When he returned to the temple, Wu Fen was welcomed by all his friends, and standing in front of them was Great Master Bai Xu.
"You are just in time. I trust you found your journey enlightening?"
"Yes, Great Master. I will show you the photos later." He turned to Zhen Dongzhao. "Friend Dongzhao, I believe I may have discovered the secret to thwarting your snake." Dongzhao guffawed.
"If that is true, maybe I need to spend some time up there myself. The blows I landed on you today were no mistake, but they will only work once. I look forward to our next sparring match." Great Master Bai Xu held up a silencing hand.
"I give you permission to use the martial arts hall tonight. Now, we must all get to afternoon worship." He turned and swiftly strode towards the Dharma Hall.
Wu Fen sat through the sermon and chants patiently. Very few of the disciples in the temple were dedicated to the Buddhist teachings, but they were respectful enough to observe the traditions and customs. Wu Fen himself saw it as additional kung fu training, as it helped improve leg strength, pain tolerance and self-discipline. He came out of the sutra room eager to test his new form on Dongzhao's snake.
He had termed it a variation on the dragon form for now, but he was very close to saying it was an entirely new animal form, the turtle, but he knew he would be ridiculed if he claimed he'd created a new style of kung fu. Zhen Dongzhao exited the sutra room behind him and they travelled to the martial arts hall together.
"Alright, let's do this!" Wu Fen shouted as he dropped into his new turtle stance.
"That's an interesting variation on the dragon. I want to see what it can do." Zhen Dongzhao rocked back into his snake stance. Shuffling closer, Wu Fen never dropped eye contact. Once he felt confident he was just on the edge of Dongzhao's range, he raised his guard to block direct line of sight. Seeing this as an opportunity to strike, Dongzhao darted in with a lightning-fast strike. Wu Fen had already begun his defense, however. His slower block pushed Dongzhao's strike down and to the side, while a simultaneous punch impacted against his ribs.
"How is that any different from the way you used dragon against the cats? I struck too soon and left my defense open."
"It was different in two ways. One, I enticed you into a hasty strike instead of yourself making the mistake. Two, I did not move aside. Rather, I pushed forwards and broke your guard. If I had used standard dragon techniques, you would not have attacked me and I would not have been able to break through your guard." Dongzhao shrugged and settled back into his stance.
"Well, let's see what you can do if I know about your bait."
Wu Fen dropped his stance altogether and simply walked towards Dongzhao, who retreated with a covering jab to Wu Fen's throat. Wu Fen spotted the moment at which Dongzhao's strike blocked his vision, and shot his own punch underneath, holding his other hand up to defend his face. Wu Fen's hand was formed in a conch shell shape and twisted to impact with purely forwards energy on Dongzhao's armpit.
"I call that one 'sea turtle brushes aside'."
"Turtle? I thought these were adapted from dragon?" Zhen Dongzhao was puzzled.
"I developed these forms after watching a sea turtle fight a viper. I never had any real intention of incorporating them into dragon. In reality, it is a new animal form."
"Will you ask permission to develop it?"
"I think so. This new form suits me so well. Even if I don't develop it further, I shall continue to use the forms I have developed." They each sank back into their stances and reset. Wu Fen walked towards Dongzhao again, this time keeping his stance. He tried several different baits, but Dongzhao would not fall for them. In the end, he simply attempted to grapple. Dongzhao struck to keep his distance, and that was all Wu Fen needed. He deflected the strike from the outside, rotated his arm down and back to the outside, and hammered downwards with his conch shell fist into Dongzhao's neck. With this method, one arm held an arm bar in place while the other kept a distracting pressure. He had subconsciously stepped through to break Dongzhao's stance, so he carefully brought them both to the ground, mimicking deadly blows.
"I win!" He teased.
"Alright, your turtle can beat my snake. Let's see if it's as effective against my tiger as your dragon was." They reset positions once more.
Zhen Dongzhao leaped forward in an unannounced splitting palm strike, which Wu Fen redirected while landing a punch to the kidney. Dongzhao then feinted an overhand strike and used it to cover a leopard punch to the floating rib. Wu Fen used his 'sea turtle brushes aside' technique to knock Dongzhao into his own strike, which also threw him off balance, causing his leopard punch to miss.
Wu Fen stepped forward and caught him in the same arm bar again. This time, he rotated his body weight to throw open Dongzhao's guard and kicked forwards. Dongzhao was forced to take a couple of steps back, and Wu Fen stepped into the space to deliver another punch to the torso. He dodged a wild swing by Dongzhao and struck again.
Coiling his body, he ducked another slashing palm strike and released the energy upwards and forwards, twisting his conch shell fist to convert all the energy into a forwards direction.
Dongzhao got up, coughing and spluttering.
"The turtle is indeed formidable. I think you should develop it. Incidentally, what was that technique?"
"I haven't thought of a name for it yet, but I remembered seeing a video of a turtle in the desert flipping its rival, and got the idea from that." Wu Fen assisted Dongzhao in collecting his weapons bag from storage, and they headed to bed.
The next morning's training was monkey. This was a new form for the disciples, and known to be the most difficult to master. Once Wu Fen got the hang of climbing the staff, he enjoyed the feeling of freedom and accomplishment the moves gave him when he did them right. Zhen Dongzhao also began enjoying it rather quickly, and they started saluting each other at the top of the arc. Great Master Bai Xu gave them a disapproving glare and they settled down.
After the training, Wu Fen approached the Great Master.
"I believe I have discovered a new animal form, and would like permission to journey to develop it."
"And what animal form is this exactly?" Bai Xu's face was set in stone.
"Turtle, sir. While I was eating my lunch on top of the mountain yesterday, I observed a sea turtle fighting a viper, and I pictured its movements and strategies being used by a warrior. That's what I wanted to test in a sparring match with friend Dongzhao, and it proved very effective."
"I thought you had simply discovered a way to defeat snake using dragon like every other user of dragon has."
"No, I merely let you believe that in order to avoid seeming pretentious. I believe that the turtle suits me better."
"Interesting. I will tell you now that there have been others in history who discovered a turtle style. I understand they moved to the country. I will inform the abbot of the circumstances behind your request and lobby for its acceptance."
"I thank you, Great Master."