Kung Fu Maze
Zhong Li Zheng's great grandfather, Shu Fo, was a calligrapher in the court of Emperor Renzong, during the time of the Qing Dynasty. China was in decline, and losing its place as a predominant world power.
The Zheng family had lived in the Henan Province, near the city of Zhengzhou since the time of antiquity. Shu Fo and his two brothers had studied Kung Fu in the Shaolin style, just as their grandfathers and their grandfather's great grandfathers had, going back to when Batuo was said to have settled on the Mount of Song, in the 4th century AD.
"All energy flows as smooth balls in a well oiled bearing, until it is met by a force to alter the flow," Zhong Li had been taught, just as her great grandfather had been taught.
"The best Kung Fu comes from subtracting. Not by adding technique and skills but by learning to let go of your will to "do" something. Learn to merge in the flow of existing energy. It is better to be buoyed by that energy than to waste your own energy with the intent to overpower some other force. Your own power is very limited and should be used only to return yourself to the "great flow." It is not uncommon to find yourself out of equilibrium. This is the purpose for your own energy, to bring yourself back into balance."
Zhong Li was the best fighter in her 4th and 5th grade class. By the time she was in high school, she was winning regional and district championships, well on her way to a national title.
"The secret of Dragon Fire Weng-shu (to fly unimpeded by the laws of nature) is to dissolve the artificial layer of your separation from the Great Way. When you free yourself from the conspicuous habits of your imagined limitations, your own energy will merge with the limitless energy of The Way."
It was during her last title bout for the national award, Women's Grand Champion of Sichuan Province Kung Fu (Swords, Spears, Straight Sword, Taiji and Dual Events) that her competitor (thought to be the daughter of Judishante Trontan, struck Zhong Li with a spiraling blow to the lower abdomen that sent her flying backwards. Zhong Li was in a coma for forty nights. It was on the forty first day she woke up and declared, "we only reach our ultimate potential when we discover our own power."
Her fighting style changed after that and although she left the family tradition, she became a celebrated and ruthless fighter of free style Kung Fu. She was expert in the styles of Changquan, Xingyiquan, Sun, Choy Li Fut and dozens of others, but she possessed a mysterious power that could inflict pain quickly and directly, since the time of that dreadful blow to her abdomen. No fighter was quite prepared for her unorthodox technique. She often put her rival competitors in the hospital, and more than one had died from complications from her signature "clamps" and "finger dart thrusts."
Another strange phenomena that occurred after she awoke from her coma is that she had the green reflective eyes of a cat. Often times her competitors fell prey to the hypnotic force of her glare. Though Zhong Li could never keep friends after she took the blow to her abdomen, many of her adversaries and associates gave her the nickname of Gu Long, roughly translated as "fierce dragon."
When Gu Long and Tsu Yen first met at the Hong Kong Disney Kung Fu Dancers try-out they were immediately drawn to each other. Both were cautious but confident. Both were quiet but extremely athletic. And they both had a secret desire to get even with someone.
They would often work out together. Sometimes they would spar or do Tai Chi "Push Hands." Gu Long was careful not to use her dangerous moves on Tsu Yen but her new sparring partner could tell that a danger lurked beneath the surface of her "cat eyed" companion.
Only one of them knew that the Disney dancing group was a front for Scontandia. Gu Long desperately wanted to find and destroy the girl who had modified her DNA, and she thought the best way to find her was to infiltrate the organization, run by her adversary, the daughter of Judishante Trontan, Bai Ling Johnson.
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