Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1826

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Kang Jin-ho, having walked to the rooftop railing, put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it. His gaze was fixed on Bator charging towards Baek Yeon-hong.

Lee Hyun-soo stood beside him like a shadow.

“…Will he be alright?”

However, unlike his usual self, Lee Hyun-soo’s face was stiff with tension. If what Kang Jin-ho said was true, then Baek Yeon-hong was beyond the level that the council directors could handle.

Kang Jin-ho slowly exhaled cigarette smoke and opened his mouth.

“They brought this on themselves.”

Kang Jin-ho recalled Jang Min’s words from a little while ago.

“Please, do not interfere, Master.”

“…How presumptuous.”

It wasn’t that he didn’t know why Jang Min had said that.

‘It’s also my fault.’

Humans grow through hardship. Those who have never experienced a crisis or failure in their lives have limits to their growth.

Above all, what makes humans grow is the moment they overcome something they cannot handle with their current abilities.

“I’ve never given them a chance.”

It wasn’t as if they hadn’t fought powerful enemies before. But the enemy they truly had to overcome was always Kang Jin-ho’s responsibility, not the directors’.

“I understand your thoughts, Master, but…” Lee Hyun-soo looked at the directors with an anxious expression.

“What if they die… no, what if they get hurt?”

He couldn’t bring himself to say the words ‘what if they die’.

“They’re not the type to go down so easily.” Kang Jin-ho’s eyes darkened.

“Let’s watch for now. We need to gauge that guy’s skills too.”

Their gazes followed those who had engaged in battle.

“Oooooooooh!”

Bator’s fist was relentlessly thrown. It was an attack that seemed to embody the very image of a strike accompanied by a gale, aimed at Baek Yeon-hong.

A terrifying force.

Vast inner power, as if it could turn the whole body to dust just by brushing against it, poured out with extreme violence.

But…

“Impressive.”

On Baek Yeon-hong’s face, receiving that power, there was admiration rather than a sense of crisis.

‘Immense inner power and external skills, and demonic power on top of that?’

It was a combination he had never seen in his life. Even in his era, when all sorts of martial arts were rampant, no one had mastered martial arts in this way.

Perhaps that was why.

The power carried in the incoming force was so intense that it surprised even the great Baek Yeon-hong. It was an immense power, as if the way of the tyrant was embodied in his entire being.

However…

“Crude.”

His sword drew a soft circle.

Not fast at all, the sword rotated slowly, and a majestic inner force flowed like a river.

The sword, imbued with white and black inner force, stuck to the side of the incoming power, then gently pushed the power aside.

“Hmm?”

As the power writhed as if resisting, he, with a slight smile, lightly tapped the sword’s surface with his free hand.

Then, the power that had been flying in with explosive force passed by Baek Yeon-hong’s body and slammed into the ground.

KWAHAAAAAAANG!

A huge explosion occurred behind him, causing Baek Yeon-hong’s clothes to flutter, but Baek Yeon-hong didn’t even glance behind him.

“The power is overflowing.”

He lightly shook his head.

“But power is meaningless if it’s not used properly. What’s the point of power that can’t even touch my body? Don’t you think so?”

Baek Yeon-hong lowered his sword and smiled at Bator.

“Y-you…”

Bator’s eyes grew increasingly bloodshot.

However, unlike his eyes, his mind had not yet completely lost its reason. He was suppressing the impulses given by demonic power with his willpower, trying his best to maintain his rationality.

‘The extreme of softness, the shifting of flowers and grafting of trees [a martial arts technique that redirects an opponent’s force].’ That sword is at the extreme of softness.

Those who have mastered the shifting of flowers and grafting of trees do not confront the opponent’s power head-on but use the opponent’s power. Then, with just a bit of force, they can defeat the opponent.

But that is by no means as easy as it sounds.

In the midst of a life-or-death struggle where life and death are decided in a single blow, to withdraw power and use the opponent’s power against them is twice as difficult as overpowering the opponent with greater force.

In other words, that man was literally someone who had trained his sword to the extreme.

“…The compatibility is bad.”

Bator bared his teeth.

He, who pursued the way of the tyrant, and Baek Yeon-hong, who pursued the extreme of softness, were so incompatible that they could be called natural enemies.

The stronger the opponent’s power, the greater the power that the man could use.

But Bator had no intention of backing down.

Compatibility?

He could just break it with force.

KWAHAAAAANG!

The floor that Bator had stepped on shattered, leaving spiderweb-like cracks in all directions. And Bator’s body, despite its large size, charged towards Baek Yeon-hong with a speed like a ray of light.

KWAHAAAAAAANG!

The energy emanating from his body swirled around Bator. It was a sight as if a giant drill was engulfing Baek Yeon-hong.

“You don’t understand words.”

Baek Yeon-hong smiled wryly and took a couple of steps back.

His sword bent limply, not resisting the onrushing energy.

“Power is…”

Baek Yeon-hong, having moved two steps to the side again, brought his opposite hand to the surface of the sword he held in reverse.

“Meaningless if it doesn’t reach.”

KAGAGAGAGAK!

His sword deflected the incoming Bator to the side. But Bator also knew how his opponent would react.

“You bastard!”

Bator, having released his energy in all directions for a moment, spread his arms like a bear and lunged at Baek Yeon-hong. As if he would hug him like a bear hug and crush his waist.

Bator, his face flushed red, let out a roar, but surprisingly, he was in a very calm state right now.

If it was someone who wielded such a clean sword, they wouldn’t bother to clash with him head-on. They would retreat appropriately and look for an opportunity to counterattack.

What Bator was aiming for was that gap.

A distance too narrow to deploy a sword, a distance where a short, extended fist could reach the enemy in an instant. A distance where his speed could gain an advantage over techniques that diverted power!

But at that moment.

Baek Yeon-hong, who he thought would naturally retreat, took a step forward and plunged into Bator’s arms.

‘What?’

Then…

Whirl!

Bator’s gaze went blank.

‘The sky?’

KWAHAAAAAAANG!

“Kkeureuk…”

Bator’s body bent like a shrimp from the tremendous impact that struck his back.

A shock that was enough to make his vision go hazy for a moment.

When he came to his senses, he was already slammed into the ground, and around his body was a huge crater as if a meteorite had fallen.

“Cough!”

Bator, coughing up blood, widened his eyes.

‘How…’

It wasn’t that he didn’t know.

If he considered what he saw and the opponent’s tendencies, the result was obvious. The man must have used the power of his charge to slam Bator into the ground.

But knowing the result didn’t mean he could understand the process. How could he be in this state when he hadn’t even felt a hint of the opponent using his power against him?

And…

“Kkeueueu…”

Even if he had used his power against him, could he inflict this much shock on his body, which was called a divine physique?

A shock that made his hands and feet tremble just from being slammed into the ground?

“You’re sturdy.”

Baek Yeon-hong, looking down at him from the crater, smiled faintly.

“It’s amazing. Do you still have any strength left?”

“You bastard…”

Bator, wiping the blood from his mouth, slowly got up. Baek Yeon-hong nodded at the sight.

“Well, good.”

He slowly raised his sword and pointed it at Bator.

“Then, shall we see how well your body can withstand a sword?”

Lee Hyun-soo’s eyes widened.

‘What is that?’

It was an incomprehensible sight.

No, it was only natural that Lee Hyun-soo couldn’t understand. On the surface, it just looked like Baek Yeon-hong had slammed Bator into the ground, but within that, there were layers of principles that he couldn’t even imagine.

But what he couldn’t understand wasn’t the principles within, but the result that was revealed before his eyes.

‘Is that even possible?’

It was like a skilled judo master facing a strong but unskilled person.

Haven’t you seen it on TV, how someone who has trained for a long time throws around a large beginner as if playing with them?

But Bator was not someone who could be a large beginner. It was easy to be mistaken because of his appearance, but Bator was by no means stupid, nor was he someone who lacked understanding of martial arts.

Rather, he had an abundance of it.

Considering Jang Min’s age, no one could deny that Bator was the one among the directors with the highest probability of reaching the Three Kings level [a very high level of martial arts mastery].

And yet, Bator was being defeated so easily?

A chill ran down his spine.

It was just a single exchange, but even that clearly revealed the difference in power.

‘No, the difference in power is a bit strange.’

Because Bator was someone who was definitely not lacking in power.

Lee Hyun-soo, unable to find the words, swallowed hard.

“I see.”

“Yes?”

Lee Hyun-soo’s head snapped around at Kang Jin-ho’s words.

“It’s Wudang [a famous Taoist martial arts sect].”

“Yes?”

“It’s ‘softness overcomes strength’.”

“‘Softness overcomes strength’?”

“Yes.”

Kang Jin-ho’s gaze was fixed on Baek Yeon-hong.

‘So that’s where it was.’

His martial arts had the principles of the Wudang Sect from the past. He had guessed it was Taoist, but now his origin was clear.

“If it’s Wudang, isn’t it the most righteous of the orthodox sects?”

“That’s right. They were troublesome.”

“Then why is someone like that under the Black King…” Lee Hyun-soo stopped speaking.

He knew that such words were meaningless now.

Kang Jin-ho’s gaze confirmed the pine tree shape engraved on the end of Baek Yeon-hong’s sword hilt.

‘Pine Pattern Ancient Sword.’

The form was completely different from what he knew, but seeing the pine tree, the symbol of Wudang, engraved on it, his guess seemed to be correct.

‘What a funny guy.’

He seemed to have broken away from the Wudang Sect, but his principles followed those of Wudang, and he even engraved the symbol of Wudang on his sword.

He seemed to have broken away, but he hadn’t.

Perhaps this was the fate of the returnees, including Kang Jin-ho.

“Wudang, huh…”

Kang Jin-ho’s lips twisted.

In the past, none of the Wudang swordsmen he had faced had reached that level. Perhaps that Baek Yeon-hong was someone who had reached the extreme of the sword with the Wudang sword before or after his era.

‘So there are more like that.’

For some reason, a laugh escaped him as he thought about how many absolute beings who had not met because of different eras might be in this world.

“T-then, what about Bator?”

“Leave him be.”

“But…”

Kang Jin-ho’s eyes turned cold.

“You won’t know unless you experience it. What it feels like to face a real wall. Bator needs to know that too.”

Lee Hyun-soo’s trembling gaze was fixed on Bator, who was walking out of the crater.