Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 269

People don’t truly know.

What the word ‘wildness’ truly means.

Those who understand the word merely as a concept only realize its true meaning when they face it firsthand. Only then do they grasp the true weight of the word they’ve been using so casually.

That was how Bang Jin-hoon felt.

He was now experiencing the true meaning of the word he had been using so carelessly.

Have you ever considered it?

People who have actually seen a tiger are awestruck by its sheer size.

Only when the tiger, which they had vaguely imagined as ‘big,’ rears up and towers over them, do they truly comprehend its enormity. And when that tiger bares its teeth right in front of them, they truly understand.

The difference in power.

Why people in the past called tigers ‘mountain gods’ and worshipped them.

Not as a creature that trembles at the arrow of a passing scholar, but as a beast of pure wildness, they realize how terrifying and dreadful a tiger truly is.

Only when their face is grazed by a playful swipe of its paw, and their carotid artery is severed by a casual bite, do humans truly understand.

The power of a tiger, and the terror it inspires, cannot be fully conveyed in human language.

That was how Bang Jin-hoon felt right now.

He had heard enough about Kang Jin-ho from Cheon Tae-hoon. Just by witnessing Cheon Tae-hoon’s stunned reaction, he thought he had a grasp of how terrifying and powerful his opponent was. But after seeing Kang Jin-ho reveal his true nature, Bang Jin-hoon realized.

How arrogant his assumptions had been.

‘Did you say prove it?’

Kang Jin-ho was smiling.

As if Bang Jin-hoon’s words were so absurd that he couldn’t help but laugh.

The meaning of the smile on his lips was a clear mockery.

‘It’s been a while since I’ve heard that.’

Kang Jin-ho turned slightly and moved to the side of the table.

There was a time in the past when he had heard those words. A time when he had to constantly prove himself.

When he was separated from his master and became alone, the world felt like his enemy. After constantly proving himself to them, now the Demonic Cult [a fictional martial arts sect] was telling him to prove himself.

Kang Jin-ho gave them what they wanted. And after a certain point, no one asked him to prove anything anymore.

‘What do you think happened to those who said those words to me?’

Bang Jin-hoon couldn’t answer.

Those who had said those words to Kang Jin-ho were likely not from this era. If Kang Jin-ho, who had no qualms about killing people even now, was like that in that era, what would he have been like?

It was something he could know without even thinking about it.

Bang Jin-hoon stood up from his seat.

It wasn’t clear if it was a conscious action. What was certain was that as soon as Kang Jin-ho approached him, he was already standing.

It was strange, but also natural.

At what moment, when you sense a beast approaching, what is the most appropriate thing to do?

You stand up and prepare to flee. Even if you can’t escape, it’s far easier to react than when you’re sitting down.

But his reaction was futile.

Crack.

It was a strange sound.

Usually, when such a sound is heard, people would try to locate its source. But Bang Jin-hoon didn’t need to look.

The sound was too close to his ear.

The sound of bones grinding was coming from his neck, which Kang Jin-ho had seized.

For a moment, he thought his neck had been broken. He wanted to raise his hand and touch his neck immediately, but he couldn’t.

Kang Jin-ho’s eyes, staring directly at him, made him unable to move even a finger.

‘Prove it?’

How should he prove it?

Kang Jin-ho was asking with his eyes.

At that moment, Bang Jin-hoon realized. The only way to demonstrate how strong and cruel he was in this place was through Bang Jin-hoon himself.

And as soon as he realized that, Bang Jin-hoon began to regret what he had said. It was like offering his neck to a lion and telling it to break his neck with its teeth.

And the price was severe.

Thinking that his neck would reflexively break if he remained still, Bang Jin-hoon’s right fist shot out like a ray of light towards Kang Jin-ho’s face.

A fist born from a martial artist’s instinct and a sense of desperation.

Thud.

Whether that choice was right or wrong, the outcome was clear. The fist that flew towards Kang Jin-ho’s face was caught by Kang Jin-ho’s hand.

‘Should I commend you?’

Kang Jin-ho was smiling.

‘Being able to throw a punch in this situation means you’re a martial artist. A martial artist whose body reacts before his mind does. I don’t favor those kinds of people.’

There was a hint of approval in Kang Jin-ho’s voice.

‘But that’s a separate matter.’

Crack!

Bang Jin-hoon’s right fist, trapped in Kang Jin-ho’s hand, was crushed.

Bang Jin-hoon’s eyes were bloodshot. The pain of his fist bones shattering and twisting out of place while he was still conscious… It was enough to make Bang Jin-hoon’s body, which had been conditioned through countless trials, tremble like a patient for a moment.

His tightly clenched teeth were on the verge of breaking.

But Bang Jin-hoon didn’t scream. He just glared at Kang Jin-ho, his face turning monstrously red from burst blood vessels.

‘You have guts.’

Kang Jin-ho smiled, as if satisfied.

The ones he had encountered so far were all weak. They would burst into tears and beg for their lives at the slightest touch.

Of course, that was the reaction he expected, but a victory that was too easily achieved was not satisfying.

‘But that’s all.’

Snap.

The sound was as faint as a reed breaking.

Bang Jin-hoon’s head turned slowly. His wrist, broken and dangling, came into view.

The sight of his right hand, which had been his most reliable weapon for decades, crushed, broken, and dangling, was a profound shock to Bang Jin-hoon.

He was speechless.

And Bang Jin-hoon knew what he had to say.

‘Ah, I understand.’

‘Huh?’

‘I understand enough how strong you are. You’ve already proven it to me. So, please stop this.’

‘Stop it?’

Kang Jin-ho interrupted Bang Jin-hoon, sneering.

‘Y-yes, please.’

He was laughing.

Kang Jin-ho was mocking him. The moment he faced that laughter, Bang Jin-hoon felt his heart sink.

‘You seem to be mistaken…’

Kang Jin-ho’s hand was tightening around Bang Jin-hoon’s neck. Feeling his breathing becoming increasingly difficult, Bang Jin-hoon’s eyes widened.

‘I haven’t shown you everything yet.’

Kang Jin-ho’s right hand touched Bang Jin-hoon’s solar plexus. Bang Jin-hoon’s body began to tremble like an aspen leaf.

He couldn’t comprehend what this man was trying to do.

No, he could understand.

That’s why he was even more terrified.

Crack, crack.

Bang Jin-hoon’s face began to turn blue.

In the midst of all that, he could understand one thing.

What kind of sound is made when a human hand pierces human flesh. What it feels like to have your stomach pierced alive, and what kind of pain it is.

‘Kuh-huh-huh…’

Bang Jin-hoon, the martial artist, was collapsing.

This man was a demon.

He could understand why Cheon Tae-hoon had collapsed so completely.

He thought it was because he was too strong. He thought it was because his power was terrifying.

But it wasn’t.

Now Bang Jin-hoon could understand why he felt such fear from Kang Jin-ho. Kang Jin-ho was a person without limits.

When humans interact with other humans, they usually set boundaries on what others can do to them.

If people thought that a stranger they met on the street might stab them with a knife, they wouldn’t be able to walk the streets with peace of mind. When humans interact with other humans, they make an unspoken agreement that ‘this person won’t do more than a certain amount to me.’

But Kang Jin-ho didn’t adhere to that.

Kang Jin-ho was someone who existed outside that agreement.

Kang Jin-ho could do anything to him. He could cut off his head without any hesitation, break his hands and play with them without a second thought. And now, he was piercing his solar plexus with his hand.

What would it feel like to feel someone’s hand touching your insides while your eyes are open?

And doing it playfully.

Bang Jin-hoon’s mouth hung open.

It was a miracle that he wasn’t going insane right now. His martial arts, which he had honed over decades of training and believed to be unmatched in the Korean peninsula, were useless at this moment.

He was nothing more than a piece of meat on a cutting board.

Unfortunately, Kang Jin-ho was not a skilled chef who handled meat delicately. He was a novice butcher who was just crushing and tearing the meat as he pleased.

‘Ugh… Aaaah!’

The moment Kang Jin-ho’s hand, which had pierced his stomach, was dragged down, Bang Jin-hoon couldn’t help but scream.

A scream from his soul, not his body. A cry that barely burst out, crushed by fear and pressure.

Right after that.

‘Huh?’

Bang Jin-hoon’s eyes widened.

A large hand was in front of his eyes. A hand that looked delicate, almost like a woman’s hand.

The owner of that hand was obvious.

‘Kang Jin-ho?’

Kang Jin-ho’s hand was in front of his face.

It was strange.

The hand of Kang Jin-ho that he could see was clearly his right hand. Kang Jin-ho’s right hand should be inside his stomach right now. But why was that hand in front of his face, without a single drop of blood on it?

Unable to overcome his confusion, Bang Jin-hoon touched his stomach.

It was gone.

He couldn’t feel the hole that should have been there. At the same time, Bang Jin-hoon realized that his right hand was also fine.

‘What is this?’

Then what was it that he had just experienced?

What he had just experienced was not a dream. The pain he felt from his broken hand and pierced stomach was so vivid that it still throbbed.

But…

‘Did you understand?’

Before he could understand everything, Kang Jin-ho asked in a low voice.

What Bang Jin-hoon had to do was obvious. He moved his head violently instead of his jaw, which couldn’t move.

Nodding, and nodding again.

Kang Jin-ho opened his mouth slowly, watching Bang Jin-hoon nodding like a madman.

‘Prepare. I will call you again. Then you will take over the General Assembly and fight the Yeongnam Association [a regional martial arts group]. Do you understand me?’

‘…I understand.’

A voice that didn’t sound like his own was coming out of his throat. His voice, drained and hoarse, struggled to even utter those words.

‘Good. Then…’

Kang Jin-ho smiled lightly.

‘Take care of me for a while.’

It was the moment when the devil took Bang Jin-hoon into his grasp.