Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1906

“What’s the situation?”

“We can’t hear anything anymore!”

Chai Kechang’s face turned ashen.

The bug he had placed on Hong King’s clothes, after begging him, must have been destroyed.

‘No!’

Clothes getting damaged wasn’t a big deal. It often happened during fierce battles. But the conversation he had heard before the bug was cut off made the current situation far from simple.

“Support! What about the support!”

“W-we’ve sent the forces gathered at the Hangzhou branch, but…”

“You bastards! Gather every single person you can and send them as support! Right now!”

“Yes!”

Seeing Chai Kechang almost wailing, the others turned pale and began issuing orders. Chai Kechang, watching them, gripped his mouth with a trembling hand.

‘What, what should I do?’

He wanted to curse his own complacency.

If he could, he wanted to slash his own face with a sharp knife.

‘What the hell have I done!’

To give the opponent a taste of their own medicine? To calculate even the opponent’s unorthodox moves?

Damn it.

That was the kind of thinking only someone arrogant enough to believe they were intellectually superior to their opponent would have.

Why is a move called unorthodox?

It’s unorthodox because it’s different from the norm.

If it works perfectly, it can be more effective than the standard approach, but it’s called unorthodox because it carries many risks. From the moment Chai Kechang entrusted something he should never have lost to an unorthodox plan, he had lost his right to be called a strategist.

He had already learned this lesson the hard way when facing Chang Wang, so why was he repeating the same mistake?

‘No!’

Chai Kechang suddenly raised his head.

He could blame himself later. It was only natural that he would take responsibility for everything. But not now. Now was not the time to waste time on useless self-reproach. He had to save Hong King by any means possible.

‘But how!’

Never before had he felt so desperate about his own lack of power.

To save Hong King, he had to stop those two from the Twelve Flying Blades. But there was no one around Hangzhou who could match them.

He hadn’t deployed the main forces around Hangzhou, except for Hong King, fearing that the enemy would become wary if they realized he was concentrating his forces.

That fact was now strangling him and Hong King.

He was gathering all the forces he could, but to be blunt, even if he gathered all the small fry, he didn’t think they could stop the Twelve Flying Blades.

‘Not one, but two…’

Chai Kechang’s hands trembled as if he had a fever.

He should have considered that they could also set a trap.

Like the saying, ‘If you hit a dog, the owner will come out,’ he should have thought that by probing the outskirts, they could draw out the core!

“The GPS!”

“It’s coming in! It’s coming in sporadically!”

“Put the map on the screen! Right now, you bastards!”

“Yes!”

Chai Kechang stared at the screen with shaking eyes. Red dots appeared and disappeared on the screen, which showed contour lines, and then reappeared after a while.

A speed that no human could imagine.

But that was why he was sure it was Hong King.

“Calculate the direction and speed! Send all the support troops!”

“Yes!”

Chai Kechang bit his fingernails as he watched the red dot move. He tore the skin, and his lips and fingers were soon stained with red blood.

‘Not yet, not yet.’

Looking at the direction Hong King was moving, it wasn’t time to despair yet. Hong King was moving in a straight line towards the reserve forces.

It meant that he had perfectly calculated which way to run to increase his chances of survival.

Tears welled up in his eyes.

The Hong King of the past would never have retreated, no matter how strong the opponent was. Considering his sky-high pride, running away from an enemy was an act of humiliation that couldn’t be compared to dying in defeat.

Yet, Hong King was enduring that humiliation now.

It meant that he understood his position and why he couldn’t die.

The enemy was none other than Hok Wang.

He was the one who attacked and annihilated the warriors of the Hong King faction for no reason. If such a person were to defeat Hong King and take control of the martial world, who could guess what the future would hold?

That was why Hong King was trying to survive at all costs. Even if it meant abandoning his pride, he was doing it to protect the Hong King faction and those who followed him.

Chai Kechang, who understood Hong King’s feelings, had to bite his lip to hold back the tears that were welling up.

Because of his mistake, Hong King was suffering such humiliation.

For him, who revered Hong King like the heavens, there was no situation more terrible than this.

But what tormented him the most now was not Hong King’s situation, nor the fact that he could do nothing. It was the fact that even if he gathered all the available forces to save him, there was no way to stop the Twelve Flying Blades chasing Hong King.

The support forces now were not even enough to slow them down.

The only thing he could hope for was that Hong King would escape from them while they held the Twelve Flying Blades back…

‘It’s impossible.’

Realistically, the chances were slim.

Hong King was a martial artist who focused on heaviness. Compared to martial artists of a lower level, he was incomparably fast, but compared to martial artists of a similar level, his footwork was not that great.

The probability of shaking off the Twelve Flying Blades chasing him was lower than the probability of not doing so.

Then…

Then what should he do?

Kwaddeudeuk!

The moment Chai Kechang’s bitten fingernail was about to be pulled out.

RRRRR.

His cell phone started ringing.

Chai Kechang, who was about to throw his cell phone away in irritation, stopped. His face took on a strange light when he saw the name on the screen.

“Hoo… Hoo… Hoo!”

His breath was coming in gasps. His heart felt like it was about to burst out of his throat. He couldn’t remember the last time he had run so hard.

The problem was that he couldn’t tell if it was because it had been so long that he couldn’t remember, or if his brain wasn’t working properly.

How far did he have to run?

His knees had long since stopped functioning properly.

Even though footwork didn’t necessarily require the use of legs, the difference between when his knees were fine and when they weren’t was obvious.

“Hoo!”

For a martial artist to be out of breath was not a good sign.

Well.

His whole body was almost shattered, so who cared about his breath?

‘Where should I go?’

He didn’t know.

This was like an endless game of tag.

There were no rules. Run and run, and no matter how much he ran, if he was caught just once at the end, it would result in his defeat. An unfair game of tag.

But Hong King didn’t even think about blaming that fact. He just ran and ran.

Sway!

In an instant, his mind went blank, and his body crashed to the ground. But as soon as he hit the ground, Hong King got up and ran again.

‘I’ve lost too much blood…’

Blood started to seep out again from the wounds he had blocked with his energy. The energy inside his body wasn’t flowing properly and kept getting cut off.

If he didn’t fix his body properly, he might die before they caught him.

But even knowing that, Hong King could only run.

‘How pathetic.’

Not long ago, he would have unhesitatingly laughed at anyone who ran with their back turned. There was no reason not to laugh.

If his talent was exhausted, that was the end.

If his effort was lacking, that was also the end.

He had never doubted himself. He had vowed to laugh heartily and die if he ever met someone his fist couldn’t reach.

But now, Hong King was doing everything he could to survive. Even though there was no guarantee that he would survive, and even though he knew that being caught and killed while running away was more miserable than dying on the spot.

“Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!”

“Hong King!”

“Go!”

The warriors of the Hong King faction, who were running from the opposite direction, found him and went past him without hesitation.

He knew.

They would die.

They couldn’t stop the Twelve Flying Blades no matter what they did. At best, they would buy him a second. Yes, at most, they would throw their lives away to buy him a second.

‘For what?’

Was he worth it?

A human life was only one. Unless they were monsters like the returnees, everything ended after one life.

So why were they risking their lives? The ones who would benefit from saving him were not here.

Heaviness.

Hong King, feeling a heaviness he had never felt before in his life, gritted his teeth and ran and ran.

“Uaaaaaaaaaaak!”

Those who screamed and died were the lucky ones. Most of those who passed him and blocked them died without even screaming.

How many had died?

Dozens? Hundreds?

The number weighed down on Hong King’s shoulders.

‘I have to live.’

Even if it was to not make their deaths meaningless! He had to survive.

It was at that very moment that Hong King strongly kicked off the ground.

Whiririririk!

Along with the sound of the wind being cut, something strongly struck Hong King’s leg.

Kwaddeudeuk!

The sound of bones being crushed and flesh being torn away.

Kuuuung!

Hong King rolled on the ground with the same speed he had been running. The golden dragon robe that symbolized him was torn to shreds and covered in dirt.

“Cough! Cough!”

Hong King, who had coughed up blood several times, grabbed the ground.

And forcibly… he managed to get up, trembling.

‘I have to…’

His eyes were swollen. The pupils visible through them were half-unfocused.

‘I have to live… I have to live… I…’

Thud.

Nangon, who had caught up with him, picked up the staff that had fallen on the ground and clicked his tongue.

“Tsk tsk, if you hadn’t run away like this, I could have given you a better death.”

“Don’t insult your opponent with useless words. Just shut up and kill him.”

“…It seems you like that guy, Pakwon.”

Nangon chuckled and approached Hong King.

“As you command. This is the end, Hong King.”

Hong King, looking at Nangon approaching him, clenched his fist, which no longer had any strength.

“…I will live…”

“It’s over!”

Nangon’s staff, filled with fierce energy, flew towards Hong King’s head. He tried to raise his hand to block it, but Hong King’s arm no longer listened to him.

The moment Nangon’s staff was about to shatter Hong King’s head.

Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

“What!”

Nangon retrieved his staff and twisted his body, flying backward.

The spot where he had been just a moment ago was shattered by a massive explosion.

An immense power.

It was like the power Hong King had unleashed.

Nangon turned his head with a stiff face and looked at the place where the power had come from.

Dark.

A man slowly walked out from the too-dark forest.

Chik.

Nangon narrowed his eyes when he saw a red dot shining in the darkness.

‘A cigarette?’

At that moment, he felt the strong smell of tobacco reaching his nose.

“It seems I’m not too late.”

A man revealed his white teeth in the darkness.

Smiling like a devil.