Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1754

“We need to go south, you moronic turtle-spawn!” Chaikechang roared.

The glare pouring out of him looked like it could kill a man on the spot, but Lee Hyun-soo, who was receiving the full force of it, didn’t back down an inch.

“Are you just carrying your head around for decoration? It’s north!”

“You idiot!” Chaikechang spat out vehemently.

“The Hongwang Clan has its base in the south! In this situation, we need to move to a place where we can somehow use our geographical advantage!”

“What’s there! You’ve swept the place clean of even an ant, what good will going there do, you bastard!”

“Don’t talk nonsense! Strength isn’t just about brute force! We need to use everything we can there to have a chance of winning!”

“You think those who’ve been abandoned by the government will fare any better there! And if we go that way, there’s no way out, you moron!” Lee Hyun-soo waved his hand dismissively, as if it wasn’t even worth listening to.

“North! If we go north, we can join up with the Mongolian steppe warriors! And all the support we’ve prepared is concentrated there.”

“Right. The Round Table will be there too.”

“You think you’ll get any support? Even if you combine all the American and Japanese martial artists, they won’t even be half the strength of the Round Table. What a help they’ll be, you moron!” Lee Hyun-soo and Chaikechang glared at each other, grinding their teeth.

At first glance, it looked like they were having an emotional fight, but they were actually coordinating their opinions in the fastest way possible.

“Think about it,” Chaikechang muttered quickly.

“This is a waste of time. This way is pointless. Whatever we’re thinking, he’s thinking too.”

Lee Hyun-soo’s face hardened at the mention of ‘him’.

“Target the weakest point? He’ll know that. Then go to the most advantageous place? No. He’ll know that too.”

“A child tries their best to deceive their parents, but it’s obvious to the parents. The method isn’t the answer.”

“Right. Then there’s only one conclusion. What to aim for.”

“Even if it means taking some damage?”

“Yes!” Lee Hyun-soo gritted his teeth.

“Damn it! Fine!” He turned sharply and started running towards Kang Jin-ho. Chaikechang, as if frustrated by his speed, grabbed Lee Hyun-soo and took off running himself.

“Lord! No, Master!” Wiggins turned his head sharply to look at Lee Hyun-soo.

“About the teleport!”

“Didn’t we say that’s meaningless now?”

“No, no! Not that!” Lee Hyun-soo quickly interjected.

“Can you check which direction the Master teleported in?”

“…Direction?”

“Yes!” Wiggins stared at Lee Hyun-soo with a ‘what the hell are you talking about’ look, then his expression hardened.

“Direction, damn direction… Is that even possible?” Wiggins ran to where the Master and Changwang had teleported, as if grasping at straws.

“…This is impossible.” But he shook his head.

“Basically, teleportation is no different from folding space to move from one place to another. There’s no way there would be any traces left…”

“We don’t necessarily need to know that! If we can just sense Changwang’s energy…” But Kang Jin-ho shook his head at that.

“I can’t feel it. He seems to have hidden himself well.”

“Ah…” Just as disappointment was clouding Lee Hyun-soo’s face, Wiggins turned his head sharply.

“Sense? That’s right! Damn it, sensing!” His hands moved quickly, creating a mana circle in the air.

“The Master must have the battery I made! If so, it’s easy for me to sense my own creation!” No one answered him.

They didn’t want to disturb Wiggins’ concentration.

Only Kang Jin-ho quietly asked Lee Hyun-soo.

“What is he doing?”

“He’s sensing! The Master’s location!”

“Is that possible?”

“It would be impossible with a person. But if the Master has the mana battery that Master made, it’s not impossible.”

“Hmm?” Lee Hyun-soo said with an anxious face.

“He’s such a paranoid person that he put tracking circuits in everything in case of loss or recovery. That’s why it took twice as long!”

“…He really did such a useless thing.”

“We had to prevent leaks. But who knew it would be used like this.”

The Master wouldn’t have imagined it either.

The circuit was built inside the battery, and to find it, you’d have to break the battery. But there’s no way the Master would break such an important item.

After the war, they might disassemble it for research purposes, but now they were in the middle of a war.

“I found it! Damn it, I found it!” Wiggins shouted.

“It’s over there. It’s Wkm [a unit of distance, likely an abbreviation for ‘Wiggin’s kilometer’] to the northeast!”

“That’s it!” Lee Hyun-soo yelled.

“Changwang is with him. That bastard watched the situation right in front of him in Zhangjiakou. There’s no way he’d just leave. He must have been watching from a reasonable distance! That bastard is a pervert!” Lee Hyun-soo shouted without waiting for a response.

“Master, how many times can you use teleportation in a row?”

“It depends on the distance. And it also depends on how many people you’re taking. If it’s just Changwang…” Wiggins grabbed his head as if he had a headache.

“Damn it, there’s a battery over there… bat…” At that moment, Wiggins’ eyes shook as if struck by lightning.

“Lord!”

“Hmm?”

“Just once! We just need to catch him once. Maybe I can stop the next teleportation.”

“Are you sure?”

“No. I’m not sure. But the probability isn’t low! It’s more than enough to hope for a lucky break.” Kang Jin-ho nodded slightly.

’10km…’

It was a distance that was far if it was far, and close if it was close. Even for Kang Jin-ho, who instinctively grasped the situation of himself and his enemies, he couldn’t grasp how to accept this distance with these numbers.

“In other words…” Kang Jin-ho pointed his chin to the northeast.

“Changwang is still there, ahead of us.”

“Yes!”

“And if we can just get there, there might be a way to stop Changwang from running away again?”

“That’s right. I’m not sure… But again, it’s not something I can be sure of.”

“So there’s a possibility.”

“Yes!” Kang Jin-ho nodded.

“If he moves and runs away while we’re approaching, it’ll be meaningless.”

“No. He won’t do that,” Lee Hyun-soo said with conviction.

“As I said before, for him to leave this place is a bigger problem than you abandoning us here. Even if we miss him, if we can create that situation, winning won’t be that difficult.”

Kang Jin-ho smiled, putting a cigarette in his mouth.

“You sure talk a good game.”

“…Please believe me this time.” Kang Jin-ho lit his cigarette and looked at Lee Hyun-soo.

“I always have.”

“It’s okay if you’re wrong not ten times, but a hundred times. Just get it right once. Then I’ll take Changwang’s head and make us win!”

“Yes!” Lee Hyun-soo’s eyes burned.

It was as good as another defeat. No, it was a complete and utter failure without any room for excuses.

But this wasn’t the end.

He had people who would take responsibility for his mistakes and endure with him.

‘Just once is enough.’

There was no need to be discouraged.

As Kang Jin-ho said, this was a game where the last one standing wins. No matter what humiliation you suffer before that, no matter what defeat you taste, as long as your head is still attached, it’s not over.

“Then we’ve reached a conclusion.”

“Yes! The direction is northeast! We’ll target Changwang again without letting him escape.”

Kang Jin-ho curled up the corner of his mouth with a cigarette in it.

“You’re saying something I like for once.”

He turned his head and looked at the distant sky.

“Then that’s the problem now…” In the meantime, the planes that were so far away they couldn’t even be seen had approached to a distance where they could be identified.

“Chaikechang, identify the model! It’s your country’s.”

“…I’m not a military expert, what do you expect me to know from looking at that? I’m Chinese, not a military otaku [a Japanese term for a person with obsessive interests, often in anime or manga]!” Even as he said that, Chaikechang narrowed his eyes and stared at the sky.

“…Looks like a bomber?”

“Then you idiot! There aren’t any other planes, why would they send a fighter jet!”

“Even in this situation, you…” Chaikechang looked at Lee Hyun-soo with a look of exasperation.

That bastard would grab a demon and start a fight even if he fell into hell.

No, wasn’t he already like that?

“The problem is what’s going to fall from the bomber. Think about it! Even if this is a mountain range, can those bastards drop high-explosive or white phosphorus bombs?” Chaikechang’s face became serious.

“It’s impossible. That’s impossible.”

There were people nearby. And as they had confirmed on their way here, people hadn’t completely evacuated. They couldn’t just pour out firepower like they did in Zhangjiakou last time.

“What’s the possibility?”

“…There would be! Damn it, there’s nothing completely impossible in this world. But it would be very small!”

“Good.” Lee Hyun-soo glared at the sky.

‘Then it’s definitely…’

Humans have tendencies.

In this situation, diversifying the attack method is not a consideration. If they want to defeat the enemy for sure, they will definitely attack in the way they think is the most certain.

They wouldn’t want to cause a large-scale explosion. As secretly and quietly as possible, in a way that they could somehow cover up if there was a problem, as long as it was within their own country.

“They’re coming!” At Bang Jin-hoon’s voice, Lee Hyun-soo yelled.

“Everyone, take out what you prepared! Now!” Swaaaaaaash!

Along with the sound of the air being torn apart from afar, the bombers, now almost fully formed, began to pass over their heads. At the same time, numerous shells were dropped below.

“Gather! This way! Now!” Those who received his instructions rushed over. But there were so many of them that it was impossible to gather in one place from the start.

“Gather? Not scatter?”

“They’re planning to cover the whole area, what difference does it make if we scatter? It’s better to have a smaller area being attacked!” So that the martial artists could respond more easily.

“Can we remove them?”

“Not yet, not yet!” Lee Hyun-soo gritted his teeth.

Shells were pouring down like rain. It wouldn’t be visible to ordinary people, but the scene was clearly visible to the martial artists.

“They’re approaching!”

“Not yet!”

“What are you thinking, you bastard!”

“Not yet! Not yet!” Lee Hyun-soo bit his lip tightly.

‘Changwang is a human too! If he’s human, he’ll definitely move the way I think he will!’ And at that very moment.

Thud!

With a heavy explosion, the shells spread out as if they were exploding, and from within, fist-sized projectiles began to scatter in all directions.

“I knew it, you bastard!” Lee Hyun-soo yelled.

“Everyone, put on your gas masks! Now! It’s a biochemical weapon!” Something that Lee Hyun-soo hadn’t given up on, even while minimizing weight and volume for teleportation.

The gathered troops took out gas masks from their backpacks and began to put them on all at once.

“We won’t be fooled twice, you trash!” Lee Hyun-soo gritted his teeth as he put on his gas mask.