Chapter 744: The Advent (4)

“Heuh...!”

His jaw was falling and clattering all on its own.

Human bodies were supposed to be controlled by consciousness, but that rule didn't always apply. Now was one such occasion.

'Please! Please move, you goddamn piece of sh*t!'

Unfortunately, this man's body didn't want to listen. His legs stopped heeding his commands a long time ago. They got paralyzed against his will, spasmed out of control, and seemingly did whatever they wanted.

'Please... Please! Move!'

The man begged, and then begged some more. No matter how much he begged, though, his attempt at infusing strength back into his weakened legs continued to fail.

In that case, what else could he do?

“Kkuh... Kkuh-huh...!”

The man desperately extended his hands forward. After stabbing his fingers into the cement, he dragged himself forward inch by agonizing inch. If his legs didn't want to listen, he better use his arms and escape!

So, he dragged himself forward again and again...

His fingernails hitting the hard, cold cement broke off, but the man couldn't pay attention to how painful that felt. Things like complaining about pain were too much of a luxury in this situation.

“Heuh-uhk...!”

He must flee. He must increase his distance, at least by a little bit! He must get away from that devil!

The man kept crawling away. He forcibly dragged his unwilling legs to push at the hard ground below. His stomach was roughly scraping against the cement, but the sensation didn't even register properly in his brain.

His pants were soaked from his piss since a while ago, but he didn't have the mental leeway to care about stuff like that.

Humiliation? Who cared about that in this kind of situation?!

This man finally learned what would happen to a person driven to an extreme corner. Such a person would morph into a completely different individual! Things like humiliation or saving face became useless trash. You were trying to survive, so such things wouldn't be useful toward achieving that goal!

The man wanted to live. Even if his life was extended by only one extra second, he still wanted to live longer!

“Sob, heuk...!”

Tears and snot freely streaming down turned his face into a pitiful mess. Drool trickled out of his slack jaw, but he couldn't even think about wiping them away.

All his being was focused on escaping from here. Escaping from here as soon as...

Step!

That was when the man's figure spasmed and shivered. That was because he heard someone's footsteps just then! Worse still, those footsteps came from somewhere near the man's waist!

The man cautiously raised his head. The first thing he saw was other people desperately running away with everything they had. And then, there was no one behind him. Absolutely no one. As for what could be next to him...

The man's head slowly shifted to the side. The way it creaked and stuttered was eerily similar to a piece of rusted machinery. He didn't want to find out. It might be better to just close his eyes and not look. Even then, his head still turned.

Was it because he was an idiot? Too dumb to know what was good for him? Of course not.

The unseen fear was much worse than the fear that could be seen. That was this man's reason for looking. Despite knowing who was standing next to him, he couldn't force himself to look away from reality.

The man's watery vision was greeted by the sight of the devil. And he wanted to squeeze his eyes shut. Because what he saw was too horrifying!

It seemed crimson rain had fallen on the world. And a creature soaked from head to toe in this rain to become a crimson devil was looking down at his next victim. Crimson blood soaking the devil's hair fell as large drops.

Drip...!

That noise should've been too soft to be heard, yet... A blood drop falling from a person's hair registered so vividly in the man's ears. However, the droplets weren't falling from the monster's hair only. From the ends of his clothes to the tip of the resting swords, even his sharply-chiseled jaw... Blood droplets fell like drizzle.

Yes, those droplets were all blood! Blood from countless corpses lying behind the devil! The devil who seemed to have taken a bath in blood!

What did this devil's face originally look like? The man on the ground couldn't remember. All he could see now was the devil with its face painted crimson like a savage in a jungle. Even if the man on the floor had clearly imprinted the devil's face without the blood paint on, the creature's current appearance was more than terrifying enough to completely overwrite that memory.

“Ah, ah...!”

The bringer of absolute death was standing behind his writhing back. And this grim reaper was staring at his next victim with unreadable eyes.

The man on the ground thought he was far too dehydrated by now to discharge more bodily fluids, yet something still seemed to leak out from somewhere.

A pure-white line cracked open on that crimson-red face. When the man on the ground realized that white line was a smirk, the one where the devil was baring its fangs... He couldn't hold it anymore.

“...!”

“A warrior who seeks pity from his enemies is no longer a warrior. No, you're just another dead man.” Kang Jin-Ho smirked before lightly swinging the Crimson Destiny.

Slice!

Blood danced in the air along with the noise of human flesh being cut. And the man on the ground went limp.

Kang Jin-Ho stared at his latest victim before quietly muttering to no one in particular. “If you are not a martial artist, I don't have a reason to kill you.”

After withdrawing the Crimson Destiny, Kang Jin-Ho unhesitantly walked away. Since he had severed that man's tendons, he shouldn't be able to use martial arts ever again.

'I'm acting on my whims again...'

Kang Jin-Ho sighed. He was well aware that all enemies must die. They should never be spared. Wasn't that his ironclad rule? Even so, Kang Jin-Ho still spared that man.

Why? Even Kang Jin-Ho didn't know.

He was literally acting on a whim. And maybe... It was a sign of his defiance, too. Defiance toward his boiling murderous rage, that was.

He was trying to rebel against himself, the man who proudly boasted he had changed so much, yet the sight of blood reverted him right back to his Heavenly Crimson Demon Emperor persona.

At least, that was what Kang Jin-Ho wanted to neatly package this situation. After all, his action was idiotic. Foolish.

Kang Jin-Ho quietly licked his lips and was rewarded with the acrid metallic taste of blood. What a terribly familiar taste—and smell—this was. And the scene spreading all around him was just as familiar, too.

Kang Jin-Ho gently shook the Crimson Destiny, then resumed his march. The night was still at its beginning stage, after all.

***

“Sir! Lord Cai Kechang!”

“...”

“Lord Cai...”

“I heard you the first time, so shut the f*ck up!”

Wu Yuan hurriedly clamped his mouth shut when Cai Kechang yelled back in pure anger.

As for Cai Kechang, he was glaring sharply at the demonic cultivators that had broken through the defensive line. From the get-go, those people probably were planning to do this. However, the way they ran, it... Something felt a little different now.

'It's as if they are trying to get away from something...'

Indeed, it looked like even the demonic cultivators were trying to run far away from Kang Jin-Ho. The look of this place resembled the scene of two flocks of sheep previously fighting for territory busy scattering away in fright after a huge tiger had suddenly jumped into their midst. The only thing sheep could do in that situation... was to run away!

'This is all wrong...!'

Cai Kechang gritted his teeth. Obviously, his strategy had gone down the toilet. His plans were all thrown out the goddamn window!

Planning-wise, Cai Kechang failed to mobilize combat personnel strong enough to handle Kang Jin-Ho. Despite rocking up here with nearly one thousand martial artists, Cai Kechang's side was being one-sidedly pushed back. No matter how many dogs were brought in, they would still be dogs at the end of the day. It was impossible to kill a tiger with mere dogs.

At the very least, one would need to bring wolves for such a job. Cai Kechang knew he was guilty of greatly underestimating Kang Jin-Ho's power.

As for his strategy, it was also obviously a failure. Before Cai Kechang's men could fall victim to Kang Jin-Ho's god-like display of strength, he should have attacked the enemy as soon as possible. If only Cai Kechang had ordered his men to go on a full-on offensive before they could get scared... Things wouldn't have devolved into the current state.

Everything was undoubtedly Cai Kechang's fault. He failed to adequately learn more about his opponent. And he even failed to make adequate preparations after learning a few things about his opponent. As a result, the flow of this battle had left his control. The only thing he could do was watch helplessly from the sidelines.

Griiit!

Cai Kechang gritted his teeth, then chewed on his lip, causing pure-red fresh blood to stream down his chin.

'How am I supposed to report this situation to my liege?!'

This situation snowballed to the point where Cai Kechang cutting his own head off and neatly presenting it to the Crimson King still wouldn't be enough to absolve his sins. He needed to regain control of this situation before everything reached the absolute worst possible result, or Cai Kechang dying hundreds of times wouldn't be enough to pay for this costly mistake!

'I need to stop this! Somehow!'

But how? Kang Jin-Ho was rampaging around like a beast. How was Cai Kechang supposed to stop someone like that? All of his forces were too scared and freaked out to fight back, after all!

But then, something else happened. Cai Kechang's eyes glaring at the battlefield shot open wide in shock. “W-what?! How?”

From the distant pier, which was the destination for all these demonic cultivators, Cai Kechang could see... a burst of bright light!