Chapter 527: Intense (2)

For a brief moment there, Vator failed to comprehend the spectacle unfolding before his eyes.

'What am I seeing here?'

How was he supposed to interpret this situation?

Kang Jin-Ho was like a real devil brought to life while enveloped in the thick demonic qi so dark that merely looking at it could almost suck out a person's soul like a black hole! Even Vator, a man who didn't feel fear once in his life, shuddered a little at this sight. n(0)vel(b)(j)(n)was the platform where this chapter was initially revealed on N0v3l.B1n.

That was when Vator's head lowered reflexively, his gaze zeroing on the ground. Doing something like this while facing a deadly enemy was basically begging for someone to behead him, but Vator didn't care about leaving an opening. Something else had already stolen his attention by then. And that something was a footprint.

Vator saw a clear footprint right in front of where he was standing. And it was too large to be created by an average-sized man. And in this abandoned location, only Vator was large enough to leave behind a footprint of that size.

That could mean only one thing!

'...Did I actually step back?'

Shock quickly dyed Vator's expression. Kang Jin-Ho's appearance was already plenty shocking enough, but Vator was even more shocked by how he had unconsciously retreated from the enemy.

Even when he confronted the Crimson King, Vator never backed away. However, he had done just that against Kang Jin-Ho!

“You...!”

Seething rage rushed up to Vator's head. The fury he had never felt before boiled from the pit of his stomach, the burning heat even reaching the crown of his skull. However, something else happened at the same time and sent a deathly chill down his spine. His brain had recalled the Crimson King's advice!

“Underestimate him at your peril.”

Vator suddenly gained an understanding of what those words meant.

'So... This is a true demonic cultivator, then?'

The sight unfolding before Vator's eyes was far too outlandish to say it belonged to this world. Something that should only exist in fairy tales had become a part of reality!

Martial artists generally possessed a much higher level of tolerance than regular people, and that was also true for Vator. However, even he was left swimming in disbelief by Kang Jin-Ho's sinister and terrifying appearance.

“Fuu-woo...”

Vator's hearing caught the low but audibly heavier sigh coming from the figure of the devil. But why was it heavier? Because rousing up & controlling that much demonic qi was too difficult? That couldn't be it...!

Kang Jin-Ho's rough, heavy breathing should be the result of his trying to restrain himself. Indeed, he must be unconsciously gasping while forcibly suppressing the urge to pounce on Vator right away!

Vator began shuddering. Once shock and fear ebbed away, excitement began ruling over him next. An opponent with powers he had never fought before! Here was an opponent that awakened the feeling of fear in Vator, an emotion that not even the confrontation against the Crimson King could rouse in his heart!

Such an opponent now stood before his eyes.

'It is... spectacular!'

Vator stared enraptured at Kang Jin-Ho. The demonic qi enveloping Kang Jin-Ho's figure was like thick, heavy tar. The density alone made Vator suck in a deep breath.

The surface of this demonic qi, thick yet surprisingly viscous and existing in a state somewhere between gas and liquid, rumbled and billowed like living flames.

“Hah. Hahaha...!” Vator shuddered as uncontrollable laughter burst out of his mouth. “I see. So, everything we knew turned out to be wrong!”

Kang Jin-Ho's glowing red eyes narrowed. “...?”

“The true demonic arts...! Yes, you are the true demonic cultivator.” Vator animatedly nodded away. “Now I understand why we have legendary tales about demonic cultivators. I have to say, no one would've imagined seeing this kind of sight from the worthless trash of demonic cultivators left in the modern era. Yes, this is why... Why people started calling the demonic cultivators demons. Even I'm shaking a little while looking at you.”

It wasn't merely Kang Jin-Ho's appearance alone. Vator was proud of his skin being tougher than forged steel, yet it screamed in pain as if thousands of needles were pricking him simultaneously!

What a stupendously thick and sharp killing intent this was! Such was its intensity that Kang Jin-Ho's killing intent half-materialized into a physical state to stab into Vator's skin. Just how many people did Kang Jin-Ho murder before he could start emitting such killing intent?

Vator slowly licked his lips. This... This was well beyond his expectations! He even wanted to apologize to Kang Jin-Ho for failing to recognize the latter's incredible martial prowess sooner. When they had that stare-down back in the baseball stadium, Vator had a gut feeling that Kang Jin-Ho was not ordinary, but this...!

“You did well to hide your true self, Kang Jin-Ho,” Vator muttered in anticipation.

He never imagined such a terrifying beast was lurking beneath Kang Jin-Ho's surface. Of course, Vator wasn't to blame for this. Not just him, but almost everyone on Earth didn't expect a true demonic cultivator to be this strong, after all. And that included the Crimson King, too.

Kang Jin-Ho quietly raised his voice. “How much longer must I wait?”

He sounded coarse and turbid, like metal creaking against another metal.

That turbid voice awakened goosebumps on Vator's skin, stimulating and agitating him.

“Yes... Making you wait is certainly against the etiquette, isn't it!” Vator's lips parted in a massive grin. His response was reminiscent of a predator staring at a lavishing, appetizing prey. As if he couldn't stop drooling, and his stomach was rumbling from hunger! “Yes... Yes! I also can't hold back anymore...!”

What would this demonic cultivator taste like? Vator guessed the taste would be exquisite, but he had no reference point since... Since he had never tasted anything like this dish before! And that thought energized Vator's heart, making it pound like crazy!

“Oh, the warrior of this foreign land...!” Vator powerfully clenched his fists. That was all he did, yet the loud, weighty sounds of heavy machinery coming to life suddenly rocked the surroundings. “Know that I will forever be grateful for this encounter!”

Just as his words came to an end...!

Vator charged forward like a cannonball!

KA-BOOOOOM!

However, an enormous explosion suddenly went off! At the same time, Vator's giant figure was flung back several times faster than his forward charge!

As if he got hit by an 18-wheeler, Vator broke through the rusted steel cage, crashed right through the scaffoldings holding up the spotlights, then kept flying to the edge of the open field before crashing loudly into the ground.

“S-Sir Vator!” Zhang Dajing, watching from afar, cried out in shock.

That was just one strike. One! With a strike too fast for naked eyes to follow, Kang Jin-Ho had punted Vator so far away!

“Fuu-woo.” A low sigh leaked out of Kang Jin-Ho's mouth. At least, from where his mouth should be. Every time he breathed, demonic qi leaked out of his mouth area like the hot breath of a wolf in the middle of winter before getting sucked back in.

'What a monstrous bastard...!'

Zhang Dajing fearfully stared at Kang Jin-Ho. Just how much more was this monster still hiding about himself?

To Zhang Dajing, Kang Jin-Ho was an existence of pure mystery. Despite all the investigation done on the man, despite all the attempts to uncover the truth about him...! Kang Jin-Ho continued to reveal yet another hidden side to him.

Who could've guessed that Kang Jin-Ho possessed such an absurd level of strength? Not just anyone, but the one-and-only Vator got punted away with a single strike! If Zhang Dajing hadn't seen it for himself, he wouldn't have believed it!

“Kuh-huh..” Suddenly, a loud and boisterous voice exploded from the dense foliage where Vator crash-landed. “Kuwahahahahaha!”

That burst of laughter was loud enough to seemingly blow away the entire mountainside. It certainly suited that man's physique and class!

The mountain was rumbling. Slowly, and at lazy intervals, too. Zhang Dajing and Lee Hyeon-Su instantly figured out the source of this intermittent rumbling. It was... Vator's footsteps, each containing his internal qi!

His steps truly deserved to be called Thunder Steps because of how raucous and powerful they were. Every time he took a step forward, the land below couldn't endure the shock and writhed in agony. And that was the source of the rumbling!

“Ku-wahahaha! You accursed bastard!” Vator emerged from the grass while making a deeply pleased expression. A vivid crimson line could be seen extending from his right wrist to his elbow. Vator animatedly waved his injured right arm for everyone to see. “I almost lost my arm just now! Seriously, I did! Kang Jin-Ho, you really are something else, aren't you! Hahaha!”

Lee Hyeon-Su stared in stupefaction at Vator.

'Dude, you're the one who's something else here!'

Who was the one attacking Vator with his sword? It was none other than Kang Jin-Ho! And Kang Jin-Ho used less than half the strength of that strike to chop and slice the Yeongnam Group martial artists. Even then, not a single man could block or survive the attack. No man, no blade, no chains and spears and shields... Nothing was effective. Everything had been rendered powerless before Kang Jin-Ho that night.

However, Vator managed to block the strike with his bare body. And that strike contained power incomparably greater than when Kang Jin-Ho was single-handedly destroying the Yeongnam Group!

How was Lee Hyeon-Su supposed to accept the situation where a human body made out of flesh and blood blocked a sword strike capable of cleanly slicing through steel?

'This... isn't a battle between humans!'

Lee Hyeon-Su's common sense, shaped over the years of watching South Korea's best martial artists fighting each other, couldn't comprehend this scene. If one exchange of moves was enough to shock him this much... Just how many more shocking things did he need to witness before this duel produced its victor?

“Fuu-woo...” Kang Jin-Ho let out a harsh-sounding groan. “You're built rather tough.”

“Ke-hehehe! Obviously!”

Bang! Boom!

Vator pounded his chest like a gorilla. “The path of cultivation is all about training oneself. And oneself obviously refers to one's physical body! Behold, Kang Jin-Ho! Divinity permeates this body. My god walks with me!”

Kang Jin-Ho didn't retort. More correctly, he couldn't. After all, his body was currently heated up like a boiling furnace, almost ready to burst at the seams.

Demonic qi, roused to its absolute limit, circulated throughout Kang Jin-Ho's meridians. And demonic qi reaching his baihui point agitated Kang Jin-Ho's consciousness, too.

It was now telling him to kill. To kill his opponent! To kill, to maim, to destroy, and to obliterate everything his eyes could see! This voice was screaming at him to leave nothing alive. And Kang Jin-Ho didn't particularly feel like rejecting that demand right now.

“A physique blessed by a god, is it...?” Kang Jin-Ho began to slowly walk toward Vator's position. “Cutting that apart should feel... quite special, then.”

“Kekeke! You can certainly give it your best shot!” Vator replied fiercely, his eyes bloodshot.

Even he had almost surrendered himself to an extreme level of agitation and excitement by now. As soon as his mind perceived the presence of a worthy opponent, his body instinctively began tempering itself. It was egging Vator on to exert even more strength. To become even more powerful, so that he could utterly trample and crush that pitch-black thing!

“I should thank the Crimson King later on,” Vator muttered loudly. Well, that man was generous enough to dispatch Vator to this place, didn't he!

Obviously, Kang Jin-Ho wasn't the only powerful expert in this world. As proof, Vator still hadn't forgotten the taste of bitter defeat at the hands of the Crimson King.

However, the yardstick of pure strength alone wasn't enough to describe Kang Jin-Ho. Look at his terrifying killing intent! His horrifying hostility!

The whirlpool of malice that must be the amalgamation of every darkness existing in the world swirled around Kang Jin-Ho to stimulate and excite Vator to an unbelievable degree.

If pure evil had a material form, it must look like Kang Jin-Ho's demonic qi!

Griiiiit!

Vator loudly gritted his teeth. “I shall rip you apart!”

“If you can, that is,” Kang Jin-Ho casually replied.

“Kuwa-hahahaha! Here I come!” Vator roared, then viciously kicked the ground.

BOOOOOM!

The sprint of a body supposedly blessed by a deity was simply extraordinary. When Vator's foot stomped on the ground, a deep crater caved in on the spot as if a massive sledgehammer had slammed into a layer of clay.

Vator utilized that explosive power to charge toward Kang Jin-Ho like a bullet. That scarcely believable speed, something that a giant like Vator shouldn't be able to produce! That was a truly terrifying demonstration of extraordinary power capable of silencing anyone fortunate enough to witness it! However, the one welcoming that attack was also no mere common-or-garden martial artist.

Instead of getting scared by that overwhelming power, Kang Jin-Ho's expression distorted into enjoyment as he charged toward Vator, his entire body still burning in the pitch-black demonic qi.

“Kang! Jin! Hoooooo!”

Vator pulled his fist back before powerfully punching at the incoming Kang Jin-Ho.

Kang Jin-Ho also swung the blades of the Crimson Destiny and Azuremourne dyed in darkness.

Two experts capable of shaking up the world had begun a life-or-death battle in a remote nameless mountain.