Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1884

“Is it chilly?”

“It’s not even cold yet, what are you talking about?”

“…Am I just imagining things? It can’t be a cold.”

A martial artist catching a cold? That’s laughable.

“Tsk.”

The man next to him, who was also on guard duty, clicked his tongue.

“You haven’t been training lately, have you? Your body’s a mess. You should have been more diligent.”

“Damn it, you should give me time to train before saying that!”

“Why are you suddenly getting angry?”

The one who said it was cold started grumbling.

“These days, I don’t even have time to eat a proper meal. I don’t know why everything is so hectic.”

“Is that even a thing to say? There are still remnants of the Chang King’s faction left. We need to clean them all up before we can rest.”

“They’re just remnants anyway.”

The man spoke with an annoyed voice.

“I just don’t understand. The Hong King… no, not the Hong King. He wouldn’t handle such trivial matters himself. I don’t know what Chaikeochang [likely a high-ranking official or strategist] is thinking.”

“What do you mean, you don’t understand?”

“I told you, the remnants are just remnants. Does it really matter if we don’t deal with them right now?”

“Still, they’re from the Chang King’s faction, it’s dangerous.”

“Dangerous, my foot! The Chang King is dead, what can the remaining guys do! All they can do is put up meaningless resistance before getting caught and killed. That’s their fate.”

“Well…”

The difference between a king’s existence and non-existence is enormous.

If the one who died in that war was the Hong King instead of the Chang King, they wouldn’t even dare to think about resisting. To survive, they would have no choice but to surrender or hide.

And most of the Chang King’s faction had already made that choice. However, some who couldn’t abandon their rebellious nature were waging guerrilla warfare against the Hong King’s faction.

“A handful of them…”

The Central Plains are vast.

That’s why it’s not easy to catch a small number of people who have gone into hiding to resist.

“They’re not just stubborn, they’re stupid. What can they do with that number? A small number can’t do anything.”

“I think differently.”

“What’s different? No matter how hard they struggle, what can they…”

The man who was calmly answering stopped talking.

Only then did he realize that the voice that had just answered was unfamiliar. A normal person would have noticed it right away, but they were people who sensed presences before voices. If their senses didn’t detect anyone, there was no way they could recognize another person’s presence.

‘What…’

But the voice was definitely coming from nearby.

A chill ran down his spine.

His senses clearly didn’t detect anything, but he could hear a voice. For a martial artist, this was more terrifying than feeling the presence of a ghost nearby.

Twitch.

One of the men, who had become as stiff as a statue, struggled to turn his head to the side.

Finally, his gaze landed on the face of a man he had never seen before.

How should he describe it?

A face that was impossible to guess the age of, an expression that was impossible to guess the emotion of, and even a martial prowess that was impossible to guess…

Yes, he was a man from whom nothing could be felt.

Even though he was looking at him, it was as if he didn’t exist. It was like seeing a ghost.

“Y-you…”

The man who was speaking let out a hollow laugh as if he was dumbfounded.

They were having a conversation, but they were martial artists, and their current mission was to be on guard. They were supposed to be keenly aware of their surroundings, yet this person had bypassed their senses and come all the way here.

In this situation, why does it matter who he is?

Good people don’t come, those who come are not good.

From the fact that he had come all the way here, his intentions were already clear.

“Who I am is not that important.”

The man stared at them with a blank face before adding.

“What’s important is what you were talking about earlier. Did you say a small number can’t do anything?”

“No, no. What’s important is who those few are. If they’re just a bunch of nobodies, then as you said, they can’t do anything, but if they’re a small number that can’t be compared to a clumsy majority, then it has meaning. Don’t you think?”

No one answered.

Even as the man spoke, they desperately tried to sense his presence, but they couldn’t detect anything.

This was an impossible situation.

The person in front of them was definitely not a ghost. He was clearly a living person, breathing and with a beating heart.

But even though they could hear his breathing and heartbeat, they couldn’t feel even a trace of his energy.

This was impossible. Absolutely.

Even if they saw a monster with its head on its foot and a huge tongue where its neck should be, it wouldn’t be this terrifying. At least that monster would be a being under the laws of the world governed by energy.

But the unknown entity in front of them was a being not governed by those laws.

“Who…”

“It’s meaningless, I tell you.”

The corners of the man’s mouth curled up slightly.

Whether it could be called a smile or not, it was clear that it made those who watched it feel a chill.

“What’s important is not who I am. It’s what’s going to happen to you now.”

“No, no. Actually, that’s not very important either. Even if you disappear, the world won’t change. It’s a pity. Individuals without power can’t change the world even with their deaths.”

Clench!

The one who was farthest from the man and was somehow able to regain his senses clenched his fist.

‘Enemy!’

It was clear that the opponent was an enemy. An enemy they couldn’t handle.

Then?

Grind.

The man who clenched his fist shouted.

‘Attack!’

The others had no choice. He wouldn’t be able to survive either. But to reduce the sacrifice even a little, he had to use them as bait to let them know that an enemy had come inside.

At the same time as the man shouted,

he leaped. No, he tried to leap.

But…

His body wouldn’t move at all, against his will.

‘What is this?’

Suspicion arose in the man’s eyes.

No, before that…

Did I just shout?

If I did, they wouldn’t be standing there so blankly?

Then what…

What brought him back to reality, as he was struggling to understand whether this situation was real or not, was a stinging pain in his neck.

‘Neck?’

Why suddenly my neck…

And then he saw it.

The sight of red lines being drawn on the necks of his comrades in front of him.

The lines, which were initially too thin to see clearly, gradually thickened. The moment a clear, blood-colored line was created, he sensed his comrades’ fate.

‘Damn it.’

And probably the same line was forming on his neck.

‘Damn it…’

The world he saw spun and blurred.

A faint voice echoed in his ears as he faced his inevitable death.

“It may be meaningless, but I’ll tell you. I am called Gongryeong.”

The man’s breath was cut off before he could even hear the end of the words.

“Hmm.”

Gongryeong looked down at the three people who had fallen to the ground with indifferent eyes.

‘They bought some time.’

He could have just dealt with them quickly and moved on, but their conversation had caught his attention. It had been a while since he had talked to people, so maybe that’s why he had dragged it out.

But it was okay.

This wasn’t something that required speed. He just needed to make sure they couldn’t unite again around the Hong King and resist.

Gongryeong raised his head and looked at the large mansion in front of him.

“How strange.”

What should have been a large manor in the past was now a modern building. It felt more like a villa built in the mountains by someone with too much money than a martial arts sect.

As times changed, the places where martial artists lived also changed.

Of course, he wasn’t much different.

He wasn’t one to stubbornly cling to the inconvenient ways of the past. As proof, wasn’t he wearing modern training clothes right now?

However…

“Still, it feels different.”

This makes it feel a bit more noir.

Gongryeong lightly dusted off his hands and walked towards the gate in the middle of the wall that surrounded the building, which was taller than a person.

Whirr.

As he approached, the CCTV installed above the gate rotated and captured him.

But Gongryeong, as if he didn’t care about such things, approached the gate and gently placed his hand on it. Before he could even feel the cold metal…

Screech!

With a loud noise like metal grinding, the steel gate twisted like taffy, creating a space for him to enter.

Before Gongryeong could even take a few steps inside, people began to pour out from all over the building.

“Hmm.”

Gongryeong smiled faintly as he looked at the martial artists of the Hong King’s faction who were emitting killing intent and surrounding him.

‘They’re well-trained.’

The name Hong King. It seemed that the reputation of the Hong King’s faction was not obtained for nothing. Even those guarding this remote place were so well-trained.

‘But that’s why it’s even more futile.’

A fine sword is only meaningful when used on the battlefield.

No matter how good a sword is, the moment it’s placed in a display case, it becomes nothing more than a luxury item, no different from a porcelain or a painting.

Yes.

That’s exactly the situation of the people he was looking at.

Luxury items.

No matter how beautifully they are crafted, they are ultimately useless.

“Who are you!”

“Why bother talking! Just kill him!”

“Surround him!”

Shouts came from all directions.

Looking at the martial artists of the Hong King’s faction, who were revealing their killing intent and closing in on him like a pack of wolves, Gongryeong calmly opened his mouth.

“I will spare those who run away now.”

“…What are you saying, you crazy bastard!”

“Do you know where you are? What did you do to the guys who were guarding the front?”

But Gongryeong, as if he didn’t hear their words, opened his mouth again.

“Those who don’t, keep one thing in mind.”

Those who heard Gongryeong’s words unconsciously closed their mouths. For some reason, they felt like they shouldn’t interrupt what he was about to say.

“Your deaths will not be meaningless. Even if you don’t understand it now. And…”

A genuine smile bloomed on Gongryeong’s lips for the first time.

“I’m in a good mood right now. So please understand if I’m a little violent.”

Slicing sound!

The sound of something being cut. The chilling sound of a sharp blade cutting through flesh and blood continued.

‘What…’

And at that moment.

Swoosh!

What they heard was the sound of something like a faucet being turned on forcefully. The sound of a thick liquid being spewed out like a waterfall!

Along with that sound, the bodies of those who had surrounded Gongryeong literally fell to the ground in pieces.

“What…”

“What is that…”

The faces of those who saw their comrades right in front of them falling down like broken toys, with their arms and legs missing, turned pale.

‘What the hell… what?’

Something strange came into the eyes of those who were panicking.

Something too thin that they wouldn’t normally see.

Something like a line, too thin to even be called a thread, was stretched taut in the air.

Drop.

If it weren’t for the blood flowing along that line, they wouldn’t have known what had done that to them until this moment.

“Silver threads?”

Gongryeong’s low voice reached the ears of those who were bewildered by something beyond their comprehension.

“I’ll say it again, I won’t stop those who run away. If you can run away, that is.”

The surrounding air began to freeze.

“Let me introduce myself again. I am one of the Twelve Flying Blades, Gongryeong, who follows the Black King.”

Gongryeong lightly pulled the wire that flowed from his fingertips.

“It’s a meaningless word for you.”

The world began to be stained with blood.