Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1341

‘Okay, then……’

Lee Hyun-soo assessed the situation.

At this point, there was no turning back. When calculating and strategizing, the first thing to confirm is to distinguish between what is inevitable and what can be changed.

Kang Jin-ho punishing Chen Hui was inevitable.

Kang Jin-ho is a man with clear standards.

More so than anyone Lee Hyun-soo had ever encountered.

If Lee Joong-geol or Kim Seok-il were in Kang Jin-ho’s position, quite a few people would have died.

It’s human nature for those in power to want to use that power.

But Kang Jin-ho was not like that.

Basically, Kang Jin-ho doesn’t assert his authority. He talks casually with ordinary members of the General Assembly and doesn’t demand preferential treatment.

In a way, he’s the epitome of a boss without authority.

What creates Kang Jin-ho’s authority is his strong standards. And what creates those strong standards is the absence of warnings.

Most people, when they see someone intending to cross their line, first issue a warning. A strong warning that the moment they cross the line, they can no longer be together.

It could be words, violence, or sometimes other methods.

But Kang Jin-ho doesn’t have that warning process.

If someone tries to cross the line, he waits indifferently and then thoroughly punishes them the moment they cross it.

That’s why those who deal with Kang Jin-ho naturally shrink back at the thought that they might cross his line and become cautious.

But…….

‘He should have known that.’

Lee Hyun-soo looked at the unconscious Chen Hui with a slightly pitiful gaze.

That sleep would probably be the last rest in Chen Hui’s life. When he opens his eyes, he will face reality.

Lee Hyun-soo took out a cigarette from his pocket and approached Kang Jin-ho. Even though he was walking calmly, the soldiers guarding the perimeter didn’t even think about moving.

With an enraged beast baring its teeth behind them, who could move? The moment they moved, fangs would sink into their necks.

Lee Hyun-soo quietly offered a cigarette to Kang Jin-ho.

“You’re agitated.”

“Am I?”

Kang Jin-ho didn’t seem to agree.

But he didn’t seem to want to ignore Lee Hyun-soo’s advice, as he accepted the cigarette.

Click.

As the cigarette was lit, acrid smoke spread through the room.

“The situation has turned out completely different from what we expected.”

Kang Jin-ho agreed with that fact.

He had expected more difficulties than he had anticipated, but he had never imagined facing a situation like this.

“Okay, then now……”

Lee Hyun-soo scratched his head as if he was troubled.

“We need to get out of here……” A hollow laugh escaped him.

‘This is a tough one?’

Chen Hui may have been defeated in vain, but he wasn’t fundamentally stupid.

There was no way he wouldn’t have prepared for how to respond if negotiations broke down.

He had simply overlooked the danger of facing Kang Jin-ho directly at close range.

‘It’s understandable.’

He probably hadn’t been exposed to danger for too long.

Basically, power has attributes. The power Chen Hui had was authority. Authority is powerful. Those who move the world are those with wealth, but those with authority can treat those with wealth like servants.

But that authority will eventually crumble before violence.

Authority controls wealth, violence destroys authority, and then wealth uses violence again. That is the unchanging flow of the world.

Chen Hui had simply forgotten that the authority he possessed could be meaningless in the face of violence.

He knows it now, but it’s too late.

“If they knew the negotiations had broken down, they wouldn’t try to keep the Chairman alive.”

“Probably not.”

“And they’ve probably completely surrounded the area in preparation for this situation.”

“Hmm…”

“It might be a rather dangerous path.”

Lee Hyun-soo checked his phone.

“The signal isn’t even working here. We need to get out of here first to contact the General Assembly.”

Kang Jin-ho glanced at Lee Hyun-soo and said,

“Should I have held back a little?”

“I wouldn’t want that.”

Lee Hyun-soo sighed.

“I’m not complaining, I really wouldn’t want that. If you had held back there, you wouldn’t be the Chairman. Honestly, I can’t say I don’t have some dissatisfaction that I wish you had chosen an easier path……”

Lee Hyun-soo chuckled.

No.

If it’s Kang Jin-ho, he has to choose this path. That’s what makes him Kang Jin-ho.

If Kang Jin-ho was the type of person who changed his stance based on profit, Lee Hyun-soo wouldn’t have followed him sincerely. He was enough of that himself.

‘I can’t get my thoughts straight.’

Lee Hyun-soo put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it.

He wants to choose an easier path, but he doesn’t want Kang Jin-ho to do so. He couldn’t even say that in front of others, it’s too embarrassing.

“There are a lot of problems piled up…… but first, there’s one big problem.”

“What?”

“What do we do with that?”

Lee Hyun-soo pointed at Li Gwang with the cigarette in his hand.

Kang Jin-ho slightly narrowed his brow.

After all, their purpose in coming here was to eliminate Li Gwang. But at this point, that purpose had become quite unclear.

The fact that Li Gwang’s coup wasn’t as big of a deal as they had heard also played a part…….

“Is it necessary?”

Kang Jin-ho gestured towards Li Gwang with his chin.

Li Gwang’s mouth was hanging open, and drool was dripping from it. He seemed to have mentally collapsed, unable to withstand the continuous events.

“Tsk, he’s gone mad.”

Lee Hyun-soo clicked his tongue.

In the current situation, there was no use for Li Gwang even if he was sane. It was also impossible to escape with Li Gwang.

“Are we leaving him behind?”

Kang Jin-ho nodded.

Since Li Gwang had become like this, a coup was impossible anyway. No, even if Li Gwang was in his right mind, looking at the situation, it was doubtful whether a coup had even existed.

‘Where did it start?’

Kang Jin-ho narrowed his brow.

Something was bothering him.

It was hard to pinpoint exactly what was bothering him, but a strong sense of unease was poking at Kang Jin-ho’s nerves.

‘Getting out of here is the priority.’

He could think about it later.

“Okay, then……”

Lee Hyun-soo shrugged and approached the guards.

“You guys will have a hard time surviving if you try to escape from here in your right mind anyway, right? I’ll just knock you out, so let’s cooperate.”

“Don’t answer. Just don’t resist, and I’ll take care of it.”

There was no movement.

But they seemed to have grasped the situation, as they showed no intention of resisting. Lee Hyun-soo constricted the carotid artery of each one, knocking them unconscious.

As the listening ears disappeared, Lee Hyun-soo narrowed his brow.

“Chairman.”

“We might need to go back to Beijing…… I think we need to secure Choi Yeon-ha first.”

“It’s okay.”

“Huh?”

“There are people in the world who live by their pride alone.”

Lee Hyun-soo, not understanding Kang Jin-ho’s words, tilted his head.

*

“Haa……”

Han Eun-sol, sprawled on the sofa, bobbed her head.

With a gold necklace around her neck and a few gold rings on her fingers, she looked like a perfect hip-hop star.

“Eun-sol.”

“Yes, noona [older sister/female friend].”

“Don’t overdo it. You’ll break your neck.”

“Hehe, when else would I get to be like this?”

Choi Yeon-ha chuckled, looking at Han Eun-sol.

‘I guess.’

She fully understood her feelings.

Originally, being a celebrity manager was a job where you had to bow so much that you could get a neck disc, but that was only the case when you were a newbie. A manager of an actress like Choi Yeon-ha was at the top of the entertainment industry’s food chain.

Such a person had to endure all sorts of unreasonable treatment and laugh off absurd situations as soon as they came to China, so how much stress would they have been under?

But now that the situation had reversed and she was able to be the one in charge, her feelings must be indescribable.

“I still need to make some adjustments, but I think I have a rough estimate.”

“Hoo-oong.”

“Thanks to the Chairman’s phone call, we were able to use our kids for schedules that noona couldn’t get into.”

“That’s a good thing.”

“That’s right. It’s a really good thing.”

First of all, the scale of money in the Korean and Chinese entertainment industries is different. Even if Korea is a place that cannot be compared to China in terms of the entertainment business, there is no way to compete if the size of the domestic market is more than ten times larger.

It is not uncommon for a B-list celebrity in China to receive a higher guarantee than an S-list celebrity in Korea.

This contract has given the agency’s actors, who had been struggling to secure schedules, some breathing room.

‘And more money.’

Han Eun-sol couldn’t help but grin when she calculated how much she had earned from this deal.

“Are you happy?”

“Of course, I’m happy.”

“You must be happy. You’re going to have to live in China for a year now.”

“But this time, the schedule isn’t that tight. It’s not that far, so we can go back and forth once a week.”

“Does the plane fare fall from the sky?”

“It’ll be cheaper than noona’s hotel bill, right?”

Oh?

That’s true?

“The filming location isn’t that far from the airport either, so this time, let’s go back and forth to Korea and eat well. I can’t handle a year in China right now.”

“I guess you’re a Korean food lover.”

A person who can’t eat without stew.

Choi Yeon-ha stretched.

‘Things are going well, but the more I think about it, the more bizarre it is.’

She couldn’t figure out who that person was to solve such a big problem so easily. Moreover, they were trying to get the contract at any cost, even offering double the amount of the original contract.

‘That person is strange, and Kang Jin-ho, who talks to such a person like a friend, is also strange.’

Anyway, there are strange people all around her.

“But I……”

That was when it happened.

Knock knock.

“Huh?”

Han Eun-sol got up from her seat at the sound of knocking.

‘What is it?’

Kang Jin-ho? No, Kang Jin-ho is tall, so he would just open the door and come in. So, that means someone came to visit…….

‘Are there people who would come here?’

It was hard to say yes or no. She could say with certainty that there was no one in China who was close enough to visit them, but it was more common than she thought for hotel staff to come for service checks, and those involved in the contract could come for additional discussions or to build rapport.

“Who is it?”

Han Eun-sol trotted towards the door.

Then, she picked up the intercom installed next to the door.

‘Huh?’

The screen only showed an empty hallway.

“Did I mishear……”

At that moment.

Crack!

The doorknob twisted. The doorknob, which was made to be extremely sturdy for the security of the suite, crumpled like unfired clay. Han Eun-sol’s eyes widened in shock at the sight.

Bang!

The door burst open, and someone rushed in. The moment Han Eun-sol saw their uniforms and the automatic rifles shouldered on their shoulders, she froze in place.

“Secure them!”

Choi Yeon-ha’s face also lost its color.