Descent of the Demon Master-Chapter 1093. Dispatched (3)

The streaming sweat stung Kang Jin-Ho’s eyes.

His arm and leg muscles quaked and trembled. The sickly sweet smell filled up his mouth.

Despite how unpleasant all these sensations were, Kang Jin-Ho still completely surrendered himself to them.

‘How long has it been?’

How long had it been since he last felt this fatigued that wasn’t also intertwined with torturous pain? It had to be a very long time indeed.

He combed through his memories and couldn’t recall ever throwing himself so wholeheartedly into physical training like this since his return to the modern era.

That wasn’t so surprising since he had no need for it.

He had enough experience with training his physical body during his second life. Besides, physical strength progressively became useless the higher one's martial realm rose, anyway.

One's internal energy produced power that easily exceeded what human muscles could produce, after all! Even so...

‘That’s not the whole story, though.’

Training to enhance physical strength was pointless for Kang Jin-Ho. Having little more muscles and improving his constitutions would have no bearing on his overall strength, after all.

What he must surpass wasn’t the limitation of his strength or speed. No, it was a bit more elemental. A bit more fundamental. Something more metaphysical in nature.

Squeeze...!

Kang Jin-Ho gripped the sword even harder.

‘It can’t be the same.’

Something fundamental was missing here.

Kang Jin-Ho fought countless battles in the company of the Crimson Destiny. He fought, struggled, and battled. And he achieved countless victories along the way. The experiences of those moments were etched in his memories, but his body... No, this body did not remember them. Not a single one.

‘How could I have missed it?’

Without a doubt, he was Kang Jin-Ho. And the person back in Zhongyuan was also Kang Jin-Ho. Yet these two people were noticeably different. Or, more correctly, this body was physically different from the one in Zhongyuan.

Memories didn’t only become ingrained in one’s head. The human body that knew how hot fire was would avoid flames faster than the brain could react. And the body that knew the deadly sharpness of a blade would contort out of a sword’s trajectory well before the brain could tell it to.

Kang Jin-Ho's brain could vividly recall the memories of his past lives. And they included experiences as Heavenly Crimson Demon Emperor, and what it felt like to stand at the top of the world.

But his current body was that of a young man living in the 21st century. It didn’t know any of the experiences from his storied past.

Squeeze...!

Kang Jin-Ho gripped the Crimson Destiny tight enough to almost break its handle.

He had no desire to yap on about some grandiose concepts like the unification of one's essence, emotions, body, and mind. Because his problem was a bit simpler than that.

His body just couldn’t keep up with his mind that had been tempered by experiences and memories of the past events.

‘No, this is a little different from not keeping up.’

The best explanation he could think of was two cogs subtly misaligning.

The sensations recorded in Kang Jin-Ho’s memories were based on his previous body. But his current body was physically different in every measure. Lengths of his limbs, for instance. Even the innate flexibility and toughness differed, too.

So much about the two bodies was different that finding what was similar would be akin to finding a needle in a haystack!

All these subtle but distinct differences hindered and tripped Kang Jin-Ho up.

In that case, why did he take so long to notice this issue?

‘Because I haven’t fought all that many times...’

He would have discovered this issue pretty quickly had it happened during the second life. Back then, his life was basically a series of life-or-death battles, after all!

He was constantly forced to surpass his physical limitations. Breaking through his limits was the only way to survive. However, he didn't get many chances to do that after returning to the modern era.

Such subtle differences wouldn’t pose too many issues in everyday settings. Even if cogs were misaligned ever so slightly, they’d still function as intended in low-speed operations, after all.

But the problem would dramatically rear its head once the horsepower rating went up and cogs were spinning at full blast. The misalignment would quickly affect the rest of the system until it completely broke down in a spectacular fashion.

Kang Jin-Ho in this life lacked the opportunities to go all out, and that prevented him from noticing this issue until recently.

“...Heuph!”

Kang Jin-Ho roused up his demonic qi as much as he could. The dantian located somewhere deep inside his gut felt like it was on fire. Even then, he continued to extract internal energy from there.

All the demonic qi gushing out of his body angrily billowed into the sky.

‘More!’

This was not enough!

Kang Jin-Ho was a cultivator. His body would continue to accept, generate, and rouse demonic qi whether he was walking around or doing nothing more than breathing... Even if he was thinking in silence!

Such trivial amounts of demonic qi were still a hindrance to what he wanted to do right now. He must extract all demonic qi out of him until nothing remained in his physical body.

However, wasn’t this funny?

“Right. It is ironic.”

Kang Jin-Ho sardonically chuckled.

Until recently, wasn't he struggling so much to regain his once-vast internal energy reserve? After all that struggle and hardship, he eventually mastered the method to breathe in ambient qi and automatically convert it into demonic qi simultaneously without his conscious effort.

As a result, Kang Jin-Ho stepped into a realm where he didn’t have to worry about running out of qi any time soon.

Even now, the fruit of his hard work was doing its job. As soon as he expelled demonic qi from his body, ambient qi began flowing inside without him consciously thinking about it. Even before his brain could command it, his body was naturally converting all this qi into demonic qi before storing it in his dantian.

His brain was trying to expel demonic qi, yet his body was doing its hardest to fill it back up. What an amusing situation this was.

Kang Jin-Ho stopped the inflow of ambient qi into his body, then resumed expelling every drop of demonic qi.

What followed was this horrible empty feeling.

Kang Jin-Ho's body with all of its internal energy gone was as useless as it could get. The arm holding the Crimson Demon felt like it weighed a ton. Even his head unsteadily creaked and wavered on his neck.

‘This... is it.’

This feeling was indescribably horrible.

Kang Jin-Ho’s physical body struggled to maintain its balance without its internal energy to support it. Of course, that didn’t mean he couldn’t even stand upright or walk in a straight line. As a regular, ordinary person, he shouldn’t have any issues, but this balance was like a kiss of death for a martial artist.

The human body was constantly in motion. Even if it wanted to stay still, it couldn't. Breathing in and out caused the lungs to expand and deflate. Even if one held their breath, their heart would still continue to pound away. Even if the heart was stopped and no breathing took place, cells would still move and squirm around.

Martial arts’ genesis lay with the desire to exert “control.” A martial artist would control what could be controlled to the absolute limit, to the absolute knife edge, without going beyond it. And the first thing they must control should be... their physical body!

It was such an obvious thing. And that was perhaps why he had missed it.

‘Even though I know all this...’

In a way, Kang Jin-Ho was like a man with his feet not touching the ground. But a human being needed to ground their feet first in order to walk.

Whether it was a cultivation method that laughed at the heavens, or a martial technique capable of ripping the earth apart... All of it began with one’s body as the foundation.

Without the body in the cultivator's perfect control, without it being trained to the accepted level, no cultivation could truly take root and blossom as intended.

In short, Kang Jin-Ho must train his physical body first. He needed to firm up the foundation to build his house of martial arts.

The horrifying displeasure from his body creaking along continued to rule over his senses, but Kang Jin-Ho was actually shivering in delight instead.

He had finally found it. “It” being what he must do from now on!

Like what happened to Wiggins earlier, Kang Jin-Ho had run into his own Hua Tou moment. He found his clue.

Knowing where to go was unimaginably important for an expert. And to an expert on such a lofty realm of strength like Kang Jin-Ho, the idea of putting in enough effort was nothing to feel proud about. What truly mattered here was the direction of said effort.

As long as he knew the general direction of his destination, reaching it was only a matter of time.

A smile broke out of his control and began blooming brightly on his face.

‘I must become stronger!’

Kang Jin-Ho swung the Crimson Destiny with every ounce of his physical strength.

Crack, crunch!

His arm muscles and joints failed to withstand the weapon's weight and speed, and began screaming in protest. The pain stabbing his brain was akin to his arms breaking and twisting the wrong way.

Whoosh! Whooooosh!

However, Kang Jin-Ho did not stop swinging the sword.

He must brand this movement into his muscles. He must brand this feeling, this sensation, into every fiber of his physical body.

Tumble, drip...!

Sweat rained down from his body and fell to the floor. After soaking his clothes, all the sweat turned into aura-like steam from the heat generated by his muscles. Despite this phenomenon, even more sweat traveled down his limbs to soak the ground below.

Kang Jin-Ho continued to swing his sword until the skin on his palm split apart and his body refused to move any further.

***

“...Mm.”

While making a slightly tired face, Kang Jin-Ho gingerly walked down the stairs. The sensation of his feet touching the steps felt rather odd, however.

‘This... I haven’t felt this in a long time.’

At least he didn't have to worry about his legs shaking too much to walk properly. That was because his depleted dantian was immediately filled back up after he finished his training. The refilled internal energy was now perfectly controlling his body's movements.

Having said that, what Kang Jin-Ho felt right now was appreciably different from what he was familiar with. How should he explain this feeling, then?

Maybe he had morphed into an invertebrate with a layer of plastic armoring covering him from head to toe.

Alternatively, it was as if massive casts were holding his legs in place and preventing them from faltering even though his leg muscles had no strength to stand straight.

Thanks to this bizarre sensation, Kang Jin-Ho had to be careful with his steps and pray he wouldn't tumble down the stairs like an idiot.

The story of the Assembly Master falling down the flight of stairs could become a mythical tale talked about by everyone for the next year or two, at least. And he must prevent that from happening at all costs!

Kang Jin-Ho eventually managed to reach the bottom of the staircase. That was when the proprietor of the Assembly HQ’s sole cafe spotted him and urgently rushed up to him.

“Assembly Master, sir! Are you knocking off for the day?”

“Mm...” Kang Jin-Ho nodded, feeling slightly uncomfortable with this encounter.

He told the cafe owner to stop overreacting like this, but it continued to fall on deaf ears.

“Sir, before you leave, how about a cup of coffee?”

Kang Jin-Ho was about to refuse, only to change his mind and nod back. “Sure. Iced Americano, if you don’t mind.”

“I’ll get it ready right away, sir!”

“...You know, I won’t mind even if you take it easy with this coffee.”

“Eii~, I can’t do that! It’s for you, after all.”

“I’m being serious.”

“I, uh... I’ll try, sir.”

The cafe owner realized Kang Jin-Ho’s reply was different from the usual. While furrowing his brow in slight confusion and doubt, he began brewing the requested coffee.

“Here you go, sir.”

Kang Jin-Ho accepted the clear plastic cup containing the coffee, then scanned his surroundings. “Do you have any syrup?”

“Syrup, sir?”

“Mm.”

“Oh, uh... Yes, over here, sir.” The cafe owner handed a squeeze bottle of syrup to Kang Jin-Ho while tilting his head in even more confusion.

That was because Kang Jin-Ho usually never added syrup to his coffee. So what made him suddenly change his usual routine like this...?

Squeeeeeze~...

Kang Jin-Ho squeezed a loooong strip of syrup into the coffee, then lightly swirled the cup around.

The cafe owner watched this scene and tried to say something. “Are we having a bit of a sweet tooth today, sir? Or...”

Squeeze! Squeeeeeze! Squeeeeeeeeeze!

“W-what are you doing, sir?!”

After unhesitantly squeezing in enough syrup to create the perfect ratio of half coffee, half syrup in his cup, Kang Jin-Ho nodded in satisfaction while studying his creation.

...And then, he began drinking it without much care in the world. Rather unsurprisingly, his expression immediately cramped up in pain and disgust.

The cafe owner blinked his eyes in stupefaction. “That, uh, must be quite sweet. Isn’t it, sir?”

“...I need the sugar in my system.”

The cafe owner inwardly screamed, why don't you just shove actual sugar in your mouth in that case! Sir! What have you done to the coffee brewed carefully by someone else?! That's no longer coffee, either! No, that's like cattle feed now, man!

Kang Jin-Ho picked up the cup of half-syrup, half-coffee abomination, then staggered out of the Assembly HQ. The cafe owner could only shake his head at this sight.

‘He’s still an indecipherable mystery, isn’t he...?’

***

Kang Jin-Ho sighed softly after settling into Zoom Zoom’s driver seat.

‘Will it be alright to drive in my state?’

Although the chances were low, an accident might occur if his body developed some kind of problem while driving. Kang Jin-Ho would be fine, but what if innocent people got involved in the crash?

He dearly wanted to avoid harming the innocents if he could help it.

‘I should drive for a bit and stop immediately if things don’t feel right.’

What a bizarre feeling this was.

How long had it been since he last felt so weak? As in, not being able to muster up any strength in his body?

Internal energy was not an omnipotent cheat key. No matter how much qi was stored in one's dantian, it couldn't immediately restore the depleted stamina.

It certainly assisted with speeding up the recuperation process, but even it couldn't do much about the sense of enervation and sluggishness.

Kang Jin-Ho couldn't remember the last time he felt like this. This feeling didn't displease him, though. Rather than that, it felt more like...

It filled him up with a sense of satisfaction as if he had finally done something meaningful after a long while.

‘I should keep taxing my body like this.'

Doing this got rid of all the distracting thoughts. His mind was clearer now.

This training turned out to be helpful in various ways.

If Kang Jin-Ho's estimation was right, repeating this training should be enough to improve his strength even further.

Sluuuurp...

While taking a gulp of the coffee containing enough sugar to make him instinctively scream from merely tasting it, Kang Jin-Ho turned the car’s ignition on, his expression cramping up.

Before he could set off, though...

“Mm?”

Kang Jin-Ho spotted the screen of his phone lighting up. He confirmed the name of the caller and reached out to the phone.