Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 731

The massive trailer, unable to control its speed, lurched violently. Chai Ke-chang watched from the front as the house-sized trailer careened out of control, a mad dash towards them.

“Get out of the way!”

There was no time to consider whether they were human or not. If they were hit by that kinetic energy, no human could survive. Even if they were unmanned, their bodies weren’t made of steel, and even if they were, they wouldn’t be unscathed by that force.

The unmanned soldiers scattered, and the trailer charged towards the barricade with ferocious momentum.

BOOM!

The sound of the massive tires bursting on the spikes embedded in the ground echoed like thunder.

The truck with the front tires blown lost its steering. But it didn’t matter. Their goal wasn’t to escape in the first place.

The truck wobbled, but without slowing down, it slammed into the barricade.

CRASH!

The trailer smashed into the barricade with an ear-splitting roar.

CRASH! CRASH!

The trailers following behind crashed into it again and again. The trailers tilted and fell, unable to overcome the momentum, they flew into the air and crashed down.

‘Those crazy bastards!’

Chai Ke-chang gritted his teeth.

Ramming with vehicles was a method he quite enjoyed using himself. No matter how unmanned they were, it was difficult to survive when a car weighing over a ton rammed into them at full force.

An absolute master could handle a charging car like a toy, but not all unmanned soldiers were masters. For an ordinary unmanned soldier, a traffic accident was a major shock that could cost them their lives.

Moreover, if a trailer like that rammed into them at full force, no human could survive. It was much cheaper to treat a trailer as a disposable item than to train an average unmanned soldier to be even remotely useful. So, it was a very logical method.

But this was different.

This wasn’t an attack, but a suicide mission. Chai Ke-chang wouldn’t have rammed so many vehicles into a barricade that wasn’t even an enemy. There was nothing to gain from it.

‘No, there is something to gain.’

Chai Ke-chang looked around with a hardened expression.

CRASH! CRASH!

His subordinates were growing weary as they watched the cars continuously ram into the barricade.

The barricade was already so shattered that it was unrecognizable.

The funny thing was, the rammed trucks were piling up, creating a higher barrier than the barricade itself.

A completely useless tactic.

The cost of implementing that tactic was too high. Anyone with a bit of sense would know how pointless this was.

But…

‘That’s why they’re getting worn out.’

Chai Ke-chang’s face also hardened.

What they knew, the others also knew. Those carrying out the orders now were fully aware of how reckless their actions were.

They had brains, after all.

Yet, they still rammed.

No matter how unmanned they were, they couldn’t be safe inside a trailer ramming at that speed. Broken bones and torn flesh were inevitable.

Yet, they didn’t slow down at all.

Blind obedience.

Yes, this was blind obedience.

‘Damn it, what is this…’

Chai Ke-chang ground his teeth.

What was making Chai Ke-chang so flustered was that the ones carrying out this reckless suicide mission were the Mado [practitioners of demonic arts].

Yes, the Mado.

Those ragtag bunch.

Chai Ke-chang had never been wary of the Mado. No matter how much they boasted of their cockroach-like survival skills, and how they were like cancer cells that had spread everywhere, he thought he could easily wipe them out if he wanted to.

The reason he had left them alone was because they were useful, not because they were difficult to deal with.

The Mado he knew were trash.

Trash that couldn’t exert any organized power despite their large numbers.

It wasn’t a matter of strength or weakness. Numbers were power in themselves. No matter how weak the Mado were, if they had united and stood against them, they would have developed into a formidable opponent.

But the Mado couldn’t even achieve that.

They were connected by the identity of having learned demonic arts, but they had no sense of belonging to each other, and they were like grains of sand with no will to change their own lives.

There were many times when he couldn’t understand why the Red King was wary of such Mado.

But were these the Mado?

Were these the same Mado that Chai Ke-chang knew?

Those crazy bastards who were carrying out the absurd, idiotic order to ram into the barricade without a moment’s hesitation, were they the Mado?

Chai Ke-chang’s body trembled. What should he call this feeling?

He bit his lip tightly.

His lower lip cracked, and a trickle of blood seeped out.

‘Damn it.’

The attack itself wasn’t what was suppressing them. They weren’t so weak that they would be intimidated by a mere show of force that caused no damage.

What was suppressing them was not the attack, but the will and blind loyalty contained in that absurd suicide mission.

‘How could they have been turned into this in just a few days?’

Chai Ke-chang knew.

It hadn’t been long since Kang Jin-ho had moved to Beijing. That meant Kang Jin-ho had only been given a few days. But in those few days, he was able to turn those ragtag Mado into this?

Impossible.

It was something that couldn’t happen logically.

But that logically impossible thing was happening right before his eyes.

‘How far do I have to acknowledge you?’

Chai Ke-chang had already acknowledged Kang Jin-ho.

If the Red King was excluded, Kang Jin-ho was the person Chai Ke-chang acknowledged the most. He couldn’t think of anyone other than the Red King who could have achieved what Kang Jin-ho had in the same situation.

He was bold when he needed to be, and he knew how to endure when he had to.

Yet, Kang Jin-ho was someone who knew how to strike at the opponent’s weakness. It wasn’t just his martial prowess that he acknowledged. Chai Ke-chang acknowledged Kang Jin-ho as a human being.

But he had to give him an even higher evaluation than that?

There was no standard.

There was no standard to compare to Kang Jin-ho to give him a higher evaluation. If it was more than this…

‘Bullshit.’

Chai Ke-chang gritted his teeth.

No. It couldn’t be.

No matter how great Kang Jin-ho was, he couldn’t dare to compare to the Red King, the Three Kings [powerful figures in their world]. The Three Kings were gods who were born into the world in human form. Kang Jin-ho was not a being that could be compared to them.

But then, who should he compare Kang Jin-ho to?

Chai Ke-chang glared at Kang Jin-ho.

Seeing Kang Jin-ho standing on top of the black van that had stopped, smoking a cigarette, made him feel like the blood in his whole body was turning cold.

Arrogant.

He wasn’t particularly acting haughty, but… he could feel it when he looked at him, his arrogance.

His subordinates were risking their lives to carry out a suicide mission under his command.

But Kang Jin-ho was watching the scene as if he were watching a movie.

That sense of incongruity.

That subtle sense of incongruity, as if he were detached from reality, swept through Chai Ke-chang’s entire body.

‘I was wrong.’

Chai Ke-chang admitted his mistake.

That man was not someone who could be persuaded.

He had been confident that he knew Kang Jin-ho better than anyone else, but in reality, he knew nothing about Kang Jin-ho.

That bastard was not a being who could receive orders from someone else.

A born ruler.

If he had been born in a time of peace, he would have become a rebel, and if he had been born in a time of chaos, he would have become a hegemon [a dominant leader or power].

‘Just like those people.’

Chai Ke-chang clenched his fist tightly.

Even the Red King couldn’t turn that many people into blindly loyal subordinates who would risk their lives for his orders in just a few days. In terms of control, Kang Jin-ho was clearly ahead of the Red King.

And that control was the most important characteristic for someone leading an organization.

‘I have to kill him.’

He had never not acknowledged Kang Jin-ho, and he had never not been wary of his danger. But at this moment, Chai Ke-chang discarded all of his evaluations of Kang Jin-ho.

Evaluation was meaningless now.

It didn’t matter what kind of person Kang Jin-ho was, whether he was friendly to them or not… it didn’t matter at all.

No matter what kind of being he was, he had to kill him. By any means necessary.

Chai Ke-chang’s eyes, wide open, were bloodshot.

CRASH!

Another truck slammed into the pile of trucks that had become like a small mountain. At the same time, the engine caught fire, and flames instantly engulfed the truck.

Black smoke billowed out along with the flames.

A hell on earth.

If he had to express this scene in words, that’s what he would have to say.

Under the blazing flames, the injured Mado crawled out. Then, they began to line up around Kang Jin-ho’s black van.

‘Red.’

The blood they were shedding was red.

That obvious fact was felt anew by Chai Ke-chang.

After seeing the result of everything, he realized that their actions were not just a reckless suicide mission.

The barricade wasn’t neutralized, but their formation was broken due to the flames burning in the center. They wouldn’t be able to attempt a breakthrough in the center, but the defense line was definitely weakened.

Realizing that fact, he felt goosebumps all over his body.

‘There’s no loss.’

From Kang Jin-ho’s perspective, those trucks were just disposable items that they couldn’t take with them anyway. If they could push back the opponent’s defense line even a little by sacrificing dozens of those trucks?

It was a gain.

Even Chai Ke-chang would have chosen that path. The only difference was that Chai Ke-chang didn’t have blindly loyal subordinates who would risk their lives to carry out such absurd, reckless orders.

He had to kill him.

Had he ever wished for someone’s death so desperately?

It wasn’t just simple animosity. It was a sense of crisis.

A sense of crisis he had never felt before. In the vortex of that sense of crisis, Chai Ke-chang licked his lips.

A strange atmosphere pressed down on the scene.

The sounds of explosions and flames echoed continuously, but it was silent.

It was paradoxical, but it was true.

No one in the scene opened their mouths.

They just glared at each other, no one daring to speak first.

Silence amidst the chaos.

That strange sensation tightened the nerves of everyone present.

It was Chai Ke-chang who broke that strange silence.

“It’s the first time we’re formally meeting.”

Chai Ke-chang raised his hand and lightly grabbed his neck.

His voice came out low. Regardless of his intention. Chai Ke-chang, who had slightly tightened his neck to release tension, stared straight at Kang Jin-ho and opened his mouth.

“Nice to meet you, Kang Jin-ho. I greet you on behalf of the Red King.”

Kang Jin-ho’s gaze turned to Chai Ke-chang.

The mention of the Red King made him bristle.

“While we’re at it, let’s say our goodbyes in advance. You will never get out of here. I will definitely kill you, with everything I have.”

A murderous voice flared up along with the flames.