CHAPTER 72: CHAPTER 72- STEALING A GREAT CLAN’S CORE MARTIAL ARTS TECHNIQUE

The crowd was extremely loud as they all discussed Sol who was on stage 101.

However, Sol was too focused on something else. Both he and Mar-Dule wore solemn expressions as they waited to see if their conjecture was right.

Just then, a youth leaped onto the stage, but Sol and Mar-Dule were taken aback.

"Oh! His opponent is Ha-Eun!"

"Whoa, really? But isn’t he 12th on the Mortal Arena Rankings? How did he get chosen to fight a newbie?"

"I heard he already opened all of the acupoints in his left leg and has already started on his left arm."

"Not only that, but he’s also one of the geniuses who chose to refine their bones while opening their acupoints. They’re rumors that say he’s powerful enough to enter the top ten of the Mortal Arena Rankings!"

"Do you think that person can win his first match against Brother Ha-Eun?"

"It looks like he’ll fail to enter the Martial Hall, Ha-Eun is a genius among geniuses. Even those on the Earth Arena Rankings are wary of him!"

Numerous disciples were discussing the upcoming match with wild anticipation. However, while all this was going on, Sol and Mar-Dule were still wearing confused expressions as they looked at Ha-Eun.

He was wearing black robes and a hand band that had the academy’s signature dragon design etched onto both of them. His black robes signify that he was from the Weapon Innate Dharma Pavilion, not the Irregular Innate Dharma Pavilion like Geon-Soo.

Ha-Eun wore a smile on his face as he cupped his fist towards Sol and said.

"Brother, can I know your name?"

Sol was still confused as he was expecting to fight someone who wanted to kill him, but he still cupped his fist and responded.

"My name is Sol."

"Sol? What a strange name, he doesn’t seem to be from Jianghu. Could he be a Barbarian from the Eternal Desert, or maybe a Sakrian from the Land of Shadows?"

"If so, then to think someone who isn’t from the Six Holy Sects and Five Great Clans, or even Jianghu, was the one able to climb the Heavenly Staircase."

"Yeah, I wonder how our geniuses in Jinghua would react to this."

As the crowd finally discovered Sol’s name, Ha-Eun cupped his fists towards Sol and said.

"Brother Sol, let’s have a good match."

After saying that Ha-Eun bent his leg and pushed off the ground towards his Sol. His speed was fast and he reached Sol in an instant.

Swoosh!

Sol’s felt Ha-Eun’s palm brush past his cheek as he dodged his palm attack.

Ha-Eun’s attacks continued, but Sol would only dodge, he was still too confused about what was going on to really focus on the fight.

However, amidst one of Ha-Eun’s palm attacks, his palm suddenly followed in a strange trajectory that caught Sol off guard.

With a loud thud, Ha-Eun’s palm slammed into Sol’s chest causing him to stumble back.

The crowd was heard cheering loudly, but Ha-Eun’s suddenly paused his attack and said with a frown.

"Brother Sol, I was hoping to fight the person who climbed the Heavenly Staircase, but you aren’t even taking this fight seriously."

Sol released a breath of air before he said.

"I apologize Brother Ha-Eun. I was a bit distracted before, let’s do this again."

Ha-Eun nodded before both he and Sol got into a fighting stance. A split second of calm followed before the two youths’ made their moved.

Thud!

Thud!

Thud!

Their exchange of blows caused loud thuds to echo out, and seeing the fighting ramping up, the crowd went wild.

Several hand and leg shadows later, Sol was forced to retreat while dodging Ha-Eun’s palm.

’It’s strange, I don’t have any problems reading his movements that are clear as day. But at times his attacks would become hard to predict.’

Sol had only ever fought his father before this, and his fighting style of reading his opponents came from his father.

As for Ha-Eun, he wasn’t catching Sol off guard by predicting his movements. Rather it seemed like his attacks were following a predetermined angle. Sol could even see patterns in his movements.

’Is this a Martial Arts Technique?’

Sol thought to himself as Ha-Eun bore down on him, and they returned to exchanging moves.

Bang!

After only a few exchanges, Sol was knocked back, and once again it was due to Ha-Eun’s strange palm technique.

After a pause, Sol’s eyes suddenly lit up.

’I get it now! This Palm Technique focuses on tricking opponents by creating patterns in one’s attacks. If the opponent reads these patterns and tries to attack accordingly, then the person can switch the attack unexpectedly!’

Sol found this fascinating.

Even though Ha-Eun couldn’t read his movements, he still produced the same results with this Palm Technique.

"So, Martial Arts Techniques can be this amazing?"

Sol felt something rising in his heart and as he continued to exchange blows with Ha-Eun, he forgot about everything else and focused on reading Ha-Eun’s movements.

With each exchange, he was able to memorize Ha-Eun’s Palm Technique little by little.

Unbeknownst to Sol, this was something inconceivable to most people.

A Martial Arts Technique was a set of movements, that has a beginning, a middle, and an end.

To actually copy someone’s Martial Arts during a fight, one would need to analyze their opponent’s movements with frightening accuracy and figure out the first movement of the Martial Arts to its last.

However, not every movement of the opponent is a part of the Martial Arts technique he’s using, and some Martial Arts even go further to specifically create fake movements to make it hard for one to copy the Martial Arts Technique.

So, one would have to deduce each movement and figure out what was real and what was fake.

But something like that was inhuman.

Perhaps only a high-level cultivator whose mind exceeds a normal human’s ability to perceive and analyze things would be able to copy a Martial Arts Technique by just looking at someone fighting.

However, why would a high-level cultivator, who could probably destroy an entire mountain with a palm strike, copy the Martial Arts moves of a child in the Mortal Realm? Though, the same could not be said for Sol. He was greedily taking this Martial Arts Technique he found to be too great to pass up learning!

Though it should be noted that this wasn’t an ordinary Martial Arts Technique.

"Ha-ha! Ha-Eun is using his Wudang Sect’s famous Eight Trigrams Palm Technique!"

"Ha-Eun is a genius, not many disciples of the number one Clan have been qualified to learn this Palm Technique since it’s one of their Core Martial Arts!"

"Yeah, he’s easily forcing Brother Sol back, it’s going to be hard for him to win using ordinary means."

However, one youth suddenly pointed out.

"Even though Brother Sol is being pushed back, don’t you think Brother Ha-Eun is the one at a disadvantage?"

"What? What are you saying?"

"Well, look, it seems as if Brother Ha-Eun has the advantage but has Brother Sol attacked for real? He seems passive."

"Huh? What is this idiot talking about, isn’t it because Brother Ha-Eun is winning that Brother Sol is forced to be passive?"

"Is that how you see it? Well, I think Brother Sol is toying with Brother Ha-Eun."

The crowd went into a heated discussion about the fight, but something suddenly occurred on stage.

Bang!

Ha-Eun retreated due to a palm strike to his chest from Sol.

With disbelief in his eyes, Ha-Eun looked at Sol and said.

"That’s... Was that my Wudang Sect’s Eight Trigrams Palm Technique?"

"Ah, is that what it’s called? It’s very fitting. I thought there were more movements, but as I analyzed I realized it’s just eight moves with different variations that double as the set of moves increased. But I was only able to learn up to the third set with twenty-four moves."

Hearing this Ha-Eun’s eyes widened, and he was completely stumped for words.

"I-It took me several weeks to learn those twenty-four movements, let alone use them in battle."

Ha-Eun finally managed to say.

"Huh? What did Brother Sol just say?"

Someone in the crowd suddenly asked because they thought they had misheard Sol.

"He... He said he learned the Wudang Sect’s Eight Trigrams Palm Technique from watching Brother Ha-Eun."

"What?! That can’t be..."

"Yeah, is that even possible?"

A small part of the crowd that had heard Sol was in an uproar.

"Ah, maybe he just learned a few stances, anyone could do that from just looking."

"No, didn’t you hear Brother Sol? He said he learned up to the twenty-fourth move!"

"He’s just lying. It’s the Eight Trigrams Palm Technique from Wudang Sect! Are you forgetting that they’re one of the Six Holy Sects? And the second strongest Sect at that!"

"Yeah, how can a Martial Arts Technique from a Holy Sect be learned from just looking at someone using it? If that was possible how come I can’t learn it?"

"That’s not the issue here! If Brother Sol really learned the Eight Trigrams technique by watching Brother Ha-Eun, then he technically didn’t ’learn’ it, he outright stole it. Would the Wudang Sect let this go?"

When the disciples heard that, their expressions changed.

Meanwhile, as the news of what Sol had done spread among the crowd, Ha-Eun recovered from his shock, and he happened to catch a glimpse of someone in the stands.

It was Geon-Soo, his expression was grim as he looked at Ha-Eun.

Ha-Eun gritted his teeth when he saw this and he seemed to have made up his mind on something.

"Brother Sol, I concede this match."

Ha-Eun said with a bow.

Sol hearing this was taken aback, but he still bowed and said.

"I-"

However, immediately after he bowed his head, Ha-Eun suddenly exploded forward.

His Innate Dharma, which turns out to be a small illusory blade materialized in his hand; he had already formed hand signs to wield its illusory form.

Without a shred of hesitation, Ha-Eun stabbed out towards Sol’s chest.