Showing posts with label Wuxia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wuxia. Show all posts

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Wuxia: Part 1

Even the most ignorant of people amongst all the sects and schools in the entire Wulin know about the tumultuous event that happened fifty years ago. Then, the treacherous Shangguan Bo destroyed one of Wulin’s five major sects and almost sparked a war between nations. Fortunately, Shangguan Bo was stopped by the heroic Ren Juzhong, master of the Ren manor. Ren Juzhong was a good friend of Shangguan Bo, but he was able to put friendship aside and justly execute heaven’s way, killing Shuangguan Bo. Thus, a catastrophic war was barely avoided.

Shangguan Bo, before he was revealed to be a traitor and a man of great evil, was widely admired as a master of many arts, well deserving of the character “learned” in his name. He had acquired mastery in astrology, calligraphy, painting, and martial arts, among many other things. But it was his skill in venoms that caused the most harm to the world; he had invented a poison so deadly and ingenious that it was unparallel in history. This poison was called the “Seven Day Intestine Dissolving Powder”; dissolved in water, it was colourless, odourless, and tasteless, absolutely undistinguishable from just water; after consuming it, the victim would have no indication that he was poisoned until seven days later, where worms would gorge and consume the victim’s intestines from the inside. Lastly, the poison was impossible to neutralise by any medicine or remedy, and could not be expelled by internal energy either. It was indeed an ultimate toxin and weapon.

It was through underhanded trickery that Shangguan Bo managed to get the members of the Mofeng Sect to consume the Seven Day Intestine Dissolving Powder. None of them had suspected that they were poisoned. On the fifth day, Ren Juzhong arrived at the main hall of the Mofeng Sect with the Divine Doctor Xue and his young pupil. Ren Juzhong had learnt of Shangguan Bo’s evil plans through the great resources of his manor. Originally, the Ren clan was a family of wealthy traders with branches in many cities and towns within the empire, but they found that their trade routes and branches were also good for gathering information. Eventually, they began to deal exclusively in the trade of information, which only their resources and reach could gather effectively; and thus, the Ren manor became the centre of the most massive engine of news and rumors and secrets that the Wulin had ever seen. Thanks to this enormous and unrivalled engine, Ren Juzhong learnt of the poisoning plot, and tried to prevent it, but he knew he was too late. Hence, he had instead sought out the world’s greatest physician, Divine Doctor Xue, in an attempt to save the Mofeng Sect. Unfortunately, the Seven Day Intestine Dissolving Powder was indeed the chief among poisons; all the Divine Doctor could do was to diagnose that the Mofeng Sect members had been poisoned by some unknown poison. Indeed, at that point of time the Seven Day Intestine Dissolving Powder was unknown to the world, for Shangguan Bo had invented it in secrecy. Though the Divine Doctor was known for his ability to cure even diseases he had not encountered before, he was truly stumped by this new and mysterious poison; he was only able to witness the gruesome deaths of everyone in the Mofeng Sect, from the most skilled elders to the most junior of disciples. The Divine Doctor was so shocked by this scene of death, and so ashamed by his inaptitude, that henceforth he returned to his home in the mountains and went into a prolonged period of retreat, trying to research some cure to counter this potent poison that could only be described as being a devil’s gift from the eighteenth level of hell.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

First Divine Skill Under Heaven

Recently, while I was walking on the street, I met an incredibly skilled pugilist. The pugilist was dressed in rags and had unkempt hair. He was clearly from the Beggar Sect, Bukit Panjang Branch. Perhaps he was even the leader of the preeminent Sect.

The pugilist stared at me, and then spoke, "To that young hero over there, I observe that you have the bone structure of a martial arts genius which is only seen once every 1000 years ! It will be a pity if you do not practice martial arts and uphold justice ! Let me transfer all my skills and internal power to you !!!".

After speaking, he grabbed me, and transferred his internal power to me. After the process was complete, the man laughed loudly, and said, "Now I have transferred all my internal power to you ! Don't underestimate this power, for I myself received all the internal power of my master, who received all the internal power of his master !!! You are now very powerful, powerful enough to defeat 2 pugilists !"

I remarked that 2 was a seemingly low number for the combined internal power of 3 generations of experts. Perhaps they were quite lousy in combat. That would also explain why they were beggars.

The master sighed, shaking his head. "You do not understand, young hero. The power transference skill is not perfect ! As power transference goes against the natural laws of the world, only 50% of the internal power is transfered, and the rest wasted ! Hence, even though power transference is an amazing skill, ultimately the maximum power attainable has an upper ceiling."

"Consider a pugilist of generation n + 1. Assuming that he is an average pugilist, his total power, X(n+1), will be X(n+1) = 1 + r * X(n), where r is the percentage of internal power transferred. For the pugilist of generation n, his power is X(n) = 1 + r * X(n-1).

Hence, the power of the pugilist in generation n + 1 is:
X(n+1) = r * ( 1 + r * X(n -1)) + 1 = (r^2) X(n-1) + r + 1

Continuing the process until the original pugilist, X(0),
X(n+1) = (r^(n+1))*X(0) + (1-r^(n+2))/(1-r)
Assuming that there are many many generations, or n large, and since r less than 1, hence,
X(n+1) = 1 / (1-r)
Since my Sect's energy transference skill transfers power at 50% loss, the power of a pugilist (assuming he trains) is 2 !"

After explaining the situation to me, the pugilist fell over and died. I was slightly saddened, since I had lost a comrade in upholding justice.

Not all was lost, however. I discovered a secret manual hidden in his rags. The manual was titled, "First Divine Skill Under Heaven", which arguably meant that it was either the most powerful skill in the world, or (inclusive or) that it was the most primitive skill in the world.

In order to ensure that everyone is also able to uphold justice, I'm sharing part of the manual here.

Manual for the First Divine Skill Under Heaven



Note : I really think that for power transference skills, there should be an attenuation factor, otherwise everyone would be extremely powerful after a few generations.