Bang Si-jeong barely managed to catch up with Deok-myeong and Yeom Tak-gang.
The two men had stopped and were looking at the same place.
Following their gaze, he saw a palisade running along the mountain ridge.
“......A mountain keep? A Green Forest keep.”
Men who looked like bandits were carrying dozens of corpses into the keep.
That was why Deok-myeong's expression had gone stiff.
“Hmm. Si-jeong.”
Yeom Tak-gang pointed at them with a jerk of his chin and asked,
“Do you know anything about this?”
“In this vicinity there is the Ink Tiger Keep. But it is strange. It had its name listed in the Green Forest, but it was never a keep on this scale.”
“Is it our Gang's error, or did those fellows grow suddenly?”
At that question Bang Si-jeong's face hardened.
If it was an error, it was the Beggar's Gang's incompetence, and if the Ink Tiger Keep had grown suddenly...... that too was the Beggar's Gang's incompetence for missing it.
‘Cross-verification is standard for information on the Eight Overlords of the Unorthodox Path. The last report on the Ink Tiger Keep was five days ago. Even then the assessment was that it merely had its name listed in the Green Forest. ......Is there a bastard dog in the main branch?’
He chose his words with the thought that a bloody wind might well blow through the main branch.
And the moment Bang Si-jeong opened his mouth.
CRAAASH!
“......!”
“Hm!?”
A roar loud enough to make his ears ring burst out from the direction of the keep.
At the same time something tore through the palisade and came flying out.
THUD!
What flew grandly through the air and crashed at the party's feet...... was a sturdy man with bronze skin.
“Wh-What is this? Are you all right, Benefactor?”
Unlike Deok-myeong, who hurried over to examine the man.
“Uh......”
“Si-jeong, is this......?”
“......”
Yeom Tak-gang and Bang Si-jeong exchanged a strange look.
The man lay collapsed on the ground, blinking two or three times, and then.
“Mm! As I thought!”
As if they were not there at all, he sprang up and charged back into the keep.
“Hold, friend! Wait a moment!”
Deok-myeong hurried after him.
That left the two of them.
Bang Si-jeong muttered blankly.
“......Nam Tae-gang?”
Yeom Tak-gang's expression was dumbfounded as well.
“Th-That's him, right?”
“......Yes, that is certainly the Young Palace Head of the Southern Barbarian Sun Palace.”
“Why is he here?”
“That, I also......”
Once again it was before Bang Si-jeong could finish speaking.
CRAAASH!
The palisade shattered along with another roar.
This time Bang Si-jeong ran over in a hurry.
“Young Palace Head! What in the world are you doing here......!”
Naturally assuming it was Nam Tae-gang, he plunged through the cloud of dust.
But the one who had landed in an awkward stance was not Nam Tae-gang.
The yellow kasaya of Shaolin's Bodhidharma Hall Head was fluttering in the dust.
“......Sir Deok-myeong?”
Even at Bang Si-jeong's call, Deok-myeong seemed dazed, unable to take his eyes off the far side of the palisade.
His pupils shook as though an earthquake had struck, and they were full of shock.
“C-Could this energy be......?”
Bang Si-jeong could not understand the words Deok-myeong stammered out.
***
“One more time!”
“You lost, so admit it and back off!”
“I-It's because I'm cold!”
THUD!
“Guhk!”
“Cold, my ass.”
Jeong I-shin kicked away Nam Tae-gang as the man tried to cling on again, then ran hurriedly to the broken palisade.
Because of that fellow he had struck an innocent bystander by mistake.
‘A yellow kasaya......!’
And what was more, that appearance was familiar beyond all doubt!
“Just once! Let's fight one last time!”
Nam Tae-gang, already back on his feet, chased after him.
Jeong I-shin ground his teeth.
‘What a pain......!’
Looking around, Jeong I-shin shouted.
“Hwang Gong-mang! You take him on! I have to go bring the guests in!”
“Wh-What!?”
“Just cling to him! He says he doesn't fight the weak!”
“U-Understood......!”
Hwang Gong-mang squeezed his eyes shut and threw himself at Nam Tae-gang.
“Let go of this!”
“I-I cannot!”
“I do not fight the weak!”
“B-But you drop from one hit by Master just the same......!”
“What......!?”
Leaving that worthless exchange behind, he climbed over the broken palisade.
“Monk! Are you all right!?”
He shouted it with all his sincerity.
But what came back was a ripple of air that ran cold down his spine.
WHOOOSH—!
“Hup!”
He twisted his body hard enough to break his waist.
An enormous fist grazed the tip of his nose.
The wind pressure sent his shaggy, overgrown hair flying without mercy.
“Ho! Look at this brat.”
Through the strands of hair swaying softly before his eyes.
He saw an old man in shabby dress.
The man bared his yellow teeth in a grin.
Instinct said it was a deeply ominous smile.
“W-Wait a moment! Elder!”
Jeong I-shin threw both arms up.
As far as he knew, this was a gesture common to all nations.
“I am——”
“Enough. I shall subdue you first and hear you out at leisure afterward. When the body hurts, truthful sounds come out of their own accord.”
“Isn't that just groaning......?”
For an instant the old man's form seemed to waver.
That was all his eyes perceived.
But Jeong I-shin's body moved on its own to prepare for the opponent's next move.
DONG! DOOOONG—!
He heard the temple bell. The sound was louder and more urgent than ever before.
The reason was obvious.
“Now! Cry out with a truthful sound!”
It meant this old man, who had appeared right before his nose, was that dangerous!
‘This is insane......!’
Jeong I-shin hurriedly drew up his true qi.
This was no time to be considering his internal injury.
The energy wrapped around the old man bearing down on him was truly immense.
It was too late to dodge. Defense was the best he could manage.
He crossed both arms before his chest.
The instant a faint amber light wavered over them.
BOOOOOM—!
His body floated up.
It was a sensation he had not felt in a very long time.
Since setting foot on the soil of the Central Plains, a sense of crisis sprouted in him for the first time.
He felt no killing intent from the old man, and that made his skin crawl all the more.
‘This much of an attack without a shred of hatred?’
Was he not a truly, purely mad old man?
Even in the middle of flying through the air, admiration came out of him on its own.
At the same time, Jeong I-shin's head spun rapidly.
Tang Mu-jeong's education, the Jianghu Code of Conduct.
There was a saying that came before all of it.
It could well be called an ideology Tang Mu-jeong had planted in him.
―Kindness twofold, grudges a hundredfold.
Jeong I-shin, who did not know it was the household precept of the Sichuan Tang Clan.
He had understood it as no more than never letting himself be hit.
So, forgetting even the throbbing in his forearms, he hurriedly took a verse formula into his mouth.
The verse formula that always caught hold of him.
‘What surges up has its reasons. Not because it is weak, but because it has no center.’
DONG—
‘When the coarse is pressed down, it returns to its source. And when it returns......’
CRAAASH!
At the end of the short flight, Jeong I-shin, driven into the keep's palisade, half-opened his eyes and let out a breath.
At the tail end of that exhalation, faint amber true qi flashed between his teeth.
‘Only then does it harden.’
DONG!
He drew up every bit of the Sinew-Transforming Marrow-Cleansing Scripture's true qi piled in his qi center.
Leaving the collapsed palisade behind, he kicked off the ground.
Something pale in the distance filled his vision in an instant.
It was yellow teeth.
“Have you ever seen such an amusing brat!!”
The old man, brimming with delight, thrust out his fist once more.
Jeong I-shin extended his palm to meet it.
Only, half a beat faster.
‘Hm? He's not at a level where he can't judge distance.’
Jeong I-shin read the doubt that flickered across the old man's face.
Inwardly he cheered. His intent had worked.
The moment he thought it, he thrust out the true qi he had wrapped in advance without mercy.
The height of unreasonableness that Jeong I-shin had experienced first of all in this world.
The Tathagata Divine Palm.
‘Respect...... for one's elders!’
CRACK—!
***
“......”
“......”
Yeom Tak-gang's fist stopped one inch short of Jeong I-shin's abdomen.
Slowly withdrawing his hand, he examined his own shoulder.
Blue true qi was fluttering away in wisps.
It was the body-protecting enhanced qi that had risen of its own accord, now scattering.
‘......It landed?’
No, it had not landed.
That palm thrust half a beat early was nothing but baffling.
A brat who took his fist head-on and got up unharmed could not possibly fail to know the gap between them.
And yet...... what in the world was this.
‘Space-crossing, space-crossing...... palm.’
Among the names that flitted through his head, none of the martial arts fit.
Subtlety at a level he could not perceive.
Destructive force enough to raise body-protecting enhanced qi.
The lingering trace of clear true qi, as though he had been flung into the depths of a famed mountain.
‘Who in the world is this brat......?’
Hair grown out without any care, and a martial arts uniform that looked ready to rot away at any moment.
Even the sleeves were not originally absent but ragged, as though torn off by force.
It was a properly done beggar's state, the sort one would only see at the Beggar's Gang's general headquarters.
‘......The disciple of another Elder?’
But there was no madman within the Beggar's Gang who carried three swords around.
With no idea what Yeom Tak-gang was thinking, Jeong I-shin cautiously opened his mouth.
“A-Are you all right?”
It had been a Tathagata Divine Palm carrying every scrap of the Sinew-Transforming Marrow-Cleansing Scripture's true qi that he had frugally gathered.
Of course, he had not blundered out of excitement.
It was the first fight this fierce he had ever had, but the mind the Scripture governed was always still.
Which meant there was a reason he had unfolded the Tathagata Divine Palm and not some other martial art.
‘I cannot fathom why those who call themselves martial monks seek only the easy road. To chase after utility alone and hang their necks on signature techniques like the Great Strength Vajra Hand or the Hundred Step Divine Fist!’
There was something Gongheon had hurriedly added afterward, having said that.
‘Fewer people learn it compared with the Great Strength Vajra Hand or the Hundred Step Divine Fist, but the Tathagata Divine Palm too is a clear and unmistakable representative signature technique of Shaolin, he said.’
He judged it the most fitting move for making known that he had a deep connection to Gongheon.
Of course, it stung his pride a little that the man looked entirely unbothered even after taking it.
Still, that demon of an old man had stopped attacking, so his ploy seemed to have worked.
“......”
However, the old man was still glaring at him.
Even so, it seemed the mood had turned slightly toward conversation, and it was the moment Jeong I-shin took a step back.
TAP—
The old man's hand moved like lightning.
He tried to strike the onrushing hand aside, but it moved like a living snake and bored into the gap.
The Seizing-Grasping Hand.
The principle of a method that captures and clutches.
He had learned it from Gongheon. But the old man's speed was chilling.
CLENCH!
“Wh-What are you doing!?”
The old man, who had seized Jeong I-shin's wrist in an instant, said,
“I am Yeom Tak-gang of the Beggar's Gang.”
“The Beggar's Gang? A beggar?”
“......That's right.”
Before Jeong I-shin, who had been called a beggar all day by the bandit bastards, there now appeared an old man who called himself a beggar.
Looking at Yeom Tak-gang, Jeong I-shin nodded obediently.
“Y-You do look like one.”
“......?”
Yeom Tak-gang blinked blankly.
‘What did this brat just say......?’
Even nonsense has an expected range.
Jeong I-shin's words sat slightly outside that boundary.
Worse, from his expression, he sincerely believed it.
Well, it was not actually wrong.
He had told a beggar that he looked like a beggar.
It was not...... something to get angry about.
“Ahem! Enough! Do not try to turn the conversation with pointless words!”
“Yes? You said you were of the Beggar's Gang, so I only said you look the part......”
“Yooou braaat!”
Yeom Tak-gang, his face flushed, let out a roar.
But the fierce sound that rang out was not the only one.
Along with a mighty and pure energy, another shout burst forth.
“Stop!! Please stop, Senior Tiger Beggar!”
“Deok-myeong?”
Deok-myeong dropped between Jeong I-shin and Yeom Tak-gang and separated them.
Yeom Tak-gang, who had held no malice from the start, drew back obediently.
Deok-myeong stood shielding Jeong I-shin and said to Yeom Tak-gang,
“There seems to be a misunderstanding between you! Please calm yourself!”
But the sight of it looked as though he were protecting Jeong I-shin from Yeom Tak-gang.
At that, Yeom Tak-gang's eyebrow twitched.
“Hoh? A misunderstanding?”
“Yes, it is certainly a misunderstanding.”
“Did you not see it as well, the young man who came flying through the palisade? He is the Young Palace Head of the Southern Barbarian Sun Palace.”
“......!”
“Whose doing it was is obvious. It is that brat, who takes my fist and still runs his mouth perfectly well. The Young Palace Head would have been laughable to him.”
Deok-myeong flinched in surprise and turned around.
“D-Did you truly do that knowing?”
“You mean running my mouth?”
“No! I mean did you attack knowing the Young Palace Head's identity!”
The Young Palace Head?
As Jeong I-shin rolled his eyes about, the palisade came into his view.
And with it, a sturdy man just then charging out.
“Him?”
At that question, everyone's gaze fixed on one spot.
Hwang Gong-mang was dangling from the waist of Nam Tae-gang, who had just crossed the palisade.
“Y-You cannot! Master's order......!”
“Let go!”
Nam Tae-gang dragged Hwang Gong-mang along and at last arrived before Jeong I-shin.
Paying no mind to the gazes of Deok-myeong and Yeom Tak-gang, he knelt before him.
“Urk!”
Hwang Gong-mang was driven into the ground along with him.
Ignoring the man, Nam Tae-gang shouted.
“It is my wish! One last time! Spar with me just one more time!”
A spar.
A truthful cry issued from a sound body.
That single line settled the whole of the situation.
“Tsk. Truly pathetic.”
“Whew......”
A sullen Yeom Tak-gang and a seemingly relieved Deok-myeong.
Between them, Jeong I-shin said quietly,
“No. I don't fight weaklings.”
***
“Why did you do that? It was...... it was like you, Elder Yeom, but this time as well you went too far.”
“This brat?”
“Ahem.”
Bang Si-jeong quietly averted his gaze.
Yeom Tak-gang, kneading his shoulder, flicked a finger at him.
SNAP!
“Guhk! Wh-Why take it out on me......”
“How was it?”
Struck out of nowhere by the Hundred Knot Finger, Bang Si-jeong scrunched up his face.
“How do you think? It hurts like death. Do you intend to put holes in my body?”
“And if you had been struck by my Tiger King Fist, what do you think would have happened?”
“You mean the Tiger King Mountain-Quelling Fist? Then obviously......”
Only then did Bang Si-jeong grasp what Yeom Tak-gang was trying to tell him.
‘Ignorant old man. He could simply say it in words.’
He always has to carve it into the body like this.
Grumbling inwardly, Bang Si-jeong said,
“I would have been laid up for a fortnight. I too know that young man is no ordinary matter. So you are saying you tested him? When we return I shall check the roster of persons under twenty.”
“Nothing will come out.”
“Yes?”
Beyond the palisade, the young man politely guiding Deok-myeong.
Looking at Jeong I-shin, Yeom Tak-gang shook his head.
“There was no one your age of his measure. Hah, the dragon and phoenix pale beside him.”
“Come now, even so......”
“Hmph! It is because your mindset is of that sort that I mean to drag you down from the Wuhan main branch.”
I shall have to look into it myself.
Striding off toward the mountain keep, Yeom Tak-gang added one last remark.
“A fortnight? Had it been you, you would not have stirred for a month.”