Chapter 1201. Punishment (1)

Chapter 1201. Punishment (1)

“...How sturdy.”

Tsukikage’s eyes became more withdrawn than before.

The Japanese warrior responsible for that attack had become a puddle of blood. But Kang Jin-Ho only suffered some negligible bruising even after receiving the explosion head-on.

Tsukikage expected to blow a limb or two away with that explosion, at the very least. So, for the outcome to be only a bruise...!

‘The more I look at him, the more monstrous he seems.’

Kang Jin-Ho transcended everything Tsukikage knew about martial arts, and then some. However, it was not all doom and gloom.

‘However, it’s still possible to hurt him, is that it?’

Tsukikage licked his lips suspiciously. What an encouraging sign this was, finally confirming that the seemingly invincible enemy could get injured like this!

Maybe such a thing shouldn’t have come as a surprise. But such an obvious truth meant the world to Tsukikage and his men.

Getting injured meant their attacks were working. If their attacks worked, it meant a continuous barrage could potentially kill that monster!

‘In that case, we must keep hitting him without a moment’s respite!’

Tsukikage issued a new command with a brief flick of his hand.

The shadows and Tsukihas saw that signal, and a desperate determination filled their eyes almost immediately.

***

Throb!

The pain from his shoulder clawed at Kang Jin-Ho’s nerves.

He sucked in a deep breath. Rage so intense that it made him dizzy continued to egg him on. The sight of the blood puddle on the ground stoked the flames of his fury even higher.

‘A self detonation...?’

Kang Jin-Ho wasn’t going to criticize this method. When facing off against an enemy that seemed insurmountable, one would resort to whatever means were available, after all!

Fighting fair and square would only end in their demise. And Kang Jin-Ho was in no position to demand these people to die fair and square, now was he?

What angered Kang Jin-Ho to no end was something else.

‘Kamikaze, is it...!’

That term was something a Korean would inevitably hear about whether they wanted to or not. And Kang Jin-Ho thoroughly detested that term.

Throwing your life away to gain an upper hand? What a nonsensical concept that was.

An advantage gained like that would only be enjoyed by the surviving people. What could possibly compensate for the ones who died, then?

Only the person involved could resolve themselves to throw their life away. Obviously, these Japanese warriors must’ve had their reasons for choosing to go down this road. And their determination shouldn’t be made light of, either.

Despite thinking that way, though, Kang Jin-Ho still couldn’t do anything about this instinctive disgust welling up in his heart.

Even if Shinichi-kai conquered the world by relying on such methods, how would it repay all the sacrifices its people had made?

This matter was quite different from risking one’s life to fight in a war.

“

Ptooi

!”

Kang Jin-Ho spat out the blood spilling out from a tear in his mouth. Without skipping a beat, he raised the Crimson Destiny and Azuremourne high.

“I guess it was a wake-up call.”

Kang Jin-Ho’s eyes began glowing bright red.

He really didn’t want to go all out with these people. But that feeling stopping him from getting too excited was completely gone now. And the desire to crush everything his eyes could see had taken up its spot instead.

When the Tsukikage gave his signal, Tsukihas began roaring and pounced on Kang Jin-Ho.

Their black costumes blended into the darkness. The only things now visible were their katanas gleaming coldly in an azure hue.

Kang Jin-Ho bared his fangs at this sight. Pitch-black flames instantly enveloped the Crimson Destiny and the Azuremourne.

While enveloped in indescribably eerie black flames, Kang Jin-Ho’s two swords fell like meteors on the incoming Tsukihas.

It was literally a scene of pure evil descending to the mortal realm.

Even the Tsukihas charging in couldn’t help but flinch at this sight.

They could sense that something was different this time.

Kang Jin-Ho’s appearance hadn’t changed. Nothing about him looked different, at least physically. However, the vibe he emitted substantially differed from only a few minutes ago.

The Tsukihas sensed their hearts shrinking back. Their skin tightened and their breathing clogged up.

Their minds blanked out from the rough tidal wave of sheer, unbridled killing intent!

“

Kkuhk

!”

Even then, they didn’t back down. Not because of their willpower, though.

That was because their training, which had been repeated thousands of times to the point of brainwashing, stopped them from doing anything else. And that training was to never, ever retreat in a battle, no matter what!

The consequences for that training were enormous, to say the least.

KWA-DUDUDUK!

Kang Jin-Ho’s swords gushed out sword qi.

To a swordsman, his sword was the symbol of absolute faith.

A human could only wield a sword in a fight because they believed their weapon would never break. Here was the reason why no one fought with razor blades, no matter how sharp those things were.

Trusting that their swords wouldn’t break against enemy attacks, and that the weapons would withstand their wielders’ strength...!

This was why, to a swordsman, a sword was an absolute and undying existence they could reliably entrust their life to.

Unfortunately for the Japanese swordsmen, however, that belief was grandly shattered tonight.

Claaaang!

Their katanas broke like rice crackers. Even though smiths recognized as masters of their craft poured their heart and soul into these swords, they still bent and snapped in half as if they were mere children’s toys.

The eyes of the Japanese warriors opened wide.

The reactions of people whose long-held beliefs were shattered were usually the same.

Their shock converted to disbelief first before morphing into despair next. Fortunately for the Japanese, though, they were spared from this humiliating and sorrow-filled process.

That was because Kang Jin-Ho’s Crimson Destiny sliced through their hearts even before their shock had the chance to convert into disbelief!

Slice!

A sword scythed past a wall of human bodies. Yet it didn’t make any appreciable noises.

Human flesh was far too frail to withstand Kang Jin-Ho’s Crimson Destiny laden with an incredible amount of demonic qi.

‘Power’ was like that.

Tsukihas endured hellish training to acquire their current strength. They had every right to be proud of their strength and the realm they had reached.

Unfortunately, power was always relative. No matter how strong they were, they’d still be the ‘weak’ before an even more powerful entity.

In that regard, these warriors were truly unlucky to face off against Kang Jin-Ho.

That was because, at least on a battlefield, he was always the predator, the devil that enjoyed tormenting and destroying the weak!

Splaaaaaash!

Fountains of blood sprayed to everywhere. Bodies missing their torsos lifelessly collapsed to the ground before getting engulfed by black flames.

“Hu-waaaaaack!”

However, the Japanese reacted a little differently from expectations.

These warriors had already acknowledged Kang Jin-Ho’s superior strength. As such, they knew their comrades ahead of them would never withstand Kang Jin-Ho’s attack.

Even though they could see their comrades set ablaze by black flames and die, Tsukihas continued to charge forward at their target, their eyes burning with venomous determination.

“Shinichi-kai, banzai!”

Kang Jin-Ho’s nerves got pricked again by the Japanese suddenly crying out loudly.

A sharp katana missed Kang Jin-Ho’s throat by a hair’s breadth. The cost of missing that attack, made with every fiber of one’s soul, was substantial and deadly, to say the least.

KA-BOOOOM!

Kang Jin-Ho savagely punched the attacker’s jaw.

A body with a gaping hole, starting from its jaw to the crown, flew high up in the air.

A display of overwhelming strength! Merely witnessing it was enough to almost rob anyone of their desire to fight back.

Kang Jin-Ho was ready to rush forward with that overwhelming momentum, yet he suddenly spun around and looked below.

That was because he spotted a shadow ‘breaking’ through the ground right below him.

Kang Jin-Ho bared his fangs in a ferocious smirk.

Slice!

Even before his brain had finished processing the information his eyes captured, the Azuremourne swiftly beheaded the shadow rising up from the ground. The shadow probably didn’t even have enough time to sense his head flying away.

Even though everything happened so fast, Kang Jin-Ho still saw ‘it’. He saw the shadow’s hand moving strangely even after getting beheaded. He also saw something held in the shadow’s hand in that brief moment.

Squeeze!

When the shadow’s thumb pressed a button on that something...!

KABOOOOOOOM!

The shadow’s body exploded. At the same time, an incredible impact force no human could withstand slammed into Kang Jin-Ho.

He flew back and tumbled on the ground as blood danced off his figure before shooting back up to his feet. He felt dizzy. Disorientated.

‘Even though I cut his head off?’

For a brief moment there, he failed to understand.

One’s qi was controlled through one’s will. It didn’t matter how strong one was mentally. It also didn’t matter how incredible one’s willpower was. Because, without a head, a person couldn’t will anything!

A dead man’s will obviously wouldn’t have any bearing in reality. Yet the shadow still managed to bring forth this level of destructive power?

Realistically speaking, something like that was impossible. If it was, it’d flip the basic foundation of martial arts itself!

Since that was the case, there could only be one explanation: this phenomenon was not related to martial arts.

Just as Kang Jin-Ho’s thoughts reached this far, another shadow suddenly rose up from beneath his feet. Even before he could respond, hands shooting up grabbed his ankle.

He would’ve noticed this presence had the shadow emitted even a sliver of killing intent. However, this shadow did not emit any hostile intent, never mind any detectable killing intent!

Kang Jin-Ho looked at this shadow. And the shadow, the Japanese warrior, looked back at him while desperately clutching at his ankle.

All Kang Jin-Ho could see was a pair of eyes between the clothes covering the man’s face. And when he realized tears were streaming down from those eyes, Kang Jin-Ho reflexively gritted his teeth.

“Mom...”

KA-BOOOOOOM!

Kang Jin-Ho was thrown into the air again from that explosion, the Japanese warrior’s last word echoing in his mind.

His view, slightly clouded black from the blast, quickly returned to normal. And he could see the large moon staring back at him.

Kang Jin-Ho fell back to earth.

Paht!

He spun around in the air and landed safely, only for more Tsukihas to pounce on him from all directions.

“

Euh

!”

That was when demonic qi billowed explosively from below Kang Jin-Ho’s feet. Like a conflagration from the depths of Hell, the burning demonic qi spread out in all directions and devoured the Tsukihas closing in.

“

Aaaaaahk

!”

“

Uwaaaaahk

!”

The pain of one’s body literally melting down was too much to bear for mere human willpower. As the demonic qi enveloped them, the Japanese let out terrifying screams that might repeat themselves in the listeners’ nightmares and rolled around on the ground.

“

Cough

!”

Kang Jin-Ho retracted his demonic qi and covered his mouth. Thick, dark blood soaked his palm.

“

Fuu-woo

...!”

After exhaling deeply, Kang Jin-Ho slowly stood up.

His wounds were serious. Those two explosions left his body burned. As for his thigh that was closest to the explosion, its flesh was tattered, and blood gushed out from the gaping holes. If the wounds had been any more serious, his femoral artery might have been torn apart, killing him instantly.

This was a different breed of danger from everything Kang Jin-Ho had experienced so far.

Something about this situation felt ironic to him.

The speed of martial artists easily transcended what was possible with human reflexes. However, martial artists still dodged or defended against attacks of such transcendental speed.

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

In a way, it was similar to how a boxer simply weaved out of the way when his opponent threw a series of jabs at him, which should have been impossible to see with naked eyes.

The principle behind these two was the same. Martial artists also weren’t dodging enemy attacks because they saw it coming.

All attacks had preparatory actions. In the case of martial arts, martial artists would circulate their qi first, then determine where the circulated qi would go next. As long as one could notice that, dodging out of the way was definitely doable.

However, these explosions weren’t like that. There were no signs. No preparatory actions. Human bodies just exploded without warning.

Kang Jin-Ho finally figured out where these explosions were coming from. The heat and the stench were proof enough.

“...You’re using explosives?”

When Kang Jin-Ho muttered while wiping his face with his sleeve, the expressionless Tsukikage replied, “That’s right.”

Tsukikage glanced at his pitifully-shivering interpreter. The latter stuttered, but still did his job of translating.

“Are you going to accuse us of being cowardly?”

“Cowardly?”

Kang Jin-Ho smirked deeply.

If this was cowardice... Then, martial arts were cowardly, too.

Whether it was ‘weapons’ or ‘martial arts’, their origin was the same. Weren’t they tools meant to kill the enemy most effectively? There was no rule forbidding martial artists from using firearms or modern weapons to get the job done.

Anyone saying otherwise was people who got lost in the pursuit of martial arts and forgot the purpose and the goal of what they were doing.

Despite thinking that way, though...

“Well, it’s not cowardice,” said Kang Jin-Ho, his fangs bared again. “But more like ‘pathetic’.”

Kang Jin-Ho stood straight, then pointed his Crimson Destiny at Tsukikage.

“If this was your trump card, you should’ve come at me personally. Rather than standing back and sending your underlings.”

Tsukikage casually shrugged and replied, “Let’s just call it a difference in our methods.”

A difference in methods...?

“Heh...”

Kang Jin-Ho suddenly smirked insidiously.

“Is that so? I guess I should show you, then.”

I will show you what the difference in our methods actually is!