed into an inferno and began catching the flammable sections of the temple. Duan Yu leaped to the side dodging the streaking water droplets and flames that threatened to engulfed him before executing another fast combination of the Six Meridian Divine Swords. A long sustained distortion wave blew outwards from his palms forcing Jiu Mo Zhi to leaped upwards to avoid being cut down.

Closing his eyes, he centred himself and the darkness in the temple began to grow. Shadows streaked into his other palm and gathered in a pool of liquid darkness.

"Be careful, Duan Yu! He's using the Dragon Claw ..." the monk warned before throwing a punch forward.

A large blast of ki energy erupted forward from the punch to hit Jiu Mo Zhi only to be slapped aside into the ceiling, destroying the roof of the temple. The remnants of the roof of the temple fell downwards to hit the occupants below. Large dust clouds formed from the point of impact and shrouded everyone from view. When it settled, the abbot and Duan Zheng Chun could see two figures standing side by side. The Crown Prince with Jiu Mo Zhi's hand wrapped around his throat.

"I may not have the Six Meridian Divine Swords manual but I have the person with the knowledge of the Six Meridian Divine Swords in his head. Master Mu Rong Ba never said that the source of the Six Meridian Divine Swords technique had to be a non-living thing. Duan Yu will come with me. I take my leave," Jiu Mo Zhi answered before leaping into the air with the Crown Prince as prisoner.

Duan Zheng Chun and the former Emperor of Dali could only watch the scene with a feeling of rage and helplessness.

"Honour Buddha. Peace upon the Enlightened One. Do not despair. His fate has yet to be decided. Jiu Mo Zhi would be unlikely to do anything rash that would endanger Duan Yu's life until he gets the knowledge of the Six Meridian Divine Swords in his hands," the abbot interrupted their musings.

A cough from the ground drew their attention. The unconscious red-headed girl on the ground had begun to stir.

"So what happened? Where am I?" were her first words.

"Honour Buddha. Much has happened," the abbot answered.

The three men then began to relate what had happened to Ranma.

"So can you guys cure me or something?" she asked hopefully.

"About the matter of curing you, there has been a slight complication," the former Emperor of Dali answered.

"What do you mean?" Ranma asked.

"When Jiu Mo Zhi came, he not only took Duan Yu away. He also took the I-Ching Tome with him," came the much-feared answer.

"And that is the only copy of the I-Ching Tome that we have in Dragon Temple," the abbot added.

"I don't understand. What's so special about this I-Ching Tome?" Ranma asked anxiously.

"That book contained all the knowledge needed to fix the free flow of your inner force pathways that had been severely ruptured without which you would have great difficulty accessing your body's internal energy," came the dreaded reply.

Ranma closed her eyes to meditate and tried to focus the flow of ki from her body into her palm like she usually did but it stubbornly resisted all her attempts to move it. The ki was there alright but getting to it was like pushing water through a pipe system full of holes and blocks.

"No!!!" Ranma cried out in horror as realisation dawned upon her.

"If you actually continue to force your inner force to do what you want, it will further damage your inner force pathways and there is a good chance that you might never be able to use your body's inner force again," the abbot shook his head sadly in reply.

"I don't accept this! What do you mean I would never be able to use ki again?!! Wasn't I able to suck out the inner force of my opponents?" the Jusekyo-cursed martial artist was almost in tears.

"That was different. You can still use inner force as long as the inner force does not come from your own body. Hence the reason as to why you were able to execute moves that required inner force so long as the inner force did not come from your body," came the sad explanation.

There was silence for about a minute and then a loud piercing shriek echoed through the temple.

"NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"

Two men were walking at a sedate pace along the road. The younger of the two performed a few moves but nothing happened.

"Save your strength. I've locked up your inner force. You wouldn't be able to perform any martial arts move until I release your pressure points," the older man said.

"Where are you taking me?" the younger man asked.

"To pay my respects to an old friend of mine," the older man clad in saffron robes replied.

"I thought you said he was dead," the younger man said.

"He is dead," the older man answered.

"What are you going to do with me?" the younger man asked.

"That depends on whether you want to co-operate with me. For your sake, I hope you do," the older man sighed.

"What do you mean?" the younger man asked.

"I would like you to make a copy of the Six Meridian Divine Swords for me," the older man replied.

"Forget it. That's not going to happen even if you break every bone in my body," the younger man swore.

"Your intentions are well and good, my Prince, but seriously misplaced. I have no interest in learning the Six Meridian Divine Swords at all. After you've finished inscribing it for me in a scroll, I will take the scroll to his grave and bury it inside it. I will not even take a glance at the Six Meridian Divine Swords manual," the older man explained.

"Do you take me for a fool? I was not born yesterday, Jiu Mo Zhi," the younger man sneered.

There was a sound of something moving fast through the air and their feet came to a standstill. Earth, wood, metal, fire and water droplets were hanging in the air in front of Jiu Mo Zhi's upturned hand. They broke off and surrounded the young Prince coming very close to him. So close that they almost touched him. In actuality, the young Prince could feel the heat literally from the flames.

"If you think you can threaten me this way, Jiu Mo Zhi, you can forget it! I will never give up the secret of the Six Meridian Divine Swords!" the young Prince swore.

The older man simply closed his fist before snapping it open again. At once, the floating objects disappeared from sight, spreading out in all directions to tear down everything in front of them, leaving a hundred meter radius of tree stumps in front of them.

"What was that supposed to do, impress me?" the young Prince mocked.

"No, my Prince. None at all. You have experienced firsthand the attacks from some of the 72 Movements of Buddha Dharma. Having borne witness to its strength, I am sure you are aware of its power. With such a powerful martial art at my disposal, what need have I for such a second-rate martial art like the Six Meridian Divine Swords?" the older man clad in saffron robes laughed out loud.

"You speak cleverly but not truthfully. Though your lips deny your desire to acquire the Six Meridian Divine Swords, your heart says otherwise. I wish I could believe you, Jiu Mo Zhi. I really do. But your kidnapping of me leaves much to be desired," Duan Yu answered.

"Suit yourself then, my Prince. If you still refuse to make a copy of the Six Meridian Divine Swords manual by the time we reach our destination, I will then have to take a much less pleasant alternative. Though I would much rather prefer to keep you as one of my disciples," Jiu Mo Zhi let off a sigh.

"What do you mean?" Duan Yu asked.

"You already have learned Northern Hand of Darkness from Ding Chin Chiu. Just let me have the Six Meridian Divine Swords manual and I will impart my knowledge of the 72 lethal skills of Shaolin Temple to you. With mastery of both the the Northern Hand of Darkness and the 72 Movements of Buddha Dharma, there will be few in the martial arts world who would be able to rival you apart from the leaders of the martial arts sects, of course," Jiu Mo Zhi voiced his offer.

"Not interested and I will not negotiate with kidnappers like you!" the young prince insisted.

"Your Highness, unlike what you may think, I'm not a monster. But a promise is a promise. Especially to one's teacher. Surely you could understand that. Just let me have the scroll of the Six Meridian Divine Swords technique and I will even personally coach you in all the techniques that I know," Jiu Mo Zhi offered.

Duan Yu remained unmoved.

"Buddha, be merciful. You are a nice young man. At any other time, I would have gladly taken you as one of my disciples. It would be a great pity for me to have to kill you," Jiu Mo Zhi sighed reluctantly.

"Go ahead. Do your worst!" the young Prince dared the monk.

"I'm sorry it has to come down to this. The offer still stands until we reach Master Mu Rong Ba's tomb. My original plan was to leave the Six Meridian Divine Swords manual buried in Master Mu Rong Ba's grave. But seeing that I couldn't get the Six Meridian Divine Swords scroll and the fact that you are a type of 'manual' nonetheless, guess I'll have to fulfill my promise by leaving you, buried in his tomb. Whether you survived the experience or not, my Prince, is another matter entirely," came the sinister reply.

TBC