Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 835

“……I think I’m going to die.”

“I’m already dead.”

Wiggins stared blankly at the ceiling.

‘How did it come to this?’

He leaned back on the sofa to organize his thoughts, but the moment his body lost balance, a pain that felt like his bones were breaking washed over him.

“Ughhhhhh.”

Wiggins trembled.

Of course, the person who inflicted this bone-crushing pain on him was Kang Jin-ho.

Thinking about Kang Jin-ho, who had been beating him with a smiling face, sent a shiver down his spine.

‘Don’t make that refreshed face!’

The man had become a bit strange.

It was as if Kang Jin-ho was in a situation like this: a tooth that had been aching for days suddenly fell out, or he had been constipated for two weeks and suddenly found relief. If not, there was no other way to explain that shiny, refreshed face.

How refreshed could he be to smile while beating someone up! It was creepy!

‘He could have gone a little easier.’

Crack.

“Ugh.”

In fact, martial artists are beings who are bound to be accustomed to pain. Unlike the world where martial arts have become a sport, in the martial arts world, it is still considered natural to push one’s body to its limits to reach a high level.

Although the Western martial arts that Wiggins had learned involved less physical abuse than Eastern martial arts, they still required training that was close to torture in the eyes of ordinary people.

So, he was quite used to pain, but…

“How can someone be in so much pain from being hit?”

“…I can feel the skill in his punches.”

“Well, of course.”

He must have punched countless times. They could feel it even while being hit.

They too had experienced countless battles. They were confident that they were definitely not inferior to anyone. But in the face of Kang Jin-ho’s skill, they could only shake their heads.

‘How many battles has he been in?’

Unlike Bator, who often sparred with Kang Jin-ho and had even fought life-or-death battles in the past, Wiggins and Bang Jin-hoon had never directly exchanged blows with Kang Jin-ho.

It was only after experiencing the merciless beating firsthand that they realized how skilled this man was in combat.

‘Is it efficiency?’

He seemed to understand what Kang Jin-ho meant by the detailed adjustments he had mentioned before. After countless battles, even a simple action like throwing a punch had developed its own know-how.

“I don’t even dare to try to imitate it.”

It was a sense.

It wasn’t something you could learn by studying. It could only be created by layering experience upon experience.

Even if you learned everything under the best chef, you couldn’t produce the same taste. That subtle sense is something that accumulates in the body, not in the head.

“He wasn’t originally such a reckless person.”

“…No, maybe he was originally such a reckless person.”

“Huh?”

“He was holding back.”

Wiggins sighed.

Anyone who had watched Kang Jin-ho for even a little while would know that he was not a very patient person. He would carefully consider things, but then suddenly explode and turn everything upside down. That was Kang Jin-ho.

‘It was bound to happen.’

The longer he pondered and thought, the bigger the explosion. If you consider Kang Jin-ho’s current actions as a reaction to that, it all fits.

Bang Jin-hoon sighed.

“It’s good to train and get stronger. But at this rate, we’ll end up with chronic illnesses. What good will that do?”

“Yeah, really…”

Bang!

At that moment, the door opened, and a huge figure entered the room.

“Damn it, why is the door so small?”

It’s because you’re so big?

There was only one person who would complain that a door that was spacious enough for two average men to stand side by side was too small. Bator entered, making all sorts of faces.

“You guys are still chattering, huh?”

“…I think we have a right to chatter today, don’t you think?”

“I agree.”

Bator’s eyebrows twitched.

“The master has bestowed such grace upon you, and instead of being grateful, you’re just spouting nonsense.”

“Grace?”

“Grateful?”

Wiggins and Bang Jin-hoon looked at Bator with bewildered expressions.

Of course, it was a good thing that he was sparring with them. Where else could they find a sparring partner like Kang Jin-ho?

The biggest challenge that martial artists face as their skills improve is that the opportunities to fight someone stronger than themselves decrease. Martial arts are not something you can learn on your own.

Even if you learn a simple middle kick, there is a world of difference between performing it against a sandbag and performing it against a person. That’s why sparring is necessary.

However, the higher the level, the harder it becomes to find a sparring partner. Firstly, there are not many masters of that level, and secondly, those masters have a lot to lose, so they are reluctant to spar.

In the end, they have no choice but to imagine or hit a defenseless sandbag.

In the midst of all that, a master of that level, a level that cannot be found anywhere else, is taking the initiative to spar with them. In fact, they should be bowing in gratitude.

While a novice can fill their shortcomings and improve their abilities by sparring with a master, a master has nothing to gain from sparring with a novice. What would they gain from fighting someone less skilled than themselves, other than wasting their energy?

The fact that Kang Jin-ho was willing to waste his stamina and inner energy to spar with them was enough reason to be grateful.

‘If this is sparring, that is.’

What is sparring?

It means that martial artists practice together, exchanging blows to check each other’s skills. But this was more like a one-sided beating than sparring.

Well, if you get a punch in the face before you even have a chance to extend your hand, what are you supposed to see and learn from that?

The only thing they felt was, ‘That guy is damn fast.’

To put it simply, they learned the lesson that ‘if you fight someone with a speed that you can’t see with your eyes or track with your senses, defense is impossible.’

But the price they paid to learn that insignificant lesson was too high.

“Ughhhh.”

Wiggins slowly got up. He could hear his bones cracking. He had been hit way too much.

“Can you still say that after seeing this?”

“I’m saying this because I saw that.”

“Huh?”

“Tsk, tsk.”

Bator looked at Wiggins with a pitiful expression.

“Check your body.”

“…Check?”

“Just do it.”

Wiggins tilted his head. It was strange, but he knew that Bator was not the type to ask him to do something useless, so he checked his body as he was told. Bang Jin-hoon also tilted his head slightly but followed Bator’s instructions.

“…Huh?”

Wiggins’ eyes widened slightly.

‘What is this state?’

Something incomprehensible had happened.

His body was damaged. There was no part that was severely broken, but it was widely damaged to the point where there was no undamaged part.

When the body is damaged, the energy also weakens. Energy and the body cannot be separated. Just as a sick person cannot emit tremendous energy, damage to the body hinders the flow of energy.

But the energy flowing inside Wiggins now was much more vibrant than usual. It was to the point where he doubted if there was ever that much energy in his body.

Wiggins tends to use external mana rather than internal mana. The total amount of mana stored internally is bound to be less than that of Eastern martial artists. If Wiggins could feel this much power?

“W-what is this?”

Bang Jin-hoon jumped up from his seat in surprise.

He seemed to have felt the immense power flowing within his body as well.

“T-this?”

Bator nodded.

“It’s hitting the pressure points.”

“In other words, it’s called ‘pushing and opening pressure points.’ It might be a slightly unfamiliar concept to you.”

Wiggins nodded at Bator’s gesture.

“I’ve heard of it while studying Eastern martial arts, but…”

Bang Jin-hoon had a higher understanding of Eastern martial arts than Wiggins. That’s why his reaction was a little different.

“I-is that actually possible?”

“Don’t you know after experiencing it with your own body?”

“Wow…”

Bang Jin-hoon closed his mouth and checked his body again.

‘It’s real?’

He couldn’t understand it with his head. But his body was the proof. So he couldn’t deny it.

“But, wow… Pushing and opening pressure points.”

Pushing and opening pressure points, or hitting pressure points.

It is a method by which a martial artist directly injects energy into another person’s body to activate their inner energy.

The concept has been passed down since ancient times. But no one dared to try it. The reason was very simple.

Pushing energy into someone’s body while hitting them is called striking.

It means hitting.

Conversely, pushing and opening pressure points is an act of benefiting the opponent’s body through the act of hitting them. How could that be possible?

‘But it’s possible?’

Bang Jin-hoon chuckled.

“…The legends are not just legends.”

“I know, right.”

Wiggins agreed with that statement.

Recently, it seemed like the words legend and myth were being used too easily. At this point, it wouldn’t be strange if a giraffe was running around in the front yard of the General Assembly, or if a dragon was flying around.

He was at the point where he could just laugh and accept it even if Kang Jin-ho rode a Pegasus to work instead of a Lamborghini.

“Pushing and opening pressure points consumes an enormous amount of the caster’s inner energy. It’s not an easy task at all. There are very few people who can do it, and even if they can, there are not many who would do it. Would a master waste their inner energy for a novice?”

“…No, they wouldn’t.”

Bang Jin-hoon knew very well how difficult that act was. He too had trained many disciples, but it was not easy to spend his energy and time for those disciples.

First of all, isn’t one’s own self the priority?

“Wait a minute. Are you saying that this is not a temporary effect?”

Wiggins asked in surprise, and Bator shook his head.

“It is temporary. But it is also permanent.”

“Permanent?”

Bator shrugged.

“The concept of pushing and opening pressure points is simpler than you think. It’s about forcibly creating wounds.”

“What does that mean?”

Wiggins tilted his head as if he didn’t understand, and Bator smacked his lips. This was not easy to explain in words.

“When a wound occurs, new flesh grows on top of it, right?”

“That’s right.”

“And that wound swells up more than the original skin.”

“…Ah!”

Wiggins immediately understood what Bator was trying to say.

“The repetition of injury and recovery. It’s the same process as building muscles.”

“You’re quick to understand.”

The act of building muscle is the act of repeatedly injuring and recovering the muscle. The injured muscle swells up more than before. And by repeating that act, you gain bigger and stronger muscles than before.

“It’s the same with energy. If you forcibly suppress and attack the internal energy, the energy will react. Then the energy becomes activated. And by forcibly damaging the body, the energy becomes more active during the body’s recovery process.”

Bator sighed.

“It’s easy to say, but finding that fine line and actually executing it is almost beyond the realm of human ability.”

Only then did those who realized what Kang Jin-ho had done to their bodies open their mouths wide in shock.