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“Dammit!”

Since Kang Jin-Ho said he\'d call, Cai Kechang had no choice but to wait. What if he couldn\'t answer the call because the phone broke? What if Kang Jin-Ho didn\'t answer after Cai Kechang had to use a different phone to call him? These reasons stopped Cai Kechang from wrecking his phone in anger.

His heart was still burning in frustration and rage, though!

“Uwaaaaaah!”

Cai Kechang\'s anger finally got the better of him. He began kicking and destroying everything his eyes could see. The poor computer monitor on his desk was roundhouse-kicked into a wall before the desk itself was flipped upside down. Countless stacks of documents messily danced in the air.

That was when the office door was urgently pushed open. Cai Kechang\'s secretary was about to enter the office, only to quickly figure out the situation and quietly leave while closing the door behind him. He was obviously scared of Cai Kechang\'s anger being directed at him.

“You... You f*cking Korean bastard!”

Insulting Kang Jin-Ho for being Korean was meaningless, and Cai Kechang obviously knew that. However, hurling insults like this was the only way he could think of to vent his anger.

After hyperventilating for a while, Cai Kechang helplessly plopped down on his butt.

\'Dammit! What a pathetic showing this is...\'

Defeated. That\'s what happened. They had lost!

Who lost more soldiers was irrelevant in this case. No, what mattered the most was who achieved their original goal after the dust had settled. Results-wise, Kang Jin-Ho had acquired everything he set out to acquire, didn\'t he?

“...Goddamn it.”

Even if the Korean Martial Assembly hoovered up all the demonic cultivators, those people were never seen as usable combat personnel in this country. No matter how desperately the Martial Assembly shored up its forces, their overall strength would still be light years away from reaching the level of the Crimson King\'s faction.

Even so, Cai Kechang had to wave a white flag first, and that was ruthlessly trampling on his pride.

If only the factions belonging to the Azure King and Dark King didn\'t exist! Cai Kechang could\'ve wiped out some country bumpkins of a tiny peninsula in three days or less. But the current situation with the Three Kings gave those bastards enough breathing room.

“Why... Why does it have to be Korea, of all places?!”

If Kang Jin-Ho had been born in Russia, Mongolia or other nations like Kazakhstan, he would have become a headache for other factions instead. Geographically speaking, South Korea might look like it was helplessly sandwiched between powerhouse nations, but this seemingly worst location became a noose tightening about the throat of the Crimson King\'s faction.

Cai Kechang started hyperventilating again. After eventually calming down a little, he yanked out a cigarette and mouthed it.

\'Bloody hell...! I need to calm down.\'

The truth was... Cai Kechang shouldn\'t be the one feeling the brunt of the humiliation. Indeed, no one should be more enraged by this development than the Crimson King.

Click...

Cai Kechang lit his cigarette with a lighter, then slowly sucked the unhealthy smoke into his lungs. Even though he got some nicotine into his system, his mind didn\'t calm down at all. His irritation level actually went up after noticing his cigarette-holding hand trembling impatiently.

\'How... How am I supposed to pay for this grave sin?\'

The Crimson King had to go through this humiliating experience because of Cai Kechang\'s mistakes. If only he had noticed the grave threat Kang Jin-Ho posed and moved to eliminate him sooner...!

If elimination wasn\'t possible, at least Cai Kechang should\'ve tried to win Kang Jin-Ho over to their side before the Korean had the time to become this strong. Doing so would\'ve prevented this painful outcome.

All this happened as a result of Cai Kechang looking down on Kang Jin-Ho. His arrogance led to the Crimson King tasting defeat while Cai Kechang was experiencing hell.

“Fuu-wooo...!”

Cai Kechang groaned loudly, then anxiously stared at his phone. Fixing the stable\'s door after the horses had bolted shouldn\'t be criticized for being \'too little, too late\'. Since the horses had escaped, repairing the stable and making sure the same thing wouldn\'t happen again was the right thing to do.

The situation reaching this far was unfortunate, but Cai Kechang should focus on the future. From this moment on, he should tread the most optimal path available. And to do that...

That was when the phone resting on the couch suddenly began ringing. Cai Kechang sucked in a deep breath, then walked up to the phone.

“I won\'t let you have everything without a fight, Kang Jin-Ho!”

This war wasn\'t over yet. Indeed, the method of the battle simply had changed to words instead!

***

-It seems you had a lot of things to organize first, Kang Jin-Ho. Judging from how long you took to call me back.

Cai Kechang\'s voice coming out of the phone\'s speaker sounded confident and relaxed. However, that voice only deepened Lee Hyeon-Su\'s smirk.

\'Your bluffing ain\'t gonna work here.\'

One could say that they were stuck in a similar boat. By now, Cai Kechang\'s hair must be half-ripped out of its roots. Any person stuck in a role where they had to use their brain at 110% capacity would be cursed by the heavens to eventually go bald. For instance, Lee Hyeon-Su would find so many fallen hair strands under his pillow every morning, and...

\'Hang on a second, that\'s not important, now is it!\'

Lee Hyeon-Su briefly shook his head before speaking to Cai Kechang on the phone.

“It\'s not that we have a lot to organize but more like we operate in a far more democratic way than your side. We aren\'t like your organization where the leader decides everything and everyone must follow. A democratic process like ours requires time.”

-Who is this?

“My name is Lee Hyeon-Su. Don\'t you think people should be hanging out with others on the same level as themselves? Let\'s be honest here, shall we? Someone on your level directly speaking to our Assembly Master is not fitting his status, wouldn\'t you say? A tiger can\'t converse with a mutt, after all.”

-You sure have a glib mouth, don\'t you? However, you think I\'ll fall for it?

“Sounds like you already have?” Lee Hyeon-Su chuckled relaxedly while mouthing a cigarette. \'Man, this feels great.\'

It felt like a lump of frustration that had been festering in Lee Hyeon-Su\'s chest had been washed away. Then again, how anxious had he and the rest of Martial Assembly been thanks to the Crimson King\'s faction?

They had to constantly keep their eyes wide open at the possibility of the Crimson King\'s men invading the country at any given moment. Hell, didn\'t they have to provide double, nay, triple layers of protection in case assassins sent by the Crimson King targeted Kang Jin-Ho or his family members?

That had been their situation until now, and finally... They held the upper hand. Yes, the gap in strength between the two factions was still a massive chasm, but... But unusable combatants couldn\'t be counted as combatants anymore.

Knowing he held the upper hand now, Lee Hyeon-Su arrogantly crossed his legs and leaned back in his seat.

“Huh. What a terrible personality that is.”

“Indeed. Absolutely terrible.”

When Vator and Wiggins offered their unkind assessment on the spot, Lee Hyeon-Su silently and sneakily uncrossed his legs and sat up straight.

-Very well. You say your name is Lee Hyeon-Su?

“I have no plans of waging an unnecessary dick-measuring contest here. I\'m pretty sure you already know who I am. If you knew but still decided to do this, you\'re immature and petty. If you didn\'t know, that makes you incompetent. Which one are you thinking of going with?”

-...It seems Kang Jin-Ho has chosen a good negotiator for himself. Since I\'m really tempted to jump on a plane, get over there, and strangle you myself!

“Glad to hear that,” Lee Hyeon-Su smirked again while glancing at his companions in the office. He was indicating to the others that the real thing was about to start.

-Fine. It seems we...

“That\'s enough preamble, Cai Kechang. What are you offering us?”

Through the phone resting on the table, everyone could hear Cai Kechang loudly gnashing his teeth.

Kang Jin-Ho was left suitably impressed by what he could hear and see.

\'Wow. Even I\'m tempted to smack Lee Hyeon-Su in the face.\'

How could Lee Hyeon-Su be this good at pressing all the right—or the wrong—buttons like this? If Kang Jin-Ho was in Cai Kechang\'s shoes, he\'d have thrown the bloody phone out the window, jumped in the Yellow Sea and swam straight to Korea!

-Say what? We are offering you? Listen here. It seems your screws have come loose, fella. You\'d do well not to forget who you are talking to!

“The missing screws are from your head, Mister Cai Kechang. Or is it due to the lack of suitable individuals in the Crimson King\'s payroll? Seeing how someone with zero clue about their own urgent situation is leading the negotiations and all!”

Kang Jin-Ho raised his head and glanced briefly in Wiggins\' direction. He was silently asking if this was okay.

Since this negotiation was supposed to be about making peace, Kang Jin-Ho figured the parties involved would come at each other with fake smiles and hidden daggers. So far, this so-called negotiation was more like people mercilessly stabbing each other with greatswords and shooting each other down.

Wiggins used his content smile and a brief nod to assuage Kang Jin-Ho\'s worries. “Let him be, my lord. He\'s doing well.”

“Hmm...”

Kang Jin-Ho couldn\'t be sure what was what, but Wiggins said it was going well, so...

“Listen, Cai Kechang,” said Lee Hyeon-Su, his legs sneakily crossing once more. It seemed he was too focused on the negotiation to mind his manners in front of his companions anymore. “You and I are both very busy men. So, let\'s not waste each other\'s time for no reason, okay? Nothing will change even if we keep testing each other out, wouldn\'t you agree? So, let\'s all act like grown-ups and get down to business.”

-You stinking bastard...!

That sounded like the declaration of surrender.

-Very well. Let\'s do so. However, you\'d do well to recognize your reality. We can wipe you off the face of the planet whenever we want. What we are doing is not an admission of defeat or surrender. This is merely an act of compassion. Got it?

“Hah. Can\'t stop bluffing till the end, eh?”

A man with the authority to mobilize the Crimson King\'s faction couldn\'t completely discard his pride. That much was understandable, so Lee Hyeon-Su decided to gloss over it.

“Okay. What are you offering us, then?”

-We desire a ceasefire. No interference between our factions. At least for one year, starting from now.

Lee Hyeon-Su frowned deeply. “I\'m sorry. I\'m not sure whether my Chinese is rusty or my brain isn\'t functioning properly, but I seem to have missed the part of you offering us someth…”

That was when Cai Kechang suddenly cut Lee Hyeon-Su off.

-In return, we shall spare the ones still stuck in our territory.

“...Spare?” Lee Hyeon-Su furrowed his brow. \'Did we leave someone behind?\'

It was true that some people fell behind during the process of escaping China. Although, it\'d be more correct to say those people went missing. People who died during the clash against the Crimson King\'s faction, or those who drowned in the ocean...

Chang Min and the elders risked their lives to rescue as many as possible, but rescuing everyone was clearly impossible. In that case, the Crimson King\'s faction detaining several escapees didn\'t sound all that strange.

“I don\'t see a reason for us to give up on concessions for a handful of prisoners. Sorry to disappoint you, but I\'m not a humanitarian. From my perspective, you and the demonic cultivators are all Chinese. In that case, why should I shoulder losses while trying to rescue them?”

-A handful?

Cai Kechang could be heard chuckling suspiciously through the phone\'s speaker. That was when Lee Hyeon-Su instinctively realized he had overlooked something in his calculations. That chuckle was no bluff.

-You say a few, but at the very least, I\'d say we\'re looking at a few tens of thousands?

“A few tens of thousands?” Lee Hyeon-Su\'s face crumpled hideously when the implication behind the change in the digits registered in his mind. “What the f*ck, you son of a b*tch? Those are powerless civilians!”

-Oh? It seems we have a kind-hearted saint of the East in the room. If only you were born in a different era! You could\'ve left a mark in history books alongside Lord Confucius. So, you want us to spare the powerless family members of the demonic cultivators? And why should we?

“You...!”

-Let me paraphrase what you said to me just now. From my perspective, whether it\'s the family members or the bastards who escaped, they are all enemies to me. Why should I treat any of them humanely while shouldering losses? Mm?

Lee Hyeon-Su bit his lower lip. Most of the demonic cultivators succeeded in escaping China, but their family members were still stuck in the country. And Cai Kechang here... was using them as bargaining chips!

To be more precise, he wanted to use those family members as the main subjects of negotiation and get concessions from the Martial Assembly instead.

“Cai Kechang. How many people do you think you\'re talking about here? You think you can do it?”

-It seems you have no idea, Lee Hyeon-Su.

Cai Kechang\'s voice now contained a creepy chill befitting a vengeful ghost.

-It doesn\'t matter even if the number is over a hundred thousand. Our side possesses enough political and financial power to dump all of them in the ocean and be done with it. And we have enough physical strength, too. If you don\'t believe me, shall I demonstrate it for you?

“You...!” Lee Hyeon-Su trembled in indignation, then looked around the office.

Both Wiggins and Vator looked troubled and unsure. Neither of them had imagined the Crimson King\'s faction would resort to such extremes.

Having numbers on your side was the power itself. Even a dictator with a total grip on a nation wouldn\'t carelessly do something to such a large number of people, yet... To think Cai Kechang would hold all those people as hostages!

-I shall kill every single remaining bastard as painfully as possible. Their blood will form an endless river reaching the ocean to dye it red. We will make sure you all regret escaping China. What? You think I\'m still bluffing? That I won\'t do it?

As Lee Hyeon-Su racked his brain to think of something to say, Kang Jin-Ho finally broke his silence. “Cai Kechang.”

-Oh? It seems the big shot has finally decided to join us.

“Why don\'t you go ahead and do it?”

-...What?

Kang Jin-Ho growled in a somber, calm tone of voice. “I said, go ahead and do it. However, you should know something about myself first. I always…! I always get even.”

-...!

“I will kill as many of your people as you kill. And their death will be even more gruesome and painful than what you can imagine. Don\'t worry, I will stick to the exact body count. So... Go ahead and do what you said just now. If you can, that is,” Kang Jin-Ho said, his voice seemingly dripping with still-fresh blood.

Not just Cai Kechang but even the others in the office dared not speak.

The phone maintaining a lengthy silence finally resumed transmitting Cai Kechang\'s voice.