Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 452

Kang Jin-ho frowned, observing the crowd filling the training grounds.

‘…Weren’t we supposed to start training today?’

‘Yes. That’s what you said.’

‘But these people don’t look like they’re ready to start training today?’

‘Haha, it’s just a light warm-up.’

‘A warm-up, huh…’

Kang Jin-ho gave him a strange look, but Bang Jin-hoon avoided his gaze, instead looking towards the distant mountains.

‘What did you do?’

‘We climbed a mountain.’

‘A mountain?’

Bang Jin-hoon pointed to a peak in the distance.

‘The weather was nice, and the scenery looked good, so we went to take a look.’

Kang Jin-ho shook his head.

If you said you were going to train, climbing a mountain was practically a tradition in the Korean sports world, and it seemed that habit had carried over here. [Mountain climbing is a common form of physical training in Korean sports.]

‘They seem a little too exhausted for that, don’t they?’

‘I made them run without using their internal energy.’

‘Without internal energy?’

‘Yes.’

Bang Jin-hoon grinned.

‘If you train with internal energy, you can’t do pure physical training. I think physical strength is the most important thing.’

Kang Jin-ho looked at Bang Jin-hoon, dumbfounded.

‘You just did physical training without internal energy?’

‘Yes. Is there something wrong with that?’

‘No, it’s not that it’s wrong, it’s just that I don’t understand.’

‘Understand?’

Kang Jin-ho asked, looking genuinely confused.

‘The people they’re going to be fighting are martial artists, right?’

‘Well, yes.’

‘What can they do against martial artists with only physical strength and no internal energy?’

‘…’

Bang Jin-hoon was momentarily speechless.

There was no way to fight a martial artist without internal energy. Unless they used guns.

‘Ah, no, that’s not it….’

Before Kang Jin-ho could finish speaking, Bang Jin-hoon desperately tried to explain, noticing that the trainees’ eyes were changing in an unusual way.

‘W-well… internal energy is important when fighting, but we’re not fighting right now, we’re training! You need physical strength when training. You need physical strength to maintain concentration!’

Kang Jin-ho tilted his head.

‘Well, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone not being able to train or losing a fight because they were tired when they had internal energy….’

‘…’

‘Well, everyone has their own style of training. I respect Bang’s way, but it doesn’t seem to fit my style.’

Bang Jin-hoon smiled awkwardly and turned his head slightly to look at the trainees.

‘Ah, it’s hot.’

They looked like they were about to burn him with their eyes.

Why wouldn’t they? If Kang Jin-ho was right, it meant they had wasted their time doing useless training.

They could tolerate wasting time, but now they had to train with Kang Jin-ho, and they had already used up their energy…

Seeing the feast of murderous glares, Bang Jin-hoon cleared his throat.

‘Still, I’m the head of the association, they’re glaring at me too much.’

But he couldn’t scold them for their glares. He didn’t consider himself an enlightened leader, but he at least thought that if he was going to get angry, he should do it logically.

Besides, he had done something wrong, so what could he say? Bang Jin-hoon quickly changed the subject.

‘So, you’re going to train them, right?’

‘Hmm….’

Kang Jin-ho looked around at the people as if he was thinking, then nodded.

‘I said I would, so I have to.’

‘Yes. I’ll get ready right away.’

‘Wait a minute.’

‘Yes?’

‘First, have these people take a shower and gather them in the auditorium.’

‘Yes?’

‘In the auditorium.’

‘…Okay.’

It was an incomprehensible request, but since he had delegated full authority, it was strange to argue.

‘Did you hear that? Everyone shower and change within 30 minutes and gather in the auditorium.’

‘…’

There was no proper response. But Bang Jin-hoon thought they had all understood, and he moved closer to Kang Jin-ho.

‘Then, let’s have a cup of coffee in the meantime.’

‘Yes, let’s do that.’

Bang Jin-hoon chuckled and went inside the building with Kang Jin-ho, and Lee Myung-hwan muttered quietly.

‘It’s not that authoritarianism has been broken down… it’s just that there’s no authority, isn’t it?’

Everyone nodded silently.

Lee Myung-hwan, who had showered and changed into his training clothes, shook his head as he entered the auditorium.

‘Hoo.’

He felt a little better after taking a shower.

‘This is one good thing.’

In the past, during Lee Joong-gul’s reign, the association had a tendency to force people to wear black uniforms. To train, you had to wear a black uniform, and even for official events, you had to wear a black uniform.

They gave reasons like it was a Korean tradition, but there was no way he could remember those ridiculous reasons.

But Bang Jin-hoon had taken a practical approach. The uncomfortable and non-sweat-absorbent uniforms were replaced with training clothes. And they were allowed to wear whatever they wanted without any uniform design.

It wasn’t like they were given money to buy training clothes, but it was still good to get rid of those drab uniforms.

‘He’s a really good association head in that respect.’

Except for the occasional times when his pride got in the way and he did ridiculous things, he could really acknowledge him. After Bang Jin-hoon became the head of the association, he realized that the concept of welfare could be introduced into the association.

Lee Myung-hwan shook his head to get rid of the water and scanned the inside. The members, who had showered and changed into various training clothes, were sitting in their seats. Soon, the auditorium would be so full that it would burst.

Bang!

At that moment, Kang Jin-ho opened the front door and entered.

Those who were sitting stood up without being told to do so.

‘They’re really amazing when you see this.’

Lee Myung-hwan let out a low breath.

Martial artists all had a lot of pride.

Even those who had nothing had pride that was second to none.

He didn’t know if it was because of the nature of the martial artist profession, or if it was because they only gathered and trained those kinds of people.

In the past, Lee Joong-gul’s biggest headache was resolving the conflict between the older veterans and the new recruits. The young martial artists who were rising up didn’t know what respect was, and the veteran martial artists who had already established themselves didn’t know how to look kindly on their rude juniors.

They had to create and implement a policy to restrain the conflict between seniors and juniors because the young martial artists didn’t know how to respect their seniors. And the core of those young martial artists were all gathered here. That meant they were stronger than average, and more rude than average.

The fact that they were all standing up to greet Kang Jin-ho without any specific orders was a clear indication of how much status Kang Jin-ho had in the current association.

‘It’s a little better.’

Kang Jin-ho nodded.

‘I don’t know how I put up with that before.’

The concept of hygiene in the Central Plains [a region in ancient China] was incomparable to the concept of hygiene in modern times. Kang Jin-ho, who had the concept of a modern person, couldn’t stand the dirtiness of many of them.

‘I’ve adapted, I guess.’

Looking back, he had also spent two or three years in a cave without washing, and he had also spent a month or two in the mountains without even touching water.

At the time, he didn’t think it was strange, but now that he looked back, it was a chilling experience.

And he had done it with the Ma Yeom, who were always emitting a passive smell of sweat.

‘Thinking about it, it’s really crazy.’

‘Yes?’

‘Ah, no.’

Kang Jin-ho shook his head.

Looking back, he thought he had done a lot of things that didn’t make sense. Not only did he make them wear baggy martial arts uniforms that had no activity, but he also made them wear black cloaks and black bamboo hats.

‘It’s like telling them not to fight.’

Since they were martial artists, they could endure some discomfort, but looking back, he thought that if he had given them the best equipment without worrying about the appearance, their efficiency would have been much higher.

‘Dignity doesn’t come from power alone. Appearance is also important. The ceremonial attire will give wings to the leader’s dignity.’

‘Wings my ass.’

It was a reminder that Cheongma was an old man after all.

If he tried to make them look good by making them wear those clothes now, Jo Gyu-min would come after him with a whip.

Kang Jin-ho shook his head to get rid of his old thoughts and opened his mouth as he watched the people coming in.

‘Let’s start quickly without wasting time.’

‘Yes?’

‘Come one by one from the back. Come when I call you. One at a time.’

One at a time?

‘Is this a private lesson?’

There were hundreds of people here, what was he going to do one by one?

‘Ah, you there.’

‘Yes?’

Kang Jin-ho pointed at Lee Myung-hwan, who was startled and answered. He had seen him a few times, so he was familiar with his face, and now Kang Jin-ho was starting to pick on Lee Myung-hwan.

It was hard enough to deal with Bang Jin-hoon, but now even Kang Jin-ho….

‘No, if you think about it, it’s a great deal.’

Bang Jin-hoon was the type to only make him do annoying things, but Kang Jin-ho wasn’t that kind of person. Rather, if he thought someone was his person, he would try to give them more.

‘Yes! Please tell me!’

The thought of getting closer to Kang Jin-ho made his answer more forceful.

‘Please organize the order.’

‘Yes?’

‘It seems like it will take about 5 minutes per person, so it will take a long time to do everyone here, right?’

‘Y-yes, that’s right.’

Five minutes per person, even if there were only a hundred people, would be five hundred minutes. That would take more than eight hours. But there were more than a hundred people here.

‘It’s a waste of time to just wait, so please organize the order, and tell the people who have to wait a long time to go home and rest. But make sure they don’t miss their turn.’

‘Go home?’

‘Isn’t it better than being here? If there are people who want to stay, they can stay.’

‘Ah… yes.’

‘Yes. Then, I’ll leave it to you.’

Kang Jin-ho bowed his head and tried to go outside. Lee Myung-hwan’s eyes shook. Lee Myung-hwan, who had secretly lowered his hand that was reaching out to Kang Jin-ho’s back, shouted without realizing it.

‘I….’

‘Yes?’

When Kang Jin-ho turned around with a questioning look, Lee Myung-hwan bit his lip.

He knew it was better not to say anything. There was no need to make things uncomfortable with Kang Jin-ho by bringing it up. But his rebellious nature eventually made him say it.

One question that he couldn’t hold back until the end slowly came out of his mouth.

‘…Then why did you tell everyone to shower?’

Kang Jin-ho’s eyes shook.

‘…’

‘…’

A cold silence flowed, and Kang Jin-ho let out an awkward laugh.

‘Then… I’ll leave it to you.’

Kang Jin-ho hurriedly left, and Lee Myung-hwan looked at him with a bewildered expression.

‘That guy, isn’t he not much different from Bang?’

Lee Myung-hwan was wondering if it was really a good choice to learn from that guy for the first time.