Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 2067

They looked at each other.

The two people standing face to face, close enough to touch, stared at each other without a word.

At that moment, no one could guess what they were thinking. It was impossible for anyone to fathom their thoughts, as the two individuals before them were too immense.

One was a legend of the martial world, called the greatest demon of all time since the past, spoken of countless times.

And the other was a living legend who had gathered a group that had never existed in the history of the martial world, achieving feats that no martial artist in history had ever accomplished.

But these words could not fully express who they were.

As masters of forces that shook the world, as martial artists who themselves intimidated the world, and simply as individuals…

The two finally stood face to face in this place.

Among the two who had been silently looking at each other, Kang Jin-ho was the first to move.

Kang Jin-ho, with his hand in his pocket, took out a cigarette case and opened it. Then, he took a cigarette with his fingertips and offered it to the Black King.

“…What is this?” the Black King asked, as if puzzled. Kang Jin-ho curled up the corners of his mouth.

“I thought you might need it.”

The Black King clicked his tongue as if he didn’t like something, but surprisingly, he didn’t refuse the cigarette and accepted it. As the Black King put the cigarette he received from Kang Jin-ho in his mouth, Kang Jin-ho flicked his fingers to light it.

Then, he put a cigarette in his own mouth and lit it as well.

“Hoo.”

The cigarette smoke exhaled by Kang Jin-ho and the Black King passed each other and slowly spread through this desolate space.

“It doesn’t seem to be of any help.”

Kang Jin-ho chuckled at the Black King’s grumbling.

“That’s right.”

“But…”

The Black King, holding the cigarette as if covering his mouth with his hand, slowly exhaled white smoke.

“Sometimes, it is necessary.”

It was a contradictory statement.

It was useless, but necessary. However, Kang Jin-ho nodded slowly as if he agreed with the words.

“That’s right.”

It would be necessary.

It was nothing more than useless, but the Black King had lost too much.

Kang Jin-ho didn’t know.

How great the Black King’s cause was, and how much he could sacrifice for that cause.

But Kang Jin-ho knew.

No matter what his resolve was, no matter how much he could give up, there was no way to reduce the pain that would be given in return.

Even if he repeated his life several times.

Even if he suffered countless pains.

The pain would not diminish even by a speck, and he would not get used to it. He would only become more skilled at gritting his teeth and enduring the pain.

Perhaps the Black King was also enduring it now.

What he had lost, and what he had to lose.

In the end…

What finally stood in this place were not great martial artists who commanded the world, but two miserable humans groaning from the wounds engraved in their hearts.

“Is it worth it?”

It wasn’t an intention to shake him. Kang Jin-ho was genuinely curious.

The Black King could have everything if he wanted to. He was a much smarter person than Kang Jin-ho.

Even so, he gave up everything he could have and chose to oppose the world.

Was it worth it?

Was the ideal he pursued so great that he had to give up everything to achieve it?

It might be a short and insincere question to fully understand the meaning within it. But the Black King answered nonchalantly, as if he was used to Kang Jin-ho’s way of questioning.

Just like he had in the past.

“Cult Leader.”

“I thought you had changed and grown a bit, but you’re still saying the same obvious things.”

The Black King, slowly exhaling cigarette smoke, twisted the corners of his mouth.

“What is there of value in this damned world?”

“There is only what one believes to be valuable.”

The Black King wore a sneer. That twisted smile pierced Kang Jin-ho’s eyes.

“There’s no way there’s such a comfortable thing as a perfect ideal that everyone can agree on. The value of something can only be different for everyone.”

The Black King’s gaze turned to Kang Jin-ho.

“And isn’t that the same for you, Cult Leader?”

“The family, friends, and colleagues you want to protect so much.”

Kang Jin-ho’s eyes twitched slightly.

“That might be something you wouldn’t trade for anything in the world, but to someone else, it might be worth less than a pebble on the street.”

“I’ll ask you the other way around…”

The Black King stared at Kang Jin-ho.

“Is what you’re trying to protect really worth that much? Enough to risk your last remaining life to fight me and win?”

Kang Jin-ho laughed.

What he was trying to protect wasn’t even their lives. The Black King had already guaranteed their lives with his own mouth. The reason he was standing here now was not to protect their lives, but to protect their way of life.

Was it really worth that much?

As the Black King said, enough to risk his last remaining life?

Kang Jin-ho’s answer was ‘yes’.

But in someone’s eyes, that answer would be nothing more than a foolish and thoughtless one. They wouldn’t be able to sympathize with the value of what Kang Jin-ho was trying to protect.

“I said something stupid.”

“What’s new?”

The Black King chuckled.

He was enjoying it.

It was a funny story, but he was really enjoying it right now.

‘It’s been a while.’

There were moments like this in the past.

Moment when he would put everything down and have pointless conversations with Kang Jin-ho, nothing more than a joke.

He could do that.

The past versions of them were separated from the modern ones. Of course, it was true that he tried to twist the past martial world and change even the modern world, but that was the best he could do at the time, and it wasn’t something that forced a compulsive sense of duty on him.

It was a funny thing. It was really a funny thing.

Rather, that was why he could exist as his complete self in the past. Yang Chen in the modern world and Cheongma [Black Horse Demon] in the past. Ironically, the one closer to his essence might be Cheongma, not Yang Chen.

Was that why?

The Black King looked at Kang Jin-ho.

He was standing at a more important moment than ever before. What he had tried to achieve throughout his life depended solely on this match.

But…

‘I don’t know.’

The moment he faced Kang Jin-ho, he felt that none of that mattered. To be precise, the moment he faced Kang Jin-ho, he felt like he was temporarily relieved from the heavy burden weighing on his shoulders.

Maybe that was why.

That was why he was so obsessed with Kang Jin-ho’s existence.

He was the only one who could allow him to exist as Cheongma, not Yang Chen.

But…

“Honestly, I’m not in a good mood.”

“I don’t know what you think, but I thought of you as a friend.”

“No. Maybe you are the only friend I have in all three lives. And at one time, you might have been the only colleague I believed was looking in the same direction.”

Kang Jin-ho nodded quietly. For Cheongma, he might have been such an existence.

Who could understand?

That terrible loneliness.

In those moments of soul-crushing loneliness, the two were each other’s only refuge.

Humans so twisted that they couldn’t stand on their own.

It was because such humans had each other’s backs that they could barely live as people.

“To think that I have to…

The Black King’s face twisted.

“Kill you with my own hands.”

Hearing those words, Kang Jin-ho smiled, revealing his teeth.

“You don’t have to worry about that. I won’t die by your hands.”

“Rather, I should apologize. Experiencing death twice at the hands of one person is something no one else in the world has ever experienced.”

The Black King laughed as if he was amused.

Kang Jin-ho also smiled back at the Black King.

They were each other’s only understanding in the world, and each other’s only adversary in the world.

Beings that could not be completed without each other, beings like mirrors that made their twisted selves upright.

There was no ill will.

Or perhaps, they only had goodwill towards each other.

“Do you still have the same thought?” the Black King asked, staring at Kang Jin-ho.

“You must have felt it too, the contradictions of this world.”

“Maybe you’re right. And maybe Baek Yeon-hong is right. Maybe I’m going too far right now.”

The Black King smiled faintly.

“But that’s like a successful person’s autobiography. Like a rich person’s self-praise, ‘I achieved success through effort and diligence.'”

“Self-praise?”

“Yes.”

The Black King said mockingly.

“Isn’t it too shameless for failures like you and me to discuss someone’s potential? If we hadn’t been given a second life, we would be nothing more than trash that died on the street.”

“Can you say to yourself, who is standing at the end of your first life, that the future is to seize your own hands? Could you have fully understood and worked hard at that time?”

Kang Jin-ho closed his mouth.

“The reason you can say that is because you got an opportunity that no one else got. It’s just luck, the whim of a damned being called God. But you’re acting like you got it through your own efforts.”

“…What are you trying to say?”

“Pushing someone off a cliff and shouting that they have to climb up is not affection, but violence.”

“I at least…”

The Black King’s voice resonated deeply.

“I just wanted to stop the martial artists from disappearing without even resisting, for the dog-like reason of the flow of the world.”

The Black King slowly exhaled cigarette smoke.

“You and…”

“I saw the same”

“That dog-like future.”

Kang Jin-ho closed his eyes.

He had already refuted the Black King’s words once. He had spoken with his own mouth that his method was futile.

But…

Was the Black King really wrong?

Was what he was trying to do really meaningless and futile?

Even if his method was wrong, was the sense of crisis he was feeling really just his delusion?

No.

That was not the case. Kang Jin-ho knew that better than anyone.

“I’ll ask again.”

The Black King’s eyes glared at Kang Jin-ho. It was neither Cheongma’s eyes nor the Black King’s eyes.

Yang Chen.

The eyes of Yang Chen, the saint of martial artists who threw himself into the fire for the future of all martial artists in the world.

“Can you really condone your actions now, which are throwing the future of martial artists into the abyss to protect you and the lives around you?”

“Answer me, Cult Leader. No…”

The Black King’s lips slowly opened.

With more weight than anything else.

“Answer me, Kang Jin-ho.”

The corners of Kang Jin-ho’s tightly closed lips trembled slightly.