Escape from Repentance Cave (4)
Seo Baek leaped up the cliff wall like the wind.
He then thrust his sword finger toward Ilgoe.
First strike wins. The key to victory lay in suppressing the opponent in one decisive blow before they could react.
But the martial arts of the Shaolin high monk guarding Repentance Cave were anything but easy to handle.
Seated cross-legged, Ilgoe extended his palm toward Seo Baek's sword finger.
Tssst.
In an instant, Seo Baek's sword finger was blocked by Ilgoe's palm and lost its direction. Ilgoe's movement was utterly ordinary, yet it revealed no openings whatsoever.
At that moment, Seo Baek twisted his wrist in a spin, folded his sword finger, spread his palm open, and unleashed a palm technique.
This had been Seo Baek's goal from the beginning.
An exchange of palm techniques—a contest of internal energy.
Yet Ilgoe's palm didn't clash head-on; instead, it swirled like a vortex.
"Fearless brat!"
Ilgoe's palm grazed past Seo Baek's and clamped onto his forearm.
His five fingers curled like a bird's talons.
It was none other than Eagle Claw Skill, one of Shaolin Temple's seventy-two supreme arts.
If it continued, his forearm would shatter.
Seo Baek rotated his shoulder and spun his body, slipping his arm free from the Eagle Claw Skill like a slippery eel, hanging by a thread.
Ilgoe kept targeting Seo Baek's muscles and bones with Eagle Claw, while Seo Baek countered with palm techniques.
The two traded over a dozen exchanges in the blink of an eye.
Papapap.
In the midst of it, Ilgoe capitalized on the split-second Seo Baek dodged the Eagle Claw, hooking his wrist into the crook of his elbow.
"Got you, you rascal!"
The trap Ilgoe sprang was Shaolin's Golden Arm Skill.
While other sects' Golden Arm emphasized understanding of muscles and bones along with clever improvisation, Shaolin's version was like a viper that, once bitten, never let go—relentlessly hounding the foe.
That's exactly how Ilgoe's technique played out now.
Seo Baek tried to wrench his wrist free, but Ilgoe twisted his elbow round and round, somehow reversing the direction against Seo Baek's wrist.
Now, if he drove his elbow down with full body weight, Seo Baek's wrist would snap helplessly.
That was when Seo Baek pressed his thumb and middle finger together and flicked straight ahead.
Tung.
Ilgoe, smirking with triumph, jolted in surprise.
A razor-sharp strand of internal energy shot from Seo Baek's finger, hurtling toward his brow.
Ilgoe had no choice but to release the Golden Arm and snap his head back.
The next instant, the errant internal energy beam slammed into the cliff wall right behind his head.
Puk.
The rock face, which had withstood years of wind and rain, was gouged out like soft tofu.
Ilgoe gaped, stunned.
A boy not yet twenty, wielding an internal art that leaped past a decade's worth of cultivation...
But even more shocking was the fact that followed.
"You! You stole and learned Shaolin's Finger Divine Skill!"
Seo Baek shook his head calmly.
"It is a Shaolin technique, but I never stole it."
"You expect this old monk to believe that?"
"I learned it from Senior Brother Jin Ha-gun of the Wudang Sect."
"What? That wild colt—what madness has he wrought...!"
Seo Baek pressed on, flicking four consecutive beams of internal energy with both hands.
Tung tung tung tung.
As the Finger Divine Skill's power targeted brow, philtrum, solar plexus, and dantian in turn, Ilgoe broke his cross-legged pose and hurled himself aside to evade.
But it was only momentary; Seo Baek had already kicked off the cliff wall and surged toward his back.
"Forgive my rudeness."
Just as Seo Baek's Finger Divine Skill was set to smash into Ilgoe's back,
a sudden fierce gale blasted from the side, forcing Seo Baek to halt his strike mid-execution.
Shiiiik.
His senior brother in peril, Iggoe—who'd been perched on a distant dead tree—had leaped to the cliff and struck at Seo Baek.
Seo Baek thrust out his palm to meet Iggoe's palm wind.
Peong.
Their internal energies collided in mid-air, erupting in a thunderous boom.
Iggoe had poured his Eight Stars internal energy to rescue his senior.
Yet when Seo Baek blocked the palm technique with ease, he twitched his white eyebrows.
"Amitabha. The young patron's internal energy runs deep."
His Eight Stars blocked, Iggoe now unleashed a palm strike laden with his lifelong Ten Stars power.
"Then take this!"
Seo Baek countered by thrusting both palms forward.
Ilgoe cried out urgently.
"Junior brother! Don't clash head-on with him!"
The instant Iggoe heard his senior's voice, he knew disaster loomed—but it was too late.
Upon impact with Seo Baek's palms, his Ten Stars palm wind dissolved like springtime haze.
But once more, Seo Baek couldn't press his attack to the finish.
"This kid—won't he quit?!"
As the two seniors floundered against a boy under twenty, Samgoe crossed to the cliff and threw himself into the fray.
Seo Baek twisted the palm aimed at Iggoe to parry Samgoe's assault.
Peofung.
Samgoe's internal energy was profound, but fell short of Ilgoe and Iggoe. Seo Baek naturally gained breathing room and launched a counterstrike.
Yet the next instant, Ilgoe and Iggoe bore down on Seo Baek together.
"You bastard!"
Ilgoe from behind, Iggoe and Samgoe ahead.
Three Shaolin high monks ganging up on a mere boy under twenty made for an unsightly scene.
But the Shaolin Three Monsters had no leisure to fret over propriety. The boy's prowess defied all imagination!
The trio assumed Seo Baek couldn't endure their joint assault and would spin away in flight.
But no—Seo Baek kicked off the cliff wall, rebounding straight at Ilgoe.
Thud.
"......!"
The Shaolin Three Monsters reeled in panic.
This way, Seo Baek would eat their palm winds full-force and suffer grave internal wounds.
They'd only meant to bar his exit from Repentance Cave—no intent to maim.
His overwhelming skill had forced their all-out joint attack, hands unwittingly merciless.
Seo Baek, oblivious, zeroed in solely on Ilgoe...
Too late to pull back the palm winds.
'Disaster. Mu Hye will have our hides.'
As Ilgoe gulped,
a massive roar exploded, scattering Iggoe and Samgoe's palm winds in mid-air.
Peofung.
Iggoe and Samgoe whipped around in alarm to spot a shadow—of course, it was Lee Kang.
"That guy's got a short fuse."
Seo Baek in danger, Lee Kang had vaulted in to shatter Iggoe and Samgoe's joint attack.
"You aware you nearly died?"
"No. With Senior Brother staunchly at my back, what cause for worry?"
Lee Kang clashed with Iggoe and Samgoe, while Seo Baek loosed Finger Divine Skill at Ilgoe, adding,
"What if I'd been late?"
"Impossible. Reading my thoughts as you do, I trusted you'd aid at the perfect instant."
"Damnation. Drop the honorifics, and your speech apes that certain someone."
"I'll take it as praise."
Even as they battled the Shaolin Three Monsters, the pair conversed like old friends over tea.
The trio had guarded Repentance Cave for decades, nabbing countless jianghu villains.
Yet these two were foes unlike any—bizarre beyond measure.
One a boy shy of twenty, the other a blind man!
Seo Baek forwent all defense, unleashing relentless offense.
His form riddled with openings.
But Iggoe and Samgoe could only watch their senior imperiled, as the black-clothed blind man hounded them mercilessly.
In scant moments, Lee Kang exploded dozens of techniques.
Shishishishik.
Fist strikes, kicks, finger jabs, palms—even headbutts—an onslaught using every limb and joint.
Lee Kang's barrage left even Shaolin's bastions of external arts agape in awe.
The three brothers, raised side-by-side since youth, read each other's intents with a glance.
Thus they boasted their joint attack as Shaolin's finest—even against jianghu's apex, three together meant no defeat, at worst a draw.
Yet today, utterly routed by unknowns...
By their signature joint assault, no less!
Seo Baek and Lee Kang synced like a single warrior.
Ilgoe, ever hot-tempered—like Vajra in the flesh—
Couldn't face his juniors; unwittingly, he resorted to his final gambit.
"Juniors, beware!"
Suddenly, Iggoe and Samgoe grimaced and clapped palms over both ears.
Lee Kang caught on and plugged his own, bellowing,
"Plug your ears, quick!"
But Seo Baek charged Ilgoe undaunted?
"Stop......"
Before Lee Kang finished, Ilgoe thrust his torso forward and unleashed a mighty roar.
"Gal!"
Ilgwa’s Lion’s Roar, honed over a lifetime, erupted.
Lion’s Roar. Among the countless martial arts of Shaolin Temple, it was a supreme technique ranked among the top five when it came to the explosive force of internal energy!
Rrrrumble—!
Like all martial arts of Shaolin Temple, the principle behind the Lion’s Roar was simple. It exploded one’s internal energy as a sonic martial art.
Yet it demanded profound reserves and decades honing the basic motion to true mastery.
Arduous to attain, but mastery brought jianghu supremacy.
That was Shaolin martial arts' zenith!
Finger Divine Skill was no different.
Seo Baek had peeked over Jin Ha-gun's shoulder, so his proficiency lagged. He bridged the gap with sheer internal depth, amplifying destruction.
Ilgoe, Shaolin devotee for life, saw through it.
Once a brash youth before tonsure,
His overweening ambition barred high office; hence his post at lowly Repentance Cave.
Decades in seclusion had mellowed his fire.
But crushed by this boy prodigy—alongside juniors—his competitive blaze reignited unwittingly.
As Ten Stars Lion's Roar burst forth, Ilgoe inwardly rued.
'Disaster!'
Mere surge of pride—no wish to harm the youth...
Full hit from Ten Stars Lion's Roar? Blood spray, dire wounds—plain as day!
The boy barreled frontward, clueless.
Ilgoe yearned to squeeze shut his eyes.
'Too late to evade......'
Then Ilgoe beheld the inconceivable.
The boy thrust both palms ahead, unleashing internal energy; Lion's Roar's power splintered every which way.
Like waves pulverized against a titanic dam, bursting into spray!
Pung. Shwaaaaa.
'Impossible!'
As his lifelong Lion's Roar crumbled, Ilgoe reeled—yet a corner of his heart eased inexplicably.
Internal art profound beyond the boy's tender years. Improvising a glimpsed Finger Divine Skill into his own arsenal.
Above all, iron will to reshape reality through his arts.
Chaos storming even Shaolin's depths on Song Mountain.
Yet with such a prodigy, the secular world held no fears.
Lightning-swift, Seo Baek closed to seal Ilgoe's shoulder acupoint,
Ilgoe—face wreathed in a broad grin forgotten for decades, nay, lost to memory—offered Shaolin's ritual bow.
"Amitabha. This old monk yields."