Descent of the Demon Master

Riiip!

The blanket in Kang Jin-Ho's grip ripped apart. That strange sensation forced Kang Jin-Ho's eyes to fly open.

‘...That was a dream?’

It seemed he had been dreaming until now. No, to be more precise, he had been subconsciously recalling his memory. From back when he wasn't Kang Jin-Ho, but Heavenly Crimson Demon Emperor.

Back when he was the devil staining the world with blood-soaked conquests!

Kang Jin-Ho reflexively covered his face after coming face-to-face with these vivid memories once more.

‘Why now…?’

He believed these memories didn’t matter to him anymore. So why was he dreaming about them now? Had he not already drawn a clear line separating him from his past?

“Fuu-woo…”

Kang Jin-Ho quietly sighed. He couldn’t move. Was it because he had such a vivid dream? His body still seemed to be in the grips of the sensation of the dream.

The sensation of demonic qi filling his body to the point of flooding outside! The sensation of tyrannical spirit that even Kang Jin-Ho feared... shaking up his body to the core!

Such sensations were a constant companion back when he was still called Heavenly Crimson Demon Emperor. However, to the current Kang Jin-Ho, they were like powerful gut punches.

Back then, he thought he could do anything. He used to be filled with this sensation of fulfillment, as if he could grab Mount Tai with one hand and split the ocean with a single sword strike.

He was filled with incredible power that might even destroy the heavens if that was what he wanted.

After remembering all this, Kang Jin-Ho suddenly realized what he lost was truly enormous. And he was also reminded of how far off he was from regaining his previous peak.

‘This frail little…’

Kang Jin-Ho flinched just as he thought that.

‘Huh? Frail?’

Kang Jin-Ho looked down at his torso.

“...Huh?”

A flabbergasted gasp leaked out of his mouth.

‘...What’s going on here?’

Kang Jin-Ho grew stupefied at what he could see from his body. Then, he slowly raised his head and scanned his surroundings.

‘What is the meaning of this?’

The world was changing around him. And no, he wasn't being figurative here. The surroundings really were closing in on him differently. Should he say that a blurry filter before a camera lens had been removed? The world seemed so much clearer and more alive.

‘No, hold on.’

The world hadn't actually changed. The truth was that the world in Kang Jin-Ho's view had been blurry until yesterday. But that had returned to 'normal' now.

He wasn't sure what had happened here, but one thing was for certain: the fog in his head was completely gone.

Kang Jin-Ho accepted his current situation and deeply pondered how it had come to be. Eventually, he arrived at the most likely answer.

‘So, it was my heart demon.’

Before Buddha could achieve enlightenment below the Bodhi tree's shade, he had to contend with the visitation from an evil entity. Any individual shooting for the Moon always had to deal with their heart demon. It was inevitable, really.

Unfortunately, the heart demon was one crafty, insidious entity, making it rather difficult to positively identify it. As such, one could say any and all types of mental hindrance that stopped the person from advancing forward was a 'heart demon'.

Although it was not possible to define it, there was one commonality. Everyone suffering from the heart demon would always experience regressing from their previous peak state. Without constantly using martial arts, even a top expert might not realize they were being haunted by their heart demon.

That was Kang Jin-Ho's situation. Until this morning, he had no idea that the heart demon had ensnared him.

‘When I think about it… It was strange, wasn’t it?’

Kang Jin-Ho was never the type to hesitate and procrastinate over his decisions. He certainly would take his time considering his options, but once he was done analyzing the problem from various angles, he'd unhesitantly make his choice and commit himself to it. That was how Kang Jin-Ho operated until now.

So, it was strange for someone like him to act this wishy-washy and not make the decision.

Kang Jin-Ho let out a soft but deep sigh. Not because he was rueful, though. No, he was deeply relieved instead.

One’s heart demon was a terrifying foe. Kang Jin-Ho had witnessed countless experts charging straight to the top helplessly fall victim to their heart demons and end up as cripples.

Humans tended to mistakenly believe anyone could become better as long as they put in the requisite effort. However, that wasn't always true. There was a clear limit to how much one could improve no matter how hard they worked on themselves.

For instance, no one could sprint a hundred meters in less than eight seconds just because they had been training like crazy.

The truth was… Effort was one of the necessary elements in reaching one's limits. Once they got there, humans would instinctively feel they needed something different, something special, to break through their limits. In martial arts, this limit is called the 'wall.'

Regular people would never understand the level of despair a martial artist would feel after crashing headlong into this wall. What drove these martial artists insane was that they could more or less guess the realm they would reach by overcoming this wall.

Imagine a man who had been starving for ten days, then a transparent but unbreakable wall separating him from a scrumptious feast featuring delicacies from all over the world.

Could anyone adequately comprehend the man’s desperate desire to overcome this wall?

Such desperation usually ate away at a person's heart. Constantly struggling in vain and failing over and over again would chip away at a martial artist's mental power until they became nothing but a shell of their former selves.

This was why the wall stopping a martial artist from reaching the next realm was so terrifying. And it was even more terrifying considering that no one could help you. You were all alone in your struggle.

The worst of all the different types of walls had to be the heart demon. Walls might stop a martial artist from advancing to the next realm, but the heart demon went one step further and even worsened one's cultivation. Those who failed to overcome their heart demon would gradually lose what they already had.

Just like how all good things were accompanied by great misfortune, one had to overcome some incredible heart demons if one wanted to scale the seemingly unscalable wall.

But now…

“...How did I overcome it so easily?”

Kang Jin-Ho could barely hide his flabbergast. Then again, his shock was totally understandable.

One's heart demon was not supposed to be this easy to overcome. Back when Kang Jin-Ho was cultivating in the Records of Asura, he fell into a heart demon's trap and had to spend almost a year struggling like crazy to overcome it.

He cut off all contact with the outside world and drove his body and mind to the extremes over and over again. Only then did he finally overcome the wall and advance to a higher realm. Toward the end of his struggles, he even almost died!

That wasn’t just a figure of speech, either. If he had been stuck in the heart demon’s trap for even a week longer, his life could’ve been forfeited. So, to think Kang Jin-Ho had overcome it so easily?

Without any struggles whatsoever?

“What the hell…?”

Kang Jin-Ho couldn’t say, ‘Oh, how surprising,’ and move on from what happened here.

If he went back in time to ancient Zhongyuan and told the demon cult’s enforcers or famous experts from orthodox sects how he had overcome this heart demon, they would clutch their stomachs and start rolling around on the ground.

Not because they found it laughable, though. No, because their stomachs burned from sheer jealousy!

To overcome this infuriating heart demon, so many top martial artists had to hurt themselves, throw their bodies into vicious waterfalls, stop eating food for who-knows-how-long, and even seclude themselves in some dingy caverns and stare at a wall for decades.

However, here was Kang Jin-Ho, who only needed to lounge around in an orphanage for three days and talk to someone on the phone to overcome his heart demon. He could already picture the scene of countless martial artists lunging at him with their daggers drawn and their eyes bloodshot.

There wasn’t much he could do about it, though. It really happened, after all.

‘Still, how did this happen?’

Kang Jin-Ho was undoubtedly confused. So much so that he even began suspecting this situation as yet another heart demon tricking him.

However, he could clearly recognize all the signs of overcoming the heart demon. His vision was crystal clear, while the fog in his mind had lifted. His condition had improved so much that he could instantly understand how badly his head had been clouded until now.

This level of clarity could only be experienced by someone who had worked three days and nights before falling asleep for 24 hours non-stop like a dead man and waking up completely refreshed.

“Okay, so…”

Kang Jin-Ho tried to organize his thoughts, his lips reflexively twitching a little. In the end, though, all he could do was shake his head in silence.

‘I can’t figure it out.’

He couldn't make heads or tails of this situation. How could he, when he had escaped from something he didn't know had trapped him? In that case, how was he supposed to analyze his escape and break it down into minute details?

Although he was shocked and maybe a little flustered, one thing still remained certain. This… was a good development in two ways.

One, he had fallen into a heart demon. That was actually a good thing.

Falling into a heart demon was absolutely a terrifying ordeal. However, it also indicated you were facing a wall. A wall like that meant there was more room for you to improve, now didn't it?

It also proved that the path Kang Jin-Ho saw while racking his brain with Bang Jin-Hun on the creation of a new martial art was 'correct.' That the new system he had created was perfectly polishing the road he was about to walk on!

As for the second thing…

‘Yes, I can catch up to it!’

Kang Jin-Ho was confident now. Heavenly Crimson Demon Emperor's shadow, which seemed so far away, was now vividly visible. Yes, it was still so far away that it might as well be on another continent. However, Kang Jin-Ho now had the confidence of knowing that one day, he'd reach that place by steadily walking on this path.

A refreshingly bright smile formed on Kang Jin-Ho’s face.

***

“Eh? You look happier for some reason, oppa?”

Kang Jin-Ho nodded. “Mm.”

“Ohh? Wow, you really must be in a good mood.”

“Mm!” Kang Jin-Ho nodded again. Even though he tried to look unperturbed and cool, the corners of his lips continuously twitched all on their own!

He was genuinely pleased about overcoming his heart demon, after all. If the same thing had happened in the past, back when he was still the demon cult's undisputed leader, a grand banquet lasting three days and nights would've taken place, and everyone would've had a jolly good time.

Jo Mi-Hye tilted her head. “Did something good happen, oppa?”

“Yeah.”

“What kind, though? Oppa, are you seeing someone?”

“…”

Even before Kang Jin-Ho could respond, other kids nearby began shooting Jo Mi-Hye down immediately.

“What are you on about? Jin-Ho hyung's already seeing someone, you know?!"

“If Yeon-Ha unnie was here, you think your hair would still be in one piece?”

Jo Mi-Hye gallantly fought back against this unfair treatment. “What the heck?! You morons, don’t you know Yeon-Ha unnie is in China right now! That’s why I’m trying to find out if Jin-Ho oppa’s been two-timing her! Why did you have to ruin my plan!”

Women could be so scary.

Kang Jin-Ho spent the last five years of his life working hard to cement his position in this orphanage. But Choi Yeon-Ha only had to come here a couple of times to flip all the girls into her loyal agents!

He was freshly reminded of how scary Choi Yeon-Ha could be!

Kang Jin-Ho coughed to clear his throat, then asked Jo Mi-Hye a question. “What will we be doing today?”

“Eh?” Jo Mi-Hye blinked her eyes and stared back at Kang Jin-Ho. This question had taken her back since Kang Jin-Ho had never asked something like this before. “Nothing, really? Today is Sunday, after all. We don't have school today, and all the cleaning was finished yesterday, so… Since there's nothing to do, we'll just relax and laze around.”

After saying that, Jo Mi-Hye suddenly turned her head and sharply glared in Han Jin-Seong’s direction.

“Not you, though! Oppa, you gotta study, okay?”

Han Jin-Seong’s head pitifully faltered. That was the sad fate of a high school senior, though.

“Okay, so… You guys don’t have anything to do. Is that it?” Kang Jin-Ho slowly rubbed his chin.

The 'usual' Kang Jin-Ho would've backed away at this point and spent the rest of the day in some corner while doing nothing worth remembering. However, he was not his usual self today.

Indeed, wasn't today a day worthy of a celebration?

Kang Jin-Ho coolly addressed the orphans in the living room. “I’ll pay for everything.”

“...Eh?”

“Bring me your itinerary for today. I will… pay for everything!”

“F-for today?”

“Mhm!” Kang Jin-Ho powerfully nodded, then addressed everyone again. “We’ll have breakfast here, obviously. After that, we’ll have fun outside and not return until after dinner. So, schedule the day and let me know.”

“O-oppa, how many… are you planning to take with you?”

“Everyone."

“Eh???”

“I said, everyone.”

“…!” Jo Mi-Hye's eyes began trembling powerfully just then. Kang Jin-Ho wanted to take every orphan to where now? “Oppa, w-where will you take us?”

“That’s for you to decide.”

“Heol…?!"

Jo Mi-Hye was obviously flabbergasted, but it was too late for her to stop Kang Jin-Ho.

The orphans of Seongsim had no plan for the rest of the day, so the prospect of having fun outside with the legendary moron… No, the legendary protector called Kang Jin-Ho was too enticing to ignore.

The rapidly heating-up atmosphere easily suppressed Jo Mi-Hye. She nervously gulped her saliva and tried to say something. “B-but, I… Oppa, I was thinking of taking it easy today…?”

That was when children suddenly shot up to their feet, powerfully restrained Jo Mi-Hye, and covered her mouth before dragging her outside the living room.

Han Jin-Seong silently walked over to take over Jo Mi-Hye's spot, then bowed ninety degrees to Kang Jin-Ho. “We will prepare an itinerary in less than one hour, Chairman Kang! Sir!”

“Mhm!” Kang Jin-Ho firmly nodded.

‘Let’s also take today off.’

Although Kang Jin-Ho’s mental problem had been sorted out, telling Jo Gyu-Min he’d like to return to work would only fall on deaf ears. In that case, it might not be such a bad idea to go all-out today.

When the children submitted their itinerary, crafted with incredible care and attention, to Kang Jin-Ho not too long after his announcement, he didn't waste any time and snapped a photo of it before transmitting it to a familiar person who usually dealt with this sort of thing.

For a moment there, Kang Jin-Ho thought he could hear the despairing scream of the man receiving the photo all the way out here in the orphanage.