The Indomitable Martial God

Reborn

When Sky Ling's eyes opened the first thing he saw was the wooden roof of a building he knew all too well. The physician house of the clan family, he had back home safe and sound. But how was the question he had to ask. He looked to his side to see the wooden window open, and outside the sun shining brightly, the wind blowing in the smell of medicinal herbs from the medicine garden outside.

He pulled out his hands from the white blanket and felt his face, he expected them to be bashed in but they seemed perfectly fine. "What happened to me last night?" He could remember it in bits, it started with him being attacked and beaten to death by those strange men dressed in black. Then his memories became more fuzzy as he neared his death and met this strange figure that seemed like a god.

"I must be crazy to think that was real." He said to himself as he sat up straight, his strands of jet black hair falling over his face roughly. He found it strange that his body which should have been aching even after the intense beating the night before felt like it was back to its normal form. "This is amazing."

The wrinkled face of an old man sprung up before him with great vigour. "What's amazing fifth prince." Ling banged his head into the wall causing him to hiss out in pain as he massaged the sore spot. "Fifth prince you should be ashamed of yourself, getting drunk and falling asleep in the forest. I know you are tired of your pathetic life but at least have some dignity and stop sullying the Sky name."

Ling gave the old man who operated as the chief physician of the royal household. His long oversized dress folded multiple times over his arms, his king beard reaching down to his chest. "What are you talking about, I was ambushed and almost beaten to death. I almost died there."

The physician nodded his head slowly and looked at him like he had gone mad. "Fifth prince you don't have to come up with such lies, if you were injured there would be cuts and bruises on you. The traveler who passed by thought you were a poor boy dieing on the street so he brought you here and you slept for a full day. Nothing I did woke you up, I suggest you leave and go apologize to the family for this disgraceful behaviour."

Ling knew the old man to be anything but a liar, but there was no way his injuries could have magically healed themselves. His mind strayed back to that god like figure that intervened when he was dieing.

[Recovery complete]

Ling's jaw dropped as he looked at the floating screen before him. "Sir Mink, you do see this now."

The physician ignored him and walked out of the room. "Like I give a damn about another one of your damn tricks, I'll go report that your alive and well thought I doubt it'll be good news to the household."

Ling was left all by himself to ponder what the strange screen floating above him was, just then the illusion of a red wingless dragon slithered in the air around him. Ling jumped back in fright causing him to smash his head into the wall again. The red wingless dragon stopped and stared directly at him.

"What sorcery is this?" He asked himself.

The dragon gestured for him to keep quiet before it spoke. "Excuse me but I am not a product of sorcery but of science."

Ling kept the strange creature distracted while his hands tried to find something to fight it off with. "What's science, a martial art?"

The dragon shook it's head and said. "No, in the future, how do I put this. Science is like sorcery but with logic."

Now Ling was entirely confused, not finding anything to throw at the dragon he threw a blow at it only to have his hand go through it. "Black magic." He cried.

The dragon rolled it's eyes at him. "Now that's rude after I fixed your body up."

Hearing this Ling calmed down. "You healed me, what are you? What happened to that person from the night before."

The dragon smiled, pleased that he had finally resolved his inner conflict. "To understand what I am about to say, I will have to start at the very beginning, the start of it all. What do you know about chi?"

Ling despite having never wielded chi before knew this was a question even a baby would answer without delay but he was being asked by a dragon sprit thing, so it took him a bit of a while to respond. "It's the universal energy that flows throught all of life."

The dragon laughed hysterically making Ling boil inside, after a minute it calmed down and the words it spoke changed Ling's world forever.