Descent of the Demon Master-Chapter 1345. Establishing (5)

Winds brushed past Kang Jin-Ho’s cheeks. He glanced at the ground below him.

All the hidden figures in the forest repeatedly revealed themselves before slipping into darkness again. They were obviously searching for Kang Jin-Ho.

He ignored them and silently landed on the safe house’s roof. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

That wasn’t so bad.

If the enemy had prepared a security detail that couldn’t be bypassed by normal means, all Kang Jin-Ho had to do was rely on abnormal means.

After luring the guards away to poke some holes in the encirclement, Kang Jin-Ho climbed up the tree and jumped over the forest in one leap.

All manner of traps and infrared sensors might have been installed in the forest, but modern technology shouldn’t have advanced enough to create aerial traps yet. And as he thought, he successfully landed on the safe house’s roof without trouble.

Of course, this method was not perfect, either. If the guards failed to uncover Kang Jin-Ho’s traces, they would have only one choice to make. After leaving a few people behind, the rest would hurriedly return to the safe house just in case. Securing the target’s safety was their priority, after all.

But that was enough for Kang Jin-Ho, since he didn’t plan to stay long.

His withdrawn eyes rapidly scanned the surroundings.

According to Yi Jong-Wuk’s information, this safe house was built from the ground up for one purpose. Although not as secure as, say, a nuclear bunker, its walls were still super-thick. Meanwhile, all the visible windows were bulletproof.

Every door in every home in the world was designed to be inaccessible unless it was opened from the inside first. As such, forcibly entering this safe house should have been impossible. At least, that was Yi Jong-Wuk’s opinion. But...

Kang Jin-Ho casually walked toward the edge of the roof, then unhesitantly jumped off.

“Who?!”

“What was that!”

The two guards standing near the doorway hurriedly raised their guns. Before they could pull the trigger, though, their weapons were chopped up into four pieces and scattered in the air.

Grab, grab!

After destroying the guns, Kang Jin-Ho grabbed the throats of the guards and strengthened his grip a little.

“Ku-ruruk...!”

“Kuhk...”

The guards instantly lost their consciousness, their eyes rolling back, after their carotid arteries got constricted.

“Hmm...”

Kang Jin-Ho put the two men down, then stared at the doorway. The door was actually made of steel. It looked ordinary on the surface, but there was no way that would be true.

So, what should I do? Melt it down? Or break it? Or...

Kang Jin-Ho quickly made up his mind, then thrust his right hand to the side. The empty air seemed to undulate like waves on the sea before his hand sank beneath these waves.

He then yanked out his trusty Crimson Destiny before powerfully swinging it like a man cutting a piece of tofu.

Fwhooooosh!

As the refreshing noise softly rang out, straight lines resembling a rectangular box appeared in the center of this thick metal door. Kang Jin-Ho used his free hand to gently push this part in. The rectangular piece smoothly slid back and fell to the floor as if it was supposed to do that all along.

Kang Jin-Ho tossed the unconscious guards beyond the opening, then stepped inside himself. After picking up the rectangular piece, he put it back in its original place.

Click!

The perfectly severed door now looked almost as good as new. Of course, people would’ve noticed the lines running across the door if this had been in the middle of the day. But doing that at night should be almost impossible.

Even if other people showed up, the only thing they would notice was the missing guards. Also, even if the operatives rushed here, they would waste time trying to open the door.

Kang Jin-Ho finished tidying up, then scanned his new surroundings.

It’s surprisingly normal inside?

He figured the interior would be barren or look like one of those ultra-modern clean designs, but no. He expected to see something a bit strange, but the interior décor of the place was not all that different from ordinary Chinese homes.

But that made sense. This was not a military installation, but a government-run safe house, after all.

The exterior might look strange, but the inside should have been designed with the convenience of living in mind. The ones meant to use this facility were the high-ranking Party officials or state guests, after all!

After putting back the Crimson Destiny into subspace, Kang Jin-Ho pulled out his phone and accessed the photo app. He couldn’t help but recall Lee Hyeon-Su chuckling with a hint of derision just then.

“I gotta say, government workers sometimes can be so thoughtless. I mean, look at this tablet, sir. Do they think not having any ports in it will solve the security issue? I can just snap the photos of what’s on the screen, after all. Don’t you think so, too?”

“...Kuh-hum.”

Of course Kang Jin-Ho hadn’t thought of that. To him, the strange one in this situation was Lee Hyeon-Su for thinking stuff up like that.

“Then again, folks like Yi Jong-Wuk deserve our pity, don’t they? I mean, they should be smart enough to know this, too. They should know this whole port-less tablet idea is a colossal waste of time and money. But the high-ups with zero tech literacy probably told them to design devices with no holes in them. This is why bureaucracy kills people, sir. How inefficient is this?”

Nope, Kang Jin-Ho should stop remembering these things.

After briefly shaking his head, he checked the face of the man appearing on the phone’s screen. That was Rhee Ki-Gwang, the target.

Kang Jin-Ho completely memorized the man wearing the distinctive Communist Party outfit that should be oh-so familiar to any South Korean, then shoved the phone back into his pocket.

From this moment on, he’d be stepping into unknown territory.

Finding some information on the outside of the safe house was doable by utilizing spy satellites and as many agents as one could mobilize. However, the information on the layout of the interior would be impossible to get. So, it was up to Kang Jin-Ho now.

But that’s better for me.

The cost of receiving various bits of information would’ve been various types of interference. That would’ve been rather annoying from Kang Jin-Ho’s perspective. Despite knowing none of it mattered to him, he’d be forced to think about them and be more conscious of his actions, after all.

Step...

Kang Jin-Ho strolled further inside.

Well, it feels a little different, starting from here.

He spread out his qi perception again and picked up the presence of fifteen people in total inside this place. Thirteen of them were definitely martial artists. Then, what about the other two?

That must be him.

The odds of one of the two being Rhee Ki-Gwang were quite high. Kang Jin-Ho’s suspicion was reinforced even further by the way the martial artists were positioned around the two, which looked like a protective encirclement.

As for their location? The second floor.

Kang Jin-Ho strode forward. He was neither slow nor fast, but still steady. After walking past the corridor, he arrived in the living room. That was where he saw the staircase going upstairs. Also...

“What the hell?”

“Huh?”

Three men guarding the living room simultaneously turned their heads and stared at Kang Jin-Ho.

It might have been possible for him to avoid detection. But Kang Jin-Ho didn’t want to go with that option if he could help it.

Was it because these people would get in his way after he had eliminated the target and wanted to escape? Or things would become even more dangerous if he got discovered during his infiltration attempt?

No, that wasn’t it.

Kang Jin-Ho’s patience had almost reached its breaking point while coming this far without wrecking stuff. If it hadn’t been for the Prime Minister, Kim Myeong-Chan, begging him not to create trouble with the Chinese, he would’ve cut loose and gone wild already.

So, for him in his current state, it was so nice to discover that the ones manning the living room were definitely not Chinese.

“Who the f*ck is this girly bastard?!”[1]

In any other situation, Kang Jin-Ho would’ve laughed off at that childish insult, but what about now? It sounded so welcoming to his ears.

Rather obviously, those people and Kang Jin-Ho couldn’t talk this out. Their duty was to stop any and all intruders. And Kang Jin-Ho’s job was to break through them.

Even if Kang Jin-Ho spared them here, only a bloody purge waited back home for those who failed their mission, anyway. In that case, what was the point of hesitating?

The three North Korean guards manning the living room yanked out daggers from their waistbands. Each man carried a pair. Kang Jin-Ho narrowed his eyes at this sight.

Even to a man who had seen and experienced all kinds of things, the large military-spec daggers glowing subtly in chilling sword qi was a sight he had never seen before. No wonder he was mildly intrigued just then.

One of the North Korean guards muttered, “How the hell did you even get in here?”

“Stop yapping and kill him first!”

“Yes, sir!”

The trio charged straight at Kang Jin-Ho simultaneously. They closed the distance in the proverbial blink of an eye before thrusting and swinging their daggers. The sword qi permeating the blades explosively gushed out.

Unfortunately, they didn’t know who they were up against. And that was the last mistake they would ever make.

Shuffle...

Kang Jin-Ho brushed past the incoming trio of guards. It was as if he was an incorporeal specter passing through people’s bodies.

The trio was stunned after losing sight of their target and urgently turned around. At least, they tried to. But then...

“What the...?”

Their bodies weren’t moving. Even though they weren’t paralyzed or being held down? It was as if their bodies simply refused to heed the commands coming from their brains.

“But why...”

Splaaaaat!

The heads of all three men flew up in the air simultaneously. The headless necks began spewing fountains of blood next.

Plop, plop, plop!

Headless bodies collapsed, and the airborne heads eventually dropped to the floor and rolled around unceremoniously. The trio most likely didn’t even know how they had died.

Kang Jin-Ho glanced behind him. Although he had guessed it to some degree, these three men confirmed it for him. Their martial arts were very much combat-focused. Maybe it was more accurate to call them techniques designed solely to kill other humans.

Rather than demonic arts, calling them evil arts is more accurate.[2]

The North Korean martial artists were apparently closer to the demon cult of the past in mindset, but the martial arts they used turned out to be something evil sects might have taught their disciples.

Not only were their techniques focused on combat, but excessive killing intent laced their attacks, too.

Demon Flames will be in danger if they fight these people one on one.

Kang Jin-Ho subtly licked his lips. These North Koreans proved to be stronger than he had expected. Of course, they must’ve been the best of the best among their crop hand-picked for this mission, but still, their strength was commendable nonetheless.

Their “supervisor” should have accompanied them, no?

The smirk on Kang Jin-Ho’s face deepened. This was not enough. It’d be nice if... If someone more entertaining was waiting for him upstairs!

Hints of crimson light began flickering within Kang Jin-Ho’s previously still eyes.

Splash!

Kang Jin-Ho stepped past the blood pooling on the floor and headed to the marble staircase. He leisurely walked upstairs while taking out a cigarette from his pocket. While mouthing it, he narrowed his eyes a little.

Wasn’t this strange? Anyone with ears must’ve heard that commotion in the living room. The dead North Koreans were shouting just now, after all.

However, Kang Jin-Ho couldn’t sense any particular movements on the second floor. Even though the martial artists on this floor must’ve realized an intruder had broken through, and that this intruder had killed their comrades downstairs. Which could mean...

Either they don’t see a need to respond, or they can’t even if they want to.

The answer should be one of the two, but either way, Kang Jin-Ho didn’t have to do things stealthily anymore. They were conscious of his presence now, after all.

Kang Jin-Ho lightly snapped his finger to light up his cigarette. The unhealthy smoke messily tangled with the thick odor of blood in the air. Here was yet another experience that couldn’t be replicated back in ancient times.

Well, then. Time to find out what’s been waiting for me.

Kang Jin-Ho’s heart began pounding slightly faster. He reached the top of the staircase and headed to the largest doorway at the far end of the corridor. His target was behind that firmly shut door.

His steps remained unhurried. Like a wine connoisseur savoring vintage wine, he leisurely headed to the doorway.

“Fuu-woo...”

Although the situation was unfolding a little differently from the initial plan, it didn’t ultimately matter to him. As long as the outcome was the same, why should he care about the process of getting there?

Kang Jin-Ho stopped before the doorway, then pushed it open with both hands.

The light illuminating the interior flooded his view. And when he confirmed the situation in the room, Kang Jin-Ho’s expression stiffened almost immediately.

“...What’s this?”

A completely unexpected spectacle was waiting for him in this room.

1. In the raw, this person spoke in the North Korean slang that’s, uhh, kinda like “gay son of a b*tch”? ☜

2. The raw used “사공 (邪功)” ☜