Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 785

Creating a martial art is no easy task.

It was the same for Kang Jin-ho. As Wiggins had thought, Kang Jin-ho was facing a huge wall.

It was the wall of ‘satisfaction’.

It might sound a bit anticlimactic, but creating a martial art itself wasn’t that difficult, especially for a martial artist like Kang Jin-ho.

In his past life, Kang Jin-ho had learned and mastered martial arts to survive. Even though the Demonic Cult was a place where power was everything, the treatment of those born into the cult and those who joined from the outside was different. To overcome his disadvantage as an outsider, Kang Jin-ho studied and understood demonic arts more deeply than anyone else.

It was a given now, but even back then, no one understood demonic arts as deeply as Kang Jin-ho. Even if one were to look back at Kang Jin-ho’s previous era, the result wouldn’t be much different.

For Kang Jin-ho, creating a new demonic art wasn’t particularly difficult. What made this not-so-difficult task difficult was achieving a sense of satisfaction.

There is nothing new under the sun.

Everything is an extension of the past. Groundbreaking concepts that didn’t exist before come from overturning previous concepts. Overwhelming innovation comes from finding shortcomings in past concepts.

Everything is connected to the past.

In that sense, Kang Jin-ho had enough of the past to look back on. His mind was filled with all the most important demonic arts in the world.

But taking one more step from here was an incredibly difficult task.

The element of satisfaction. That is progress.

It’s meaningless if it’s the same as before.

A new martial art?

What’s the point? He wasn’t agonizing over creating a martial art that was merely different. The focus was on creating a martial art that was an improvement.

Kang Jin-ho had already set the base: The Demonic Blood Flame Art.

At first, he had just planned to increase the stability of the Demonic Blood Flame Art. But as he progressed, he felt a sense of incompleteness.

He delved in little by little.

Very little by little.

Then, when he came to his senses, Kang Jin-ho was completely dismantling the Demonic Blood Flame Art. Like disassembling a precision machine into its component parts, Kang Jin-ho completely unraveled the martial art of the Demonic Blood Flame Art.

It wouldn’t do to just slightly improve the existing Demonic Blood Flame Art. He had to build it up again from scratch. Kang Jin-ho, having laid out countless materials in his mind, quietly closed his eyes and delved into himself.

Time flows.

One day.

Another day.

And another day.

In the past, he wouldn’t have hesitated. He would have only agonized over how to increase destructive power. That was the way of the Demonic Heavenly Demon [a title or position within the Demonic Cult].

High risk, high return.

The more you take on, the more destructive power increases. And those who fall behind?

That’s the end of them.

He wouldn’t bother to drag those who couldn’t keep up. Only those who could pass his test could stand behind him.

That was the Demonic Heavenly Demon of the past, or rather, Kang Jin-ho.

But what about now?

In the end, the world is led by a minority.

Kang Jin-ho’s thoughts hadn’t changed. Those who change the world, those who lead the world, are a minority that doesn’t need consideration. For them, a martial art with high risk but high reward might be better.

Not everyone needs to be a leader.

Those who lead change everything. But without the driving force created by those who are led, the leaders can’t do anything.

In the end, the world is about walking together.

The third life.

A life as Kang Jin-ho, not the Demonic Heavenly Demon.

That was what Kang Jin-ho had learned in that short life.

The existence of those who push you from behind.

How much comfort had he gained from them?

If he had lived his third life like his past lives, the current Kang Jin-ho wouldn’t exist. He would have become the Demonic Heavenly Demon, greedily swallowing the whole world, or he would have lived as a loner with no one around him.

Is that enough?

Of course not.

Kang Jin-ho’s life isn’t something he constructs alone.

A life without family, without friends, and without his colleagues in the General Assembly [likely a reference to a group or organization] is now unimaginable for Kang Jin-ho.

It is because of them that Kang Jin-ho is complete.

This isn’t a burden.

Those he thought he had to carry forward were now pushing him from behind. They were filling his back to support him even if he fell.

He couldn’t move forward because there was something to protect.

The Demonic Heavenly Demon had told him that.

‘You’re wrong.’

Now he could say it proudly.

They weren’t people to protect. They were people to walk with. People who supported him from behind.

When he was the Demonic Heavenly Demon, he walked a harsh, narrow path where falling meant the end. A precarious situation where a single mistake could cost him his head. From that height, he looked down on everyone.

So what was left?

Yes, he didn’t regret it.

But there was nothing left either. At the end of his life, he had gained nothing from his life.

Who could even imagine that feeling?

Perhaps because of his current choice, Kang Jin-ho might not be able to reach the level of the Demonic Heavenly Demon of the past. But it didn’t matter. Even if he died at this moment, he had gained more than he had in his second life.

So…

There was no need to hesitate.

A huge pillar descends in the space of his mind.

Colorless.

A colorless pillar that contains nothing. Kang Jin-ho quietly stared at the pillar. The pillar turns white. Then it turns black again, and then red, changing from moment to moment.

Setting up the pillar is the beginning of everything.

So, what color pillar should he set up?

‘There’s no need for that.’

Because everything is Kang Jin-ho.

The righteous arts he first learned, the demonic arts that guided him, and even the blood energy of Kang Jin-ho that lived and breathed within him… all of that was part of what made Kang Jin-ho.

There’s no need to abandon the past to move forward. Rather, to move forward, one must face and embrace the past.

Three colors began to swirl around the colorless pillar. They pushed each other away, attacked each other, and struggled not to mix.

Kang Jin-ho didn’t try to suppress that reaction.

They mix.

Kang Jin-ho accepted all of it. So they would mix. In a form never seen before.

The colors mix. The pillar abandons its form and stretches out.

Not everything went as Kang Jin-ho wanted.

As if Kang Jin-ho’s identity was ultimately that of a demon, black covers the mixed colors. But that was okay too. He didn’t deny what he had lived. If his inside was stained with demonic arts, that was also Kang Jin-ho.

The pillars began to stretch out branches towards the world in the form of a giant tree.

They stretch out.

With the momentum to cover everything, they cover the world.

A tree that resembles everything, that contains everything Kang Jin-ho has, stretches out into the world.

– Do you think that will change anything?

Kang Jin-ho’s brow furrowed.

‘That’s an unpleasant voice.’

A voice that seemed to mock and ridicule.

No, he couldn’t be sure. Whether this voice was the voice of the Demonic Heavenly Demon sleeping within him, or a voice created by his own doubts.

He wasn’t sure.

Whether the path he was walking was leading in the right direction, whether he could reach his goal if he continued to walk this way… he wasn’t sure of anything.

The only thing that was certain was this.

Nothing changes if you don’t try.

Failure exists only if there is an attempt. If you don’t try, you don’t fail either.

Not trying just to avoid failure?

That wasn’t Kang Jin-ho’s way.

He takes a step.

Even if this one step leads him to the abyss, he simply takes it without a single doubt.

It’s okay to fall.

Because there are people who will grab his hand.

Because there are people who will reach out to him as he falls.

The tree that had stretched its branches across the sky began to bloom leaves.

Lushly, more lushly than ever.

The black leaves that covered the world began to flutter like cherry blossoms.

Black snow falls.

A space of illusion.

In that space full of bizarre things that couldn’t exist in this world, Kang Jin-ho quietly reached out his hand.

It was a place where no one would grab the hand he extended.

Even so, Kang Jin-ho reached out his hand.

First, before anyone else…

It was just a hand grasping at empty air, but the important thing was that he had reached out first.

Kang Jin-ho quietly closed his eyes.

– Could you reach out now?

A voice that sounded like an illusion.

Not the mocking voice he had heard a moment ago, but a voice that was a little nostalgic, and warm…

Kang Jin-ho raised his head without answering.

A smile that was so wonderful that anyone who saw it would have been amazed filled his lips.

米

*

#:

“Is he dead?”

Lee Hyun-soo muttered to himself without realizing it.

Of course, he couldn’t be dead. He could feel a presence inside. Even if Lee Hyun-soo was only a half-baked martial artist, he wasn’t so inept that he couldn’t sense the life force coming from behind a door.

Even so, the reason he said such a thing was because he was frustrated.

‘It’s been days already.’

It was the fifth day today. Five days had passed since Kang Jin-ho had locked himself in.

Even Wiggins, who had told him not to worry, was starting to look uncomfortable.

“It shouldn’t take too long…”

According to Wiggins, creation was a matter of all or nothing. It could be created in an instant, but if things went wrong, countless hours could pass.

If Kang Jin-ho had entered a state of self-forgetfulness, he couldn’t stop halfway just because time had passed.

‘No, but why now of all times…’

Of course, it was also because it was a time like this that a new martial art was needed. But right now, it was a time when Kang Jin-ho had to hold the center of the General Assembly. To put it bluntly, if Kang Jin-ho’s seclusion continued, there would be no one to control those Demonic Cult bastards.

What if those bastards started running wild?

The thought alone was terrifying.

“So, please come out now, Assembly Leader.”

It was at that moment.

Click.

Lee Hyun-soo’s head snapped around.

He heard the sound of the doorknob turning. Lee Hyun-soo stared at the doorknob as if he would pierce it.

Click.

The doorknob slowly turned. Then, slowly, very slowly, the door began to open.

“Ah…”

Lee Hyun-soo watched the scene with a dazed look. The door slowly opened, and behind the door, he could see Kang Jin-ho with a slightly haggard face.

Strangely, his heart welled up.

Kang Jin-ho had a face that he had never seen before, a face that was so relaxed. Just from that expression, he could tell. Kang Jin-ho had accomplished something, something he couldn’t understand.

Kang Jin-ho, who had found Lee Hyun-soo, gave a soft smile. A smile that was a little out of place, a truly soft smile. And Kang Jin-ho’s mouth slowly opened.

It felt like something great was about to come out.

Like the Buddha proclaiming, ‘I alone am honored in heaven and earth.’

If it was Kang Jin-ho, who had opened the path to a new martial art after a long seclusion… something moving and great…

A soft voice flowed from Kang Jin-ho’s mouth.

“Is there any food left in the cafeteria?”

“I’m asking if there’s any left.”

Lee Hyun-soo’s face contorted terribly.