Passively welcoming his enemies just wasn't Kang Jin-Ho's style.

A chuckle leaked out of his mouth. He just couldn't get used to standing on his lofty perch and acting all condescending and the like. He knew he must be on a battlefield where fresh blood freely flowed and newly severed flesh and bones littered the ground.

Indeed, he belonged to the middle of a warzone where heavy panting and loud screams created an orchestra.

Kang Jin-Ho landed lightly on the ground, then his grip on the Crimson Destiny's hilt suddenly strengthened. His demonic qi, boiling viciously as if to melt his dantian, raced through his meridians to instantly reach the beautiful sword.

Creaaaaak!

The Crimson Destiny seemingly failed to deal with the flooding qi and began screaming. Any average sword would've shattered into pieces by now. However, the Crimson Destiny was no ordinary divine sword. Not to forget, this weapon had been a faithful companion to Heavenly Crimson Demon Emperor during his legendary adventures. Obviously, it'd be more than strong enough to handle this little qi infused into it!

RUMBLE! Wuooooong!

As if to prove Kang Jin-Ho's thoughts were correct, the Crimson Destiny stopped creaking ominously and began making powerful sword cries.

As if he was slithering on the icy surface, Kang Jin-Ho flew forward, his body almost parallel to the ground. Such was the angle of his body that it almost looked like he was falling face-first!

Martial artists panicked at this sight and tried to retreat but couldn't win against Kang Jin-Ho's speed. They even collided and got into a messy tangle with their comrades behind them to shorten the distance instead!

The corners of Kang Jin-Ho's lips curled up eerily at the sight of the clumps of martial artists. And then... He struck with his sword. The Crimson Destiny ably endured the tornado of its master's dark crimson qi and unleashed a massive sword light in practically every direction.

Everything in Kang Jin-Ho's field of view... was bisected. Whatever the burning sword light happened to touch and brush past was split apart and chopped in half. Whether it was the air or the human body... Even the swords meant to resist the incoming attack... None of them were spared!

Shuffle...!

For a sound denoting a cataclysmic sword swing, that was disappointingly anti-climatic. It was even puzzling to think such a vicious and heroic sword strike could only produce such a subdued noise. Of course, the end result was definitely not subdued.

The blade, extended by the sword light, sliced through the wide area in a single, seamless arc.

'Huh?'

People were left flustered and puzzled. Didn't Kang Jin-Ho's blade come flying just now? Yet, it was already gone? In that case, why wasn't there any visible change?

But then, those who looked below were able to confirm. Their once-intact clothes split apart when the wind blew past them. And their midriffs were exposed by falling clothes, only for their flesh to be blotted by a thin horizontal crimson line.

The meaning behind that crimson line was crystal clear to everyone.

"Euh, euh...!"

Martial artists bearing witness to their bodies splitting in two gradually grew terrified. Unfortunately, they never got enough time to stew in their growing terror.

Splaaaaash!

The severed arteries began spewing blood everywhere. The victims' consciousness faded away rapidly as the last thing they witnessed was all the crimson liquid gushing out of their own midriffs.

Plop, plop!

The upper halves of dead people fell to the ground after losing the connection to the rest of their bodies. This spectacle was an indescribably bizarre one.

Those who got their torsos cut in half by Kang Jin-Ho's sword strike obviously were dead—since their severed torsos now lay on the ground—but their lower halves remained standing. It was as if none of them had realized their death yet.

Blood continued to bubble and gush out from the severed torsos... as if they were malfunctioning fountains!

Cai Kechang felt his heart shrink in dread and fear at this sight.

'That man knows it instinctively, doesn't he!'

Kang Jin-Ho knew what to do to scare his enemies and what was the most efficient way for a smaller number of fighters to win against a larger group.

Using only the minimum-necessary strength for whatever situation it was? That notion was bullsh*t.

A smaller number of fighters could never win against a larger group while conserving their strength. No, the best method was to display an absolute and overwhelming power to terrify the larger group. That was it.

Just like how Hegemon-King Xiang Yu led thirty thousand troops to victory against the enemy numbering half a million, or like how Zhang Fei stopped the advances of Cao Cao's grand army in the battle of Changban... A smaller number of warriors pulling off a historic feat of driving back a much larger army could only happen after an all-conquering general stepped up to the fore and played the role of a demonic beast going on a blood-soaked rampage.

Even if the enemy possessed a higher headcount, in the end, they were still human beings. And they would inevitably fall into panic against a being capable of slaughtering people in droves like cutting grass. No one wanted to die, after all. Despite knowing that the victory could be theirs by attacking together, they could not bring themselves to act on this knowledge.

...Because they didn’t want to be the suckers who died during the process!

Plenty of people wanted to win through other people's sacrifices, but none were willing to achieve victory through their own demise. Even if there were some people like that, their numbers should be extremely low. Unfortunately, even those few would never want to go up against the demon king.

Kang Jin-Ho was well aware of this fact. As such, all of his attacks and techniques were meant to terrify his opponents. Even though he could have conserved his energy and efficiently mowed down his enemies, he deliberately resorted to exaggerated actions and viciously obliterated everything as a demonstration.

The effect of his choice was all too clear to see.

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"Hiiiieeek?!"

"I, I don't wanna die!"

Everything was crumbling!

The previously impregnable defensive formation crumbled in the blink of an eye. After witnessing the charge of a demonic beast, these martial artists completely forgot about their pride and confidence built through diligent training. The only thing on their mind was to flee as quickly as possible.

"G-get a hold of yourselves! Goddamn it! Wake the hell up!" Cai Kechang desperately cried out, but that wasn't enough to change this situation. And it was plainly obvious why.

Even Cai Kechang knew how unreasonable his own demands sounded. They must wake up? In this situation?

If that was possible, those people wouldn't be stuck in low-rank positions like that. Nope, they would have moved up the career ladder a long time ago!

Kang Jin-Ho was the devil in a human form. Usually, a top-tier expert like Kang Jin-Ho didn't chase after the fleeing enemy. That was because people with a modicum of honor wouldn't want to lose face by stabbing the back of a scared enemy busy running away. That was too uncouth and unbecoming of their station.

However, Kang Jin-Ho didn't give a crap about any of that. He chased after everyone running away from him and cut them down. As a result, severed limbs and fountains of blood splattered everywhere.

Kang Jin-Ho's entire figure was soaked in a copious amount of blood, yet a bizarre smile was still plastered on his lips as he continued to stab and slice with his Crimson Destiny and Azuremourne.

The only non-crimson part of his body was his sometimes-visible teeth. And whenever those teeth were bared, Cai Kechang felt chilling creepiness similar to thousands of needles stabbing his heart.

Why? Because Kang Jin-Ho was smiling! Even though he was cutting down the backs of the people running away from him. Even though he was pulling out the heads of his victims... He was still smiling!

That was not something a human being could do. No human would be that cruel and savage!

This spectacle helped Cai Kechang understand why demonic cultivators were called the demons and why the demon cult was seen as worshipers of pure evil!

'Did he lose his rationality?'

Kang Jin-Ho seemed drunk on blood, his eyes blinded by bloodlust, judging from how he cut down everything before him. For instance, he grabbed the head of a fleeing martial artist, thrust the sword into the victim's neck before twisting the weapon to sever the head, then tossed it away.

He then wiped all the blood splattered, nay, dumped on his face before charging toward his next target to repeat this cycle.

Cai Kechang would've been high-fiving himself if someone other than Kang Jin-Ho was behaving this way. Sacrificing allies was obviously lamentable, but the enemy leader losing their rational mind should still be a favorable turn of events.

However, Cai Kechang didn't feel that way right now. This was definitely not a favorable turn of events! Things could be called 'favorable' if only he could lead the insane enemy leader into a trap or use this development to his advantage.

A demonic beast no one dared to lay a hand on was going on a rampage, so how could anyone call that a favorable turn of events?!

No, this was a calamity. A natural calamity personified!

***

"He's gone insane...!"

Vator's complexion was as pale as it could get. He could confidently say he had experienced all sorts of crazy things in his life, but even then... He swore he had never seen anything quite like this.

The devil! A devil was quite literally rampaging around in the world of men.

Vator briefly wondered if Asura trapped in Hell was released into the world, wouldn't it destroy everything like this?

The big man remembered his duel against Kang Jin-Ho. Didn't he taste Hell back then, courtesy of Kang Jin-Ho's malice that choked Vator's heart? And Kang Jin-Ho's unyielding will to crush and trample Vator no matter what?

Simply facing Kang Jin-Ho's overwhelming bloodlust back then severely eroded away Vator's mental strength. That was the experience Vator had during that battle. To his dismay, however... Kang Jin-Ho back then wasn't as crazy as this one!

'Was he still holding back some of his strength?'

Kang Jin-Ho had gotten stronger since then. Much stronger than when he was fighting against Vator. However, it seemed that wasn't the entire story.

Watching this rampage made things clearer for Vator. It seemed that Kang Jin-Ho didn't go all out during his fight against Vator. If he had gone after Vator just as viscerally and viciously as he was doing right now... The big man was sure he'd not have lasted for long.

Maybe Vator was too taken aback by Kang Jin-Ho's current actions to make a cool-headed judgment. However, what did that matter right now?

What did matter was that Vator knew he'd not last five minutes against the current Kang Jin-Ho. If they fought, Vator would play the role of a little mouse being toyed around by the cat. He'd get utterly cut up into pieces and bleed to death!

So, this was the true demonic cultivator?

Vator's expression crumpled deeply.

'Just which is my master's real self?'

At times, Kang Jin-Ho was so naive and dumb that Vator couldn't help but guffaw. And Vator would get frustrated by how... 'affectionate' Kang Jin-Ho could get, too. Kang Jin-Ho would perform acts of self-sacrifice to people who wouldn't really benefit his cause. And he'd humble himself so much that his incredible strength seemed pointless.

Kang Jin-Ho, on any other day, was a pretty good match to the idea of a righteous man. Other than the fact that he was sensitive toward benefits involving himself and his acquaintances, plus the people he self-sacrificed for were everyone close to him, Kang Jin-Ho was indeed an ideal righteous man of morals and ethics.

But such a righteous man was also a bloodthirsty devil. A devil who crushed the skull of a man despairing at the sight of his severed torso, then rudely spitting out the piece of enemy's flesh that splattered into his mouth!

The righteous man who diligently stabbed the backs of fleeing enemies, sliced their heads off, and destroyed the skulls of anyone begging and pleading with well-placed kicks... That was Kang Jin-Ho!

Vator felt goosebumps rise up on his skin. Even if humans were supposed to be duplicitous, double-faced creatures, Kang Jin-Ho must be the only person in the entire world to possess such extremely contrasting personalities.

Everyone froze still in their spots. That included the pale-faced martial artists trying to crawl on the ground to flee as if a huge tsunami wave was about to wash them away. And the demonic cultivators were dazedly spectating this development, too. Images these people had cooked up in their heads grew distorted.

Kang Jin-Ho pulling out his swords and revealing his true form was enough to bring this entire area under his control. It was as if he was mocking all the carefully laid plans made by his enemies.

Whether it was Vator or Chang Min, all they could do was just stand there and stare in shock and horror.

That was when this happened.

"What are you doing?" Kang Jin-Ho asked, his gaze shifting toward Vator and Chang Min.

Thud!

Vator reflexively went down on one knee when Kang Jin-Ho's gaze landed on him. It was as if he had morphed into a loyal retainer addressing his king! "M-master!"

Kang Jin-Ho slowly wiped the streaming blood off his face. "I asked you what you are doing, Vator."

Vator sobered up instantly. What was he doing?

Wasn't he... Yes, that's right!

Kang Jin-Ho commanded everyone to escape toward the pier. So, why were they standing around like dummies to spectate on this incredible scene?

Vator shot back up to his feet. "Move your butts, now! Toward the pier! Hurry up!"

"Y-yes, sir!"

The demonic cultivators hurriedly turned around and resumed their escape. As if the broken screw in the clock had been fixed and the spring was wound up again, the paralyzed stream of fleeing humans started moving again in the blink of an eye.

Kang Jin-Ho wordlessly studied that scene before turning his attention elsewhere. "I'll punish you at a later time."

"Yes, master!" Vator bowed his head as cold sweat covered his forehead.

'I lost my mind just now.'

Getting punished seemed appropriate after that fiasco. After all, he had forgotten about his role, didn't he!

"Run, you fools! Run as fast as you can... Until your legs give in!" Vator roared loudly enough to almost burst his vocal cords. At the same time... Demonic cultivators dashed toward the pier like a hoard of rats fleeing the incoming earthquake.