Descent Of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 752

‘Just what is that guy?’

Even amidst the rage that felt like it would burst through his skin, Hong King couldn’t help but wonder.

He knew that he had changed.

He also knew that this was not the Kang Jin-ho he had known.

But was it really possible for his skills to change so drastically just like that?

It was not something that could happen logically. Hong King asked.

He couldn’t bear to hold back this question.

“Just what! Just what are you!”

“Hmm?”

Kang Jin-ho smiled as he looked at Hong King.

“That’s a foolish question. But it wouldn’t be bad to answer it.”

Kang Jin-ho slowly approached Hong King and said,

“What do I look like to you?”

“Answer me. What do I look like?”

Hong King couldn’t answer. Questions are usually accompanied by intent. But there was no intent in that question. So, he couldn’t find an answer.

“What did you call me?”

“…Kang Jin-ho.”

“Yes, you know me well. I am Kang Jin-ho.”

It was an answer, but not an answer.

His answer didn’t explain anything.

Why was there another Kang Jin-ho inside Kang Jin-ho, and how could his abilities change just by a change in personality? It didn’t resolve any of the questions.

“To be precise, I am the ‘real’ Kang Jin-ho.”

“The real Kang Jin-ho?”

“Yes. The guy who took over my body called me that. He called me the Demonic Heavenly Sovereign.”

Hong King’s mouth opened and closed.

The fact that Kang Jin-ho was the Demonic Heavenly Sovereign was something he had already heard through various channels.

Whether it was true or not didn’t matter. Whether Kang Jin-ho was the Demonic Heavenly Sovereign or not, nothing would change. Either way, he was a great demon who had come from the past to the present, and if the Demonic Heavenly Sovereign could do it, he could do it too.

But hearing that fact directly from him felt different.

The Demonic Heavenly Sovereign.

The worst demon king who had once existed in the martial world, who had opened the era of demons. The worst demon who had humiliated countless martial artists and made them swallow their anger towards demons.

That name now flowed from Kang Jin-ho’s mouth.

“That guy calls me the Demonic Heavenly Sovereign and calls himself Kang Jin-ho. That pathetic guy.”

Kang Jin-ho’s face twisted horribly.

“But… is that so?”

Kang Jin-ho smiled with a twisted face.

“I’ll ask you. Answer me. I haven’t been able to ask this question to anyone, so at least you answer me.”

“I have lived as Kang Jin-ho for nearly a hundred years. But a guy who has lived for only twenty years calls himself Kang Jin-ho. He says I’m just an additional personality. Answer me. Who is the real Kang Jin-ho? That weak and incompetent guy is taking everything I have achieved as his own and claiming to be the master. Me!”

Kang Jin-ho’s thunderous roar shook the world.

“What do I look like to you?”

Hong King gritted his teeth.

He had no intention of joining their petty war over control of the body.

“Then what if…

“Am I strong?”

Kang Jin-ho chuckled.

“Of course. Because what that guy threw away to take over my body was me. I am the progenitor of demons. I am the ruler of demons. I am the one who rules the demons of the Ganges [a vast, metaphorical number], and I am everything of demons. Just containing me would have torn this weak body apart in an instant.”

Kang Jin-ho raised his sword.

“The survival instinct to live separated me and pushed me into the abyss. I lived as an illusion in that guy’s delusion.”

The Red Ru [a type of sword] in Kang Jin-ho’s hand spat out a twisted sword cry. The sword was swung down in a violent arc from top to bottom.

The sea that had been filling the space between Hong King and Kang Jin-ho split apart.

He couldn’t even react.

The barrier of energy created by instinct, not consciousness, was split too easily. The wall created by Hong King’s incredibly strong inner force burst like a soap bubble, and once again, a wound was etched into his body.

“Now, tell me.”

Kang Jin-ho’s eyes gleamed with madness.

“Who am I?”

The corners of Kang Jin-ho’s mouth curled up.

Weak.

Everything in the world was weak.

The power he had regained now was not even half of the power he had in the past. With just that power, he was playing with Hong King like a toy.

This world was too weak.

Then?

He had to let them know.

To this world.

What true power was, what true demon was.

Perhaps ‘that’ Kang Jin-ho was more suited to this world. Because he was weak too.

How ridiculous was it?

A murderer who had killed hundreds, thousands to save his own life was talking about family, friends, and the peace of the world.

It was a nauseating hypocrisy.

Could he live the same life as before just by removing his power and separating himself from his past?

Bullshit.

All the pain he had to bear was now taken on by the current Kang Jin-ho. In return, that guy enjoyed happiness in this world.

Then he would destroy it.

Everything that he felt at peace with.

He would watch the process of this world being covered in demons and watch that guy scream. Just like he had been through until now.

To do that?

“First, I have to kill you.”

Hong King couldn’t resist Kang Jin-ho, who was approaching with his teeth bared.

The difference in power he had never felt before.

It was an overwhelming difference that seemed impossible to resist with anything.

‘What have I awakened….’

At the end of his fight with Kang Jin-ho, ‘that’ had awakened. A being who was tens of times more violent and ominous than the Kang Jin-ho he had feared.

A demon filled with evil, so much that all the infamy of the Demonic Heavenly Sovereign he had heard about seemed like child’s play, had descended upon this era.

The world would be stained with evil.

If he couldn’t stop him, all those who were alive would yearn for hell.

A certainty that went beyond conviction.

Even Hong King, who had never been driven by a sense of duty for others, was now filled with the will to stop him, even at the cost of his life. A great evil was standing before his eyes.

“Demonic Heavenly Sovereign… no, Kang Jin-ho. Whatever I call you, it won’t change anything.”

Kang Jin-ho narrowed his eyes.

“I will stop you. No matter what it takes, I will!”

“You don’t know.”

Kang Jin-ho shook his head.

Then, his body disappeared from that spot with a thud!

Hong King gritted his teeth and pulled up his energy.

He was an opponent he couldn’t keep up with by sight or by senses. Then he had to give up. He wouldn’t try to catch him. He would only feel him!

“Words have no meaning.”

Hong King’s fist struck behind him.

But what his fist met was not Kang Jin-ho’s body, but the Blue Ru [another type of sword].

Crack!

Perhaps because he had struck with such force, the Blue Ru was pierced by Hong King’s fist. Hong King gritted his teeth at the pain of his fist splitting in half.

“You bastard!”

Inner force surged through Hong King’s entire body.

It was dangerous to waste time. Very dangerous. This guy was strong. More than he could imagine. If that was the case, it was obvious that the more time he wasted, the more disadvantageous it would be for him.

One strike.

He had to kill that demon with a single strike.

Hong King pulled up all the inner force remaining in his dantian [an energy center in the body]. In addition, he even extracted all the remaining innate energy.

He would kill him.

That one thought dominated Hong King.

His fist was a fist of destroying evil, a fist of subduing demons.

All of his martial arts were created to fight against demons. If the blood and sweat of the sages were not in vain, if their efforts to prevent the coming era of demons were not in vain, there was no reason why he couldn’t subdue this guy.

Emotion, energy, spirit.

The three things that could not be united were united into one in an instant. The state he had aimed for since he first learned martial arts. The moment when his soul and body became one, Hong King felt a terrible sense of fulfillment that he had never felt before.

It was ironic.

He was now surpassing the state he had tried so hard to overcome, yet had never even stepped foot on. What was never given when he tried to obtain it, now revealed a snow-covered land untouched by anyone’s feet at this moment when he let go of everything.

Everything he had gathered into his fist.

And then, a single fist that was unleashed.

A true single fist that he had never unleashed in his life.

Hong King had finally reached that state.

The sensation of everything from his toes pushing up and escaping out of his body through his fist. No pleasure, no pain could compare to the sensation he was feeling now.

A waterfall exploded in his head.

Perhaps this one strike might even take his life. But Hong King didn’t think that death would be worthless. Because this one fist would pierce the heart of the demon.

But his belief was shattered so helplessly.

The world turned black.

A river of red blood flowed in the sky, and darkness crisscrossed the world like air.

The wind that blew carried the smell of blood, and the seawater that wet his feet turned into sticky blood.

He knew.

This was an illusion.

His body, feeling the extreme threat, was warning him by turning this world upside down.

That there was a demon in front of him now….

The world stopped.

Hong King’s single fist, which was like the dawn that illuminated the world, was split helplessly. It was as if evil had taken on life and was clumping together. In the slowed-down world, Hong King saw it clearly.

Jet-black demonic energy.

Within that sharp sword energy, demonic energies were screaming, pressing down, and tearing apart. It was like a burning flame, and like a surging wave.

Even Hong King, who hated demons, was momentarily captivated by the sight.

And the price was terrible.

Chwaaaaaak!

The demonic energy that lightly cut through the single fist that contained everything Hong King had, covered his entire body. The fist he had clenched was broken like taffy, and the muscles that had protected his entire body like a solid wall were torn apart, strand by strand.

Bones broke, and flesh was pierced.

He couldn’t even feel the pain.

All Hong King could do was not collapse. To put strength into his knees that kept shaking. To concentrate all the strength in his body on his knees and not fall.

That was the last bit of pride left for Hong King.

The hole in his stomach that showed his insides, the arm that was split in half and barely attached by the skin, the long diagonal wound on his face that was bleeding profusely… none of it could make Hong King kneel.

“I’ll acknowledge it.”

Even Kang Jin-ho, who was standing calmly in front of Hong King, was nodding his head.

“Your abilities may be insignificant, but your will is so great that it cannot be found even in my former enemies. I will grant you the mercy of dying on your feet.”

Upon hearing those words, Hong King chuckled and spat at Kang Jin-ho.

“Go to hell, demon.”

The moment Kang Jin-ho heard those words, he swung the Red Ru without mercy.

The Red Ru, starting from the ground, cut through the seawater, cut through the air, and even cut through Hong King’s thick neck.

No, it should have cut through it.

But Kang Jin-ho’s sword was stopped, touching Hong King’s neck. The sharp edge of the Red Ru had cut through Hong King’s skin, but it never reached his artery.

Hong King looked at Kang Jin-ho with questioning eyes.

Mercy?

There was no way.

There was no way this demon would have mercy.

As if to prove that fact, Kang Jin-ho’s face was twisted into an expression he had never seen before.

“This….”

Kang Jin-ho began to tremble all over.

“You damn bastard! Again! Aaaaaaagain!”

Kang Jin-ho, who had dropped the Red Ru from his hand, grabbed his head and shook it violently, then collapsed on the spot.

Then, he began to writhe in agony.

“Kang Jin-hoooooooooooooooooo!”

The demon screamed.