Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1603

Invading (4)

“– Slow!”

A sword flashes towards his face. Kang Jin-ho grits his teeth and instead lunges forward. The sword narrowly misses his face, leaving a long gash on his cheek.

Splat!

Blood spurts from the cut.

But Kang Jin-ho, with a blank expression, rushes in and brings down Red Dew towards the red robe in front of him.

The Demonic Heavenly Lord blocks his sword with an impassive face.

“Kuh!”

A groan escapes Kang Jin-ho’s lips.

The recoil is so strong it feels like his wrist is about to break.

“– Weak.”

“Th-this…”

Kang Jin-ho’s face contorts.

‘Why isn’t the gap closing?’

He’s getting stronger.

Kang Jin-ho is definitely getting stronger at this very moment. But the distance between him and the Demonic Heavenly Lord doesn’t seem to be closing at all.

Is there something else?

Fundamentally?

—

“You’re spouting nonsense.”

The Demonic Heavenly Lord glares at Kang Jin-ho with cold eyes.

“– Does strength need a reason? Weakling, you are simply weak.”

“That’s a good answer.”

Kang Jin-ho bares his teeth.

Lately, he keeps reflecting. Facing the Demonic Heavenly Lord directly, he understands how frustrated those who faced him in the past must have felt.

‘No matter how I think about it, Cheongma [a martial arts sect] chose the wrong religion.’

He should have gone to Buddhism; he would have become a great monk. No ordinary bodhisattva [a being on the path to Buddhahood] could have supported that twisted man.

“– What do you think you can protect with that pathetic skill?”

“Hoo…”

Kang Jin-ho takes a deep breath.

Kang Jin-ho’s eyes, holding Red Dew and Blue Dew in each hand, begin to turn bloodshot.

“Let’s do this properly.”

“……Are you still alive?”

“Ouch, be gentle…”

“Don’t be dramatic. What is this…”

Lee Hyun-soo sighs as she applies medical tape to Kang Jin-ho’s cut.

It’s a wound that would require stitches for a normal person, but this guy will be perfectly fine in less than a day with just this.

‘His recovery seems to be even better than before…’

In the past, he would have had to be rushed to the emergency room with this kind of injury. But now, he just needs some tape slapped on, and he heals on his own.

He was already beyond human before, but now he’s practically an alien.

The bigger problem is that this alien keeps getting these kinds of injuries.

“But why are your injuries getting so severe?”

“Because I’m fighting myself?”

Lee Hyun-soo’s cheeks twitch at the words that sound like they came straight out of a shonen manga [a genre of Japanese comics and animation aimed at a young male audience].

“Is it always about fighting yourself? Is that it?”

“No. I’m actually fighting someone?”

Never mind.

Lee Hyun-soo wipes away the blood and throws the tattered clothes into the trash.

“If you’re going to destroy a set of training clothes every day, you might as well train naked. Doesn’t your mother say anything?”

“……She said she’s happy that I’m not wearing those stretched-out clothes anymore and that I’m wearing new clothes now?”

“Ah…”

That could be it… Oh? That could be it.

That’s right. New, clean clothes are better than those stretched-out training clothes. That’s right.

“Anyway, be reasonable. How are your injuries getting worse every day?”

“I’m fine.”

“Is your body fine too? I think we should listen to what your body has to say.”

Lee Hyun-soo looks at Kang Jin-ho with a worried expression.

For now, Lee Hyun-soo is trying her best to cooperate with Kang Jin-ho’s training.

It’s not something she can stop, so she figures it’s better if she’s around to make sure he doesn’t get too hurt. But Kang Jin-ho is running like a runaway train, as if Lee Hyun-soo isn’t even there.

“Your injuries are getting worse every day! If you’re training, shouldn’t you be getting better? Why are you getting worse?”

“I’m…”

“Yes?”

“I’m too strong.”

Lee Hyun-soo stares at Kang Jin-ho silently for a moment before yelling out in disbelief.

“Seriously, did you become a middle schooler? Why are you suddenly spouting chuunibyou [a Japanese term for someone who acts like a delusional teenager] lines?”

“No, I’m really strong.”

Kang Jin-ho sighs.

That damn Demonic Heavenly Lord.

It feels like he’s almost got it, but he just can’t grasp it. He thought he had enough power to take him on now, but strangely, his sword wouldn’t reach the Demonic Heavenly Lord.

“Why isn’t it working?”

“What’s the point of worrying about it? You’re not the type to solve things with logic in the first place, Guild Leader.”

“Huh?”

“When you were learning martial arts in your past life, did you think about things like that?”

“……No, I didn’t.”

He just charged in.

If something didn’t work, he would train until it did, or he would find the answer in actual combat.

‘No, that’s not right.’

Come to think of it, he hardly ever felt like he was blocked by something back then. He got stronger as much as he trained, and he got stronger as much as he fought.

“This is just my opinion…”

“Hmm?”

“Maybe you’re thinking too much compared to your past self, Guild Leader.”

“……Huh?”

“You know how it is. To become a top athlete, you need to be smart, but the ones who reach the very top transcend theory with their senses.”

He thinks he understands what she means.

“When I first saw you, Guild Leader, you had that kind of feeling. To put it simply, your brain was all muscle… Ack! Aack! No, I misspoke! A mistake! No, not a punch to the face right away!”

“Do you think you’d be alive if I had hit you properly?”

“……Thank you for sparing me.”

Lee Hyun-soo tears up.

Being weak is a sin, being weak is a sin.

Lee Hyun-soo sighs and continues.

“You probably didn’t feel frustrated back then. Because you didn’t know what was above you. You could think you were getting stronger even if you only got a tiny bit stronger from training.”

“That’s right.”

“But it’s not like that now. You know how far you have to go now, Guild Leader. So you keep getting impatient and think you’re stagnating. That impatience keeps making you resort to shortcuts.”

“Shortcuts?”

Kang Jin-ho tilts his head.

“Yes. You keep trying to find a way to break through instead of just charging in, right?”

“There’s no royal road. That’s what you always say, Guild Leader.”

Kang Jin-ho stares blankly at Lee Hyun-soo.

“What’s with that look?”

“No.”

Kang Jin-ho scratches his cheek.

“It’s just… it’s kind of sad and absurd that I’m talking about martial arts with you…”

“Does that mean you can’t know the theory if you’re not a master? Top athletes can’t be good coaches. Weaklings are better coaches!”

That kind of makes sense?

Squeeze.

Lee Hyun-soo presses down on Kang Jin-ho’s wound with a slightly resentful hand as she tapes it, but Kang Jin-ho is still lost in thought, seemingly not feeling any pain.

“Tsk.”

Lee Hyun-soo clicks her tongue at the sight.

‘This isn’t good.’

It might look manly to some, but it’s a sad thing when a person becomes numb to pain.

How many injuries does he have to endure to not even care about this kind of wound?

People focus on what Kang Jin-ho has achieved.

That’s why they don’t think about how much effort Kang Jin-ho has put in to achieve all of this.

If they showed the Mages who whine about how hard training is what Kang Jin-ho’s training looks like, the color would drain from their faces in less than five minutes.

‘A normal person can’t handle this.’

It would be enough to break their minds in just a few days. Imagine getting an injury that would send you to the intensive care unit once a day, recovering from it, and then getting injured again.

Usually, repeating this in a weaker form is called torture.

Right now, Kang Jin-ho is torturing his body to the maximum intensity.

“Be reasonable, please, be reasonable.”

Lee Hyun-soo finishes the last bit of taping and takes her hand off Kang Jin-ho’s body.

“You’ll die before you get stronger at this rate. There won’t be a single drop of blood left in your body from a week ago.”

“Of course, I know you have no choice but to be impatient.”

Lee Hyun-soo sighs deeply.

‘Lee Sung-hwi, that bastard.’

Thanks to him showing up and saying those things, it seems like impatience has taken root in Kang Jin-ho’s heart.

At this rate, his body will really get damaged.

But the dilemma Lee Hyun-soo has is that she can’t completely stop Kang Jin-ho’s training. Now that they’ve done everything they can, there’s a limit to how much the Guild can develop.

What’s left is….

‘Just the Guild Leader.’

An absolute master has an enormous impact on the battlefield.

That’s how the Guild has won until now. When Kang Jin-ho takes the lead and breaks the enemy’s momentum, they can easily pick off the enemy’s heads.

Objectively speaking, the Guild can’t even compare to the entire Three Kings faction, and it’s difficult for them to handle even the Red King faction.

In other words…

‘If the Guild Leader can’t overwhelm them from the front, the result is obvious.’

That’s why Lee Hyun-soo also wants Kang Jin-ho to get stronger.

However…

‘It’s painful to watch.’

Too much is placed on this man’s shoulders.

Sometimes, Lee Hyun-soo feels suffocated. The burden on Kang Jin-ho’s shoulders.

Just gauging the weight of it makes her feel crushed.

In reality, the one who’s running wild in the Guild isn’t Kang Jin-ho, but Lee Hyun-soo. But the reason why Lee Hyun-soo can run wild like that is because Kang Jin-ho is carrying all the burdens, isn’t it?

“Guild Leader.”

“Hmm?”

“Please don’t hurt yourself. I’m saying this from the bottom of my heart.”

“Don’t worry.”

Kang Jin-ho says as if it’s nothing.

“It’s nothing.”

Lee Hyun-soo, who was about to say something, sighs deeply. Then, she gathers the bandages and plastic bags scattered on the floor and gets up.

“Rest.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to go see if those bastards are training properly.”

Lee Hyun-soo walks out with a cold aura.

Watching that, Kang Jin-ho smacks his lips.

‘It’s going to be a mess.’

She’s about to turn the Guild upside down.

She’ll probably say that it’s because you guys are weak that the Guild Leader is suffering, and she’ll make a fuss.

Kang Jin-ho smiles bitterly.

Lee Hyun-soo probably won’t understand.

She’ll probably think that Kang Jin-ho is enduring this pain to protect the Guild.

‘She’ll never understand.’

The feelings of a martial artist looking at a koan [a paradoxical anecdote or riddle used in Zen Buddhism] that he can’t grasp are beyond words.

Eka [a Zen Buddhist monk] cut off his arm to attain enlightenment. In other words, compared to the pain of not being able to reach what’s in front of you, cutting off an arm is nothing.

‘A little more.’

Kang Jin-ho reaches out into the air with a thirsty look.

He seems to see the back of the Demonic Heavenly Lord wearing a red robe.

‘Just a little more.’

He’ll surpass it.

He’ll overcome himself.

He’ll overcome the past.

Kang Jin-ho turns his head and looks out the window.

‘There’s no time.’

Since a while ago, he’s started to feel like the world is tightening around him. If this isn’t just a feeling, then something big is probably happening in China right now.

It’s coming soon.

An unavoidable typhoon.

An inescapable fate.

To trample that fate and stand tall, Kang Jin-ho has to become even stronger.

Even more!

“Hoo!”

Kang Jin-ho exhales a short breath, puts a cigarette in his mouth, and lies down on the spot.

‘I’m tired.’

Kang Jin-ho closes his eyes and falls asleep without even lighting the cigarette.

His low breathing is the only sound that spreads through the Guild Leader’s office, which is filled with the smell of blood.