Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1066

Am I seeing things?

Or am I having a nightmare?

It’s one of the two.

It has to be one of the two.

But Seok Dong-soo knew.

His extraordinary mind wouldn’t let him ignore that this was reality.

What he saw was too clear to be a hallucination, and the coldness he felt on his skin was too vivid to be a nightmare.

His intellect was too sharp to deny reality and escape.

‘Then what on earth is going on?’

Darkness covers the room. At the same time, the room is enveloped in a chilling cold.

Something impossible was happening.

Moreover, those eyes.

The moment he saw the blood-red glow, as if burning, his whole body screamed madly.

Run away.

Run away from this place right now.

‘Run away?’

Where to?

Where can he run to in this small room?

Stupid body.

Seok Dong-soo gritted his teeth.

He didn’t know what was happening, but he had to respond calmly. How many hellish situations had he endured to get to where he was now?

There was no way Seok Dong-soo, who had survived those hells, couldn’t endure something like this.

Seok Dong-soo forced his unyielding mouth to move.

“Wh, who…”

The first time is always the hardest.

After squeezing out the words, his mouth felt like it was loosening up. Seok Dong-soo suppressed his panic and tried to keep his voice down as much as possible.

“Who are you?”

It was a necessary question.

But it was also the most meaningless question.

His house was surrounded by pretty tight security. It wasn’t exactly because he didn’t trust other people. The place he lived was in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in South Korea, and the houses built there were sold with basic security features.

Not only petty thieves but also determined robbers wouldn’t dare to come near this place.

But this person had completely bypassed all the security and entered this room. He didn’t know how he did it, but even Seok Dong-soo had to acknowledge his ability.

Would such a person reveal who he was with his own mouth?

“Kang Jin-ho.”

Seok Dong-soo’s eyes wavered.

‘What is this guy?’

Kang Jin-ho?

It was a name he had heard before. Surely in a report…

No, wait a minute.

‘He’s saying his name?’

So casually? So calmly? Doesn’t he think about the consequences?

Seok Dong-soo’s mind began to get tangled up on its own.

He had dealt with countless people and experienced countless individuals. Among them were villains who valued human life less than a stone on the street, and there were also perverted humans too terrible to even mention.

But none of them had ever turned Seok Dong-soo’s mind upside down with just a single word.

What is he thinking?

Did he come to negotiate?

Or is it something else?

Seok Dong-soo’s eyes began to waver.

There is one possibility.

A way to not create any repercussions even if he reveals his identity to the other party…

“K, Kang Jin-ho. H, Head of the Korean Martial Arts Association.”

The flames flicker.

In the bleak darkness that was slowly expanding its territory, the blood-red glow was flickering slowly, very slowly.

His mouth went dry.

‘Damn it.’

His whole body was covered in goosebumps.

Why hadn’t he thought of it?

Even though he called them thugs.

‘I was too drunk on power.’

A person in power must always be wary of the knife rising from below.

Power is ultimately the force you wield.

You can use violence, but it cannot become violence itself. You must always be aware and wary that your neck can be cut by the hand of someone who possesses violence!

Why hadn’t he thought of it?

These people are not subject to the law.

They are the ones who can use ‘violence’ as a means at any time when things don’t go their way. A normal person wouldn’t even think of removing a minister through violence, but

from the start, these guys aren’t proper humans.

What separates humans from animals?

It’s the power to conform.

It’s whether they adapt and conform to the rules and norms that humans have created themselves. Those who cannot abide by the norms are not treated as humans and are eliminated from society.

But these people are different.

They rejected the norms and were ostracized from society, but they created their own society.

They are human but not human, and not human but human.

That was how Seok Dong-soo defined the ‘martial artists’ as a group.

Then, what is this person standing before him as now?

As a human?

Or as something not human?

Maybe both.

One thing was certain: Seok Dong-soo was facing the most dangerous moment of his entire life.

Seok Dong-soo’s hand gripped his chest.

‘They say if you keep your wits about you, you can survive even in a tiger’s den.’

At least he can talk, so isn’t he a better opponent than a tiger?

“I don’t know if you understand, but killing me won’t solve anything.”

“It will only make the situation worse. The moment I die, everyone will know that you killed me. Then no one will want to deal with you. Do you understand?”

Seok Dong-soo’s jaw trembled.

He was trying to speak firmly, but his voice was far from ‘firm.’ His voice was cracking with fear, and his pronunciation was slurred.

But his intention was clear enough.

Seok Dong-soo clasped his hands together. He didn’t want to show his trembling hands. It wasn’t good to show a trembling figure in any situation or position.

Even in the anxiety and fear that felt like his mind was about to fly away, Seok Dong-soo was holding on to at least a minimum of reason.

‘Even in a tiger’s den…’

Seok Dong-soo gritted his teeth.

“Tell me what you want. There’s still room for negotiation.”

He was slowly gaining control.

Very slowly, without agitating the other party.

That was the art of conversation.

It flickers.

The blood-red glow flickered slowly.

And at the same time as the glow flickered, a sound like scraping metal was heard.

“Answer me.”

Seok Dong-soo’s body shuddered.

That sound was directly scraping at his soul. It was as if a jagged saw was being dragged across soft flesh, making his body and soul scream.

Seok Dong-soo took a step back without realizing it.

He knew that showing fear to the other party was the worst thing he could do, but his body betrayed his will so easily.

What did he say?

What did I just hear?

His thoughts stopped. Even that simple word, his mind couldn’t process it. The intellect that had supported him and made him confident was no longer working.

Seok Dong-soo, who had lost his intellect, was just an animal. And a weak animal that couldn’t even catch a rabbit with his bare hands.

Seok Dong-soo was now aware of that.

“Answer me.”

A sound like scraping metal was heard.

This time, he could clearly understand the meaning even from that unfamiliar voice.

‘What am I supposed to answer?’

His mind felt like it was stuttering. Noise was interfering with the thought process that had always been perfect and clean.

But fortunately, Kang Jin-ho was merciful.

“Why did you do it?”

The blood-red glow flickered.

Seok Dong-soo inhaled.

His heart was pounding as if it would burst, and he couldn’t breathe properly. But at this moment, Seok Dong-soo succeeded in finding the best answer he could give.

“I, I don’t know what answer you want from me…”

Blood trickled from his tightly clenched lips.

“I, I can’t answer in this state. If there’s really something you want to hear from me, please, please take that form away.”

The blood-red glow flickered.

But that flicker was different from before. If Seok Dong-soo was seeing it right, that flicker should be called ‘a change of color.’

“Interesting.”

The darkness receded.

At the same time, the pressure and cold that had been pressing down on Seok Dong-soo disappeared as if washed away. Seok Dong-soo inhaled like a large pump.

“Cough, cough!”

After inhaling for a while, his mind finally started to work properly. Seok Dong-soo wiped the saliva from his mouth and raised his head.

It had changed.

The darkness that had been coloring the room had disappeared.

The mood light, which had seemed to be off, was shining again, illuminating the room.

And…

‘A person.’

From the darkest place, a man slowly walked out. With a pace that was neither fast nor slow, the man who revealed himself sat on the sofa in the room and leaned back as if he was languid.

“I’m Kang Jin-ho.”

“…Seok Dong-soo.”

Seok Dong-soo swallowed hard.

‘Damn it.’

The phase of pressuring with force was over. Now it was time to pressure each other with words. This was what Seok Dong-soo was most confident in, but from the start, things weren’t going the way he wanted.

A light introduction.

But all conversations start from there. From the moment he spoke informally to Kang Jin-ho, Seok Dong-soo had admitted that he was being pushed back.

Even now?

No.

Changing his words here would only be counterproductive.

“…Are you the Kang Jin-ho I know? The head of the Korean Martial Arts Association?”

“That’s right.”

“Why are you here?”

Kang Jin-ho curled up the corners of his mouth.

It was an unnatural sight.

Words contain will, and expressions contain emotions. But Kang Jin-ho’s expression contained no emotion. That smile, with the other parts of his face still while only the corners of his mouth went up, was too bizarre to be called a smile.

“You seem to be mistaken…”

It wasn’t that voice like scraping metal.

But…

The ominousness in his voice hadn’t disappeared at all.

Did he escape the crisis?

Absolutely not.

Nothing.

Nothing had changed.

This place was still a tiger’s den, and the tiger was baring its teeth in front of him.

‘If I keep my wits about me…’

That was when it happened.

Kang Jin-ho slowly rose from his seat.

With just that one movement, Seok Dong-soo was completely overwhelmed.

And then he realized.

‘No.’

That wasn’t like a tiger.

It wasn’t a ‘creature’ within the realm of common sense, with hot blood flowing and dying when stabbed with a knife.

He had been completely wrong from the start.

Step.

Step.

Kang Jin-ho approached Seok Dong-soo with slow steps. But Seok Dong-soo couldn’t do anything.

He could only think and think again.

Where did it go wrong?

Where did it go wrong that this man was standing in front of him now?

People say.

That opportunities always come in life.

But people never say.

That crises always come in life.

An unparalleled opportunity is bound to come with an unparalleled crisis. Those who are lured by clear water and jump into it forget that the clearer the water, the shallower it looks.

His feet were sinking into the swamp.

More and more.

Step, step.

Finally, Kang Jin-ho, who had come right in front of him, curled up the corners of his mouth.

The moment he saw that eerie smile, Seok Dong-soo’s heart began to shrink.

Kang Jin-ho’s hand slowly reached out towards Seok Dong-soo’s face.