Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 743

Presence is formless.

External energy is converted into internal energy through breathing. Martial artists are those who transform the internal energy they take in through breathing from formless to tangible.

Conversely, energy that isn’t intentionally given form is no different from the external energy that drifts through the world. Sometimes it feels gentle, sometimes it feels violent, but it is merely energy that cannot exert physical force.

This wasn’t Kang Jin-ho’s theory. It was a proven fact.

However, right now, Kang Jin-ho felt the facts about martial arts that he had known until now were being shattered.

It wasn’t just a feeling. Compressed formlessness was no different from tangibility. It was just the enraged Hong King emitting energy.

Yes, it was just that.

However, for Kang Jin-ho, who was directly facing that momentum, it wasn’t such a simple matter.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

It felt like cannons were being fired all over his body.

His body was being crushed.

Pfft!

His internal organs were being shaken, and a fountain of blood spurted from his mouth. Even Kang Jin-ho couldn’t help but be flustered by this absurd phenomenon.

‘Formless energy?’

It wasn’t an illogical theory.

Energy is transformed from formless to tangible through intention.

Then, wouldn’t an intention pushed to its limit be able to instantly convert formlessness into tangibility without going through a process?

Instead of gathering energy and converting it into cumbersome things like force fields, sword energy, or sword beams, wouldn’t it be possible to simply move as the mind dictates and crush the opponent with the energy itself?

An absurd logic.

This seemingly far-fetched topic had long been the object of martial artists’ aspirations.

Some called it formless energy, and others called it formless sword.

Even if it was a dreamlike realm, how could there not have been someone who reached that level in the long history of the martial world?

However, none of those Kang Jin-ho had faced had ever unleashed a barrage of formless energy just by being angry. Even Kang Jin-ho was dumbfounded.

Then, was the Hong King stronger than any martial artist he had faced so far?

Kang Jin-ho narrowed his brow.

No, that couldn’t be.

He hadn’t confirmed everything about the Hong King yet, but no matter how strong he was, he couldn’t have surpassed the level reached by Hyein of the past Shaolin [a famous Buddhist monastery known for its martial arts] or the Taiji Master of Wudang [a mountain known for its Taoist temples and martial arts].

Then how was this possible?

‘Has it evolved?’

Kang Jin-ho’s face instantly hardened.

It was a natural thing to happen.

If there are those who research and those who make efforts, martial arts will evolve.

There may be times when its power weakens, but its concept never regresses. Humans are beings that evolve in some way.

Then, even if the theory and concept of martial arts had evolved several times more than in the past, it wouldn’t be strange. It was such an obvious fact. The reason he couldn’t accept that obvious fact was that they were too weak compared to the past.

If martial arts had evolved, they should have become stronger. But these people were extremely weak compared to the martial artists of the past, and their power was not even as good as the past. Then martial arts had not evolved.

The simple syllogism was completely shattered by the existence of the Hong King. The Hong King was now engraving the progress of martial arts over a thousand years into Kang Jin-ho’s body.

If demonic arts aim to embrace the world’s energy within one’s own body and transcend human limitations to become a god in reality, then righteous arts aim to harmonize with the world’s energy and eventually transcend even the physical body, so that the mind and nature become one.

Since the goals are different, the processes are different, and since the processes are different, the results are different.

Handling formless energy was their domain. It was something Kang Jin-ho couldn’t understand because he hadn’t reached that level. It was like a physicist not understanding the research of a chemist who had reached the extreme.

They were the same science, but their fields were different, and what they researched was different.

Kang Jin-ho raised Red Dew and Azure Dew [names of his swords] to protect his body from the barrage of formless energy. Even if it was formless energy, energy was still energy. If he knew it was coming, there was no reason he couldn’t block it.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Azure Dew and Red Dew trembled.

The trembling of the swords was transmitted to his wrist, and the trembling of his wrist made his entire arm shake. Then, his whole body began to tremble as if he had caught a fever.

And in the midst of that trembling, Kang Jin-ho laughed.

This was it.

Yes, this was it.

The dull pain felt throughout his body, the sense of crisis that his head might explode and kill him if he was off by even an inch, and…

The blood that flowed from his mouth scattered onto the floor, dripping down Kang Jin-ho’s chin.

Fierce anger and competitiveness.

He wanted to tear him apart.

He wanted to plunge Red Dew into the neck of that strongman and watch his face contort.

Murderous intent.

Yes, this was murderous intent.

After an immeasurable amount of time, the murderous intent that had been dormant in Kang Jin-ho’s heart began to explode.

Against the tangible presence, Kang Jin-ho’s murderous intent began to pierce the Hong King’s flesh.

The Hong King’s face contorted at the eerie sensation of his flesh being cut.

“Kang Jin-hooooooooo!”

Kang Jin-ho couldn’t intentionally materialize his murderous intent like the Hong King.

However, Kang Jin-ho’s murderous intent, pushed to its extreme, threatened and cut his opponent on its own.

Presence and murderous intent.

The two energies rushed at each other madly.

At that moment, the Hong King clenched his fist and rushed forward.

“Get back!”

Kang Jin-ho also shouted and rushed forward. Seeing that, Bator shouted with a pale face.

“Get back! Get back now! Quickly!”

“What?”

Those who were bewildered.

They were too engrossed in the scene before them and couldn’t react immediately to Bator’s urgent command.

“Get back, you idiots!”

Bator wasn’t just a man who shouted. His thick legs moved like lightning. Bator, who had jumped to the front, grabbed the demons as if he didn’t care about anything and threw them far away.

“L-Lord Bator!”

The demons were flustered by the sudden strange behavior, but Bator threw the demons around indiscriminately and then turned his body.

Then, he planted both legs into the ground.

Thud! Thud!

With a powerful stomp, Bator, who had planted both legs into the ground, spread his arms to the left and right and pulled up his inner energy as much as he could.

In his eyes, he saw the scene of Kang Jin-ho’s Red Dew and Azure Dew colliding with the Hong King’s fist, which was imbued with white fist energy.

Immediately after that, the sound of the world disappeared.

‘It stops?’

The sound of the world hadn’t disappeared.

The world had stopped.

No, it hadn’t stopped.

It was moving. Slowly. Little by little.

It was moving so slowly that it was almost imperceptible unless one opened their eyes wide and carefully examined their surroundings.

‘Why?’

It was a strange event.

Bator wasn’t foolish. There was a cause for everything. The result was clear. The world hadn’t stopped. The world hadn’t slowed down. The world was the same, but Bator’s thoughts had sped up.

Why?

Bator bit his lip tightly. He put all his strength into his legs and desperately pulled up his inner energy.

It was coming.

Something enormous was coming that could take Bator’s life in an instant. His body had naturally sensed that fact and was pulling up all of his abilities.

His brain was overclocking to the point of consuming his lifespan.

“Uaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

The huge shout that burst from his mouth sounded distorted, as if it were coming from a stretched-out tape.

In Bator’s eyes, who had pushed all his energy forward to create a huge barrier, ‘it’ was visible.

It was distorting.

The world was distorting.

The part where Kang Jin-ho’s sword and the Hong King’s fist collided was distorting like a ripple. The distortion started small enough to envelop the two people’s bodies, and then it spread out in all directions in an instant.

Like switching from a slow-motion replay to fast-forward, the impact that had been spreading slowly suddenly increased in size and explosively extended in all directions.

The distortion that flew in collided with the energy that Bator had emitted.

Bator vividly felt everything. His energy was collapsing helplessly. At the same time, his muscles were being torn apart, strand by strand, and his bones were breaking like straws due to the aftermath.

His whole body was rattling.

His huge pectoral muscles were being pushed in like soft balloons. His hard abs were being twisted and squeezed like laundry in a woman’s hands.

His stomach, unable to withstand the pressure, was vomiting hot blood, and the blood that couldn’t find its place was surging up his throat and into his mouth.

Blood gushed from his mouth like a waterfall.

Even in the midst of all that, his whole body was bending and twisting as if he were a puppet with its strings cut.

And in an instant…

The world regained its speed.

Kuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuung!

The impact that had been slowly pushing Bator away suddenly engulfed him. Bator’s head turned completely white.

Impact.

A huge impact that he had never experienced in his entire life invaded him. The walls he had built, so high and thick that no external enemy would dare to invade, were too powerless in the face of the enormous storm that seemed not of this world.

The walls crumbled with a single surge of the storm.

Bator’s body.

Even Kang Jin-ho had said that it contained a god, that unparalleled body was instantly twisted and torn apart by the terrifying impact.

“Kuh-eok!”

He couldn’t even let out a proper scream.

He didn’t even have the strength to raise his voice. Bator barely let out a death rattle and was swept away by the storm, flying through the air like a kite with a broken string.

Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

As Bator, who had been blocking the flying storm, was thrown out, those who had barely managed to maintain their positions were unable to withstand the shockwave and were thrown away.

“Uaaaaaaaaaaaaaak!”

“Save meeeeeeeeeee!”

An irresistible force.

A dreamlike scene was unfolding where the collision of humans was creating a natural disaster.

They were being swept away.

They were being thrown, pushed, entangled, and overturned.

The demons who had been lined up were unable to withstand the impact and were thrown and rolled backward, entangled with each other. Bones were breaking, teeth were breaking. Severed tongues were flying.

“Batorrrrrrrrr!”

Jang Min saw the scene and floated into the air. Jang Min, who caught Bator’s huge body flying like a kite with a broken string, looked at him with eyes as if he had seen a ghost.

Bator’s pale face was a mess with the blood that was gushing out.

‘What the…!’

Jang Min raised his head with trembling eyes.

The scene that unfolded before his eyes was a scene of utter chaos. No one had attacked them. Yet, the area was in ruins as if it had been bombed.

A single blow exchanged between the Demonic Lord and the Hong King.

That single blow had turned the area into this mess.

Kuuuuuuuuuuuuuung!

At that moment, Jang Min heard another huge collision sound. Jang Min instinctively raised his head and looked at the place where the sound came from. Then, he opened his eyes wide as if they would tear.