"The world of martial arts is varied," so the old man explained, "but they all have the same source. Using minimal energy to produce the maximum attack power. All martial arts are aimed at self-defense, and the basis of self-defense is the same, only its development varies according to each sect."
"Suhu, if martial arts are for self-defense, why are there offensive techniques?" Tiong Li asked.
"Defending oneself does not mean just defending. Attacking and defeating an opponent is also a form of self-defense. However, never attack someone who does not disturb us or initiate an attack. Martial arts are not learned to commit violence, nor to seek victory, or to show off. Therefore, in the olden days, martial arts were only studied by the weak, the oppressed, and those with little energy. All of these efforts are to defend themselves from the stronger oppressors."
"What other purpose does martial arts have besides defending oneself from arbitrary oppression, suhu?"
"Martial arts contain three elements, Tiong Li. First of all, as it was in the beginning, martial arts are for maintaining health because martial arts are excellent and healthy sports. Secondly, in martial arts, beautiful dance elements are included, which correspond to the grace and agility of a human's movements or even mimic animal movements. And the third element is the art of self-defense."
"However, teecu (student) witnessed corrupt arts like what was used by the black giant, suhu. Are there clean and dirty arts?" "All arts originally come from the grace of the Almighty as the power of wisdom or called cultural power that becomes human culture. There is nothing clean and nothing dirty. Only then does the art become clean or dirty after being used by humans. Any art, if used for evil deeds, becomes corrupt, Just as a knife, the knife cannot be called good or bad, but just a knife; When used for gardening or in the kitchen, peeling and even cutting vegetables, the knife is good, but if the knife is used to attack people, wound or kill, then the knife becomes bad. In fact, what's evil is not the knife, nor the knowledge, but the person. All of these are just tools, martial arts are given to humans to be used as tools, that is, as sports, as dance arts, and as self-defense arts. If used for evil deeds, what's evil is not the martial arts, but the person. Do you remember the saber held by the black giant? The saber is a rare heirloom, if I'm not mistaken that saber is the Mestika Golok Naga which is stored in the treasure house. Well, even though the Mestika is a powerful and sacred heirloom, if used for evil deeds, it remains evil in nature. It depends on the user. Intelligence is good for humans, but what if intelligence is used to deceive other stupid people?"
Tiong Li nodded understandingly. Only in his teens, he had heard a lot about life from his wise mentor.
**** The theft of Mestika Golok Naga shook the royal city. The occurrence was indeed strange. It wasn't an ordinary theft because it was committed openly. As usual, the treasure house was guarded day and night by a guard team, seven in number and the guards were not regular soldiers but selected guards who generally had high martial arts skills. However, that night, the next day, people found that all seven guards were dead and among the many heirlooms, only one was missing, the Mestika Golok Naga.
The emperor became angry and sent experts to investigate. The palace experts who had high skills examined the bodies of the seven guards and found evidence of how they were killed. Some were killed by the Pek-lek-jlu (Tangan Geledek) strike, which they knew was a strike from the Kun-lun-pai. Some were also killed by a secret weapon called Touw-kut-teng (Bone Piercing Nail) commonly used by Butong-pai warriors. Some died from the Ang-se-ciang (Red Sand Hand) strike from Siauw- Lim-pai and some died from the Tiat-ciang (Iron Hand) strike from Hoa-san-pai.
Of course, the palace champions reported this to the emperor. At that time, the Sung Kingdom was completely shattered by the attack of the Chin Kingdom, which attacked to the royal city of Kai Feng. The emperor and his entire family were captured and expelled. All this was due to the treason of Jin Kui who allied with the Chin Kingdom, causing the Sung Kingdom to fall apart.
However, a prince, Sung Kao Cung, the emperor's younger brother, managed to escape and was not caught by the Yucen people or the Chin Kingdom and Sung Kau Cung fled to the south, crossing the Yang-ce River.
In the south, Sung Kao Cung ascended the throne and the Sung Kingdom stood again in 1127. However, because the power of the Sung Kingdom was only in the south of the Yang-ce River, the kingdom was called the Southern Sung Kingdom.
The land of China was again divided into two. In the north of the Yang-ce River, the Chin Kingdom was in power, and in the south of the river, the Sung Kingdom was in power. However, the Southern Sung Kingdom was very weak so the emperor had to pay tribute to the Chin Kingdom.
Not always did Southern Sung submit. Sometimes there were fierce battles between the two kingdoms. However, in the Southern Sung Kingdom, great power was in the hands of the landlords who felt no interest in seizing the northern region of the Yang-ce River, so the battle never became a common war. On the contrary, the Chin Kingdom itself did not consider it important to conquer the Sung Kingdom, because the southern agricultural area was not attractive to them, who came from a nomadic, horse-riding nation.
What happened was a wind war. And what's more, those who resisted the Cin people were the kang-ouw people, the warriors who still held grudges and hated the Cin people who had taken over the Sung Kingdom and forced their emperor to move south until the Sung Kingdom became a weak state and seemed like a refugee government. The warriors often clashed with Cin's forces along the border and the warriors' actions sometimes confused the Cin Kingdom because they lost a lot of men who were killed by the warriors.
In such a situation, the Mestika Golok Naga suddenly disappeared, stolen by someone in the treasure house of the Sung Kingdom. When Emperor Sung Kao C ung heard that there were signs that those who killed the guards were people from the four major sects Siauw-lim-pai, Bu-tong-pai, Hoa-san-pai, and Kun-lun-pai, the emperor became angry. The emperor sent his champions with an army to visit these sects.
However, the palace champions themselves did not believe that the four usually very loyal sects stole the heirloom saber, and visited them not to make arrests, but to invite them to discuss the theft.
The heads of the four major martial arts sects promised to try to find the thief who not only stole the saber heirloom but also slandered their four sects. They sent their chosen disciples to spread out and investigate, if necessary up to the north of the Yang-ce-kiang River.
The heads of the four major sects had a meeting and they especially discussed their class three disciples, who had a meeting at Liong-san but never returned.
They then sent other disciples to follow up there and found the four disciples had died and their bodies had become skeletons. They recognized them from their clothes and weapons alone.
"Omitohud! Clearly this must be the act of that thief and he is not an ordinary thief. Behind his act of theft, it seems to contain a bigger purpose, First, to pit the sects against the Sung Kingdom, and second to confuse the sect heads themselves to accuse each other and cause division. In short, behind the theft of the saber heirloom is the intention to further weaken the Sung Kingdom," said the head of Siauw- lim-pai "It's clear, the person who stole the saber heirloom is someone who is an expert in many arts and he is very cunning."
"We suspect the Yu-ce Nation is behind all this" added the head of Butong-pai when the two of them held a meeting to discuss the matter.
"The Yu-cen Nation first established friendship with the Sung Kingdom only when they were about to subdue the Khitan Nation and needed help. After they defeated the Khitan Nation, now they want to take control of Sung by various means."
"That's true. Previously, the Khitan Nation was a nuisance to us, and now it turns out that the Yu-cen Nation after we helped defeat the Khitan Nation, becomes a more cruel nuisance. Along the border, they always make a mess and disturb the common people. Our only hope lies in ... General Gak Hui who guards the forefront. Only General Gak can destroy the Yu-cen Nation with their Chin Kingdom!" said the head of Siauw-lim-pai as well.
Glossary
Suhu: A term of respect used to address a martial arts teacher or master.
Tiong Li: A character's name in the story, presumably a student of martial arts.
Teecu: A term used to address or refer to a student of martial arts.
Mestika Golok Naga: A precious artifact, a saber, in the story.
Pek-lek-jlu (Tangan Geledek), Touw-kut-teng (Bone Piercing Nail), Ang-se-ciang (Red Sand Hand), Tiat-ciang (Iron Hand): Specific martial arts techniques or strikes, each associated with different martial arts sects.
Kun-lun-pai, Butong-pai, Siauw- Lim-pai, Hoa-san-pai: Names of martial arts sects in the story.