Chapter 1

Tham Phong Ahn is a relatively average young woman whose father does well enough to allow her to study at Jade Academy in Dong Kyu. It is the hope of her mother and father that her education will be beneficial in finding a husband. Usually, it is enough that a woman is able to keep house, cook, raise children, and keep their husband pleased, as is proper. In Phong Ahn’s case, she is capable of doing those wifely things, but that’s different from her willingness to be a typical housewife.

Phong Ahn, it could be said, is too smart for her own good. She’s inquisitive, curious, and asks questions. She asks a lot of questions. If the answer doesn’t fit, she starts digging. Phong Ahn becomes a rat terrier ferreting out the answers, unwilling to let them go until she gets to the bottom of it.

Phong Ahn is also a very physically active young woman. In order to better channel her desire for physical activities, her father decided to have her attend the academy where she would be able to study and learn martial arts. Women practicing martial arts is traditionally acceptable, after all.

Young Miss Tham, who is 18, has been studying at the academy for eight years when the strange young woman arrives, and she is tasked with giving Miss Lee Ki Jung a (nearly) full tour of the grounds. Miss Lee asks a lot of questions, which she does her best to answer. She even takes delight in interrupting classes to introduce this interesting woman to various instructors, and ask them to clarify questions Miss Lee has.

The most exciting thing is at the end of the day when Miss Lee engages in a match against the terror that is Master Chen. She’s never seen someone move the way Master Lee does during that match. No one would dare call her Miss at this school after she beat Master Chen.

The next day, Master Lee was enrolled as a student and employed as a martial arts instructor of the Master rank. When Phong Ahn learned this, she decided to observe her style of training before making a decision, but she was only kidding herself. She knew, in her heart, that she would be enrolling in Master Lee’s Aikido.

When Master Lee first started teaching, she had only one student: Pak Min Joon. For the first week, his training seemed to be nothing but falling down. He fell down so much it wasn’t funny. Then, during the second week, he started to learn simple blocks. Everything built upon the previous lessons, and not once did Master Lee abuse him verbally or physically.

It is the fifth week when Phong Ahn asks to change to Master Lee and learn Aikido. She is one of her few students when she is accepted. Phong Ahn is very diligent and progresses quickly. She finds that she enjoys learning from Master Lee and loves this new martial art, this Aikido.

Many weeks pass by, and Master Lee arranges an exhibition match between Pak and one of Master Chen’s students. No one was surprised when his choice is Peng Chenming. This is a young man he has been personally grooming, or so it was said.

On the day of the match, Phong Ahn stands with Master Lee in Pak’s corner. She’s caught up to him in rank, but he is senior. As long as they both progress along the advancement matrix Master Lee has published for her students, he will always be the senior of the two.

The results of the match are a shock to many. Most of all, it seems that Master Chen considers Peng Chenming to be a disgrace and is abusing him verbally, if not physically, before storming off. Then, to Phong Ahn’s surprise, Peng comes over to Master Lee and begs to become her student.

After a talk with Mr. and Mrs. Peng, Master Lee accepts him, and he starts the next training day. By the sixth month, Master Lee has thirty students at various ranks, one of her top students being Phong Ahn.

While there is still plenty to learn in the other classes she is allowed to attend, Phong Ahn places all her focus on Aikido. The other students are diligent, but not driven, with the exception of Min Joon, Chanming, and herself, that is. The three of them are exceptional in their learning and understanding, which Master Lee recognizes.

It is because of Peng Changming that she creates an opportunity to advance faster than the matrix provides. Some Masters would use such a device to hold back students with wealth to get those students to buy their advancement. Not Master Lee. She allows for faster progress by completing the full advancement requirements three times in two weeks. That’s not just the physical side, but a test of understanding and proving their knowledge by teaching the course for those whose ranks are below them. This takes a lot of time and energy, thus the three tests in two weeks.

By the end of the first year, Min Joon, Chenming, and Phong Ahn are the leading students and good friends bound by their love of Aikido and their respect for Master Lee. The fact that Master Lee respects them for their accomplishments only increases their fondness and respect for her. They would do anything for Master Lee.

Three years have passed since Master Lee arrived and began teaching. Phong Ahn, Min Joon, and Chanming are all Second Kyu and nearly ready to test out to become First Kyu. This is when Master Lee approaches them about going on what she calls a field trip. The trip will include the three of them and no one else. It will take them into the middle ring of the lands, and they will be gone about a month.

For the last two years, the three of them have been practicing body cultivation under Master Lee’s guidance, but she has prevented them from actually reaching Body like Stone. They have also been learning and practicing Pakchulbong, and the Blessed Qi set of Qi-Gong arts.