Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1839

“…Is he dead?”\n\n”Yeah.”\n\n”He’s dead, huh.”\n\nLee Myung-han mumbled, his face still buried in the ground. He didn’t even have the strength to turn his head and check if Gong Young-gil was alive.\n\n’Or maybe I’m the one who’s dead.’\n\nHe couldn’t even feel the pain anymore.\n\nAfter repeatedly charging in, getting beaten like a dog, and falling, he couldn’t tell if he was in heaven or hell. Of course, he was unlikely to go to heaven.\n\n”Ugh…”\n\nLee Myung-han forced his trembling head up.\n\nAnd in his sight, he saw Chun Tae-hoon sprawled out, literally in a ‘大’ shape [a Chinese character resembling a person with arms and legs spread out].\n\n”…This guy really looks like he’s gone.”\n\n”Yeah. I’ve been watching him, and he’s definitely dead.”\n\n”Right?”\n\nThey were sending a living person to the afterlife right there, but unfortunately, Chun Tae-hoon didn’t even have the strength to open his mouth.\n\n’Just kill me.’\n\nWhile the others had come on their own two feet, he had been dragged here without knowing why.\n\nAnd now, his limbs were broken and he was sprawled out like this. Was that even fair?\n\nIf he reported this to the police, it would be a case of aggravated assault. If he reported it to the labor board, the person in charge would be crying tears of blood and talking about re-education camps.\n\nBut what could he do? He had no right to resist.\n\n”Aaaaargh! You son of a bitch!”\n\nMaster.\n\nIf you work so hard, it makes it too hard for me.\n\nA useless master is annoying, but a capable master makes things hard.\n\nWatching Bang Jin-hoon charge at Kang Jin-ho again and again, even while covered in blood, made him feel like he was about to cry.\n\nOut of emotion?\n\nThat was nonsense. It was because he could see what Bang Jin-hoon was going to have to go through from now on.\n\nThud!\n\nBang Jin-hoon collapsed on the spot. His arm was bent in a strange way, and it looked like the bone he had been complaining about was now cleanly broken.\n\n”Haa…”\n\nKang Jin-ho exhaled softly and looked at the fallen men.\n\nNot a single one of those who had gathered was standing on their own two feet. Even Jang Min and Bator were just panting, unable to even think about getting up.\n\n”Think.”\n\nKang Jin-ho said to them in a low voice.\n\n”The realm you can reach by pushing your body to the limit is already over. What’s left is what you can find on your own, how much you can establish yourselves.”\n\nKang Jin-ho himself was no longer doing much physical training. He only checked his body to keep his senses sharp.\n\nAnd while Lee Myung-han, Gong Young-gil, and Chun Tae-hoon might not know it, the directors were already at a place where they could no longer advance through physical training alone.\n\nThat’s what a wall is like.\n\n”Until now, you just had to walk the path someone else had paved. You didn’t need to understand, just repeat and embody it, and you’d get stronger. But it’s not like that anymore.”\n\nThat alone was enough to reach the highest level.\n\nThe pinnacle masters, or absolute masters, as they were called in the Central Plains [a term referring to the heartland of ancient China and often used in martial arts stories], but those called kings had gone beyond that, reaching the realm of grandmasters who had established their own martial arts. To face such people, they had to walk the same path.\n\n”If you stop at what you’ve learned through your body, you’ll never be able to go further. Now is your time. Think and think again about what more you need to do.”\n\nKang Jin-ho turned away as if he didn’t need an answer.\n\n«O»\n\nWatching Kang Jin-ho walk away, Lee Hyun-soo smiled and picked up his phone.\n\n”One extra-large stretcher and six regular ones here.”\n\nLee Hyun-soo was still as efficient as ever.\n\nCrack.\n\nBator, who had been moved to the sickroom, struggled to get up.\n\nHis leg had been broken, but the bone had already mostly healed, with only a crack remaining. The recovery rate of a martial artist was on a different level than that of an ordinary person, and the recovery rate of a martial artist who had reached their level was on a different level than that of an ordinary martial artist.\n\nThe reason why he was able to start training again soon after being pierced through the stomach by Baek Yeon-hong and having his internal organs shattered was also thanks to this recovery rate.\n\nBut…\n\n”•…Cough!”\n\nThe internal injuries, where everything had been shaken up, didn’t heal so easily. Bator coughed and grimaced.\n\n’Damn it.’\n\nThey had fought all day, from morning till dusk.\n\nBut no one had managed to land a proper blow on Kang Jin-ho. Kang Jin-ho had been fighting a continuous battle without a single break, and they had been charging at him with all their might while recovering their stamina, but still.\n\n”It’s daunting.”\n\nWiggins chuckled, as if he understood Bator’s feelings.\n\n”What were we even looking at?”\n\nHe had been shocked when he faced Baek Yeon-hong. It was shocking that there were so many strong people in the world, but what really made them unable to cope was the fact that there were beings against whom their martial arts were completely ineffective.\n\n’But it’s strange to feel that from Baek Yeon-hong.’\n\nKang Jin-ho was currently without his sword. He had faced them with his bare hands. But every time they fought Kang Jin-ho, they realized how strong he was.\n\nRather, they had become numb to it because he was always by their side. Whenever they thought about their martial arts, they had always treated the Three Kings, including Kang Jin-ho, as exceptions.\n\nThey couldn’t have endured that vast distance otherwise.\n\nBut from the moment Baek Yeon-hong appeared, they could no longer ignore Kang Jin-ho.\n\nThe different dimension between the Three Kings and the others. The moment signposts appeared in the middle of that distance, it was as if the severed path had been connected.\n\nWiggins turned his head and looked at Jang Min.\n\nJang Min was sitting on the bed, leaning against the wall, deep in thought.\n\n”Elder?”\n\nJang Min turned his head and looked at Wiggins.\n\n”Are you in shock?”\n\n”Shock?”\n\nJang Min chuckled.\n\n”If being defeated by the Demon Lord is shocking, then nothing in the world isn’t shocking. Even the sunrise is surprising.”\n\n”I was thinking.”\n\n”May I ask what you were thinking about?”\n\nJang Min sighed softly and opened his mouth.\n\n”I’m reflecting on what the Demon Lord said. That it’s difficult to go further by just walking the path someone else has paved.”\n\nThis was true for everyone, but it was an especially important topic for Jang Min.\n\nWiggins had already found his own path halfway. And Bator was also walking his own uncharted path.\n\nPutting aside their power, they each had something of their own. Even Bang Jin-hoon was rejecting the path he had taken so far and creating new martial arts based on Kang Jin-ho’s influence.\n\nBut Jang Min was different.\n\nOn the path he was walking, there was already a grandmaster named Kang Jin-ho. Just following in his footsteps and tracing his path guaranteed him unparalleled results, the presence of an overwhelming powerhouse.\n\nBefore meeting Kang Jin-ho, Jang Min was a special existence unmatched within the sect, but after receiving demonic arts from Kang Jin-ho and imitating his style, he had become incomparably stronger than in the past.\n\nBut now, he had to step out of this path on his own?\n\n’How cruel.’\n\nTo tell him, who didn’t have much time left, to pioneer a new path. This was too cruel.\n\n”It’s no use anyway.”\n\nBang Jin-hoon said indifferently.\n\n”We just have to do what we’re told.”\n\n”He’s not the kind of person to ask us to do the impossible. He asked us because it’s possible. If it seemed impossible no matter what, he would have told us to find another way.”\n\n”And even if it’s impossible, it’s not like we have any other options right now.”\n\nThump!\n\nAt that moment, Bator got off the bed.\n\nThe face that had been slightly distorted by pain quickly returned to normal.\n\n”There’s no point in talking about it!”\n\nBator glared at the directors and started to walk.\n\n”It’s something we’ll find out if we try, whether it works or not.”\n\nAs Bator left the sickroom, Wiggins sighed.\n\n’His pride has been hurt.’\n\nWhen you think about it, Bator was also a powerhouse who was second to none. To borrow a common expression these days, Bator was the most suitable person to be called the strongest in the human realm.\n\nBut recently, Bator had only experienced defeat after defeat. He hadn’t even been able to properly exchange blows with the Sword King, and he had been completely toyed with by Baek Yeon-hong. And today, he had been trampled by Kang Jin-ho.\n\nHis high pride couldn’t possibly withstand that.\n\nBut…\n\n”Whether it’s pride or reason…”\n\nWiggins also got up from his seat.\n\n”It’s time to struggle without questioning the reason.”\n\n«Tzz»\n\nBang Jin-hoon also got off the bed.\n\n”I don’t know how to start, but I guess I should start by observing.”\n\n”Good idea.”\n\nThe sparring with Kang Jin-ho wasn’t just physical training. Every time they attacked, Kang Jin-ho made them feel with their bodies what they were lacking.\n\n’There’s a topic to think about.’\n\nWiggins clenched his fist.\n\nThe topic Kang Jin-ho had given them. And the topic he had found.\n\nTo ponder that topic, he first had to reconfirm where he was standing now.\n\n”It’s going to be a long night.”\n\n”Damn it, I don’t even know if I’ll be able to sleep.”\n\nAs Wiggins and Bang Jin-hoon shook their heads and went outside, Jang Min also got off the bed.\n\n”A new path…”\n\nHe muttered softly, shook his head, and moved his feet.\n\nAnd…\n\nUnlike the directors, the three people who couldn’t even think about getting up from their beds stared blankly at the ceiling.\n\n”Young-gil.”\n\n”…Why?”\n\n”Did you… understand what he was saying?”\n\n”Would I understand?”\n\n”Right?”\n\nLee Myung-han laughed in despair.\n\n’It’s far.’\n\nJust as the directors were despairing at the difference between them and the kings, they were also keenly aware of the difference between them and the directors.\n\nThey had believed that if they kept training, someday, after many years, they would be able to reach the same level as them…\n\n’But would they wait for us?’\n\nAs they got stronger, or rather, even faster, they also got stronger. At this rate, the gap would not narrow even until the moment they died.\n\n”…What should we do first?”\n\n”If a crow-tit tries to follow a stork, its legs will be torn [a Korean proverb meaning that one should not try to imitate someone beyond their capabilities].”\n\nGong Young-gil said indifferently and grabbed the bed.\n\n”Ooooh…”\n\nHe felt pain as if his whole body was being torn apart, but Gong Young-gil somehow managed to get up.\n\n”What the Lord said has nothing to do with us. We have to go as far as we can through training first.”\n\n”That’s right.”\n\n”If those guys are meditating, we should be rolling around during that time. Until our bodies break.”\n\n”…It’s easy for you to say.”\n\nHe felt like he was going to die even now, and even more than that…\n\n’I won’t die.’\n\nAs Kang Jin-ho said, he had never heard of anyone dying from training. And if he didn’t die, what couldn’t he do?\n\nLee Myung-han also gritted his teeth and got up.\n\n”First, we have to struggle.”\n\n”That’s the first thing I’ve liked you saying in a while.”\n\nThe two looked at each other and turned their heads.\n\n”Get up.”\n\n”How long are you going to lie there? Let’s go spar.”\n\nChun Tae-hoon, who had been lying like a corpse, mumbled with a blank face.\n\n”Just… just kill me, you bastards…”\n\nIt was a sad and heartbreaking mumble.