Chapter 1186. Fierce Fighting (1)

“Sir! A new report came in!”

Kang Jin-Ho calmly stared at a Martial Assembly member rushing into his office.

“Let’s hear it.”

“Sir! Our side has encountered the Japanese landing party in Gunsan and is currently engaging them in fierce combat! We hold an overwhelming upper hand! We estimate the enemy will be routed completely within one to two hours.”

“Got it.”

“Sir! We’ll keep you up to date with every report coming in! Then, please excuse me!”

The messenger bowed, then exited the office.

After the door closed, Kang Jin-Ho found himself alone in the office. He took out a cigarette packet and mouthed a cigarette.

Click...!

He lit the cigarette up with a lighter, then leisurely puffed away. His eyes remained glued to the ceiling for a long while, only for a soft chuckle to leak out of his mouth.

‘This is rather unfamiliar.’

A subtle hint of anxiety didn’t want to leave him alone.

It wasn’t the case of him not believing in the Assembly’s people. Vator and Wiggins were present, after all. Not to mention Bang Jin-Hun and Chang Min, too!

Also, the martial artists Kang Jin-Ho did his best to nurture were assisting them. He believed in them. They would not lose this battle.

Even then, he couldn’t get over his anxiety. This was no longer in the realm of rationality, but... But in the realm of human emotions.

He didn’t feel this way while leading the demon cult back in Zhongyuan.

Obviously, Kang Jin-Ho couldn’t be involved in every battle. In those he did fight, though, he always stood at the front to lead his warriors. However, he had to skip some battles for one reason or the other.

Did he suffer from bouts of anxiety whenever that happened? No, of course not.

Victory or defeat in a battle he wasn’t a part of didn’t mean anything to him. His side winning would be great. But if they lost, Kang Jin-Ho could just reverse the situation in the next battle he participated in.

That was how much the demon cult meant to him back then. However, the Martial Assembly’s situation differed from that.

Kang Jin-Ho gained a renewed understanding on how significant the Assembly’s presence had become in his current life compared to the demon cult in his previous life.

Right now, he badly wanted to rush over to the battlefield and join them.

The report said his side was winning. But a victory didn’t mean there wouldn’t be any losses. His presence alone should reduce the losses by over half.

Despite knowing that, though, he must endure. Because unconditionally coddling them and protecting them until the end wasn’t the right answer.

The Martial Assembly was no longer the same organization as before. Its enemies were spread throughout the world now. Now that the scope of its battles had widened, it’d be impossible for Kang Jin-Ho to fight every single time. Which meant the Assembly’s people needed to learn how to fight on their own.

‘Yes, I know all that, but...’

Kang Jin-Ho chuckled helplessly again.

Knowing it and doing it were two different things. He had no idea keeping his butt glued to this seat and stopping himself from sprinting out of this office would be this challenging.

Of course, that wasn’t the only reason he remained in this office.

“Hmm...”

His phone suddenly rang to snap Kang Jin-Ho out of his thoughts. He picked his phone up to confirm who was calling, then answered the call.

—Assembly Master, sir! It’s Minister Seok Dong-Su.

Seong Dong-Su’s voice was filled with utter and complete respect for his master. Considering his status as a country’s minister, what an awkward way to address someone else that was!

“Speak.”

—I’ve done as you instructed, sir! And the matter you told me about, our people are constantly monitoring it.

“Got it.”

—We’ve done our best, but... My apologies. I’m not sure if everything has gone as you wished.

“No, it’ll be fine. This is enough.”

—I’ll report to you right away if there’s a fresh development, sir!

Kang Jin-Ho ended the call without saying anything else, then slowly closed his eyes.

Minister Seok Dong-Su had become an excellent pawn recently. Having a government minister wholeheartedly obeying Kang Jin-Ho had helped him widen the scope of his activity.

This was why Kang Jin-Ho would sometimes feel the ‘urge’. What if he used Soul Enslavement on not just his enemies, but even to those who were friendly toward him? And turned them into his loyal subordinates? Wouldn’t that make his life so much easier?

‘The Chinese must be doing something similar as well.’

The Soul Enslavement technique wasn’t a skill exclusive to the demon cult. Many heretical and evil cults and sects knew of techniques that controlled and brainwashed humans back then, even if the martial artists of the day belittled them as mere heretical sorcery.

They were right, though. Most of those techniques were indeed shabby trickery. But a complete mind control technique could have been passed down to the modern era. And the Three Kings and their factions would be foolish not to utilize it.

Despite knowing this, Kang Jin-Ho didn’t liberally rely on the Soul Enslavement technique.

Brainwashing someone was a risky option. Failing to enslave someone completely could leave the victim in a lobotomized state. If they got lucky and escaped that fate, other problems would still inevitably rear their heads later.

Also, even if the Soul Enslavement was a success, problems would still persist. After all, humans had free will.

Humans instinctively analyzed what benefited them more and rationally chose that. If the brainwashing continuously forced the victim to make illogical decisions against their instincts, they would eventually end up a broken person.

Regardless of what it was, abusing it would inevitably break the delicate balance.

Kang Jin-Ho would be forced to deal with huge consequences if he shook up the political scene just to make his life more convenient.

That was why he only used the technique on someone like Seok Dong-Su. It didn’t matter to him whether that man broke down or not, after all! If not, he’d use it on someone as unbreakable as Vator.

Kang Jin-Ho slowly leaned against the back of his couch.

His office, with its lights turned off, gradually submerged deeper into the darkness.

***

“Stop!”

A police officer rapidly waved around an LED traffic baton.

He wasn’t the only officer, however. A row of police officers narrowed their eyes as headlights from approaching trucks broke through the darkness of early dawn to approach their checkpoint.

One of the officers walked up to the driver’s side of the truck at the front of the convoy.

“Please stop the vehicle,” said the officer.

The driver peeked his head out of the window. “

Huh

? You guys looking for drunk drivers?”

“No, sir. Can you tell us where you are going?”

“Come on, now. Where would a convoy of delivery trucks go at this hour, officer? Of course we’re headed to the distribution warehouse.”

The officer turned his head to see what was behind this truck. He could see the lengthy queue of delivery trucks. After confirming the logo of the company on the side of the truck, the officer nodded slightly while glancing at the driver again.

“Were you going to your company’s distribution hub?”

“Yes, we are. And we’re kinda running late, too.”

The officer frowned slightly in a dilemma.

‘We don’t need to inspect the cargo, right?’

The higher-ups ordered him and his colleagues to report any suspicious activities. But a convoy of delivery trucks heading to their company’s distribution center at this hour was a routine occurrence. And, judging from the logo, these trucks seemed to belong to a well-known corporation, too.

In that case, there shouldn’t be anything suspicious here.

That was when another officer walked up. “Hey, man. Open up the cargo.”

The junior officer was taken slightly aback. “

Huh

? But these are delivery trucks, though?”

“Didn’t you hear the higher-ups say we gotta check everything? So, do it.”

“Yes, sir. Understood...” The junior officer groaned deeply, then addressed the driver. “You heard him. It looks like we gotta check your cargo.”

The driver tilted his head. “Really? Why?”

“My apologies, but we’d appreciate your cooperation.”

“But there’s nothing in there, though? I mean, we’re heading to the warehouse to pick stuff up, you know? There’s literally nothing to inspect.”

“Unfortunately, we still have to do it, sir.”

That was when the driver’s expression cramped up in unhappiness. “Officer, are you telling me you’re gonna inspect every single one of us?”

The officer’s gaze shifted to the convoy once more. And he frowned again at the sight of nearly thirty delivery trucks.

“Officer, you really wanna check them all out? When we’re running late and all? Come on now. You know what company we’re working for. Those bastards will tell us to spit out our daily wages for being late by one minute, you know? What are we supposed to do if we can’t make any money even after working our butts off from early dawn?”

The officer shook his head. “I’m sorry, but orders are orders...”

“

Hah

...” The driver groaned before nodding. “Sure, fine. Go ahead. You can open the cargo bay at the back.”

“Thank you for your cooperation,” said the officer before slowly walking toward the back of the truck. He then reached up toward the cargo bay’s locked door handle. But then...!

“

Oii

! What are you doing?!”

The officer stopped and looked at the senior officer in puzzlement. “Sorry? I’m trying to inspect the cargo.”

“Stop that. We just heard the report that another team at the back discovered suspicious people. We’re joining them, now!”

“

Oh

! Understood, sir!” The officer urgently nodded before shouting at the truck driver. “You can go through!”

The driver tilted his head. “Really? Can I?”

“Yes, please go on ahead.”

The traffic batons’ lights danced in the air again. And the delivery trucks left the checkpoint to race down the road.

The driver glanced at the side mirror before sighing in relief.

“Man, I almost lost ten years of my life just now.”

After confirming that all delivery trucks had successfully left the checkpoint, the driver focused on the road ahead.

‘Damn it. Ordering me to do weird stuff like that and all. Sons of b*tches...’

At least they had successfully navigated past the most dangerous hurdle now. With that taken care of, there shouldn’t be other checkpoints ahead on the road.

The driver unconsciously stepped even harder on the accelerator as his mind wandered off toward a fat bonus waiting for him at the end of this journey.

“Who cares, as long as I make some good money?”

***

Shu-ru-rung...!

Yoshinobu slowly and carefully sheathed his sword. The interior of the cargo area, where not even a single speck of light could be seen, minutely rocked side by side.

“Sir, it sounds like we’re through the checkpoint.”

Yoshinobu grunted. “What an unsightly situation this is.”

“Yes, sir. Still, we should endure this for the sake of our grand ambition.”

“Hmph!”

Yoshinobu snorted unhappily.

At first, they had to travel in the smelly fish storage on those Chinese fishing vessels. And now, they were inside a delivery truck while moving through South Korea. None of this would’ve been acceptable if this had taken place in Japan.

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Yoshinobu glanced at his advisor. “Our men must be seething at how their pride has been trampled on.”

“They know they’ll be compensated adequately if we achieve our stated aim, sir. And traveling this way has helped us avoid any unnecessary conflict, which is what we want, after all.”

“Well, that’s true,” said Yoshinobu. A strange smirk floated up on his lips just then.

‘Koreans can be such strange bastards.’

In the past, when Japan had annexed the Korean peninsula, the ones who voluntarily stepped forward to suppress Koreans were allegedly their fellow Koreans, not the Japanese. At least, that was what Yoshinobu heard.

Although this situation wasn’t comparable to that, he still found it rather ironic.

It was none other than a Korean corporation that had provided all these trucks and helped the Japanese avoid the police checkpoints. Even if the two sides had enjoyed a cooperative relationship for a while now, Yoshinobu still couldn’t wrap his head around this idea.

To think that a Korean corporation helped the Japanese to evade the Korean police and military! Even if the ‘merchants’ were interested in money and wouldn’t hesitate to sell off their own family members, wasn’t this still too much?

Of course, their cooperation meant the Japanese could proceed with their plan, so there was that.

Yoshinobu muttered, “We sure found willing co-conspirators.”

“It’s all thanks to our own politicians working diligently behind the scenes, sir. The Korean corporation probably thought exporting their goods to Japan with the Japanese government’s assistance would make this trade a profitable one.”

“While their footing is about to crumble all around them?”

“Not many people are capable of looking that far ahead, sir,” said the advisor with a smirk. “Also, from what I heard, this corporation has always been pro-Japanese, as well.”

“

Hmm

...?”

Yoshinobu slowly nodded. It was not his business to care about the details of this operation. His duty was to achieve the goals the Iemoto had set out. And he’d use all the tools the Iemoto had prepared to do so.

“How long until we reach our destination?”

“In about two hours, sir.”

Yoshinobu frowned. “That’s slow.”

“Unfortunately, we have to do it this way to avoid attention, sir. The surrounding areas are still being heavily monitored. But we should pick up some speed once we escape this area.”

Just as the advisor said that, his phone began buzzing quietly. He answered the phone and whispered a few words in Korean before ending the call.

“Captain, sir.”

“

Mm

?”

“I just received confirmation that the target is still at the destination.”

“Are we certain?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Very good!” Yoshinobu animatedly nodded. His somewhat exaggerated movement seemed to mirror his current mood. “A war is won by those who kill the opposing commander first.”

It was true that Yoshinobu and his men were the advance party. However, unlike what they had told Kanto’s warriors, their role wasn’t to buy enough time for the other parties to land safely in Korea.

Why would Shinichi-kai care about whether the Yamashiro-gumi bastards had safely arrived here or not?

No, the actual plan was the other way around. Yamashiro-gumi would serve as the bait, distracting the enemy. Obviously, the bastards from Kanto would never suspect that they had been thrown away to die.

By now, they should be fulfilling their role of fighting tooth and nail against the Korean Martial Assembly idiots.

Meanwhile, Yoshinobu’s people would aim for the opening.

“I don’t know what bravado has compelled you to act separately from your people, but we’ll make you pay dearly for it. Men! We kill Kang Jin-Ho before sunrise!”

“Yes, sir!”

The convoy of delivery trucks slithered forward like a giant Imoogi through the narrow, winding road toward the Korean Martial Assembly.

Their only goal: Kang Jin-Ho’s head!

The dagger the Iemoto had flung was steadily closing in on Kang Jin-Ho.