Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 819

‘This isn’t good…’

Kang Jin-ho’s eyes caught the sight of people rushing towards the entrance, tangled together like a mess. He frowned involuntarily at the scene.

‘They’re going to get hurt.’

The excitement had gone too far.

Consumed by the thought of death, they were charging towards the exit, completely losing their minds. In the process, they were falling, getting tangled, and being trampled.

But it was inevitable.

Step by step, safely?

Calmly, in an orderly fashion?

That’s what you say before things go wrong. When you don’t know what’s going to happen to you in the next second, who would think about order?

Caring about others only matters when you have the luxury to do so. When a knife is at your throat, no one thinks about the well-being of others.

Just like what’s happening now.

It was utter chaos.

The water had risen to their knees. People who had been filling the massive main hall were now rushing towards the narrow entrance, barely wide enough for four people to stand side by side.

They were pulling, pushing, and kicking.

Some were even trying to climb over the heads of the crowd.

Those who lost their balance fell, but no one tried to help them up or avoid them. Instead, they trampled over those on the ground, pushing forward.

If they weren’t careful, they would die.

‘This isn’t going to work.’

Kang Jin-ho frowned.

It was true that the situation was urgent, but at this rate, more people would die from being trampled than from being swept away by the water.

But it was impossible to control them. If he could move, maybe, but Kang Jin-ho couldn’t leave this place. The moment he let go and stepped back, not a single person there would survive.

The water would burst out, fill the passage, and sweep them away.

Like leaves being swept away by a downpour, their bodies would be washed away.

‘Focus.’

Kang Jin-ho turned his head away.

That wasn’t his area. His job was to hold back the water for even one more second.

And that wasn’t easy either.

The force of the water gushing out was comparable to a blow from a master [a highly skilled martial artist]. The problem was that he had to endure that blow continuously. It was on a different level than a single burst of impact.

Moreover.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

‘The footing is terrible…’

He couldn’t step back, but the floor kept collapsing. The floor was giving way before his body could. No matter how strong Kang Jin-ho was, it was hard to exert his power without a place to stand.

He might have to cling to the tank to hold back the water. He could do it, but it would take several times more effort than standing on the floor.

‘How long can I hold out?’

Kang Jin-ho calculated coldly.

Considering his abilities, he could probably hold out for quite a while, but in reality, he couldn’t last that long. That was because he had to constantly circulate his inner energy [qi or life force].

When masters fought, they could fight all day long. But that didn’t mean they were circulating their inner energy the entire time.

They focused their power on each strike. If they were exchanging blows for ten seconds, the moment they strongly exerted their inner energy would be less than a second.

The more skilled they were at controlling their inner energy, the shorter that time became.

When masters engaged in a direct clash of inner energy, a long battle could end in an instant. That was the principle.

But right now, Kang Jin-ho was constantly releasing his inner energy without a moment’s break. Otherwise, even his well-trained body couldn’t withstand the pressure.

It felt like his chest and stomach were being hit by a giant hammer non-stop. His jaw was trembling. His shirt had long since been torn to shreds.

Kang Jin-ho’s solid upper body was quickly turning red.

‘This is no joke.’

He thought it wouldn’t be a big deal. He thought he could stop it if he tried. But the force of the water was far beyond his imagination.

A sense of crisis washed over him.

What if this water spread out like this?

It would engulf the aquarium in an instant. If the pressure was concentrated, even the pillars would be blown away. If he wasn’t careful, the building could collapse in a chain reaction.

Considering how buildings were destroyed by the incoming tidal wave, it was entirely possible.

Then what about the children?

Kang Jin-ho narrowed his eyes.

‘I should have told them to go further away.’

At this point, he realized that just getting out of the building wasn’t enough. If the building collapsed, they could get hurt by the aftereffects.

He felt a little regretful, but Kang Jin-ho quickly pushed the thought of the children out of his mind.

It was already done. Jo Gyu-min would take care of it. So, Kang Jin-ho just needed to buy time for the children and the people in the aquarium to escape.

It wouldn’t be easy, though.

‘I have to do what I can.’

Kang Jin-ho tightened his grip on the acrylic. The acrylic, already torn once, couldn’t withstand the water pressure. Only by pushing his inner energy into the acrylic to reinforce it could he prevent it from tearing further.

Feeling his dantian [energy center below the navel] rapidly emptying, Kang Jin-ho took a deep breath.

‘I need to buy more time.’

The people escaping now were the ones from the deepest part of the aquarium. Even if they ran at full speed, it would take a long time to get out of this huge aquarium.

It was impossible to buy all that time. The time it took for them to escape was longer than the time it took for Kang Jin-ho’s inner energy to deplete.

‘I never thought I’d feel a lack of inner energy here.’

Even when fighting Hong Wang, he hadn’t really felt a lack of inner energy. Compared to before, his inner energy was so abundant that it could be called a drop in the ocean, but because his control was pushed to the limit, it was rare for him to be unable to exert his full power due to a lack of inner energy.

That’s why he hadn’t felt any particular discomfort, but who would have known he would face such a situation?

‘Enough complaining.’

If there was a problem, he had to solve it.

Kang Jin-ho began to look for ways to solve this problem.

He looked at various methods, but in the end, there were only two he could use.

One was to hold back the tank as much as he could and then let go at the right time. It wasn’t a solution, but rather a situation he had to accept.

He couldn’t force the impossible.

The other one?

To fill it.

If it was lacking, he just had to fill it. If there was a hole in a jar and water was leaking out, and he couldn’t stop it, he had to pour more water in. Then, even if he couldn’t stop the water from leaking, he could extend the time until the water completely ran out.

‘Is it possible?’

It was easy to say.

But it was hard to do.

Martial arts distinguished between receiving and releasing. Usually, one would receive energy through cultivation and then use that energy after making it their own.

No matter how high one’s level of martial arts became, these two were always separate.

Even if one reached a level where they could absorb external energy during battle, they couldn’t absorb and release at the same time. It was impossible.

It was like telling someone to inhale and exhale at the same time. Inhaling and exhaling were different processes. How could they be done simultaneously?

Even when he was the Heavenly Demon Lord [a powerful martial arts title], he hadn’t dared to try it. But could Kang Jin-ho do it now?

‘It’ll be difficult, but…’

It wasn’t impossible.

That was Kang Jin-ho’s judgment. Opening a new path hadn’t made him drastically stronger than in the past. But this series of events had given him a possibility.

The possibility of opening a new path.

Just because it was impossible before didn’t mean it was impossible now. If it was impossible, he just had to make it possible.

Kang Jin-ho closed his eyes.

A roar filled his ears, and his body was soaked in pain. He could clearly feel the sensation of the water hitting his body and the water that had now risen to his thighs.

He could also clearly feel the screams of people struggling and the vibrations of the building, which seemed like it would collapse at any moment.

But the moment he focused his mind, those sensations faded away.

Submersion.

Kang Jin-ho submerged into himself. To break an egg, one had to first go inside the egg.

Inside the egg…

‘Huh?’

Kang Jin-ho’s eyes widened.

The moment he tried to submerge into his body, he felt something strange, and then he felt like his body was floating in the air.

He thought the ground had collapsed and his body had been thrown back. But that wasn’t it.

‘What is this?’

Kang Jin-ho was watching.

He was watching himself holding back the gushing water.

‘Me?’

An experience that even Kang Jin-ho, who had reached the pinnacle of extreme martial arts, had never had.

An experience that no human could ever have.

Kang Jin-ho was now seeing his own back with his own eyes.

It was as if the world had stopped.

In the slow-moving world, he could see clearly. His body was holding back the water. And he could clearly see the energy flowing from his body.

Things that he couldn’t see with his eyes.

Things that he had only felt through his senses were now revealing their true forms.

The world’s energies were dyed in their own colors.

Even in this chaotic hall, all sorts of colored energies filled the air like a mist.

It was mesmerizing.

It was dizzying.

Among them, the most clearly visible was the thick, dark energy emanating from Kang Jin-ho’s hands.

He could clearly see the process of the energy flowing from his dantian, moving through his arms and legs, and being released outwards.

‘Is this detachment?’

It wasn’t a normal process.

Perhaps it was the process of enlightenment that religions or shamans spoke of. But that didn’t matter. Kang Jin-ho knew that this moment was very important to him.

This strange moment wouldn’t last long.

No matter how long it was, it would be a fleeting moment. He had to confirm everything within this incredibly short time.

‘Energy is everywhere in the world.’

No matter how much energy Kang Jin-ho had gathered in his dantian, it was just a handful compared to the energy that filled the world. It was just a drop in the ocean.

What if he could absorb all this energy?

No, what if he could become one with this energy?

‘It will change.’

The world would change.

And Kang Jin-ho would change too.

He would be able to gain the power to break free from the great shackles of the Heavenly Demon Lord, which he had been unable to escape no matter how much he had agonized and tried.

To do that…

Kang Jin-ho reached out to his body. As he willed it, something that had left his body as if swimming in the air approached his body.

‘I have to connect it.’

The closed Baihui point [acupoint at the top of the head].

He had to receive energy through the Baihui point, gather it in the dantian, and then release the energy gathered in the dantian into his body.

He had to connect the separated processes into one.

As Kang Jin-ho willed it, the energy in his body began to move. They were separated, but ultimately one. His body was still following his will.

He slowly opened it.

The tightly closed Baihui point.

And at the same time…

A huge shock that he had never felt before engulfed Kang Jin-ho.

The world exploded.