Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1702

Kuuuung!

The power imbued in Lee Sung-hwi’s fist collided with the massive sword energy. The white fist energy and the blue sword energy clashed in mid-air, scattering in all directions.

Crack!

The trees, torn apart by the sharp energy, fell over with a loud crash.

‘He’s got some moves!’

‘These Chinese bastards watch too many martial arts flicks. Their way of talking is so corny.’

Lee Sung-hwi grinned, baring his teeth.

With just one clash, they had a rough idea of each other’s strength.

‘He’s strong.’

They were definitely strong. If it had been the Lee Sung-hwi of the past, he would have been a cold corpse after just one clash.

But Lee Sung-hwi was not someone to be trifled with either.

Before Kang Jin-ho appeared, Lee Sung-hwi was a promising talent, expected to become the best martial artist in Korea.

Therefore…

‘If I can’t even buy some time, I should just bite my tongue and die.’

Lee Sung-hwi sneered and took a step forward.

‘Wait, you…’

The King’s warriors seemed to have noticed something, their faces contorted. But Lee Sung-hwi didn’t give them a chance to speak.

‘Taaaat!’

Lee Sung-hwi unleashed a white light mixed with red, charging at his opponents.

And behind him, Lee Hyun-soo’s eyes were shaking incessantly as he watched.

‘Why is that guy here…?’

When someone had barged in, he had naturally assumed it was reinforcements from the Assembly. He knew it wasn’t the right time for that, but there was no one else who would come to help him.

‘…What the hell is that guy?’

Lee Sung-hwi and he were enemies.

From Kang Jin-ho to Japan, the Round Table, the Hong King faction, and the Chang King faction.

There had been many who had tried to kill Lee Hyun-soo, but his relationship with Lee Sung-hwi was the oldest enmity of all.

From the time he was the second-in-command of the Yeongnam Assembly, Lee Sung-hwi, the successor of Lee Joong-gul, was someone he had to eliminate. And when he joined the Assembly, hadn’t Lee Sung-hwi turned the Assembly into his enemy?

In other words, Lee Hyun-soo was someone Lee Sung-hwi would want to kill at all costs.

But…

Then why was Lee Sung-hwi protecting Lee Hyun-soo?

‘O-Oppa.’

Seeing the flustered Lee Hyun-joo, Lee Hyun-soo bit his lip.

‘Is it because of Hyun-joo?’

No… no, that wasn’t it either.

If Lee Sung-hwi really only wanted to protect Lee Hyun-joo, he would have rescued her and fled instead of blocking the enemies. They were after him, and they wouldn’t bother chasing after Lee Hyun-joo and Lee Sung-hwi.

‘Damn it, I don’t understand. Damn it.’

His mind couldn’t make sense of Lee Sung-hwi’s actions.

‘Hyun-joo.’

‘Hyun-joo!’

Lee Hyun-joo, who seemed a little dazed, flinched and turned to look at Lee Hyun-soo.

‘How is it? Can you block them?’

‘I…’

Lee Hyun-joo looked at Lee Sung-hwi with a bewildered expression.

‘I don’t know.’

‘…Is that so?’

Lee Hyun-soo bit his lip tightly.

‘What should I do?’

Should he trust Lee Sung-hwi and stay here, or should he try to escape at the first opportunity?

Trying to escape with someone’s help might be a despicable thought, but he couldn’t die in a place like this. He still had things to do.

His eyes fell on Lee Sung-hwi.

Black darkness was mixed with the white fist energy.

‘Demonic Art.’

Lee Sung-hwi’s martial prowess was extraordinary at a glance.

The King’s warriors, nearly a dozen of them, couldn’t dare approach Lee Sung-hwi. As he watched the dazzling martial arts with his own eyes, a sense of pity washed over him rather than admiration.

‘You pathetic bastard.’

If someone with that much talent had been taught by Kang Jin-ho?

‘He would have become a master beyond comparison.’

The best young martial artists in the Assembly right now were Lee Myung-hwan, Ma Yeom, and Gong Young-gil, who was considered Bator’s disciple.

But in terms of potential, Lee Myung-hwan and Gong Young-gil couldn’t even compare to Lee Sung-hwi.

That’s why he couldn’t help but feel regret.

If he had chosen the right path, perhaps there would have been a new director in the Assembly right now.

‘…Stupid bastard.’

He was a man he couldn’t understand at all.

People sometimes make choices they shouldn’t because they are swayed by their emotions. How many people live their lives making only the right choices?

What Lee Hyun-soo couldn’t understand was that Lee Sung-hwi, who had chosen to oppose Kang Jin-ho despite having so many opportunities, was now protecting him at this moment.

Lee Hyun-soo, whom he hated even more than Kang Jin-ho in some ways.

Kwaaaang!

A fist he threw out sent a flying sword flying away.

Clang!

But the enemy was not so easy either. Instead of two swords, two swords pierced his chest. They had lost most of their power penetrating the fist energy, but it wasn’t difficult to create long scars on a body made of flesh and blood.

Lee Sung-hwi struck the side of the swords embedded in his body and drove his fist into the warriors’ bodies.

Bang! Bang!

Two fist strikes.

And two impacts.

The King’s warriors, struck by Lee Sung-hwi’s fist, were sent flying like cannonballs.

‘Ptooey!’

Lee Sung-hwi spat out blood-mixed saliva on the ground and pressed down on the open wound with one hand.

‘Weaker than I thought.’

‘…This bastard?’

Just as the King’s warriors were about to rush at Lee Sung-hwi in a frenzy.

‘Step aside.’

Flint.

The King’s warriors, who had been building momentum, quickly lowered their stance and opened a path to the left and right. Wang Yan-hong slowly walked through the open path.

Wang Yan-hong looked at Lee Sung-hwi and tilted his head.

‘You…’

‘Why are you here?’

It was definitely a familiar face.

A Korean guy who had come to the Chang King, offering information about the Hong King faction and the Assembly. Wang Yan-hong had ignored him and tried to kill him, but the great Chang King had taken an interest and accepted him.

Wang Yan-hong growled.

‘The Chang King showed you grace and took in a dying man, and yet… you dare betray his grace?’

‘Grace?’

Lee Sung-hwi chuckled.

‘You Chinese guys always calculate things your own way. That’s called a deal.’

‘…A deal is something equals do.’

Wang Yan-hong’s voice grew colder.

‘Do you think a bug like you can make a deal with the Chang King? An untamed beast thinks of the owner who feeds it as a friend. You’re just like that.’

‘Better than livestock.’

‘…Better?’

Wang Yan-hong let out a hollow laugh.

He wouldn’t feel better until he had torn that arrogant bastard’s mouth to shreds and turned his body into pieces of meat.

Someone who had dared to betray the Chang King.

No punishment was adequate. Nothing could repay the price.

What suppressed his boiling rage was a question that had formed in Wang Yan-hong’s mind.

‘Answer me.’

‘You know what kind of person the Chang King is. You can’t not know his terror. So why are you blocking his path?’

‘Didn’t you want to erase the Assembly from the world?’

‘Don’t get the wrong idea, you moron.’

Lee Sung-hwi sneered.

‘I never wanted to erase the Assembly. I always only wanted Kang Jin-ho’s death.’

‘Of course…’

Lee Sung-hwi glanced at Lee Hyun-soo and wiped the blood dripping from his mouth with his sleeve.

‘I want to kill that bastard too, but…’

‘Then why did you step in?’

‘I don’t know, you bastards.’

Lee Sung-hwi chuckled.

A question is only meaningful if it can be answered. He himself didn’t know why he had stepped in, so what meaning could that question have?

He had just been watching.

Around Lee Hyun-joo, and the Assembly.

And he had just followed them to Jeju Island without much thought. He was now a ghost-like existence, unable to find a reason to live.

Alive but not living, dead but not dead.

‘If I had to find a reason…’

‘Let’s just say you guys were unlucky.’

Wang Yan-hong’s face twisted grotesquely.

‘It doesn’t matter. Whatever the reason, the result won’t change.’

Swoosh.

He slowly drew his sword.

Seeing that, Lee Sung-hwi’s eyes gradually sank.

‘Do you think you can beat me?’

‘…I’m quite a realist. It’ll be a bit difficult.’

‘And yet you won’t back down?’

Hearing that, Lee Sung-hwi started to chuckle.

‘…What’s so funny?’

‘You pathetic bastard.’

Lee Sung-hwi’s eyes were bloodshot.

‘I’m a man who fought to the end with that Kang Jin-ho. Compared to that monster, you’re nothing more than a worm wriggling on the street. And now you’re threatening me?’

Lee Sung-hwi laughed as if he couldn’t hold it in.

‘A madman has his own kind of aesthetics. I’ve come too far to be intimidated by the likes of you.’

Wang Yan-hong stared at Lee Sung-hwi with a blank look.

‘Has he really gone mad?’

His movements and speech were definitely not normal. There was no need to even mention his way of thinking.

‘Then let’s see…’

Wang Yan-hong bared his teeth and charged.

‘Let’s see if a sword can pierce a madman’s body?’

Kwaaaaaa!

The sword tore through the air, and the wind pressure alone ripped up the ground. Lee Sung-hwi, seeing the tremendous sword strike with his own eyes, gritted his teeth and drew out all the power in his body.

‘Haaahhh!’

The black and white energy swirled like a storm in his clenched fist.

Vital energy and demonic energy.

Lee Sung-hwi’s fist, having drawn up both energies, met the sword that was coming down on his head.

Kwaaaaaaaaaang!

A huge explosion erupted as the sword and fist collided.

And at that moment, Lee Sung-hwi clearly saw it.

His fist, which had made contact with the sword, couldn’t withstand the power contained in the sword and burst apart like an inflated balloon.

Blood sprayed everywhere like a fountain.

And that wasn’t the end of it.

The sword that had deflected the fist strike pierced Lee Sung-hwi’s shoulder.

Thwack!

With a chilling sound he never wanted to hear again, Lee Sung-hwi’s severed right arm spun and flew into the forest.

‘Haaahhh!’

But even with one arm severed, Lee Sung-hwi didn’t flinch at all. Instead, his eyes turned even redder as he swung his remaining fist, striking Wang Yan-hong’s jaw.

‘Slow.’ Thud!

But before that fist could even reach Wang Yan-hong, the sword pierced Lee Sung-hwi’s abdomen.

‘Lee Sung-hwi!’

‘Ah… ah…’

Lee Hyun-soo and Lee Hyun-joo, who were watching the scene from behind, clearly saw the sword sticking out of Lee Sung-hwi’s back.

Lee Hyun-soo grabbed his thigh, and Lee Hyun-joo staggered as if she was about to collapse.

Wang Yan-hong sneered, enjoying all their reactions.

‘It seems even a madman can be pierced by a sword?’

‘Hhh…’

That was when it happened.

The moment the sword pierced his stomach, Lee Sung-hwi’s fist, which had been frozen, swung with a speed not much different from the first time, striking Wang Yan-hong’s jaw.

Bang!

With a sound like a hammer hitting a rubber ball, Wang Yan-hong’s body was sent flying backward, rolling on the ground. After rolling a couple of times, Wang Yan-hong stood up, his eyes unable to hide his bewilderment as he looked at Lee Sung-hwi.

Blood poured from his mouth like a waterfall.

But even in the midst of that, Lee Sung-hwi opened his mouth and smiled.

‘You moron, a madman… does things that normal people can’t… that’s why he’s a madman.’

Lee Sung-hwi chuckled and staggered towards Wang Yan-hong.