Descent of the Demon Master-Chapter 1355. Escaping (5)

“Say what? We couldn’t stop the target?”

The commander of the People’s Liberation Army’s 71st Special Missions Brigade, Major General Luo Zhao, cautiously replied, “Yes, sir...”

“In other words, the target has escaped?”

The rank of “major general” in the Chinese army was equivalent to a provincial governor in ancient times. Especially so for the major general overseeing the command of the 71st Special Missions Brigade; being the commander of such a brigade meant he was qualified enough to be called “special” even among his peers.

But he couldn’t even breathe properly in the presence of the person before him. Which made some sense, considering this person was a member of the Central Military Commission, the group responsible for not only ruling over all the citizens of China but also tasked with managing this nation as a whole.

This man, who carried a lengthy title of the Vice Chief of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Military Commission Joint Staff Department, was named Wang Long. And he was staring openly and silently at Luo Zhao.

Luo Zhao stood even straighter, his muscles tensing up.

Considering Wang Long’s authority and position, it wouldn’t be strange of him to yank out his gun and put a bullet in Luo Zhao’s head as the punishment for failing this operation.

It certainly felt like a grim reaper’s shadow was creeping toward him this very second.

“N-not yet, Vice Chief, sir,” said Luo Zhao.

Wang Long coldly asked, “Not yet? Then, what?”

“The targets may have broken through the operation area’s outer limits, but they have not left the country yet, sir. They are still rats trapped in our pot. Our brave warriors will find them and cut their heads off, sir!”

“...Major General Luo.”

“Yes, sir!”

“I don’t care if you want to run your mouth off. But I do care about whether you have what it takes to make it happen in reality or not. Why did the operation fail?”

“Sir! We had not accurately assessed the target’s capabilities!”

“And why haven’t you?”

“W-we think that our oversight came from not having experienced the true strength of a King-tier martial artist, sir!”

Wang Long narrowed his eyes. “Be more specific.”

“Sir! Although we have been keeping the martial artists referred to as the Three Kings in check, we have never once engaged them in battle.”

“That’s true. We have not.”

“As such, we could not reach an accurate assessment of a King-tier martial artist’s destructive power, sir! We believed our estimation was close to the limits of the target’s physical capabilities, but he proved even stronger than that.”

Thick sweat drops slowly trickled down Luo Zhao’s forehead.

Goddamn it! Who could have imagined something like that, anyway?!

One thousand well-armed troops had been mobilized for this operation. Such a thing was only possible after the higher-ups had given their approval. Even so, the operation was still a risky adventure; if other factions had gotten wind of the troops’ movements, they would have accused the commanders of the coup attempt and have them executed.

But one thousand soldiers couldn’t do a single damn thing. Almost two hundred soldiers lost their lives, and the field operations commander, Sui Xi, returned as a headless corpse.

To think the target was vicious enough to search for the enemy commander and kill him during the escape attempt!

“The Three Kings... Kings, is it?”

Wang Long muttered to no one in particular while slowly but rhythmically tapping on his desk. He remained buried in his thoughts for a while before his cold eyes locked on Luo Zhao again.

It felt like the iciness of his glare was stabbing right through Luo Zhao.

“Major General Luo.”

“Yes, sir!”

“I am not interested in shoddy excuses. You and your brigade solely exist to combat the threat of the Three Kings. Yet, are you telling me you couldn’t kill the target because he was a King-level martial artist? How am I supposed to process this unfunny irony?”

“I have no excuses, sir!”

“Even in failure, you can still learn valuable lessons. So? What have we learned?”

Luo Zhao’s jaw began clattering subtly. How he answered now would decide his fate. Satisfy Wang Long with his response, and Luo Zhao would get to walk out of this office alive. But failing to do so... His life would end today.

“Firstly, sir! We cannot fight against the King-tier martial artists using firearms.”

Wang Long narrowed his eyes. “Why not?”

“Our soldiers can’t even take proper aim at the targets, sir. It’s no different from trying to shoot down fighter jets with a rifle. Even if we get lucky, and the target is caught in crossfire, I’m still not confident about inflicting a single injury. That is the conclusion we reached after analyzing what the target has shown us so far.”

“What else?”

“Secondly, fighting off the King-tier martial artists in mountainous areas is impossible. Especially more so during the night. We will be too disadvantaged by the environment, sir. Even if we deploy the latest night vision technology, our soldiers are simply much slower at spotting enemy positions than the martial artists.”

“I see. Carry on.”

“Finally, if we wish to kill a tiger, we must at least invite a wolf into our midst, sir. A hare can bare its fangs as much as it wants, but it can never fight off a tiger.”

“Major General...”

“Yes, sir!”

Wang Long deeply furrowed his brow in disappointment. “We already knew all this, did we not?”

Luo Zhao stiffened in silence. “...!”

“We knew all this, and that’s why the 71st Special Missions Brigade was established in the first place. Just so that we could kill those inhuman martial artists! But now, are you telling me our methods won’t work on the Three Kings? Then, here’s my question to you...”

Luo Zhao’s complexion progressively grew paler and paler.

“What’s the point of keeping you around? Is every single one of you useless goddamn parasites who leech off the blood and sweat of our hard-working citizens to enrich themselves?! Answer me, you goddamn mongrel!”

“S-sir! We’ll fix the errors in our calculations!”

“Do you think you will have another opportunity for that?!”

Wang Long shot up to his feet and yanked out a pistol from his hip holster. He stomped his way around his desk to stand before Luo Zhao, then shoved the pistol’s nozzle against the Major General’s forehead.

“After I put a hole in your head, you can fix your errors as much as you want in the netherworld, you bastard! At least we’ll preserve invaluable food our citizens worked hard to produce that way! Instead of watching it get dumped into that incompetent mouth of yours!”

Luo Zhao trembled fearfully. His entire body was soaked in perspiration. Sweat drops trickled down his bloodshot eyes, but he dared not blink in this situation.

Luo Zhao desperately racked his brain. What could he say right now to save himself?

“S-sir, I will fix this situation.”

Wang Long shouted angrily. “You will fix it? How?!”

“I will bring you Kang Jin-Ho’s head and prove that our training has not been in vain, sir! And... And, if I still fail in this mission, I’ll kill myself on site and spare you from staining your hands!”

“You think your measly life can resolve this problem?!”

“Sir, I swear to you! I will make this right! The battle against Kang Jin-Ho will yield us invaluable data, which will help us when we’re fighting against the Three Kings later! I beg of you, please do not let all our sacrifices until now be in vain!”

“Hah... You sure know how to run your mouth off, don’t you? Major General Luo?”

Wang Long slid his pistol back into his hip holster before leisurely returning to his seat behind the desk.

Click...!

After mouthing and lighting a cigarette, Wang Long’s icy glare locked on Luo Zhao. “Major General Luo.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Opportunities always accompany dangers. You’re right, we’ve acquired so much through the brigade’s sacrifice this time. Knowing something and personally experiencing it are two very different things, after all.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Succeed in getting rid of Kang Jin-Ho, and you will be appropriately rewarded. That I promise you. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, sir!”

Wang Long leaned back while looking away. “I will believe in you, Major General. Do not disappoint me and bring us good news.”

“Yes, sir! I will not disappoint you!”

“Good. Return to the operations area at once,” said Wang Long dismissively.

“Sir!”

Luo Zhao saluted stiffly and powerfully, then rushed out of the office.

Wang Long silently watched this scene unfold, then casually dusted the cigarette on the ashtray.

Not too long afterward, the office door opened again. This time, however, it wasn’t Luo Zhao, but someone else.

This person, a man, glanced at Wang Long’s cigarette before smirking softly. “I see that the no-smoking rule can be rather flexible, sir.”

Wang Long tutted. “Isn’t that obvious?”

“Will this be fine, though? It’s already been established that those people won’t be enough. This will only increase the body count, sir.”

“Bugs who only waste food but do nothing are volunteering to kill themselves, so it’s fine in my book,” said Wang Long with a casual shrug, then dusted his cigarette on the ashtray once more. “In this world, some things need you to experience them first to understand what you’re dealing with. The old farts in the backgrounds busy telling us to deal with the Three Kings using guns instead of relying on martial artists will look at this result and sh*t themselves.”

“Which means you will enjoy more power, Vice Chief.”

“Sure, even though that was not what I was aiming for. I merely wish to get rid of the remnants of our old eras, that’s all. Once the Party Leader sees me annihilating the Three Kings... He will never listen to those old fools again. This is all for the greater good of our nation.”

“Of course, sir. I’ve never doubted your dedication once,” the man grinned deeply. “However, as things stand, Kang Jin-Ho will slip out of the country. And that will be an unfavorable outcome for you, Vice Chief.”

“Indeed, it will be. That’s why I want you to step in this time. Lead some men and kill that Korean for me,” said Wang Long unhurriedly.

“I alone won’t be enough, sir.”

“Then, what do you need to be enough?”

The man tapped his chin as if he was pondering the answer. “Hmm... I believe two should suffice.”

“You shall have them.”

“Thank you.”

The man bowed slightly, then turned around airily before leaving the office. Wang Long dragged in a long, deep puff of the cigarette.

Those trash-like sons of b*tches.

Martial artists were virus-like existences in his view.

Viruses couldn’t even exist without human hosts, yet they still dared to threaten hosts’ lives. As for the martial artists, they couldn’t exist without their mother nation, yet they still challenged the nation’s authority. Viruses, indeed!

Unless every single one of them had been exterminated, China’s glory would never be fully realized.

“Kang Jin-Ho, is it...? Kang Jin-Ho...”

Wang Long closed his eyes while leaning back against his chair.

I hope you can serve as a useful pawn for us!

It was unfortunate that Kang Jin-Ho had slipped away. So, he must be dealt with before the losses could balloon in scale.

Of course, the Three Kings would go down next.

***

“Urghhh...!”

Lee Hyeon-Su was spasming pitifully on the ground. He was dying here. And no, he really was on the verge of death!

Even though he was finally touching the solid ground underneath, his innards refused to settle down. If anything, they were rumbling even harder than before!

After he got used to being shaken around, Lee Hyeon-Su’s body refused to accept the stable footing offered by Mother Earth. The disorientation, followed swiftly by intense nausea, became even more unbearable the moment he tried to stand up.

“Urgh... Bleeeeeeergh!”

Lee Hyeon-Su tried to throw up, but there was nothing left in his stomach. He wretched several times, then began massaging his shoulder and the back of his neck.

“Sir, were you really trying to kill me?”

Kang Jin-Ho tilted his head. “Mm?” 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

After whining briefly, Lee Hyeon-Su groaned and pulled up his pant legs. Blood was pooling inside his shoes, while his legs were covered in more blood.

Kang Jin-Ho blinked his eyes. “Did you get hit?”

“I think a few bullets grazed me, sir. But it’s bleeding a bit more than I thought.”

Kang Jin-Ho deeply furrowed his brow, but Lee Hyeon-Su chuckled away without much care.

“This level of injuries is nothing when escaping from a place like that, you know? Besides, this doesn’t even qualify as real wounds, anyway.”

Lee Hyeon-Su rolled his pants down to cover the parts of his legs where the flesh got ripped away.

It wasn’t as if he got riddled with bullets, with bits of lead still lodged somewhere in his body. No, it was merely bullets grazing his skin and tearing his flesh apart.

Lee Hyeon-Su was fully prepared to deal with this level of injuries, of course. Kang Jin-Ho was not an omnipotent god, after all.

“Sir? Are we safe now?”

“For now, yeah,” Kang Jin-Ho nodded slightly.

They had broken through the encirclement and even killed the enemy commander on top of that, too. That should buy them some time to reorganize. Of course, reinforcements should arrive pretty soon.

“I see. Then...” Lee Hyeon-Su muttered while taking his phone out. His expression brightened instantly. “Eh? We have cellular service here, sir!”

Without waiting for Kang Jin-Ho’s response, Lee Hyeon-Su dialed Wiggins’ number. However, no matter how long he waited, the call didn’t connect.

“What’s going on?”

Thanks to the experience of not having any cellular service on international waters, Wiggins was outfitted with a satellite phone this time. Even then, he wasn’t answering the call?

Is he out of the signal’s reach?

But that didn’t seem like it. It felt different from, say, the signal not reaching the other side, with no strange-sounding ringtones coming through the phone’s speaker. It was as if... As if the other side wasn’t even there.

...Are they intercepting our communication, too?

Lee Hyeon-Su’s expression stiffened.

A satellite phone network wasn’t as simple as a phone connecting to another phone through a satellite. No, there was a switchboard of sorts, a base station, relaying the signal between satellites and phones.

Block off that base station, and it would become impossible to make calls.

But who would...?

Lee Hyeon-Su’s expression grew even more cramped just then. “...Sir?”

Kang Jin-Ho glanced at him. “Yeah?”

“Looks like we’ll have to head to the escape route Yi Jong-Wuk has prepared for us.”

“Mm? We’re not leaving through the ocean?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Why not?”

“...There’s something I must confirm.”

Kang Jin-Ho nodded in silence. Thankfully, the escape rendezvous point wasn’t too far from here.

Lee Hyeon-Su’s grimace deepened.

I hope it’s not that.

Anything but that!