Descent of the Demon Master-Chapter 1256. Mediating (1)

Ka-boom!

Akinori shuddered in dread as a loud noise of an explosion dug into his hearing. That so-called explosion was simply too loud for something produced by a human’s punch!

The person capable of pouring out attacks like that was obviously not normal. However, the ones getting pummeled by those attacks yet still charging straight back at the attacker were just as insane, too!

“You bunch of weaklings!”

Chang Min roared as blood-red qi gushed out from his entire figure. Even his hair was standing up like a terrifying specter! Anyone unawares witnessing this scene would’ve mistaken him for a legendary ‘Oni’ from his appearance alone. And the state of the ones ‘fighting’ against this Oni wasn’t so great, either.[1]

“You bloody old fart!”

“Die alreadyyyyy!”

Young demonic cultivators were pouncing on Chang Min as pitch-black demonic qi gushed out from their bodies. They were sent flying back faster than they could charge at him, though. Their physical state was as wretched as it could get without dying, yet they still jumped up to their feet right away and rushed at Chang Min repeatedly.

The madness and all the bone-chilling killing intent flooding out from their eyes made Akinori wonder if this was supposed to be a sparring session or an actual war!

“You...!”

Yi Myeong-Hwan pounced on Chang Min from the front, but a powerful explosion sent him flying away, and he landed painfully near Akinori’s feet.

“Urgh... Kkeuh-euh...”

Yi Myeong-Hwan tried to force himself to get up a couple of times but failed in the end and collapsed on the ground.

“Huff, huff, gargle...”

Blood leaking out of his mouth stained the rest of Yi Myeong-Hwan’s face. However, his eyes were noticeably redder than the blood.

Akinori felt creepy goosebumps breaking out all over his body after spotting those crimson eyes and reflexively stumbled back in horror.

‘This... Is this what the Korean demonic cultivators are like?’

The more he learned about Korea’s... No, the Martial Assembly’s power, the more flustered Akinori got.

At least he could understand the strength of Chang Min or Vator, since they weren’t Koreans, to begin with. Akinori could think of their presence as Kang Jin-Ho making strategic decisions and taking them under his wings.

However, the demonic cultivators collapsed on the ground were undoubtedly Koreans. Not just any, but quite young Koreans, to boot!

‘Are there any young Japanese warriors as strong as these people?’

No matter how much he thought about it, Akinori couldn’t say yes to that question. Maybe he could find a few youngsters strong enough to rival these Koreans. However, that would be temporary. In less than one year, the gap between the two groups should grow even more.

...Because not a single Japanese warrior would be training insanely like this, as if their life was on the line!

Chang Min didn’t share Akinori’s sentiments, however, and growled in utter dissatisfaction.

“You bunch of trash!”

He gnashed his teeth at the Demon Flames.

“You are supposed to be the demon emperor’s personal guards, yet this is all you’ve got?! You dare call yourself the Demon Flames when you’re this weak?!”

“...!”

Yi Myeong-Hwan forced his trembling body to stand up again.

Even though everyone here was suffering from intense pain akin to their flesh falling off their bones, they were also not easy-going enough to stay down after listening to such a rebuke. Not only Yi Myeong-Hwan, but other Demon Flames also pushed themselves up, even as messy foam of blood and spit dripped from their mouths.

“The title of the Demon Flame...” Chang Min glared at the Demon Flames and continued to gnash his teeth. “That is a legendary title within the cult’s lore. Every tale featuring Heavenly Crimson Demon Emperor has him accompanied by his personal escorts. Yet you lot dare use that legendary title? When all you have mastered is some random demonic cultivation?!”

Yi Myeong-Hwan glared at Chang Min, signs of madness distorting his expression. Hatred from a hundred individuals rained down on Chang Min, but he didn’t even bat an eyelid.

“You lack the qualifications! However, it was none other than our glorious liege who has deemed you worthy of the title. In that case...!”

Chang Min slowly chewed his words out.

“You must prove that you’re worthy! So that you don’t embarrass the title of the Demon Flames! So that you deserve to be called the demon emperor’s personal guards! Steel your resolve, you trash! Because I shall mold you with my own two hands until I deem you worthy of that legendary title!”

Claaang!

Claws of qi began rapidly extending from Chang Min’s hands.

“If you have the power to stand up, come at me! Or are you going to stand there trembling like a bunch of children?!”

“Uwaaaaaaaah!”

Yi Myeong-Hwan roared like a madman and pounced on Chang Min. Other Demon Flames also charged at him while unleashing their demonic qi.

Chang Min smirked odiously at the sight of their combined assault.

***

Plop!

“That’s enough for today!”

“Kkeuh-euh...”

“You bunch of weaklings.”

Chang Min scanned the collapsed Demon Flames and shook his head before leaving the training area. The Demon Flames didn’t even have enough energy left to raise their heads and watch him leave.

“...Hey, man. You still alive?”

“No, I’m dead.”

“Yeah, me too...”

Yi Myeong-Hwan could taste the dirt getting sucked into his mouth every time he panted and wheezed.

‘Goddamn it!’

Of course everyone here knew that Chang Min was powerful. After all, he was one of the three most powerful individuals in the Assembly’s ranks. Out of countless martial artists affiliated with the Assembly, only Vator could rival Chang Min in terms of combat strength.

Even Wiggins and Bang Jin-Hun, two experts so powerful that they seemed out of reach for the Demon Flames, couldn’t even come close to Chang Min.

The Demon Flames all understood that. Even then...

‘Even then! I thought we could at least do something to him by now...’

They wouldn’t have thought that way had they been sparring alone with Chang Min. However, every Demon Flame was present in this training area.

A hundred Demon Flames should have been enough to destroy most experts in the blink of an eye. At least, that was what they thought, but that belief got utterly shattered into a million pieces today.

The Demon Flames would’ve accepted this outcome without an issue had their opponent been Kang Jin-Ho. After all, their Assembly Master was a transcendental expert that defied common sense. And he was also their teacher on top of that. No one would be better at dealing with his students than a teacher, after all!

However, Chang Min was none of those. Other than also mastering demonic cultivation, he had no other relations to the Demon Flames. But they still failed to deal with Chang Min and got their asses handed to them!

“Eugh... F*ck!”

Yi Myeong-Hwan felt belittled and made fun of, and shuddered in humiliation.

He genuinely believed he had gotten stronger. Unfortunately, this goddamn path of martial arts always presented a bigger roadblock if you thought you got a little stronger. And if you thought you got strong enough to overcome that, an even bigger wall would show up seemingly out of nowhere.

“...That old fart. He’s bloody strong, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, he is.”

Disappointment over their own weakness and awe toward Chang Min, with a healthy dollop of respect, filled the Demon Flames up.

Martial artists couldn’t help but respect and idolize those stronger than them. Because they could imagine how much of a torturous training the stronger experts had to go through to reach that realm.

“Even then, how can the gap between us be this huge?”

“Didn’t the Assembly Master tell us why? That demonic cultivation has this nature of suppressing and devouring other demonic cultivation? And that means stronger demonic cultivators will have a comparatively easier time fighting weaker demonic cultivators.”

“Yeah, sure. Comparatively speaking, that is. But there are nearly a hundred of us, right? How could we not even land a single attack in that case?”

“Well, it means Elder Chang is that strong.”

“F*cking hell...”

Yi Myeong-Hwan barely forced himself to sit up. His head understood it, but his heart was having a tough time accepting it.

‘Even though it’s only been a few days since we cleaned up the Japanese...’

Even if most of the Japanese warriors in question had been taken care of by Kang Jin-Ho, and the survivors were too scared to fight back properly by the time the Demon Flames had arrived... The fact remained that they had utterly slaughtered the remnants.

All the confidence that had been steadily building up crumbled down without mercy today.

Yi Myeong-Hwan helplessly muttered, “I wonder, when will we ever get stronger?”

That was when another Demon Flame next to him groaned. “Listen, you dumbass.”

“...What now?”

“It’s only been a year since we started training, okay? If you have any morals, shut the hell up.”

“...”

Yi Myeong-Hwan shut up and nodded. His comrade was right, after all.

How could a bunch of hatchlings who only started on the path of demonic cultivation compare themselves to Chang Min, who had lived for well over a century and dedicated most of his life to improving his cultivation?

“Besides, we ain’t the only ones getting beaten up, anyway.”

Yi Myeong-Hwan tilted his head. “Eh?”

KA-BOOOOOOM!

An explosion incomparably louder and scarier than before went off next to the training area. Yi Myeong-Hwan hurriedly looked in that direction, his expression cramped. Despite the distance, he could still see all the demonic qi and blood qi billowing into the sky.

“Is that... other Elders?”

“Seems like it.”

“Wow. He sure has lots of energy left over, huh.”

It seemed Chang Min started ‘sparring’ against Elders of the demon cult right after destroying the Demon Flames. Even from a casual glance, they could guess that this sparring session would be incomparably harsher, nay, much more merciless, than the ones they had gone through.

“...He could’ve let them off the hook easy, though.”

The Demon Flames didn’t care at all about the demon cult believers. Especially the young cult believers—they couldn’t even hold a candle to the Demon Flames. As a matter of fact, the Demon Flames didn’t have to step up to wipe the floor with them. Even the ordinary Martial Assembly members could do that.

However, Elders were a different story altogether.

Even a group of misfits and random riff-raffs, when its size reached that of the demon cult’s, would inevitably produce several outstanding individuals. The Elders were these outstanding individuals who had survived several filtering processes to earn their current title. Not only that, but they also weathered the long and arduous history of oppression to keep the spirit of the demon cult alive until now.

Unsurprisingly, their strength was so much greater than the Demon Flames. However, such experts still subjected themselves to back-breaking training sessions.

“How could they do that, though?” Yi Myeong-Hwan absentmindedly asked.

“Do what?”

“I mean... Well, Elders are pretty damn strong, aren’t they? And they are not spring chickens, either. How can they keep motivating themselves to train like that?”

“It’s the other way around, you dumbass.”

“Huh?”

“They are Elders because they trained like crazy despite their age, okay? That’s why they are strong, too.”

“Oh...”

“And a dumbass like you who keeps complaining about how difficult it is only after one year can never reach their realm.”

“Who’s complaining here?!” Yi Myeong-Hwan yelled back in irritation.

The other Demon Flames shrugged. “If you are not, let’s get cleaned up. We gotta get ready for the nighttime training after supper, after all.”

“Gees... It’s been several days since we came to Japan, but all I’ve seen so far is the inside of this damn training area.”

“Don’t get too impatient, dude. The Elders said we’ll be working ourselves to death soon enough.”

“Heh. Yeah, that’s true.”

Yi Myeong-Hwan wiped the traces of blood near his mouth away, the light in his eyes dangerously flickering.

It wasn’t as if he hated training. On the contrary. But he and the other Demon Flames didn’t come to Japan to get some extra training sessions. No, they came here to fight.

Yi Myeong-Hwan craved real battles.

“By the way... Will the Jap bastards really try to fight back?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Folks who obediently do as told don’t usually wave knives around and cause scenes, right?”

“Well, yeah.”

Yi Myeong-Hwan’s tongue snaked out and licked his lips.

The other Demon Flame frowned slightly. “Hey, man. Aren’t you too excited about this? Was one of your ancestors a freedom fighter against the Japanese occupation?”

“...I don’t care if they are Japanese or not. I just want to fight someone.”

“Elder Chang is doing that, though?”

“Nope. I meant someone I can beat up.”

“Hey, you sounded like a real villain just now.”

Yi Myeong-Hwan grinned bitterly while finally standing up straight. “Come on, let’s go get something to eat.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Akinori nervously swallowed his saliva down his dried throat while watching the Demon Flames dragging their feet toward the nearby cafeteria.

‘They have already recovered enough to walk around?’

Less than ten minutes ago, these people couldn’t even lift a finger after receiving Chang Min’s teachings. But now they were walking away as if nothing had happened? Their toughness and recovery rate simply defied common sense!

‘Could Shinichi-kai have conquered South Korea even if the Assembly Master wasn’t there?’

Akinori would’ve said yes in the past, but cracks of doubt had developed in his belief recently. At least one thing seemed sure now. Even after excluding Kang Jin-Ho, South Korea’s combat strength had reached a point where it now rivaled, or even surpassed, Japan.

‘What if they continue to grow their strength without worrying about anything else?’

South Korea might really end up changing the status quo in East Asia. Maybe even the Three Kings and their factions, previously thought to be beyond comparison, might be within reach...!

‘...No, it’s still too early to think about that.’

Akinori shook his head, then exited the empty training area.

1. An ‘Oni’ is a kind of demon, orc, ogre or troll found in Japanese folklore. ☜