Master's Teachings (2)
Inner energy clash.
A deadly duel where one life hung in the balance.
Yet Seo Baek's expression remained utterly serene, as if all emotion had been stripped away.
Jin Ha-gun channeled five-tenths of his inner energy projection into his palm.
'How's this?'
But Seo Baek didn't even nod.
The instant Jin Ha-gun's inner energy projection surged forward, Seo Baek's own matched it in intensity, as if they'd made a pact.
'Not bad. Then how about this?'
Jin Ha-gun raised his projection to eight-tenths.
Jin Ha-gun—one of the peak inner energy masters Seo Baek's teacher had named as a match for the Shika Heart Method. His eight-tenths was no trifling force.
Yet Seo Baek didn't yield an inch.
Just like before, his projection rose in tandem with Jin Ha-gun's.
If Seo Baek had been pouring in everything he had, Jin Ha-gun might have simply acknowledged his impressive reserves.
The problem was that their projections were perfectly even, measured to the line.
'This kid... no way...'
His guess was spot on.
Seo Baek was mirroring Jin Ha-gun's output exactly—neither more nor less.
Which meant he wasn't going all out.
It was as if Seo Baek was the one testing Jin Ha-gun's limits. The situation had flipped completely from Jin Ha-gun's original intent.
'......'
Jin Ha-gun's gaze grew steadily colder.
He unleashed his full ten-tenths.
Tsutsutsutsu.
In that instant, Seo Baek matched it precisely.
The easygoing look on Jin Ha-gun's face shifted to one of deep focus, immersed in the clash. Their energies climbed higher.
Eleven-tenths, twelve-tenths......
At some point, Jin Ha-gun felt a chill seeping into his palm.
'Could this be...?'
A bone-numbing cold, like the icy waters of the North Sea flooding his hand, freezing everything in its path.
The Wudang inner method Jin Ha-gun cultivated was renowned as the purest in the world. Yet that pure projection was blocked by Seo Baek's frigid energy, unable to breach the barrier.
If this kept up, one of them would freeze solid—or melt away and collapse.
Jin Ha-gun could no longer claim certain victory.
The boy before him looked not yet twenty. Double that age, and you'd hit Jin Ha-gun's own.
Had his own inner energy been at this level back then?
'Ridiculous.'
Jin Ha-gun had entered Wudang later than his fellow disciples.
He'd grown exceptionally fast, quickly catching up. Now he was beyond rising star status, renowned enough for dispatch by the Murim Alliance.
Among the young, only Jegal Seong matched his fame.
So at this boy's age, Jin Ha-gun's power had been far inferior. Obvious.
'Incredible.'
A realm unreachable even if one had started cultivating from the womb.
Yet this boy surpassed it...
Hueup.
Jin Ha-gun exhaled lightly and pulled his palm away. He stepped back three paces.
Seo Baek's impassive brow twitched faintly.
Cheon Ri Hyeong of the Iron Palm Gang, the moment Seo Baek withdrew, felt his strength drain and collapsed to his knees.
But Jin Ha-gun? He'd pulled back casually, his breathing undisturbed.
A sign that gauging the level of his pure inner method was no easy task.
"So this is ice arts?"
Jin Ha-gun scratched his head as he spoke.
The sharp, icy demeanor vanished the instant the clash ended, reverting to his usual eccentric self.
"Hmm, I've never faced Western Frontier techniques before, so I can't say how similar."
He crossed his arms and tilted his head; no one would guess this was the man who'd just risked life and death in an inner energy duel.
"Truth is, Abbot Mu Hye asked me to test you. To see if you're worth attempting the Body Transfer Skill."
At those words, the acupointed precept monks' eyes changed.
A Wudang master who appeared out of nowhere, acupointed the precept monks, and clashed inner energies with Seo Baek.
If it was on Shaolin's abbot's orders, his bizarre actions made sense.
Seo Baek pieced it together too. But that didn't fully explain Mu Hye's true intentions.
"Shaolin has waited long for Shika Manor's response. Why test at all? Just do the Body Transfer Skill."
Seo Baek countered, and Jin Ha-gun shrugged again.
"Beats me why."
By now, it was impossible to tell if he was teasing or serious.
"But your inner energy projection... pity to waste it only on clashes."
Like when he'd first initiated the duel, Jin Ha-gun extended his open palm forward.
He had this habit—shrugging or scratching his head with every word, always moving.
"In a life-or-death fight, you get time to palm-wrestle the enemy? Nine times out of ten, it's over before that."
True enough.
Proper ice arts required specific conditions. But as Jin Ha-gun said, battles rarely aligned perfectly.
Especially against masters.
The question was why he was saying this.
No need to solve Seo Baek's problems. The Body Transfer Skill would either kill him or cripple him anyway...
"Ah, that'll do it."
Jin Ha-gun snapped his fingers, as if struck by inspiration.
He thrust his arm toward the precept monks, curling his hand into a circle with thumb and middle finger pressed together.
The Tanji Singong technique he'd used earlier on two of them.
But then he'd flicked a pebble from the ground; now, bare-handed?
As Seo Baek pondered, Jin Ha-gun flicked at empty air.
"Like this."
Thud thud.
No pebble, yet the sound rang out.
The sharp crack of inner energy striking empty space!
At once, the two precept monks staggered but steadied themselves.
His air-strike had precisely hit their acupoints, releasing the points.
'......!'
Even the emotionless Seo Baek couldn't hide his surprise this time.
His notion of matching Jin Ha-gun evenly had been an illusion. Only because Seo Baek's projection froze others' energy and blood flow had it held.
If Jin Ha-gun fought seriously?
Seo Baek doubted he could force a retreat. The man's inner energy was that astonishing.
"Tanji Singong is one of Shaolin's outer arts absolutes. I just mimicked it with pure inner energy. But see? At high realms, all martial arts converge."
"......"
"Against revenants, this'll halt them briefly—even if not full acupoint. Mid-fight surprise strike? Even better."
Seo Baek was more baffled.
Jin Ha-gun sounded like a murim elder passing hard-won insights to a rookie.
"What's your angle in teaching this?"
"Huh? You not fighting revenants?"
"I'm here for the Body Transfer Skill."
"Not done yet. Unless you're immortal, no one knows the future."
His logic was airtight, point by point—hard to refute.
Like Song Hyeon, who silenced with pure reason.
But where Song Hyeon compelled silence, Jin Ha-gun's truths sparked inner rebellion. You wanted to agree, yet couldn't.
Probably his sloppy demeanor.
What an odd fellow.
"Oh, almost forgot. In the Repentance Cave, there's an evildoer—ignore whatever he says. No good comes from getting close."
Another cryptic remark.
"Anyway, business done. I'm off."
After monologuing to his heart's content, Jin Ha-gun waved carelessly and turned.
The precept leader, now freed, called out.
"Wait—won't you release my comrades' points too?"
Jin Ha-gun was Murim Alliance-affiliated. Following Mu Hye's orders explained it; the leader couldn't blame him outright, only ask.
"Whoops. It's been ages—still stuck?"
As if asking why they hadn't freed themselves by now.
The leader was dumbfounded. Air-striking acupoints with Tanji Singong—and undoing them—marked a freakish outer arts master.
For such a master to blame underlings for not breaking his points? Absurd!
Jin Ha-gun snapped his fingers, freeing the other two.
"Thanks."
"No trouble. Call anytime."
"......"
As precept monks and Seo Baek stood speechless, Jin Ha-gun jolted as if remembering something.
"Right! Where's the privy again?"
"That way."
"Urgent, urgent."
Jin Ha-gun dashed into the woods like the wind, vanishing.
The leader cleared his throat.
"Ahem. We'll handle the prisoner escort delay later. Repentance Cave first."
"Understood."
The precept monks resumed marching Seo Baek toward the cave.
En route, Seo Baek glanced back where Jin Ha-gun had gone.
The unpredictable man reminded him suddenly of Yu So Un.
They were close in age.
Opposite martial styles, yet personalities startlingly similar.
'He and Brother So Un would hit it off.'
Seo Baek smiled wryly at the thought.
Body Transfer Skill left no promises for tomorrow. He hoped to see Yu So Un once more before then.
The precept monks quickened their pace. Jin Ha-gun's detour had caused an unexpected delay.
The path grew barer—foliage and trees giving way to sheer cliffs.
Wang Yi Sam had been here, he'd sigh at yet another cliff.
They halted after circling half of Xiao Shi Peak, reaching the far side.
"We're here."
Ask any murim man what Shaolin's Repentance Cave was like, and most would picture a fortress prison swarming with guards.
Seo Baek had thought similarly.
Reality shattered expectations.
"This is the Repentance Cave."
The leader pointed to a cave mouth in the cliff.
Barely wide enough for one person. And unguarded? This infamous hellhole?
"No fleeing now you've come this far. One step back, and you're nabbed."
The leader's threat rang true. A gaze locked on the entrance—heavy with immense inner energy, though no killing intent.
Shaolin used few elites instead of hordes.
"Follow."
Seo Baek entered the Repentance Cave behind the precept monks.