Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 261

Chun Tae-hoon couldn’t suppress the twisted expression that had formed on his face.

It was absurd.

Even middle schoolers wouldn’t say something like that these days.

That’s why it was so absurd. In a way, he realized just how much a single, childish statement could freeze a person.

The blood flowing from the man’s body proved that his words were not mere bluster. There were twenty martial artists outside this room. Moreover, they were handpicked from the Yeongnam Assembly [a regional martial arts organization]. Chun Tae-hoon had already confirmed their strength. He had seen with his own eyes how they subdued the five martial artists guarding the Chairman like they were children.

Yet, this man had broken through them and entered this room. The fact that the martial artists, who would never have let him pass unless their lives were at stake, had failed to stop him meant only one thing.

Annihilation.

Not a single one of those twenty martial artists had survived.

‘Where on earth did this guy come from?’

He wasn’t from the General Assembly [a national martial arts organization]. Nor was he likely from the Yeongnam Assembly. The General Assembly knew everything about its members, down to the age of their dogs. If this man belonged to the General Assembly, Chun Tae-hoon would have known him.

But he couldn’t be from the Yeongnam Assembly either. Why would the Yeongnam Assembly send someone to slaughter their own martial artists?

Then?

Who else besides the General Assembly and the Yeongnam Assembly could send a martial artist of this caliber?

“…A returnee?”

The man, Kang Jin-ho, turned his head and calmly looked at Chun Tae-hoon.

“Why, why would a returnee do something like this?”

Chun Tae-hoon clenched his teeth.

He tried to appear calm, but he couldn’t stop his voice from trembling.

Showing fear to his opponent was not ideal in this situation, but his heart was beating too loudly to hide his fear.

Kang Jin-ho, who had been quietly observing Chun Tae-hoon, began to smile broadly.

“How did you know?”

“…It’s obvious.”

“Hmm.”

Kang Jin-ho, looking at Chun Tae-hoon with interest, nodded.

“We can talk about that later. More importantly…”

Kang Jin-ho gently rubbed his eyes.

Obscuring his vision.

To cover one’s eyes in front of an opponent, especially a martial artist who could close this distance in the blink of an eye, was tantamount to completely disregarding them.

But Chun Tae-hoon couldn’t move.

He knew in his mind that this might be the last moment he could resist, but his body was as if it were rooted to the ground, unable to move even a little.

The premonition that his neck would be severed and his body torn into dozens of pieces the moment he moved kept him from acting.

“You seem a bit agitated.”

Kang Jin-ho turned his head and spoke to one of the men surrounding Lee Joong-gul.

“A chair.”

When the man didn’t seem to understand, Kang Jin-ho repeated himself.

“A chair.”

Only then did the man understand what Kang Jin-ho was saying, and he looked at Kang Jin-ho with a humiliated expression.

But…

Chun Tae-hoon wanted to laugh as he watched his colleague, head slightly bowed, go to get a chair.

This was a comedy.

The genre, which had been a thriller just moments ago, was suddenly shifting to comedy. They, who had been raised as secret weapons to take control of the General Assembly, were now obediently acting as chair-shuttles at the words of a young man who had suddenly appeared.

Chun Tae-hoon was dumbfounded and bewildered by this situation, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop his colleague’s actions. It wouldn’t be wise to provoke that man right now. His instincts and reason were speaking at the same time.

Shut your mouth. Hold your breath.

Never, ever try to go against the whims of that tyrant before you.

Bang Jin-hoon, who could be called his mentor, was a terrifying man. It was said that the head of the Yeongnam Assembly was an incredibly fearsome figure, but in Chun Tae-hoon’s opinion, Bang Jin-hoon was just as formidable, if not more so, despite his lack of recognition.

However, even Chun Tae-hoon, who prided himself on having experienced Bang Jin-hoon the most, couldn’t help but be terrified by the aura emanating from the man before him.

It was different.

If Bang Jin-hoon still instilled fear in people as a human, the man before him was like a wild beast.

He was unreasonable, irrational. The ominous feeling that he might tear open a person’s stomach and pull out their intestines just because he was in a bad mood.

The man before him possessed that.

The man who had brought the chair carefully placed it down, and Kang Jin-ho, after shaking off the blood dripping from his hair, planted his sword on the floor and sat down on the chair.

“Haa…”

Kang Jin-ho sighed softly and reached into his pocket, pulling out a cigarette and putting it in his mouth. He tried to light it with a lighter several times, but the lighter was too wet with blood to work.

“Lighter.”

Kang Jin-ho threw the blood-soaked lighter to the floor and held out his hand.

Chun Tae-hoon, as if in a trance, took out the lighter from his pocket and tossed it to Kang Jin-ho.

Click.

Kang Jin-ho, having received the lighter, lit the cigarette and then tossed it back to Chun Tae-hoon.

As Chun Tae-hoon received the cigarette with a questioning look, Kang Jin-ho spoke softly.

“Put it in his mouth.”

At that moment, Chun Tae-hoon realized something anew.

He was of no consequence to Kang Jin-ho. He was someone whose life could be taken at any time, someone who could be subdued at any moment.

Just as a lion wouldn’t pay much attention to a puppy that had wandered into its cage, they were practically non-existent in Kang Jin-ho’s eyes, even though they were in the same small space.

Humiliation surged, but that feeling was quickly suppressed by fear.

Without a word, Chun Tae-hoon placed the cigarette in Lee Joong-gul’s mouth.

Lee Joong-gul, who was just as bewildered, also bit down on the cigarette with a complicated expression.

Click.

Kang Jin-ho, having lit the cigarette in his own mouth, slowly inhaled and then exhaled the smoke.

“…Come to think of it, there were times when I desperately needed this. When the smell of blood wouldn’t leave my body, I really needed a cigarette.”

Kang Jin-ho chuckled softly.

Chun Tae-hoon couldn’t figure out how the situation was unfolding.

Why was that man so relaxed in this situation?

And why was he trembling in this situation, unable to do anything?

He was afraid. That was the truth.

He was so afraid of the man before him that he couldn’t help it.

What Chun Tae-hoon couldn’t understand was not the fear itself, but why he was feeling fear from that young man right now.

Was it because he was covered in blood?

Or was it because he was a murderer who had killed twenty martial artists outside?

That couldn’t be it.

He, too, had been through all sorts of hell. He was too worn out to feel fear for such reasons.

The number of people he had killed himself was far more than twenty. Chun Tae-hoon was not someone who would feel fear simply because he was facing a murderer.

Then why?

Why did his heart feel so constricted?

Whether he knew Chun Tae-hoon’s feelings or not, Kang Jin-ho calmly took a few puffs of his cigarette and then slowly opened his mouth.

“Your granddaughter asked me to save you.”

The moment the word ‘granddaughter’ came out, Lee Joong-gul’s eyes shook.

As if he had seen a ray of light in the pitch-black darkness, the light began to return to Lee Joong-gul’s eyes.

“Hye, Hyun-joo, you mean?”

“Yes.”

Kang Jin-ho calmly inhaled his cigarette and slowly exhaled the smoke.

“So, I came to ask. If I save you, what are you going to do for me?”

Lee Joong-gul, Chun Tae-hoon… everyone else in the room looked at Kang Jin-ho with trembling eyes.

‘He’s going to negotiate now?’

After killing twenty people, he was going to negotiate?

Then, was the reason he killed people to get here to negotiate?

‘A madman.’

He forcefully suppressed the words that were about to come out of his mouth.

That man was a madman. No one in their right mind could do something like that. It seemed that everyone, not just Chun Tae-hoon, was thinking the same thing. Even Lee Joong-gul, the one who was supposed to be negotiating, couldn’t open his mouth, as if he was thinking the same thing.

“I’m a busy man.”

“I, I…”

Lee Joong-gul, unable to withstand Kang Jin-ho’s gaze, let out a rough groan and spoke.

“Wha, what do you want! Tell me! If it’s something I can do, I’ll do anything!”

Kang Jin-ho’s eyes narrowed.

“It seems you didn’t understand what I said.”

Lee Joong-gul’s eyes were filled with confusion.

“I don’t particularly want anything from you.”

Lee Joong-gul’s eyes wavered.

Then what was he supposed to say?

Kang Jin-ho immediately resolved Lee Joong-gul’s question. In the worst way possible.

“So, tell me. Find a way to sway my heart. I don’t want anything from you, so if nothing changes, I’ll just go back. So, before my mind changes, you’d better find a reason why I should move for you.”

Lee Joong-gul sensed it.

That wasn’t a joke, nor was he teasing Lee Joong-gul.

The man was really thinking that way.

‘Then why did he come here?’

Lee Joong-gul couldn’t understand the man’s way of thinking, but he knew that this was not the time to dwell on such things. This was not the time to reason, but the time to save his life. He was certain that if that man stepped in, he could subdue everyone here and turn the situation around.

“I…”

Just as Lee Joong-gul was about to open his mouth,

someone else moved first.

“This, this bastard is playing games.”

Chun Tae-hoon’s eyes widened.

His colleague, Park Chun-yong, stepped forward as if he couldn’t stand it any longer and pointed his finger at Kang Jin-ho.

“Do you know where you are…”

But Park Chun-yong couldn’t finish his sentence.

It was only natural.

A person whose head has been cut off cannot speak.

‘Wh, when?’

Chun Tae-hoon’s body began to tremble like an aspen tree. Just a moment ago, the sword that had been stuck in the floor was in Kang Jin-ho’s hand, and the next moment, a red line began to appear on Park Chun-yong’s neck.

“…Huh?”

Park Chun-yong also began to touch his neck with bewildered eyes.

The red line, which had initially been as thin as a thread, gradually became thicker. Park Chun-yong knew very well what that red line meant.

Crack.

With the sound of something wet tearing apart, Park Chun-yong’s head fell off his body like a scene from a movie and rolled onto the floor. At the same time, his body collapsed, and blood began to spray onto the floor.

Swoosh.

The stream of blood gushing from his neck made this space even more surreal.

Kang Jin-ho didn’t even glance at Park Chun-yong’s corpse, which was lying on the floor and spraying blood, and calmly opened his mouth.

“Didn’t I say, I’m a bit agitated right now?”

His voice was chilling the air in the room even further.