Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1629

“This is… how should I put it…”

Kang Jin-ho looked perplexed, watching Lee Hyun-soo, who seemed ready to launch into another round of ‘let me try out some nonsense.’

“What is it now?”

“No, it’s just… sigh…”

Lee Hyun-soo sighed, sounding dejected.

“There are lines people shouldn’t cross, you know… But sometimes, life throws you into situations where those lines clash. In this case, it’s a conflict between my loyalty and my conscience as a human being…”

Kang Jin-ho stared at Lee Hyun-soo, his expression blank.

“Conscience?”

“Yes.”

“You?”

Lee Hyun-soo started to speak but then clamped his mouth shut.

“…Wasn’t my hesitation just now proof that I have a conscience?”

“That’s not conscience, that’s common sense.”

“Anyway.”

Lee Hyun-soo took a USB drive from his pocket and shook it slightly.

“I’ve found undeniable evidence, but giving this to you, Chairman, goes a little against my conscience…”

“Then keep it.”

Lee Hyun-soo’s eyes wavered.

“No! How can you say that? Shouldn’t you be like, ‘What do you want?’, ‘I’ll give you a bonus!’, ‘You worked hard to get this!’? That’s how I get rewarded for my hard work!”

“If you took the pictures, it must be solid evidence, right?”

“Of course!”

“Then that’s enough.”

“…Huh?”

Kang Jin-ho spoke indifferently.

“What’s important is confirming the facts, not what the two of them were doing. If you’re trying to negotiate with me, it means you have irrefutable evidence. So, the facts are confirmed, right?”

“I don’t have a hobby of snooping into other people’s private lives,” Lee Hyun-soo said, looking displeased.

“If you say that, Chairman, what does that make me, who took these pictures?”

“A piece of human garbage.”

“…It doesn’t seem like my reputation has gotten any worse, so that’s a relief.”

That was the kind of evaluation he usually got anyway. Whatever.

Lee Hyun-soo clicked his tongue regretfully and put the USB back in his pocket.

“Anyway, it’s clear that the two of them have a relationship beyond a certain level.”

“You just had to…”

Kang Jin-ho slumped into his chair.

It was almost a done deal, but he had still held onto a sliver of hope that there might have been a misunderstanding. That hope was now completely shattered.

Now, he really had to seriously consider Park Yu-min as his brother-in-law.

‘Why, Yu-min, why?’

Oh, dear, oh, dear.

His friend, whom he had raised so carefully, as if he might break if he touched him, was now going to be his brother-in-law.

Could there be anything more depressing?

“Is there no way to do anything about it, even now?”

“Have you discussed it with anyone?”

“Choi Yeon-ha.”

“What did the director say?”

“She told me not to interfere clumsily and complicate things, and to just watch while pretending to be blind and mute.”

“Frankly, I don’t think highly of Director Choi’s views on relationships…”

That person was a virgin until she met you, after all.

“But I think Director Choi is right this time. So, let’s wrap it up here.”

Even Lee Hyun-soo was saying this, so Kang Jin-ho looked dejected.

“Is this really the right thing to do?”

“Where in the world is there a right thing to do?”

Lee Hyun-soo smiled wryly.

“There are solutions to every problem. But there is no perfect solution that can satisfy everyone. So, we need to come to an agreement at a reasonable point. At a point where we’ve conceded what we need to concede and taken what we need to take.”

“…What did I take?”

“You got a good brother-in-law.”

Kang Jin-ho slumped back in his chair, looking dejected.

‘Even if the General Assembly collapsed, he wouldn’t look like that.’

The most extreme reaction Kang Jin-ho had shown recently was to the news of his sister’s relationship… no, his friend’s relationship. This made Lee Hyun-soo laugh.

“So, let’s wrap it up now. It’s pathetic to watch someone else’s love life with such angry eyes.”

“…Okay.”

Kang Jin-ho sighed deeply and straightened his back.

“So, how is the training going?”

“…Don’t change the mood so abruptly. I can’t adapt.”

Lee Hyun-soo chuckled and continued.

“Bator is handling the US side well, and most of the other preparations are complete. We’ve finished most of the short-term tasks, so now we just need to move forward with the long-term ones.”

“It’s a simple but correct answer.”

Unless they planned to make a move first, this was the best they could do.

If they had done everything they could, then all that was left was to wait.

“What about China?”

“The front lines are being pushed back.”

Lee Hyun-soo frowned.

“The Hong King faction… no, I don’t know what Cai Kechang is thinking, but they are retreating, practically abandoning all the territory they had occupied. The front lines that were built around Beijing have now been pushed back almost to Xi’an.”

“Xi’an, are you talking about Xi’an?”

Lee Hyun-soo nodded at Kang Jin-ho’s words.

“Yes.”

“Xi’an…”

That meant they had retreated almost the distance from Seoul to Busan.

Considering that it was China, not Korea, this was no small matter.

“What about the Hong King?”

“There’s still no movement.”

Lee Hyun-soo looked directly at Kang Jin-ho.

“But now, the Hong King can’t stay still either. If they were maintaining the front lines, they could endure the damage. But if they keep retreating like this, they’ll be pushed all the way to the South Sea in no time. If the Hong King doesn’t appear and turn the tide before then, the Hong King faction will be finished.”

“Hmm.”

“And more than anything, Cai Kechang won’t let the situation get that far.”

Kang Jin-ho nodded quietly.

“That’s why I actually have something I want to ask you, Chairman.”

“Hmm?”

“I can’t understand the Hong King’s actions at all. The front lines are being pushed back, and his territory is being taken away. Considering that the Hong King was probably near Beijing, doesn’t that mean he’s also packing up and fleeing south?”

“I guess so.”

“Is there any reason why someone like the Hong King would have to endure such humiliation? The Hong King I saw was definitely not a coward. He was, rather, an incredibly spirited person. But it’s hard for me to accept that he’s accepting this situation.”

Kang Jin-ho frowned slightly.

“That’s why I want to ask you, Chairman. You’re probably the one who understands the Hong King the best here.”

Kang Jin-ho stroked his chin.

The Hong King.

What was the Hong King thinking…

“Time.”

“Yes?”

“What he needs isn’t territory or victory. It’s only time.”

“…Time, you say?”

“The war of martial artists is quite unique. The power of forces clashes, but in the end, it’s half decided by which side has the strongest person.”

“That’s right. That’s why we thought the outcome would be decided by the clash between the Chang King and the Hong King, right? I think they’re making the same judgment.”

“It means he’s about to be complete.”

Kang Jin-ho said firmly.

“The Hong King has crossed a wall once.”

“Thanks to you, Chairman.”

“Crossing a wall doesn’t mean development. It means you’ve gained the potential to develop. Of course, there are cases where crossing a wall leads to rapid development, but most of the time, you have to reorganize your own martial arts.”

“Oh…”

“The Hong King is there now.”

“In other words…”

Lee Hyun-soo summarized Kang Jin-ho’s words.

“Thanks to crossing the wall, he gained the opportunity to become stronger, but he needs time to convert that opportunity and potential into actual strength.”

“That’s right.”

Lee Hyun-soo nodded quietly.

“Then he must be almost complete. If he had a lot of time left, he wouldn’t be trying to buy time by retreating like that. That would be more of a loss.”

“Yeah.”

Kang Jin-ho frowned.

“Maybe… in ten days at the most, or even tomorrow.”

“That means the Hong King will make a move.”

“Probably.”

Lee Hyun-soo’s face became serious.

‘If the Hong King appears, the situation will be decided in an instant.’

Just as the situation had been stagnant until now, the suppressed forces would explode all at once. It would be almost a one-strike victory.

‘Does Cai Kechang believe in the Hong King’s martial prowess that much to take all of this into account?’

Even if the Hong King was one of the Three Kings, the people he had to face were also Three Kings. And yet, he believed that the Hong King would definitely defeat the Chang King?

At this point, it was almost a fanatical belief.

Lee Hyun-soo’s trust in Kang Jin-ho was also almost pathological, but he had reviewed the scenarios several times in case Kang Jin-ho couldn’t defeat the Hong King.

But Cai Kechang was adjusting all the scenarios with the belief that the Hong King would definitely defeat the Chang King.

‘I’ll have to watch and see if that gamble will succeed.’

I hope it only succeeds halfway.

So that there can be a mutual loss.

“Then, I’ll ask you one last thing.”

“Hmm?”

“If the situation allows, are you thinking of pushing directly into China?”

Kang Jin-ho stared at Lee Hyun-soo quietly.

“Into China?”

“I am considering it.” Lee Hyun-soo revealed his teeth slightly.

“Waiting for the opponent doesn’t mean just taking their attacks. If the situation allows, we should also consider leading the game, not just playing on the board they created.”

Kang Jin-ho chuckled.

“That’s a strange question. Have we ever just waited until now? We directly invaded Europe, and you stopped me from going to Japan.”

“It’s a slightly different story. Because the Black King faction is there.”

“Oh…”

“The moment we invade China and start a war with the Chang King or Hong King factions, we’ll reach a point of no return with the Black King faction as well. There’s no way they’ll let us take over Chinese territory. In other words…”

Lee Hyun-soo said in a subdued voice.

“If we invade China, we won’t be able to stop until we unify China. We’ll either gain everything or lose everything. There won’t be a situation where it ends moderately.”

“But if we hold out in Korea, we can get that moderation. What will you do?”

Click.

Kang Jin-ho put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it.

Kang Jin-ho slowly exhaled the cigarette smoke, and through the smoke, he looked at the blurred Lee Hyun-soo and grinned.

“That’s a strange question.”

“There’s no such thing as a war that ends moderately anyway. Martial artists are like wolves, they don’t know satisfaction. If someone unifies China, they will definitely expand outwards. Don’t we already know that?”

Lee Hyun-soo nodded.

That was the nature of China. Or perhaps, it was the nature of humans.

“If they won’t stop, we have to make them stop. Even if it’s a forced thing that we have to get by twisting their necks.”

“Then?”

“Is there any reason why we can’t do something we’ve done once before?”

In the past, Kang Jin-ho had already unified the Central Plains [historical region of China] once. But that period was extremely short, and the unification of the Central Plains was not perfect either.

“This time, I’ll make it perfect.”

Looking at the smiling Kang Jin-ho, Lee Hyun-soo nodded with a stiff face.

“It will definitely be so.”