Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 361

“Move it! Faster!”

Bang Jin-hoon shouted roughly.

The time to maintain secrecy was over. They would probably soon realize that the General Assembly was approaching.

‘Or maybe they already know.’

Considering the intelligence capabilities of the Yeongnam Assembly, there was a higher probability that they had already detected their movements. Even if they hadn’t figured out they were coming, they would have realized it by now.

This place was practically their front yard.

‘But why isn’t there any response?’

If they knew that this many people were coming, they should have been in an uproar, but it was strangely quiet without any response.

‘Is it a trap?’

In an instant, Bang Jin-hoon’s brow furrowed.

It was a very possible scenario. They might be lying in wait for them to enter.

If they had pushed forward with the original plan, they might have been flustered by the opponent setting a trap, but now, whether it was a trap or not, it didn’t matter.

A trap only has meaning when you can predict the opponent’s movements. Like their travel route or attack path.

But since something even he couldn’t predict had happened, it was impossible for them to predict their movements.

“Move it, you bastards!” Bang Jin-hoon, who had cursed at the bewildered men, sighed.

‘Damn it, what the hell am I doing!’

Seeing the men circling around the high walls of the Yeongnam Assembly, he couldn’t help but chuckle.

The General Assembly was already weaker than the Yeongnam Assembly. They were inferior in both overall numbers and the number of experts.

They, with their relatively weaker forces, were surrounding the Yeongnam Assembly. Tactically speaking, it was something even a three-year-old wouldn’t do.

Surrounding only has meaning when the numbers are at least similar.

But with this much of a difference, surrounding them would only lead to a dispersion of forces, making them vulnerable.

Knowing this, Bang Jin-hoon still ordered the encirclement.

‘Let’s see what happens.’

It was a strange feeling.

He clearly recognized that this was not something a sane person would do, but strangely, his heart was pounding. Logically and realistically, he knew it was something he shouldn’t do, but that was why his heart was racing.

“It’s done.”

“Okay? Then go up at the signal.”

“Yes!”

Was Lee Joong-geol on the other side feeling the same way?

‘Maybe I wanted to see this kind of scene.’

With eyes mixed with anticipation and anxiety, Bang Jin-hoon looked towards the main gate. The place he couldn’t even see because it was blocked by the wall.

* * *

“What the hell, you bastard?”

Kang Jin-ho smiled brightly as he looked at the man who tapped him on the shoulder.

“Is this how you greet guests here?”

“Who would be a guest walking here at this hour? Who the hell are you?”

“Is that so?”

Kang Jin-ho shrugged.

“Guests can come anytime.”

“You little…”

The man’s face slightly hardened.

He was about to continue his curse, but the moment he made eye contact with Kang Jin-ho, his mouth inexplicably closed. Then, a sense of unease began to creep in.

Even though his eyes didn’t hold any particular emotion, the moment he looked into them, a strong premonition that something was going wrong shook his body.

“Don’t worry.”

“……What?”

“It’ll all be the same.”

The moment he tried to protest, Kang Jin-ho’s hand reached out.

The hand wasn’t fast, but it wasn’t slow either.

It wasn’t that it escaped his perception with terrifying speed. It just slipped into that tiny, almost imperceptible gap when he slightly relaxed his tension to speak.

He realized that only after his neck was grabbed.

“Ugh!”

Kang Jin-ho grabbed the man’s neck and lifted him up.

The man grabbed Kang Jin-ho’s wrist, which was holding his neck, and scratched wildly. But Kang Jin-ho didn’t even blink as he stared at him.

“You’re lucky. At least you don’t have to be terrified.”

“Krrrk.”

Lee Myung-hwan realized for the first time today that a person’s neck could make such a sound. The man, who was flailing like someone drowning and scratching at Kang Jin-ho’s arm, soon went limp.

Then, Kang Jin-ho threw the man into a corner.

“Hey, what are you doing? You bastard?”

“As you can see.”

“Do you think you’ll get away with this?”

Kang Jin-ho, still smiling, walked towards the bewildered man.

“Well, I’m curious too.”

“What?”

“Whether I can get away with it.”

“You crazy…”

At that moment, Kang Jin-ho’s right foot shot out like a ray of light and kicked the man directly in the solar plexus.

Bang!

And that was the end of it.

The man, who couldn’t even scream, was shot like a cannonball and crashed into the wall.

Instantly, the wall caved in, and spiderweb-like cracks spread out.

One blow. That was enough.

Kang Jin-ho, who had quickly subdued the two men guarding the main gate, quietly looked at the door.

“Is it closed?”

“……Yes. It seems to be a door lock?”

When Chun Tae-hoon stuttered, looking at the fingerprint recognition device on the entrance, Kang Jin-ho shrugged.

“Step back a little.”

“Yes?”

“Step back.”

“Ah, yes!”

Chun Tae-hoon quickly stepped back.

In the meantime, Chun Tae-hoon grabbed Lee Myung-hwan, who was still dazed, and dragged him back.

“Ah, no… how far are we going to step back?”

Are they going to fire a cannon? Or drop a bomb?

Is that why they’re going this far back just because they were told to step back a little?

“Just shut up.”

“……What?”

“If you don’t want to regret it later while pissing your pants, just do as I say. I’ve experienced more than you, and I know better than you.”

“……”

It wasn’t that he didn’t have any complaints, but there was no need to get into a fight with Chun Tae-hoon right now.

Srrr.

Then….

Lee Myung-hwan trembled as he heard the sound of a sword being drawn from the front.

It was just the sound of a sword rubbing against its scabbard as it was being drawn. It was a familiar sound that he had often heard in his life as a martial artist.

But why was his body trembling?

Kang Jin-ho, who had drawn two swords and crossed them in front of his chest, began to shake his hair.

‘Shake?’

There wasn’t even a breeze?

And that was the beginning.

Suddenly, Kang Jin-ho’s hair began to surge as if it was rising upside down, and then, dark red smoke-like things began to emanate from Kang Jin-ho’s body.

“Huk.”

Lee Myung-hwan unconsciously raised both hands and covered his mouth.

‘That, that… is that internal energy?’

He had heard that extremely trained internal energy could be visualized and emitted. He had seen his master gather his milky white internal energy in both hands, so it was probably true.

But this was different. No, it was on a different level.

The red smoke that emanated from his whole body swirled around Kang Jin-ho’s body, then surged up his arms and began to wrap around the swords.

“Hoo…”

Kang Jin-ho, who had taken a light breath, slightly raised the two swords, then powerfully swung them down.

Paah!

The sword tips tore through the air, creating a sound like when a long whip is swung. Leaving behind the screams of the air being pushed and torn, the dark red energy emitted from Kang Jin-ho’s swords flew towards the door.

Lee Myung-hwan, suppressing his heart that felt like it would burst out of his throat, widened his eyes.

The moment the dark energy emitted from the sword tip collided with the door!

Kwaaaaaang!

The world turned upside down.

“Uwaaaah!”

Lee Myung-hwan screamed as his body flipped from the terrifying shock that erupted from the front. The ground flew towards his head, and his legs flailed in the air. In an instant, his sense of direction disappeared, and his mind couldn’t find its place.

Only after bouncing off the ground several times did Lee Myung-hwan finally gain the freedom to fall. He spat out the dirt that had filled his mouth.

“Ptooey!”

What the hell was going on?

Lee Myung-hwan shook his head and got up.

He was completely disoriented, but curiosity overcame his confusion. Lee Myung-hwan, supporting himself with both arms, raised his upper body and saw a cloud of dust.

Then….

Soon, the dust settled, and Lee Myung-hwan was speechless at the sight that was revealed.

It was gone.

The main gate, which had been towering high as a symbol of the Yeongnam Assembly, was gone. The huge concrete main gate, which must have been at least 4 meters high.

The main gate had disappeared as if it had never existed. Lee Myung-hwan’s mouth hung open as he stared at the vanished gate. Only the scattered concrete fragments and the cut steel frames below proved that a main gate had existed here.

Lee Myung-hwan, unaware that saliva was dripping from his open mouth, stared at the scene without blinking.

‘Is this real?’

Lee Myung-hwan’s body trembled.

This didn’t make sense.

He was also a martial artist. And a martial artist belonging to the General Assembly.

Martial artists were incomparably stronger than ordinary people, and they were beings who could easily do things that ordinary people couldn’t even imagine. But even by the standards of such martial artists, what Kang Jin-ho had done was beyond common sense.

“Let’s go.”

Kang Jin-ho left those words and walked forward without looking back.

“Ah…”

Lee Myung-hwan finally came to his senses and jumped up from his spot.

“Let’s go.”

“Y, yeah.”

Now he had to see.

Until now, he had been half-dragged along, but now Lee Myung-hwan began to follow Kang Jin-ho of his own volition.

He wanted to see.

He wanted to see with his own eyes what that monster, who had transcended common sense, would do when he entered the Yeongnam Assembly.

“What the hell!”

“W, what is that! What happened? Did a bomb drop?”

If they didn’t realize something was wrong after hearing the earth-shattering impact and the ear-splitting explosion, they didn’t deserve to be called martial artists. Those who had rushed out began to fill the huge space behind the main gate.

Those who couldn’t grasp what had happened couldn’t dare to approach this side and began to line up, keeping their distance.

Gulp.

Lee Myung-hwan swallowed hard.

In reality, the reason they stopped there wasn’t because they were wary of Kang Jin-ho, but whatever the reason, the Yeongnam Assembly was lining up against Kang Jin-ho alone.

‘He told us to surround them so they couldn’t escape while he takes on the Yeongnam Assembly alone?’

It was crazy.

It was a crazy thing to do.

But now, it could no longer be called a crazy thing to do.

Kang Jin-ho versus the Yeongnam Assembly.

The curtain was rising on a crazy war.

As the commotion began to subside, Kang Jin-ho raised his sword, Jeokru.

The sword, shining white under the moonlight, instantly captivated the eyes of everyone who was looking at him.

The sword, pointing towards the sky, drew a graceful arc and slowly moved down, then from left to right.

The tip of the sword, which had passed through the martial artists of the Yeongnam Assembly, finally pointed to the place where the broken main gate had been.

“The only way out is there.”

His voice wasn’t loud, but it was clearly heard by everyone.

Clear and cruel.

The corners of Kang Jin-ho’s mouth twisted, revealing his white teeth.

“Try to kill me and get out. That’s the only way you’ll survive.”

In the middle of the night, under the cold, white moonlight….

The Demon Lord revealed his teeth and burst into maniacal laughter.