Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 526

‘What am I even looking at?’

Lee Hyun-soo was sitting haphazardly in the open space. His legs had given out, and he couldn’t stand any longer.

“What am I looking at… This isn’t a fight between humans.”

Humans can’t fight like this.

How can a person break mountains and fly into the sky?

Military arts were like that.

Making humans do what they can’t.

But this was too much.

‘What have I been living for all this time?’

He thought he was a resident of an unseen world. And he was proud of himself for not settling for that, for being someone who moved the unseen world.

Foolishly.

Pathetically.

He had been looking only at the surface, thinking it was everything, without even knowing what could happen in the world he belonged to.

Like a seabird flying over the sea, not knowing how deep the sea is.

And today, for the first time, Lee Hyun-soo was witnessing the deep abyss of the sea he was in.

It was more like terror.

It wasn’t the sea with foamy waves and rolling tides, but the feeling of receiving the pressure of the deep sea, where not a single ray of light enters, all over his body.

The world he knew was collapsing.

And a new world, which he had never imagined before, was unfolding before him.

‘It’s meaningless.’

In front of them, the concept of military power was meaningless.

Something he couldn’t understand.

Why hadn’t the Hong King actively grown his power?

Even if the Three Kings couldn’t move because they were checking each other, it didn’t make sense. If it were him, at least he would have constantly grown his power while taking some risks.

By any means.

But the Three Kings don’t move. And the many people who assist them don’t make them move either.

This was the biggest question for Lee Hyun-soo, who was watching the power dynamics of East Asia.

But today, Lee Hyun-soo could understand the reason.

‘It’s meaningless no matter how many riffraff you gather.’

The power he thought of and the power they thought of were different. Could they ever stand against them, no matter how many small fries they gathered?

Absolutely impossible.

Even Kang Jin-ho, who thought that even if the entire Yeongnam Association attacked, he couldn’t guarantee victory, hadn’t shown everything he had. So, what meaning did military power have?

Once you see this kind of world, you can’t help but think differently.

A single master.

A single master takes precedence over a thousand warriors. Then, there’s no need to pour energy into expanding visible power. It’s more beneficial to raise one master.

It felt like all the tangled threads that he hadn’t understood were being unraveled at the same time.

‘How many masters like that are there in the Hong King’s faction?’

He began to feel a new kind of fear towards the Hong King.

That Bator guy was also too frightening.

The Hong King was using such a Bator like a limb.

It was the moment when the difference in power between China and Korea, which he had only understood in his head, was felt on his skin.

‘Still!’

Still, they had someone too.

Someone who could stand against them equally. No, someone who could stand against them more than equally.

Lee Hyun-soo clenched his teeth as he looked at Kang Jin-ho’s back.

The land that had been branded as the weakest in East Asia.

Kang Jin-ho was standing against them, representing that land.

‘Don’t take your eyes off him.’

He had to watch this fight. No matter what the outcome was.

Bator looked at his chest with a slightly bewildered look.

A large chest that was split open and bleeding.

It was an injury that would have killed an ordinary martial artist. It was only because Bator’s body was so huge that it ended as a flesh wound; if it had been an ordinary body, it would have been easily cut to the heart.

‘How long has it been?’

Since his body had bled?

The fact that a god resided in his body was not just his own assessment. Everyone who had fought him had always said the same thing.

There were many who were stronger than him in the world.

But there was no one who had a stronger body than him. That was Bator’s pride.

But at this moment, that pride was cracking.

Bator raised his head with a distorted face.

Unconcealable rage was revealed through his eyes. The fact that his body had been violated was giving him a terrible sense of humiliation.

“You… you won’t die easily.”

Kang Jin-ho calmly accepted Bator’s words.

“It would be easier for me to deal with you if you matched your personality to your appearance.”

“What did you say?”

“I’m saying don’t whine about a little scratch.”

Kang Jin-ho twirled Red Ru and Blue Ru and gripped them. Even if their arms fell off and their legs were completely cut off, they would advance. And even if a spear was stuck in their stomach, they would push forward and try to cut the neck of the person who stabbed them. That was how the Demonic Cult’s soldiers lived.

Especially his personal guard, the Demonic Flames, took such fights for granted. From Kang Jin-ho’s point of view, Bator, who was trembling over a single scratch, was nothing but ridiculous.

‘He doesn’t know.’

Well, of course.

There’s no way he would have experienced it.

The place where a human life is worth less than a single sword fallen on the ground. The place where killing people is too natural.

Bator, who flaunted his wildness with that body, had unfortunately not experienced cruel savagery. He was so proper and upright that it was laughable.

“I…”

It was the moment Bator was about to say something.

Kang Jin-ho’s sword was swung, and a long, crescent-shaped black demonic energy was emitted from the tip of the sword.

Swoosh!

With a sound like cutting a bolt of silk with a sharp knife, black sword energy flew towards Bator.

Bator’s face became even more distorted.

It wasn’t fast.

This sword energy was by no means fast.

That was why Bator couldn’t retreat even more. Right now, Kang Jin-ho was asking him with this one sword.

With that body that had already been broken once,

would he face this sword energy, or would he throw away his pride and self-esteem and run away?

The very fact that he was being forced to make such a choice was humiliating.

And what was even more humiliating was that he was wavering at this moment.

If it had been a little earlier, he would never have thought of avoiding it. It was his pride and his way to receive the opponent’s attack with his body and then defeat them.

But could his body, which had already been injured by Kang Jin-ho’s attack, withstand that attack?

“Kuh!”

Bator did not retreat.

Abandoning his pride and taking victory was not his way. Such a victory was not a victory. Only a victory achieved by boldly receiving the opponent’s power was a victory that he could genuinely smile at.

At least, that’s what he thought.

Bator planted his feet on the ground and stretched out his chest.

The inner energy that surged from his dantian [a point below the navel believed to be the center of vital energy] circulated through his body, instantly strengthening his skin and muscles harder than steel.

And Kang Jin-ho’s sword energy was embedded in that strengthened body.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

A nasty sound, like scraping a rough lump of iron with a sharp knife, burst out.

Bator desperately suppressed the scream that was about to come out without him realizing it. Kang Jin-ho’s sword energy couldn’t cut his body. But it wasn’t without impact. A huge shock that made him gasp covered him.

‘I endured it…’

Bator, who endured the pain and raised his head, saw it.

Huge.

A black sword energy that was incomparably larger than anything he had seen before.

As if the one sword he had just unleashed was just a greeting, a black sword energy the size of a house was flying towards him.

Bator’s pupils trembled.

It was like a lump of malice.

A sword energy like a black, blazing sun.

The strands of power that made up the sword energy looked bizarre and terrifying, as if they were alive and moving.

Receive that?

That?

It’s slow.

It was too slow.

A sword energy that was flying slowly, so slowly that even an ordinary person could easily avoid it if they wanted to.

“…You bastard.”

Kang Jin-ho wasn’t trying to knock him down.

He was trying to make him avoid it.

He was forcing him to throw away all the pride he had and run away to save his life. It was a sword that made that devilish intention so clear.

But he couldn’t ignore it.

No matter how strong his body was, could he withstand such an attack head-on?

Bator could tell.

His defeats so far were the result of ‘not being able to avoid’ it. As a result of combat that transcended human reaction speed, Bator, who couldn’t withstand the accumulated damage, eventually knelt down.

That was the defeat he had accepted so far.

But now, the situation was different.

Kang Jin-ho was forcing a choice on Bator, who had never once considered receiving the opponent’s attack. It was as if he was asking him to see how far his faith in his body went.

“You son of a bitch!”

Bator lowered his head and let out a huge roar.

Kwaaaaaaang!

But that roar was quickly overwhelmed by a huge explosion.

Kang Jin-ho’s sword energy exploded, creating a huge flame. It was more like a vortex than an explosion.

The demonic energy that collided with the ground soared into the sky. Rotating, and rotating again…

The vortex of black demonic energy raged wildly, as if it would swallow everything around it in an instant.

And then…

As if it had all been an illusion,

it disappeared in an instant.

In the open space where the vortex of sword energy had disappeared, Bator stood tall, clenching his fists. No, perhaps it was questionable whether the word ‘tall’ was appropriate for him now.

The word ‘tall’ was by no means suitable for someone who was distorting his face with humiliation and trembling all over his body.

“You avoided it.”

A low sneer.

He wasn’t exactly laughing, he was just speaking, but everyone there could tell. The sneer and mockery contained in that voice.

The moment he heard those words, Bator’s body twitched.

“It’s a sight I’ve seen many times… but it’s not pleasant.”

Kang Jin-ho said mockingly.

“The sight of someone who believes in a god abandoning their faith in that god. The god residing in your body couldn’t give you faith.”

“Kang Jin-ho.”

Unlike his trembling body, Bator’s voice was calm.

Unlike his loud voice until now.

“You… you have crossed a line that you shouldn’t have crossed. You have done something you shouldn’t have done.”

“Hehehe.”

An uncontrollable laugh burst from Kang Jin-ho’s mouth.

“You’re talking nonsense. I crossed the line a long time ago.”

And you guys were the ones who crossed that line first.

You’ll now know what it means to mess with me.

I’ll show you.

“This is just the beginning.”

“Uooooooo!”

Bator, his eyes bloodshot, charged at Kang Jin-ho, screaming at the top of his lungs.