"Seriously, are you guys not worried?" Scorpion asked, as he looked through the ajar door, while everyone else continued to train. "I mean, you heard those roars too, right?"
"Sure did..." Gator said, as he continued to spar with Doe in the middle of the many training dummies, blocking each other's blows as they also blocked the ones produced by the spin of the moving parts of the dummies. "What animal do you guys think it was? Never heard anything like that. Not even on that time Master Po stepped on Master Tigress' bunion."
"Kind of sounded like monsters." Sparrow One said, as he and his brother flew in between the swinging clubs. "It sounded like the one of the monsters of the great Forbidden Wujuo Mountain."
"Hey, you don't know what those sound like!" Sparrow Two said, to what his brother said:
"No, but I read the stories on that old book, and I think the sound was pretty much like what they described."
"Ohhh, a monster." Gator said, as he stopped for a moment, and looked in direction to the two moving dots that were Sparrows One and Two, seeming not to notice that Doe was now giving him kicks and punches while he was standing still looking at them. "Man, that sounds so spooky. You know, I used to be afraid of those monster stories..."
"Gator, focus!" Doe said, causing the reptile to recover from the distraction and focus back on their training. "Master Po told us to keep training. We cannot slack."
"As you say, fearless leader!" Said Sparrow Two, and everyone silently agreed. It was of consensus between Po's students that, when their panda master or any of the Furious Five was not around, Doe was the one in charge. Po himself never said anything like that, nor did anyone else, but it seemed that it was non-verbal agreement of some sort in between the six of them that she was the one who told them what to do and how to proceed when Po was not there to give them instructions.
Perhaps it was because she was the one who most diligently followed Po's instructions. Also, they also thought that there was something about her that just inspired people to follow her...
"This includes you, Scorpion!" Said Doe to the small arachnid, who was still peeking through the door. "You can join Toad on the Fiery Pit!"
"Guys, I am worried!" Scorpion said, "I mean, you heard those roars? And I'm pretty sure I heard an explosion! And now it is just quiet!"
"Well, quiet is good, no?" Gator asked, as he continued brawling with Doe. "At least that's what Master Crane says when he wants us to keep quiet when he is practicing his calligraphy."
"It probably means that the problem has been solved and that they will come back soon." Swallow Two said, as he and his brother continued to fly around the swinging clubs, dodging the big objects with skilled movements.
"Maybe it doesn't!" Scorpion said to everyone. "Maybe it means that things went wrong! Maybe it means that they won't be coming back! Toad, help me out here!"
Toad jumped high just as the flare just beneath him erupted in flames, and he crossed all over the air above all the other training students, and landed right by the side of Scorpion, before croaking.
"Dude, you are too alarmist..." Sparrow Two said.
"He might be right, you know?" Sparrow One said to his brother. "It is like on that tale about Master Guo when he thought that the silence meant the army of cobras had been drowned, but they were only swimming on the underwater tunnels to reach for the village on the other end."
"Not helping, bro." Swallow Two said, and Gator said:
"I think Swallow Two is right. Scorpion is being alarmist."
"Do you even know what alarmist means?" Doe asked, as she gave a kick right to Gator's stomach, which the big reptile seemed to not even feel.
"Not really." Gator confessed. "But Master Tigress says that Swallow Two is the one with the more good sense of the two birds. She says that Swallow One is too much like Master Po."
"Guys, this is serious!" Scorpion said to the five of his friends. "I am worried! What if..." He passed, and then he said:
"What if something happened to Master Po?"
This one question made the four others stop. The Swallows stopped on the air, hoovering as they flapped their wings and looked at each other. So did Doe and Gator stopped what they were doing, Gator looked at the female, while she looked down.
"Do we go check?" Toad asked, and this was a question that took a while to answer.
Doe was soon leading her five friends out of the training hall and down the stairs. They were aiming to go down to the village and see if everyone was okay, especially Master Po. However, as they were on their way down there, they meet some of the servants, who seemed a bit agitated.
"I swear it was him! I saw him with my very own eyes!"
"Are you sure?"
"It was him! I nearly peed myself!"
"I think I laid an egg when I saw him..."
"Excuse me?" Doe said, talking to the three servants. "What is going on?"
"Do you guys know what were those roars?" Gator asked.
"Do you know if Master Po is okay?" Scorpion asked.
The servants, on their ends, shared looks, before answering.
"Well, we are not sure what were those roars. But Master Po seemed fine when we saw him. He came back with everyone, including Master Shifu, and they all went up to the temple."
"Oh, they did? That's great!" Scorpion said.
"See, I told you that you were being alarmist." Sparrow Two said. Doe, however, was looking at the servants. She had been looking at their reactions, and she also heard what they had been saying before they started asking them questions.
"Okay, what's with the looks?" Doe asked, "What happened? Is any of them injured or something?"
"Well... no, they are not injured or anything." One of the duck servants said. "But... well, they came back with someone."
The way the servants were speaking made it sound... ominous.
"What 'someone'?" Doe asked, and the servants once more looked between themselves, before one of them leaned forward, and speak, as if he was speaking a forbidden secret.
"Tai Lung..."
That was something that Doe had not expected to hear. Neither did any of the others.
"Wait, Tai Lung?" Gator said, "Isn't he the one that Master Po...?"
Soon, the six students were still going down the stairs. This time, however, instead of going all the way down to the village, they were going to the temple, and they soon were opening the gates and sneaking their way inside. As they did, l they heard a voice they never heard before.
"Ahh, I see you added a few things while I was gone..." Tai Lung said, as he looked around the whole place. "Are those some of the fat panda's trophies? Look like it. Is this the sword he used on the battle of Wu Guo Valley? Looks pretty nice."
They all hid behind a column as they all looked in the distance. None of the masters noticed them, as they all had their attention focused on the snow leopard, who looked around the place and seemed to take in the new additions that the Hall of Heroes has had since he was in there. Including the big painting that had been added in there.
"And this..." Tai Lung said, looking at it. "Must be the painting you ordered made to celebrate that time when he defeated Kai, isn't it, Shifu?"
Shifu said nothing, and he only continued to glare at the snow leopard, just as the five were. I mean, can you blame them? The last time they saw that guy he put all of them in a state of paralysis save for Crane. Of course they would not exactly be happy for seeing the guy again, even after nearly a decade.
"That's quite impressive." Tai Lung said, as he watched the depiction of the final battle between Po and Kai, with the Dragon Warrior surrounded by three dragons made of pure golden energy. "A bit over the top, though. There was only one dragon, not three."
"And how would you know?" Mantis asked, glaring at the snow leopard, to what the feline said:
"I was there. Anyway, you must really have the panda in high regards to have this made just for him. That's certainly way more than you ever had for me..."
Tai Lung was talking to Shifu, and the red panda said:
"Because he has saved our lives and China multiple times. You on the other hand..."
Shifu didn't finished, he didn't need to. He knew that Tai Lung would know what he was talking about. Tai Lung, on his end, could only chuckle.
"Yeah, of course you would all be bitter." He said, looking at the six of them. "You guys gotta let go of the past, you know? It has been years, after all."
"You tried to kill us!" Monkey said accusingly. "And you even tried to kill Po!"
"You were in my way." Tai Lung said, "Don't tell me you wouldn't have done the same."
They all glared at Tai Lung even harder. It was obvious that none of them thought that they would ever go that far. This only made Tai Lung chuckle again. Those goody guys were always so amusing, with their little moralities and all.
"Anyways, this is all in the past now." Tai Lung said to Shifu and the Five. "Now there are much more important things to attend to. Oogway didn't sent me here just to reminisce about the past, after all."
They continued to glare at him. Tai Lung then scoffed. Not at them, but at his own words.
"But, I can understand the concept of holding a grudge... oh, how I can." He said, looking away. "You know, that panda might have got a lot of things wrong from our first meeting, but there is one thing that he got right..."
"I would not bear to see someone killing him." Tai Lung said, looking at the six people who glared at him.
"That is a pleasure I'd like to save for myself."
"Why you..." Viper hissed at him, as everyone now seemed like they wanted to pounce at Tai Lung and bring him down like they couldn't on the first time they tried.
All the while the six students continued to watch it from hiding.
"Where is Master Po?" Swallow Two whispered.
Then, as if on cue, the doors of the Hall of Heroes swung open.
"Found it!" Po said as he rushed inside. "It was under my bed! I don't know how it ended down there! Oh, hey guys." He said to his students briefly, before continuing to the others, who now all looked at the panda as he had arrived just in time to break the tension that was growing in between them.
"This is what you said you needed, right?" Po asked as he showed to the leopard what he had brought with him upon Tai Lung's request.
The Dragon Scroll.
"Yes, indeed..." The leopard said, then he held his hand. "Hand it over."
Po was about to, when he was stopped by Shifu, who placed his staff in between the panda and the snow leopard.
"Seriously?" Tai Lung asked, looking at Shifu with annoyance. "Come on, it is just an old scroll."
"Then why do you want it?" Shifu asked, looking at him. Tai Lung said nothing in return to that. It was obvious that Shifu had caught him there.
"You come here, follow us to the Palace and then ask Po to bring you the Dragon Scroll?" Shifu asked of him. "And you expect us all to trust you, just like that?"
"Uhh, yes?" Tai Lung said, ironically. "In case you have forgotten, I literally saved your lives just twenty minutes ago."
"I find it convenient that you were there exactly when we needed help." Tigress said to the snow leopard, glaring at him. Tai Lung looked back at her.
"I was there because the old turtle sent me." Tai Lung said to them, "I explained to you already. Oogway knew that you guys would be needing help, so that was why he sent me."
"Sounds reasonable, right?" Po said, "I mean, Oogway was the one who sent my panda dad that message for him to find me, right? Maybe he did also sent Tai Lung to help."
"But help with what?" Shifu asked, looking at Po. "He has told us three times already that he was sent by Oogway to help us, but he has not said what is this he was sent to help us with. He already admitted that it was not for those monsters specifically."
Shifu then looked back at Tai Lung.
"I want answers." The red panda said, looking intently and intensely at the snow leopard. "What could be so important that Oogway would send you, of all possible people, to help us with?"
Tai Lung looked at Shifu intently, and then he looked at all the others. It was obvious they all wanted to know. And that they doubted that Tai Lung would have been sent by Oogway to help them with anything. It was obvious that they all were still hostile towards him.
Save for the panda.
However, even he had a hint of inquiring on his eyes as he looked at the snow leopard. Like a curious child who wanted to know something but was too shy to ask.
After a few moments, Tai Lung decided to just spit it out for them.
"The Tien Spring is in danger."
Shifu and the Five gasped.
"The Tien Spring is in danger!?" Po said, "Oh, no! This is a disaster! This is even worse than anything I could have imagined!"
Then, after a brief silence...
"What's the Tien Spring?" Po whispered to the others. Tai Lung looked at him in surprise for a moment, before turning his look at Shifu.
"You didn't told him about the Tien Spring?" Tai Lung asked to Shifu, who didn't really had an answer to that. Well, he actually didn't had time to answer, because that was when Monkey asked:
"Wait, you mean the Tien Spring is real!? It actually exists!?"
"Oh, it does." Tai Lung said. "It is as real as this palace, and there is someone after it."
"And that is real bad..." Po said, "Isn't it?"
"How come you didn't thought you should tell him about the Tien Spring?" Tai Lung said, "He is the Dragon Warrior! You should have told him about it long ago!"
Shifu looked at the snow leopard, surprised for suddenly being admonished by him of all people.
"I... I didn't thought that the Tien Spring actually existed..." Shifu admitted, and then he recovered.
"Is this actually why you are here?"
"Yes, it is." Tai Lung said, "Oogway said me that this panda would need my help to protect the Spring. And I guess he was right, considering the poor fat bastard doesn't even knows what he is supposed to protect."
Po looked at everyone, and then he focused on Tai Lung.
"Could you... tell me? By any chance? Please?" He asked, and Tai Lung looked at the panda. Well, it seemed he didn't had any choice, did he?
"Tell, Po." Tai Lung said, "What do you know about Master Binturong?"
"Oh, you mean, the legendary Master Binturong?" Po asked, looking at Tai Lung. "The legendary master of the Northwest planes? One of Oogway's most entrusted and beloved students? One of the greatest masters that China ever saw? Famous for being wise and noble and kind? Of course I have! Man, he sounds like he was such a nice guy to be around!"
"Not if you've talked to him." Tai Lung said, but he didn't allow the panda to delve on what he just said, "So, I assume you also know that he was the greatest of all masters of chi, second only to Oogway himself, right?"
Po blinked.
"Wait, he was?"
Tai Lung blinked.
"Are you serious?" The snow leopard asked. "Did you read any of the scrolls? Did you checked the past notes on the old records? Did you even tried to learn anything that has to do with the legend of the Dragon Warrior? Shifu, what the heck have you been teaching him!?"
Shifu glared at Tai Lung as he was told that. He really didn't like to be admonished like that by someone. Especially if it was by someone who had no right to admonish him at all. Like his former student turned greater enemy who once tried to kill him.
Tai Lung let out an exasperated sigh.
"Well, I guess I'll have to go through it from the begging, won't I?" Tai Lung asked, and he didn't even waited for an answer, before he started to talk.
"Yes, Binturong was one of Oogway's greatest students, like you said, panda." Tai Lung said to the Dragon Warrior. "He became Oogway's student still very young, and he was taught the secrets of kung fu from an early age. He dominated them by the time he was eighteen, and that was when he was set to learn the next step: the domination of chi."
"Binturong had a lot of potential for this." Tai Lung said, "But, there was a lot he lacked. He didn't had the discipline or the spiritual balance needed to fully master chi. And that was the kind of thing that even Oogway could not teach to him through traditional lessons. So, there was only one way for him to be taught. Oogway took Binturong with him across China in a peregrination for him to learn on his own about the balance he would need to be able to master the art of chi."
"Oh, you talking about the Great Peregrination of Binturong?" Po said, "I read the novel they wrote about it! It was so cool!"
"Oh, you liked that?" Tai Lung asked to the panda, smirking. "Well, too bad, because most of it is made up."
Po's smile dropped because of that, and Tai Lung continued:
"No, the story of the peregrination is both more boring and more amazing than that. It is more boring because there wasn't even half of the dangers of that novel you read. There were a few difficulties along the way, like bandits and a village that needed to be rebuild after a fire, but that was it. They never had to fight a giant monster made of stone. Honestly, that's kind of absurd."
Po looked down as he heard that. He always loved the stone monster part...
"But, it is also way more amazing, because a lot of things happened during the travel that the people who wrote that novel never knew about, or that they ditched in favor of the out there dangers they decided to add." Tai Lung said, "Like the Tien Spring."
Po paid attention to him as he spoke, and he was not disappointed by what Tai Lung said next:
"The Tien Spring is a place very special, panda." Tai Lung said, "A place where life sprouted forth like the water coming from a river's source at the root of a snowy mountain. That was the Tien Spring. The Wheel of Creation."
"Wow..." Po said, as he looked at the snow leopard. However, Tai Lung was not done yet.
"Chi is the force of all life, which permeates all living things. I'm sure you know at least that much by now, panda." Tai Lung said to him. "But, do you know where chi comes from? Where it originates before flowing to the world? Well, the real answer Oogway and Binturong found out on their peregrination. It was the Tien Spring. That place is basically where all chi of the world originates from. It pools in there and just flows outwards, spreading life through our world. The Tien Spring is the true origin of everything. The beginning of life in our world. That which was the starting point of all living things. It is the place where all chi comes from, flowing through the land, the air, the seas, and through every single living being."
"Wooooooow..." Was all that Po managed to say. This was... something. So awesome...
"Honestly, I am surprised that you never heard about this before. I mean it is an important part of your own legend as well." Tai Lung said to him, "Oogway realized how important the Tien Spring was, and how it would attract the ambition of others. That was why the universe made it his mission to protect it from dangers. But, Oogway would not be around forever, and that was why he and the Universe came to some sort of agreement. The mission of protecting the Tien Spring would be passed forward to someone else when the time came. A champion elected by Oogway to become a true master of chi."
Po blinked. He then pointed at himself.
"Yes, panda. You." Tai Lung said, as if he was explaining it to a child. "As the Dragon Warrior, and heir of Oogway, it is your duty is to protect the Tien Spring from any sort of danger. To make sure that the source of all chi of the world will be safe, so the rest of the world can remain safe as well."
"And now, there is something threatening it." Tai Lung said, and everyone was looking at him. They all took in what this meant, and taking in the magnitude of what it meant.
If the Tien Spring was real, and if it was really in danger, this meant that not only China, but the whole world, was in danger as well.
"What is threatening the Tien Spring?" Tigress asked. And Tai Lung answered with:
"Jiao Din."
This provoked a reaction from all of them.
"I assume you all heard of him, huh?" Tai Lung asked, and they all did. Po certainly did.
"Yeah, he was a student of the Grandmaster Peacock! He was said to be one of his best students, but then one day he just snapped! He tried to attack Master Peacock, and he nearly bit him, but then Peacock used his legendary Peacock Flash technique and made him go blind! He banished Jiao Din from the temple, and no one saw him ever since, but the blind Komodo dragon swore he would come back for revenge one day and for the thing he had been denied... whatever that is."
"The Tien Spring, that's what he had been denied." Tai Lung explained to the panda, filling in the part he didn't knew.
"Peacock is the master of the Ki Shitang temple. The latest of a long line. That temple was founded by Binturong, and each grandmaster who led it after him had the same duty passed to them: that of making sure only those righteous and wise would be allowed access to the Tien Spring. That was the source of the whole problem. Jiao Din wanted to access the Spring, Peacock said he was not deserving, and Jiao Din snapped. Quite harsh of him, even though I can kind of see where he was coming from..."
"Anyways." Tai Lung continued, "Over the course of the last decades, Jiao Din prepared himself to come back. He trained in secret, mastered kung fu and chi all by himself, and eventually became powerful enough."
"Powerful how much, exactly?" Po asked. I mean, this was an important question to be asked, since Po would have to fight him, apparently.
"Enough to be considered a master, both of kung fu and of chi." Tai Lung said to him. "Enough to surpass and defeat Peacock. Enough to take the Ku Shitang temple, like he promised he would do decades ago... and like he already did."
Po and the five gasped. Shifu, on the other end, looked at Tai Lung for a few moments, before he scoffed.
"Well, I gotta give it to you, Tai Lung." Shifu said, "That was a nice story you told. You almost had me going."
Tai Lung looked at him, and so did the others.
"Excuse me?"
"Do you honestly expect me to believe that?" Shifu said to the snow leopard. "Do you honestly expect me to believe that Peacock was defeated, and so were all of the students of the Ku Shitang Temple?"
Tai Lung had a raised eyebrow. Everyone else continued to stare at the small master.
"Wait." Mantis said, "You mean that, from everything he just told, that is the part you find the most unbelievable?"
"Peacock is one of the greatest masters of our time." Shifu said, "He is a warrior said to rival Binturong himself, and with a mastery of chi that comes close. He trained each and every one of the over two-hundred students of Ku Shitang, and all of them are prepared to face any form of danger. There is no way that they would be defeated by a single person."
"And, didn't you said that Jiao Din is after the Tien Spring?" Mantis said, "If that was the case, then he would have gotten it already. The Ku Shitang temple was build right on top of it, right?"
"Not really, bite-size." Tai Lung said to the bug. "Oogway and Binturong lied to people about where the Tien Spring is. They knew that, as long as it existed, there would be people coming after it for power. That is why they spread around this story about it being under that temple so people would look there instead of the right place."
"But Jiao Din is on the path to find the real location, now that he took Peacock as his hostage." Tai Lung commented "That bird is the only one who knows how to get there, after all."
"There is no way what you are saying is truth!" Shifu said, "Peacock would not be defeated and taken prisoner by someone. He defeated Jiao Din before, he would certainly have done it again if he ever dared to come back. Especially now that he is blind."
"Oh, really?" Tai Lung asked, with a raised eyebrow.
"There is just no possibility of what you are saying to be true." Shifu said, "Even because the Ku Shitang Temple is extremely important and has a close connection with the Jade Palace. If it had been target of an attack, by anyone, we would have been informed."
Shifu had a smug smirk on his face as he said that, and he continued to look at Tai Lung as if he was daring the leopard to try and disprove what he just said. That was when the universe decided to give Tai Lung a bit more credibility.
"Master Shifu!" Said Zheng as he walked into the hall, causing all eyes to turn to him. "Master Shifu, we have an urgent message! Oh, hi kids." Zheng said to the six of Po's students, who were still listening from hiding. But he only greeted them briefly, before turning his attention back to the masters.
"Master Shifu! We have an urgent message!" Zheng said to Shifu, as he approached them. "From the Ku Shitang temple."
Shifu was surprised for hearing that, and he took the scroll from Zheng's wings.
"Oh, my." Tai Lung said, "I wonder what it could be about."
Zheng, upon hearing an eerily familiar voice, turned around slowly, until he was facing no other than Tai Lung.
"Hello, Zheng." The snow leopard said to the goose with a smile. Zheng, on his end, after looking at him for a second, let out a honk before flying away as fast as his wings could take him, leaving the masters to see what the message he brought was all about.
Shifu read the scroll after unfurling it.
"What does it says?" Viper asked, and Shifu said nothing in return for a few moments. Then, he slowly lowered the scroll, a haunted expression on his face, as he spoke:
"The Ku Shitang temple has been attacked by a blind Komodo dragon... all of the students were defeated and are being treated for their wounds... and Master Peacock has been kidnapped."
"Oh, that sounds serious." Tai Lung said, as now he was the one who was smirking with a "I told you so" look on his face.
"So, Tai Lung said the truth!" Po said, "Jiao Din really is after the Tien Spring!"
"How can this be possible?" Shifu said, "Peacock is one of the greatest warriors I ever met, and a master of chi! I could never beat him in all the times we sparred!"
"Like I said, Jiao Din trained a lot." Tai Lung said, "Enough to be better than Peacock, and, by extension, better than you..."
Shifu looked up at Tai Lung with an annoyed expression.
"... he calls himself the Dragon of Chi, and you guys have already been introduced to some of his handywork."
"Oh?" Po said, looking at the snow leopard with questioning eyes.
"What? You mean those monsters?" Crane asked, to what Tai Lung nodded.
"Just a little thing that the blind lizard learned how to do. The result of inserting his own corrupted chi straight into another living being." Tai Lung said, "He sent them your way to try and kill Po before he could come after him for chasing the Tien Spring. And they almost did it, didn't they?"
Yeah, that might the masters could not deny. If Tai Lung had not come by to save Po when he did.
"Jiao Din might be the greatest threat you ever faced in your life, panda." Tai Lung said, "So great, in fact, that there is no chance of you ever beating him alone."
"Oh..." Po said, looking down.
"What brings me back to why I am here in the first place." Tai Lung said, "Oogway saw this threat coming miles away. The universe told him, apparently. So, he chose me, the best available option, to come back to the mortal realm and help you defeat that lizard and keep the source of life of the entire world safe."
"Oh!" Po said, "That's so awesome!"
Everyone looked at the panda.
"What? It is! I mean, Oogway would not have sent Tai Lung if he didn't think that he would not be a good help for me, right?" Po said, looking at everyone, and then he went to Tai Lung, standing by his side.
"This will be so cool! So memorable! The tale of how The Dragon Warrior and the redeemed warrior Tai Lung fought the evil Dragon of Chi and saved the Tien Spring and the world!" Po said and he put an arm around Tai Lung's shoulders, pulling him close.
"They will write cool songs about this! I hope they use the word 'bodacious', it is perfect for both of us, pal!"
Tai Lung was... surprised. He never expected the panda to be so friendly towards him. I mean, he knew pandas were not exactly good at holding grudges, from half of the tales he heard about them growing up. Albeit Po was the first actual panda he met, the big buffoon proved to live up to most of the stories that the snow leopard had heard.
And he still did, by treating the one who once was his sworn enemy as if he was an old friend whom he hadn't seen in years.
Did he forgot that Tai Lung had already tried to murder him on their first meeting?
The others seemed to think they same. While they all agreed, to a certain point, that Oogway would not have sent Tai Lung if he wasn't the actual best choice in this situation. However, they all remembered well how that snow leopard had treated all of them, including Po.
"Right..." Tai Lung said, "As much as this song sounds like it would be... quite catchy..." The snow leopard picked Po's wrist and removed the panda's arm from around his shoulder. "It will be best if we focus on stopping Jiao Din first, don't you think?"
"Oh! Yeah, right! Of course!" Po said, turning to Tai Lung. "So, where do we start?"
"With the Dragon Scroll." Tai Lung said to the panda. "Hand it over."
"Okay, what is with the scroll?" Mantis asked. "I mean, don't we all already know it is blank?"
"Is it really?" Tai Lung said, smirking to the bug as Po handed him the scroll he had on his hand the whole time. Soon, he was unfurling the scroll, looking into it and seeing his own reflection staring back at him. The same thing he saw back on the day, instead of any great secret or mystical enchantment that would grant him power beyond imagination.
He too had thought that the scroll was nothing more than a sham at the time.
Oh, if only he knew then what he did now...
"Now, panda." Tai Lung said, flipping the scroll around and holding it to Po. "Bathe this in your chi, if you mind."
Po looked at the others, and it was obvious that they too had no clue what the snow leopard was trying to achieve. Po decided to do as he had been instructed.
Doing the whole process of putting his hands together and focusing his chi, Po sent it forward, right into the scroll.
As Po's chi made contact with it, something amazing happened.
The scroll... was no longer blank!
"What the..." Was all that Crane could manage to say as all of them witnessed words appearing into the scroll as Po sent his chi into it. Glowing words made of golden light, which faded to reveal black letters that seemed written with regular ink.
"Woah." Po said as he saw those words.
"I know, right?" Tai Lung said, looking at the panda with a smug grin. "As it turns out, this scroll is not as worthless as we were all tricked into believing."
"How?" Was all that Shifu could say, and Tai Lung was only happy to explain to his bewildered former master.
"Oogway prepared this shortly after visiting the Tien Spring and meditating over it." Tai Lung said, "This scroll really was important for the Dragon Warrior. But not as a source of power, as we always thought. It turns out, this scroll is more of a toll for the Dragon Warrior to use. It looks just like a blank, useless scroll to everyone else. But, if it comes in contact with the chi of the Dragon Warrior, in this case, our dear fat panda in here... well, let's just say that things can be pretty interesting."
"Man, I never knew that!" Po said, amazed as well as completely thrilled. "So the Dragon Scroll really is magic!"
"Yeah, this scroll has many secrets, all of which only you can access, panda." Tai Lung said, and he mentally added:
For now.
"And this is one of the secrets?" Po asked, looking at the letters, and Tai Lung said:
"That should be obvious by now. Those are instructions that will guide us to the Tien Spring."
"Cool!" Po said, as he leaned over, and he read the instructions. Then he said:
"That's a poem."
"Yes, it is." Tai Lung said to him. "A poem that contains hidden information that will guide us to the first step of our journey. The scroll will be our guide to the Tien Spring. With this, we will arrive there before Jiao Din does, and keep him from doing anything to the Spring that could put the world in danger."
Po took in the information that he was just given, and then Tai Lung asked:
"So, what do you say, Dragon Warrior?" Tai Lung asked, smirking at the panda. "Feeling like saving the world?"
Now that was a question that Tai Lung didn't even needed to ask.
Po was the Dragon Warrior, and if it came to stopping crazy blind lizards with crazy chi powers who could turn people into monsters from reaching the magic spring that made the whole world be alive, then you were talking to him for sure!
"Let's show that Komodo dragon the thunder!" Po said, as he was ready to start his latest Dragon Warrior adventure.