The homeowner arrives and it goes without saying, the property belongs to none other than Son Gohan, grandpa of Son Goku.
Old Gohan is surprised to see a guest at his place; not many people visit this part of the wilderness after all... But then, upon paying closer attention to this supposed visitor.
he instantly notices something wrong. "Crane Hermit!!"
Alarmed, he immediately drops the firewood he was carrying on his back.
"Why would a distinguished rival of my master like you pay a visit to a junior like me?" he asks while stretching his chest muscles. "Do you want a fight?" Gohan isn't yet the hunched-back old fogey that he will be in the future. At this time, he has a steroid physique, not unlike Master Roshi in his buffed-up form.
"Although I didn't come here for that, a fight is inevitable, I suppose. However, keep in mind that later on, after it's done, we must have a civil discussion regarding something," Shen calmly answers while cracking a fair few knuckles himself.
Gohan smirks, suspicious of Shen's words. He believes all the talk to be nothing but a trick to deceive him. "So should I go easy on you?"
"No, of course not. I meant to soothe you of any worry. As people call me the great merciful sage, you won't be kicking the bucket today."
Shen acts in line with his haughty attitude, but be that as it may, he internally wonders about Gohan's extreme attitude.
Shen's remarks, other than the obvious sarcasm, make Gohan feel something off with the present situation. 'Did Crane Hermit really not come here, believing now to be the perfect chance to finish me off?' Perhaps he has misjudged the man.
He is conflicted if it's actually possible for people to change their innermost tendencies.
"Then I am grateful for your generosity, Master Shen." Gohan decides to indulge in this hope for once. Joining his hands together, he bows his head, yearning to resolve the long conflict.
Age, along with its myriad of ups and downs, has made Son Gohan tired of fighting for old enmity.
Shen's eyes exhibit a novel glint. "Heh! I thought you had forgotten all your manners. Then come at me. As your elder, I will let you have the first strike!"
'If this truly does not turn out to be yet another evil ploy from the Crane Hermit, this could actually be a good fight' Gohan muses in his heart, with clear excitement on his face.
"Then if you don't mind, I will do just that."
Son Gohan sprints from his place, rapidly speeding toward his target. In a split second, he is already launching a kick. It's a round kick from the right.
Shen isn't a slouch either. He blocks the kick with his elbow and, subsequently stepping forward, he answers the kick with a punch of his own.
Yet, the punch doesn't land. Gohan avoids it with a backflip. Even in old age, he hasn't lost his flair.
But Shen is also relentless. "Tch! Then let's see you respond to this!!" He pursues his opponent.
Right when Gohan lands from his backflip, a knee comes flying toward his face. The surprise has Son Gohan's heart bulging out of his chest.
He somehow manages to cover his face with his arms, but that leaves other parts of his body wide open. Of course, Shen wasn't letting this chance go. His fist successfully lands on his opponent's unprotected abdomen.
Gohan spews a mouthful of blood.
"You have become rusty," Shen remarks at the poor old guy.
He follows up the attack with a continuous barrage of kicks and punches.
However, by now Gohan has already recovered from the earlier punch.
He skillfully dodges most of the strikes, with only a small number of them landing on him.
At the same time, he doesn't just avoid the attacks, he also retaliates in the same fashion with his own punches and kicks.
To an untrained eye, this may look like a regular brawl, but it is far from it in actuality.
Both of them are precisely hitting each other's acupuncture points. It's the oldest trick in the book, but it is effective. Every attack that lands makes both of them suffer through a world of pain.
The fight has yet to become one-sided, as both of them return each strike thrown at them, retaliating against their opponent in the same manner.
'This is going nowhere.' Bored with the dull, changeless battle, Gohan decides to take the battle up a notch.
Abruptly, the pace of the battle shifts. "Zanzoken!" shouting so, he seemingly multiplies into ten people, each one his exact mirror image and all surrounding his opponent, Master Shen.
"Ooh, finally, this is getting interesting," Shen remarks. Any inexperienced fighter would be mystified and shaken by the sudden increase in opponents, but naturally, no such thing is happening here.
He isn't called the Crane Hermit for nothing. In his 300 years of life, Shen has seen it all, and this high-speed afterimage technique is no different.
Even if it was a little difficult even for him to follow his opponent's movements, he didn't need to do that. Why do the hard thing when you have an easy solution?
"Solar Flare," he shouts with his fingers around his eyes. Not even a millisecond passes as pure white light envelops his surroundings.
So unimaginably bright is the light that anyone in its vicinity would temporarily be rendered blind. This applies to anyone with eyes; even godlike beings are no exception.
Shen didn't just train his body during his training. He had also created the Solar Flare technique. It's a very useful technique that was supposed to be developed by Tien Shinhan, but now he has beaten his disciple to it.
"Without a sliver of doubt, it's a technique able to stand the test of time," he remarks as he observes his squealing and screaming opponent, whose eyes are shut, blinded by the intense flash that had caught him off guard.
"This is the end, Dodon-paaa." Son Gohan's ears ring with the dreaded voice of his opponent, not even able to properly make out what was said when suddenly, out of nowhere, the poor guy gets hit by the laser-like Dodon Ray.
For a few seconds, all seems to be lost for Gohan, but unexpectedly, as his vision returns, so does his vigor. Gradually, he stands up, albeit with a great deal of difficulty.
There's a burn wound on his chest, from which blood is trickling out. "Thankfully, it's just a flesh wound," Gohan mutters as he slowly but surely reels from the attack.
Shen waits for Gohan to recover, as he still had one last thing to test.
Finally, after a whole minute, Gohan recovers enough to continue the battle, his firm gaze fixed on his opponent, who nearly took his life.
Unbeknownst to him, Shen was planning to discontinue the attack if it became life-threatening, but who would have thought Gohan was able to shield and reinforce his body with Ki.
So in the end, out of curiosity, he ended up firing a continuous barrage of Dodon Rays, coming to his senses only after 15 whole seconds had already gone by.
For him, such sadistic behavior would have been something unprecedented in his previous life. The inherited nature of the previous Master Shen had come so naturally that he himself doesn't even seem to realize it yet.
Now Shen looks at his exhausted opponent and amusingly asks, "So, can you keep going?"
"Phew, I still have one last thing up my sleeve. Haaa! Haaa!" Gohan responds, making Shen confused as to whether the last two sounds that come from his mouth, were laughter or just him breathing heavily.
Either way, they have now decided on the final showdown, and it goes without saying the ending is gonna be a showdown of their exceptional ki.
"Ka Me Ha Me Haaa!!"
"Doo Don Paaa!!!"
Two waves of ki confront in a spectacular display of might... the dormant winds become vigorous, creating strong whirlwinds; sweeping the soil and raising dust clouds.
The conclusion comes with Gohan drained dry of all his energy to continue but still his life remains intact.
The aftermath of the clash; leaves the ground, directly below the point of contact with a desolate, charred crater.