Chapter 1593. Rocking (3)

Craaack!

Kang Jin-Ho clenched his fists hard enough to nearly crack his bones. He stared at the veins and tendons bulging on the backs of his hands and forearms before relaxing his hands.

Nothing had changed. Absolutely nothing. His martial prowess wouldn’t drastically improve just because he had gone through a fierce “training” like the one earlier.

However, he could tell something had changed in him.

Yeah, I didn’t notice it.

No, rather than not noticing it, he had forgotten it. He had forgotten that a martial artist shouldn’t just focus on their martial realm. If one’s realm was the be-all and end-all in martial arts, it’d be pointless for martial artists to challenge those stronger than they were. Because the outcome would already be set in stone.

However, that was not how battles were decided.

Kang Jin-Ho had always been fighting against opponents stronger than him. He didn’t start his martial journey as a powerful expert. He wasn’t the demon emperor from the beginning.

Not to forget, it wasn’t as if he had the freedom to fight only the enemies that matched his strength level, either.

At times, he had to escape from the grips of enemies he could never win against. And he even cut the head off of an enemy he would’ve lost nine times out of ten.

Every time he did that, Kang Jin-Ho grew stronger. However, what about now? What was he like in the modern era?

Crack, crunch...!

Kang Jin-Ho clenched his fists again.

Although he had strayed only a little, it was a good thing that he had realized the truth before it was too late. If he had not realized it today, Kang Jin-Ho would’ve been forced to taste the bitterness of unimaginable regret in the future.

Lee Hyeon-Su cautiously asked, “Are you okay, sir?”

“...?” Kang Jin-Ho shifted his gaze away from his arms and looked at the somewhat worried-looking Lee Hyeon-Su. “Is there a problem?”

“N-no, well...” Lee Hyeon-Su stammered a little while wiping the cold sweat away from his brow using his sleeve. “Your injuries looked serious, you see?”

“No, I’m fine.”

Kang Jin-Ho glanced at his body. Blood still trickled out from various spots of ruptured flesh, but his wounds had already more or less healed by now.

“Sir... just what have you been doing?”

“Training.”

“What kind of training leaves you in this state, sir?”

Kang Jin-Ho wordlessly raised his hand, his palm facing up. Lee Hyeon-Su tilted his head in confusion and watched on. But then...!

Slice, slice!

The flesh on Kang Jin-Ho’s palm began slicing apart all on its own. It was as if an invisible blade had cut open his hand!

“...?!”

Lee Hyeon-Su freaked out in shock and stared at this unbelievable sight.

Drip...!

Fresh blood began trickling out from the wounds next.

“S-sir, what...?”

What had happened here?

Deliberately hurting oneself? Such a thing should be easy for Kang Jin-Ho, whose qi circulation ability had already surpassed that of a mere mortal. He could’ve easily wrecked his body with his internal energy only if he wanted to.

But Lee Hyeon-Su didn’t sense any circulation of qi within Kang Jin-Ho just now. Even if his perception was piss-poor, he’d still be able to sense something if wounds slowly opened up on Kang Jin-Ho’s flesh. So, for him to not sense anything...!

Kang Jin-Ho suddenly broke his silence. “Some people will get burned if they catch a boiling-hot kettle with their bare hands.”

Lee Hyeon-Su blinked his eyes. “Sir? Yes, that’s... obvious?”

“Even if the kettle is filled with only lukewarm water.”

“...! Ah.” Lee Hyeon-Su slowly nodded in understanding.

He had heard about someone dying of hypothermia in a warm location while believing that they were trapped in a freezing room. Likewise, he also heard about people getting burned while touching an object they thought was scalding hot when, in reality, it wasn’t hot at all.

“The human brain processes sensations picked up by various senses. If you can switch that order around, however... What the brain thinks of, the body can reproduce,” said Kang Jin-Ho.

“Oh...”

“As long as you can make yourself believe it with all of your heart, you can at least change yourself if not the rest of the world.”

“T-that means... As long as you make your body believe that a knife is cutting your hand, wounds will open up without an actual knife getting involved?!”

“That’s right.”

“Huh...!”

Lee Hyeon-Su sucked in a deep breath. He saw it happen with his own two eyes, so he had no choice but to believe it.

He alternated his gaze between Kang Jin-Ho’s face and the palm that had already begun healing itself before sighing deeply.

Yup, I should just give up.

It wasn’t as if he could comprehend what Kang Jin-Ho was capable of, anyway.

“Then... Are you saying you were fighting against an imaginary foe? And that’s how you got so injured, sir?”

Kang Jin-Ho wordlessly nodded.

Was the Assembly Master in an extreme version of shadow boxing or something?

Lee Hyeon-Su couldn’t help but grimace just then. This sounded somewhat similar to how professional boxers trained against imaginary opponents. Of course, the intensity of that training wasn’t even in the same realm as Kang Jin-Ho’s.

“But, uh, who were you fighting against, sir? The Crimson King?”

Lee Hyeon-Su was actually more curious about that. Even if one wanted to fight an imaginary opponent, one still needed a suitable opponent first. But he couldn’t think of anyone, other than China’s Three Kings, who could injure Kang Jin-Ho to this degree.

“Me.”

“...? Sorry?”

“I was fighting myself.”

Lee Hyeon-Su grew dazed at that nonchalant reply. Huh? Is this, like, the ‘fight against one’s inner self’ thingy or something?

Wasn’t this more meta than he initially thought? Lee Hyeon-Su ended up comprehending the intention in Kang Jin-Ho’s words completely differently.

“Did you get a satisfactory result, sir?”

“Not sure,” said Kang Jin-Ho with a brief head shake. “I’m only at the starting line, so it’s hard to be sure yet.”

“...? Then, is there a need to harm your body to this degree, sir?”

Kang Jin-Ho wordlessly stared at Lee Hyeon-Su. And when the latter noticed the look in his boss’s eyes, he began rambling on instead while feeling a bit embarrassed.

“O-of course, everyone is doing their best, sir. So that if you’re ever found lacking in something, we can swoop in and, uh, fill it up for you. We’re supposed to be your helpers, you know? Not a group of kids needing your constant care. If you put yourself through a training regime that injures you to this degree, we...”

“...Yes.”

“Sorry?”

“Yes,” Kang Jin-Ho muttered while nodding. “That’s what I used to think, too.”

Then, the corners of his lips curled up slightly.

Lee Hyeon-Su furrowed his brow. “Then, what about now...?”

“Fuu-woo...” Kang Jin-Ho puffed away at his cigarette again while reclining against the couch. “No need to fret. I’m not planning to shoulder everything by myself. That’s impossible, after all.”

Lee Hyeon-Su grew confused once more. Meanwhile, Kang Jin-Ho continued to explain casually.

“It’s just that...”

“...?”

“I’ve finally realized that I’m the only person excluded from everyone doing their best.”

“Sir? That’s not true. We all know how much effort you’ve been putting in. No one will minimize everything you’ve done so far.”

“No one, you say?” Kang Jin-Ho faintly smirked. “What does that matter? When I know the truth?”

“...”

Kang Jin-Ho half-closed his eyes. “When the time comes, I don’t want to look back and kick myself for not trying things I could have tried out. So, I’m going to try everything I can try. That’s all. And...”

Kang Jin-Ho crumpled the empty packet of cigarettes and lightly tossed it at the trash can.

“If you want to worry about me, give me a cigarette instead.”

“...? You still want to smoke more with all those wounds, sir?”

“Mm.”

Lee Hyeon-Su shook his head, then pulled out a cigarette from his own packet. Kang Jin-Ho accepted the offered cigarette and mouthed it, prompting Lee Hyeon-Su to use his lighter to ignite the tip.

Sizzle...

The tip of the cigarette sizzled, and the unhealthy smoke scattered aimlessly into the office air.

Lee Hyeon-Su stared at Kang Jin-Ho, slightly nervous. This prickly anxiety began swirling in his heart.

It’s like I’m looking at the Assembly Master from the past.

The impression Lee Hyeon-Su got was that his boss had changed overnight. Yes, it was possible that Kang Jin-Ho was in a downbeat mode as the result of a hardcore training session, but...

Lee Hyeon-Su shook his head. Nope, that doesn’t make sense.

To Kang Jin-Ho, training was a daily routine. Unless he had suffered some kind of mental setback, mere training shouldn’t be enough to transform his personality.

But Lee Hyeon-Su was still worried. What if Kang Jin-Ho’s personality completely reverted to what it was like in the past?

Of course, it wasn’t as if he detested the “Kang Jin-Ho” of the past. It was just that...

I mean... It took him so long to get this far.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say the current Kang Jin-Ho was a totally different person from the “Kang Jin-Ho” Lee Hyeon-Su had met for the first time. That was how much he had changed. And Lee Hyeon-Su genuinely believed this change of personality was the fruit of everything Kang Jin-Ho had accumulated until now.

However, if he loses all those things now...

It felt as if everything Kang Jin-Ho had built up in the modern era was vanishing rapidly one by one. Starting from all the time he had spent in the Martial Assembly to the relationships with various people he had built... Absolutely everything!

“Fuu-woo...” Kang Jin-Ho exhaled a cloud of cigarette smoke, then smirked at Lee Hyeon-Su. “That’s an unnecessary worry.”

“...?”

“What you fear won’t happen, after all.”

“But you don’t even know what I’m thinking about, sir.”

“You were worried about me reverting to my old ways, weren’t you?”

“Nope, not really, sir. I wasn’t.”

Kang Jin-Ho shook his head. “As I’ve said before, that’s not going to happen. Humans move forward as they accumulate things, after all. I’m not reverting to those days. No, I’m simply regaining it.”

“That’s... rather complicated?”

“Mm, I guess so.”

“Conversations like this help me remember that you’re not a youngster inside, sir. I mean, you just look dopey most of the day, but sometimes, the wisdom of the elderly seeps out of the...”

Lee Hyeon-Su hurriedly clamped his mouth shut when Kang Jin-Ho subtly cocked his brow.

Well, that’s... good.

Judging from how Kang Jin-Ho got riled up from that, things weren’t at a worrisome level, it seemed. Lee Hyeon-Su sighed in relief.

“Sir, is it because of the Three Kings?”

Kang Jin-Ho shook his head.

“If it’s because of them, you don’t have to go this far. I will find a way to get rid of them somehow. You can trust me on that one.”

Kang Jin-Ho ended up chuckling softly, although not because he was mocking Lee Hyeon-Su.

If someone asked him to pick the person he trusted the most in the world right now, Kang Jin-Ho wouldn’t even have hesitated with his reply. That was how much he trusted Lee Hyeon-Su.

He also knew that Lee Hyeon-Su was the type who made good on all the promises he made.

“It’s not that,” said Kang Jin-Ho.

“Then, why? Why are you pushing yourself so hard, sir?”

Kang Jin-Ho stared at Lee Hyeon-Su before finally explaining himself. “It’s because I couldn’t bear it.”

“...? Sorry?”

The look in Kang Jin-Ho’s eyes grew colder, more distant. All the rage he had been suppressing began surfacing once more.

“I can’t accept the idea of needing something else to fight my enemies. I’ve been trying to fool myself into believing that I’ve changed, but... No more. I can’t bear it anymore.”

“...?” Lee Hyeon-Su tilted his head in confusion. “I don’t understand what you mean, sir.”

“I’m irritated by how I’m forced to consider this and that just to fight the Three Kings.”

“...”

“I only need to be strong. If I had been strong enough to slaughter all Three Kings at the same time, no one would’ve been forced to rack their brains. No one would’ve been fighting against time. And I wouldn’t be this anxious, either.”

“Uh...?”

Y-yes, sir. That’s true. But...?

Kang Jin-Ho continued to speak. “I was wasting time doing other nonsense when the simplest, most straightforward solution was staring back at my face. I only need to become stronger. Strong enough to fight all Three Kings and their factions. All of them. Strong enough... to fight and win, no matter who it is!”

Lee Hyeon-Su nervously swallowed his saliva.

Is he even sane?

What Kang Jin-Ho said sounded completely absurd. If someone else had said it, Lee Hyeon-Su would’ve been rolling around on the floor while laughing his butt off. But he couldn’t do that right now.

After all, Kang Jin-Ho had said those words. And it was easy enough to sense how earnest he was from his attitude alone.

“Sir...? You really are incorrigible, aren’t you?”

Kang Jin-Ho shrugged. “Can’t deny that.”

Lee Hyeon-Su sighed. The usual thing for him should have been to talk Kang Jin-Ho out of doing this, but not this time. He didn’t feel like doing that.

“I will adjust your itinerary and try to find as much free time for you as possible.”

“Mm?”

“It should be doable if we ask the Americans for their understanding. It’s not as if they are here on a short-term assignment, anyway.”

“...”

“That’s why...” Lee Hyeon-Su stared straight at Kang Jin-Ho. “You must definitely become stronger, sir.”

Kang Jin-Ho smirked softly. “That’s the plan.”