Descent of the Demon Master

Seok Tae-Su's expression was weird, to say the least, as he stared at Yi Myeong-Hwan convulsing silently on the floor.

'What the hell? Is there a hidden camera somewhere?'

Even if that was true... Wasn't this situation way too weird? How did it make sense for a perfectly-fine martial artist to suddenly collapse and convulse on the ground like that just because Kang Jin-Ho touched him on the back?

While feeling weirded out, Seok Tae-Su cautiously looked around, and then...

'Huh. The mood in here is getting a bit chilly, innit?'

Seemingly everyone who witnessed this sight had become a frozen statue, their expressions filled with panic and fear. It'd be awfully nice of Yi Myeong-Hwan if he could suddenly jump up and yell, 'Surprise!' this instance to improve the atmosphere, but...

'Yup, that's not gonna happen, now is it?'

Yi Myeong-Hwan might joke around every now and then, but not Kang Jin-Ho. Definitely not. That man didn't seem the type to prank other people like this.

Since Kang Jin-Ho looked unperturbed, this spectacle couldn't be a hidden camera prank!

'Then... What the heck is going on here?'

The only thing Kang Jin-Ho did was transfer some essence qi to Yi Myeong-Hwan through the latter's back, so... Why was that idiot convulsing on the floor like that... as if he got electrocuted? Besides all that...

Did Kang Jin-Ho ask who's next? As in, he wanted to do the same thing to someone else?

He must be joking, right?!

Judging from the looks on their faces, it seemed Seok Tae-Su's colleagues were thinking the same thing. They were nervously exchanging glances with each other while silently asking, 'How are we supposed to interpret this situation?'

“...Next!” Kang Jin-Ho raised his voice as if to drive the final nail in the coffin. If this situation had been different, no one would've been brave enough to step forward. However, the hint of irritation seeping into Kang Jin-Ho's voice had already paralyzed people's brains.

Well, they wouldn't die from this, right? However, pissing Kang Jin-Ho off would really get them killed, so...

The younger-generation of the Martial Assembly had bore witness to Kang Jin-Ho's actions one too many times to bet on his humanity suddenly rearing its head.

Someone in the front of the crowd urgently raised his voice. “W-wait, sir! I'm coming.”

Anyone could tell that Kang Jin-Ho wasn't going to stop at one or two victims. And that realization plunged everyone here into the pits of resignation. Since they had to suffer... Might as well get it over with as soon as possible!

“Turn around,” said Kang Jin-Ho once the volunteer rushed toward him.

“Y-yes, sir!” The volunteer quickly responded despite his nervous expression. Even before Kang Jin-Ho finished ordering him around, the brave volunteer swiftly replied and spun his body around at the speed of light. It was just that...

'...He looks so miserable, doesn't he?'

That was what everyone thought while looking at the volunteer's face. The bizarre mixture of terror and nervousness had totally paralyzed the man's face, and everyone looking at him also felt their own hearts shrinking back in fear!

However, Kang Jin-Ho didn't care. He wordlessly pressed his palm on the volunteer's back. And then...

“Ugyagyagyagyaaaaahk?!”

Just what did Kang Jin-Ho do to make the volunteer scream like that?

Watching another person writhe and convulse like a squid on a grille was an uncommon sight, indeed. Unless a still-lit cigarette somehow ended up under one's clothes, probably against the back, you'd never see a physical reaction as visceral as this one!

In that sense, Seok Tae-Su could count himself lucky. He now had a great opportunity to observe such a rare sight again and again, after all! As long as he discounted the small, inconvenient fact that he'd soon share the same fate as them, that was!

Plop!

When that brave volunteer collapsed on the floor and started an impromptu break-dance routine, the atmosphere in the auditorium went even chillier until it began to resemble a snow-covered Siberian plain in the middle of winter!

The late summer heat had seemingly dissipated away. So much so that Seok Tae-Su began to seriously consider switching the aircon off. Who cared about the aircon's cold air when everyone was about to freeze to death? Besides, wasn't the country suffering from a shortage of electricity, anyway?

“Uhm, excuse me...?” Seok Tae-Su sheepishly raised his hand even before realizing it. As a proud born-and-raised South Korean, he definitely didn't want to step up like an idiot and get marked for death by Kang Jin-Ho. Unfortunately, now wasn't the time to think about being a nice guy and giving another person a chance to be the hero.

Kang Jin-Ho glanced at Seok Tae-Su. “What is it?”

“I wasn't gonna stop you when you were guiding us with your excellent teaching method, but, uh... Is there another way besides this one?”

“Mm? Is there a problem?”

“N-no, sir! Definitely no problem! It's just that... Uh, well, if you teach us one at a time, wouldn't it be a waste of your valuable time? And...” Seok Tae-Su nervously gulped his saliva before rambling on some more. “Sir, we all know how extremely busy you are. I don't think it's right for you to waste your valuable time on idiots like us. My, uh, opinion on this matter is... Since two of us have already experienced it, we can ask them to share what they have learned with the rest of us once they wake up. Isn't that the best way to reduce the length of time you must waste on us...?”

Although Seok Tae-Su had no idea what he was even talking about, it seemed his hastily-cobbled-together words still held enough persuasive power.

“Y-yes, he's right, sir!”

“Let us try it by ourselves!”

“Being independent is important, sir! Let us be independent!”

“We swear, we can do this, sir!”

Positive responses from Seok Tae-Su's colleagues exploded forth from all around him. Even though they all sounded a little desperate!

The younger-generation martial artists, who had been divided into the groups of Yeongnam Branch and the Martial Assembly HQ and were waging a war of nerves with each other, finally spoke in one voice and thought with one mind to unite against this injustice!

Not even the government could do anything about the chronic factionalism plaguing the country's people, yet Kang Jin-Ho cleanly solved that issue in the proverbial blink of an eye. If one judged this scene through that lens only, it'd seem heartwarming and life-affirming.

Unfortunately, there was always a problem with scenes like that. And that was the presence of a dense person who couldn't read the room. The younger-generation's misfortune was that that dense person happened to Kang Jin-Ho this time!

“I'm grateful that you don't want to waste my time, but this is something I simply must do regardless of what we feel. No, wait…” Kang Jin-Ho muttered while furrowing his brow ever so slightly. “The demonic cultivation method I'm granting you is a completely different beast from the trash you must've come into contact with until now. And to demonstrate what real demonic arts are like, and to make you understand their true worth, I don't have a choice but to personally do this.”

'…! Who was complaining earlier again?'

'Dunno, but we gotta find out who it was!'

'And we're gonna beat his ass up! Beat him up until he's dead!'

Rage began boiling among the younger-generation martial artists. Their desire to pulverize the bastard responsible for this situation was all the fuel they needed. On the other hand, though... Another type of emotion was also flowing among the martial artists.

Seok Tae-Su's uncertain gaze locked on Kang Jin-Ho. 'Hmm. How should I describe this? Maybe...'

...He's sulking?

Of course, even Seok Tae-Su understood that he needed to use higher-class terms like 'displeased' or 'dissatisfied' when talking about someone like Kang Jin-Ho. Still, if Seok Tae-Su were to cut through all the bullsh*t and point out the crux of the matter, wasn't this the case of Kang Jin-Ho sulking like a kid after the demonic arts he oh-so-graciously imparted to the masses was laughed at...?

In that case... Like... Kang Jin-Ho might be...

'...Petty?'

Seok Tae-Su realized he had just witnessed a new dimension to Kang Jin-Ho's personality. Usually, such an experience carried a positive connotation, but not this time. It was a bit... off to be seen that way.

'No way. That can't be right...'

Kang Jin-Ho couldn't be so petty about things like this, no?

That was when Seok Tae-Su saw it. He saw Kang Jin-Ho glancing at the pair of convulsing figures on the floor, the corners of his lips subtly, oh-so subtly, curling upwards.

'Holy sh*t, that bastard... It's all true!'

Even if someone was small-minded, how could they do this as retaliation...?!

“Next!” Kang Jin-Ho called out again even before Seok Tae-Su had a chance to organize his chaotic thoughts.

Hellish sorrow quickly settled within the auditorium.

***

“...W-what the f*ck?!” Lee Hyeon-Su freaked out the moment his feet crossed the auditorium's entrance.

Where was this? Didn't he enter the auditorium where the younger-generation martial artists were supposed to be training?

That was indeed correct, so what was the possible explanation for this sight? All Lee Hyeon-Su could see right now was the interior of a warzone field hospital! Any sane-minded person clapping their eyes on the figures of one hundred-or-so previously healthy men writhing, convulsing and whimpering on the floor would've thought the same!

“W-what the hell is wrong with you lot?” Lee Hyeon-Su urgently cried out.

However, the martial artists were too busy grunting and whimpering on the floor to reply. “Urgh... Ouch...”

Lee Hyeon-Su could rather be economical with expressing his emotions, but not this time. Even he couldn't hide how flabbergasted he was. If a person with zero knowledge of what was supposed to go down here witnessed this scene, they would've naturally assumed that an enemy had infiltrated and beaten up everyone!

If he didn't already know that Kang Jin-Ho was here not too long ago, even Lee Hyeon-Su would've thought that these folks had been defeated by an unknown enemy.

“Who... Just which motherf*ckers were complaining... earlier...?!” Yi Myeong-Hwan, the first one to suffer and also the first one to recover, barely managed to push himself off the floor with his shaking arms. His bloodshot eyes scanned the fallen crowd, his teeth loudly gnashing.

His words prompted the martial artists to stop crawling around on the floor and stand up suddenly like scary zombies, their eyes burning in madness.

It was as if these zombies wanted to find the culprits responsible for this situation and thoroughly chew them out!

Lee Hyeon-Su slowly shook his head at this spectacle. 'This... Will this be okay?'

At least it seemed he didn't need to worry about Kang Jin-Ho's power to dominate. Of course, that wasn't always a good thing, but...

“Hey, you f*cking moron! If you ain't gonna take responsibilities for your sh*t, don't run your mouth off, got that?!” Yi Myeong-Hwan loudly yelled. “Why did you have to carelessly run your trap and put us through this crap!?”

One of the guilty martial artists sheepishly raised his voice. “...I didn't know he'd get so sulky about something like this!”

But that response incensed Yi Myeong-Hwan even more, and he blew his top. “Listen here, you numbskull! Haven't you been to the army?! You think that excuse will work after you crack a dumbass joke in front of a division commander?! Saying you didn't know things would go sideways this fast?! The gap between you and that dude is no less than between a private and a division commander!”

One of the crowd suddenly raised his hand. “...Uhm, I was exempted, actually.”

“Who said that?!” Yi Myeong-Hwan's head snapped toward the voice's origin.

“...My bad.”

The younger-generation martial artists finally realized what they had done after listening to Yi Myeong-Hwan.

“Right. Now that I think about it, Mister Kang Jin-Ho's status is sky-high, isn't it...?”

“You're right. This is so weird...”

“If I'm being honest, sometimes he makes me so scared that my teeth chatter all by themselves, you know? Still, isn't it weird...?”

The martial artists began exchanging weirded-out glances with each other.

'...Why does Kang Jin-Ho seem like a pushover?'

No, that wasn't right. These people didn't view Kang Jin-Ho as some weakling they could push around. Several among this group would break out in shivers just from looking at Kang Jin-Ho's face, after all! If someone asked them to pick who scared them the most, nine out of ten would've chosen Kang Jin-Ho on the spot since the trauma from that day was still fresh on their minds!

Even then, this... How should they describe this?

'...Right. This problem began with Kang Jin-Ho's personality, didn't it?'

From the perspective of these younger-generation martial artists, Kang Jin-Ho's personality seemed totally indecipherable. A flip of a switch would turn Kang Jin-Ho into the world's scariest, most brutal individual, but in a regular setting, he...

He was benign? No, that expression was not quite right, so...

In any case, Kang Jin-Ho usually seemed mild-mannered and gracious.

Of course, these martial artists were denizens of the shadowy hidden world. They weren't naive enough to think that mild-mannered behavior was enough to judge an individual to be nice.

However, with Kang Jin-Ho... Everything he did seemed to convey how mild-mannered he was. From how he moved to the things he said, one could sense that Kang Jin-Ho was thinking about other people, at least up to a certain degree. That was the feeling the younger-generation martial artists had been picking up. In any other setting, a behavior like that would've been taken for granted, but not in the world of martial artists.

In this world, the command structure was absolute. One's discipline must never be forgotten. Practically zero martial artists with power treated their subordinates like Kang Jin-Ho had done.

No wonder some of these younger-generation martial artists forgot about the line and wandered across it sometimes.

'To think the most terrifying person on the planet is also someone we can feel comfortable having around, too...!'

Yi Myeong-Hwan tutted at this truly absurd situation before scanning his colleagues. In a way, what was going on with everyone might seem like a very serious problem, but... Knowing the actual story behind the situation, Yi Myeong-Hwan wasn't really worried. It was nothing more than a light side effect, after all.

Even if these martial artists were full of complaints, one serious-sounding command from Kang Jin-Ho would still be enough for them to risk their lives to fulfill the task.

'Although, messing around under Mister Jekyll-and-Hyde seems to be turning us into his copycats, too...' Yi Myeong-Hwan sighed hollowly at this absurd side effect, then lifelessly turned around to face Lee Hyeon-Su. “What can we do for you, sir?”

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“Oh, right…” Lee Hyeon-Su lightly shook his head before scanning the crowd. “The first fully edited translated version is finally available, so Mister Jin-Ho wants you to stop by at the office and pick up your copy on your way home.”

“...Oh. They are finally bound into proper books, then?”

“Yeah,” Lee Hyeon-Su slowly nodded.

“Thank you,” Yi Myeong-Hwan acted as the representative and bowed deeply to Lee Hyeon-Su.

Lee Hyeon-Su chuckled while lightly waving his hand. “I haven't done much, so you don't have to thank me this much. Besides, I'm not planning to take the credit, anyway.”

“Got it, sir.”

“Oh, before I forget... Mister Jin-Ho said something else while going home, and...”

“...Yes? What did he say?” Yi Myeong-Hwan grew a little apprehensive just then.

“He wants you to memorize everything in this translated manual.”

“Huh?” Yi Myeong-Hwan grew stupefied and blinked his eyes. “H-hold on. When you say everything...?”

“Everything in this book, obviously,” said Lee Hyeon-Su while raising a thick book he had been carrying. His expression was unperturbed, composed.

“...That thick book, sir?” Yi Myeong-Hwan's eye-blinking intensified.

Wasn't that thing's thickness rival a university's textbook? But Kang Jin-Ho wanted them to memorize that thing?! He must be joking, right?!

“Mister Jin-Ho also said that anyone who can't memorize it will receive his personal training again. If you're slow in the head, you just need to experience it through your body? I think that's what he told me. He's such a kind man, don't you agree?” Lee Hyeon-Su, who still didn't know what went down here, explained calmly to everyone.

Everyone listening to him was frowning, their complexions getting paler and paler from despair.

'Gee, whiz! That man just can't let it go, huh!'

The younger-generation martial artists finally realized that a quirky personality was an absolutely crucial component in becoming a high-level expert!