Hell’s Handbook

Dawn broke as Wu Chen wrapped up his lecture. Su Jin believed that as long as they weren’t too unlucky, the newbies would be able to survive future Challenges better after Wu Chen had explained his experiences. Of course, like what Wu Chen said, the thing that would help them to survive was really their own brain.

As the sun lit up the sky, the previously dead city came back to live. After a night of rest, the people did not look energetic at all. Instead, they looked incredibly exhausted, because they were living under tremendous stress and fear.

Su Jin left the church once more with Kano Mai and Wu Chen, but this time, they brought a newbie, Kang Ze, as well. They needed his Handbook to confirm if they had gotten rid of any monsters that they might run into. Situ Jin stayed behind to protect the other newbies as the person in charge of their safety.

It was daytime, but Su Jin’s group wasn’t taking any chances. Some evil creatures did fear the sun, but some didn’t. The werewolves, ogres, shapeshifters and witches didn’t fear the sun, so they had to be careful even in the day.

The residents of the city looked curiously at Su Jin because he wasn’t wearing anything and had a lot of bloodied symbols drawn all over his skin. But once they found out that these were the exorcists sent by the Righteous God, the curious look in their eyes changed to one of respect. To them, even if the actions of the exorcists looked strange, there must be a reason for doing so.

The four of them headed straight for the castellan’s residence. The castellan immediately came to welcome them when he heard the exorcists were here. He led them inside politely and even threw a banquet.

The three old timers were good with not eating, but Kang Ze was famished. He ate like he hadn’t eaten in decades, which reminded the old timers that the newbies in the church were probably faring no better.

“Sir, could you send someone to bring food to the church? My other companions have not eaten,” Su Jin said to the castellan, who was smiling ingratiatingly at Su Jin.

“Oh! Of course, of course! I apologize for the oversight. I’ll send some food over right now,” said the castellan apologetically. He called a servant over and gave him instructions.

Su Jin turned to say to Kano Mai, “Mai, go back with the people that the castellan is sending to the church. Also… be careful.”

Kano Mai met Su Jin’s knowing glance and nodded slightly. The two of them could practically read each other’s minds now, so they could understand each other without having to spell it out clearly.

After the castellan was done buttering up Su Jin, he moved on to Wu Chen. Kang Ze had just returned with a plate of food and said to Su Jin, “Mr. Su, why don’t you eat a little something?”

Su Jin raised an eyebrow, then had a naughty look in his eye as he said, “Mr. Kang, there are some shapeshifters that we haven’t gotten rid of yet. Aren’t you afraid that a shapeshifter might have morphed into the castellan and poisoned the food?”

“What?!” Kang Ze paled in horror. He stuck a finger into his mouth in an attempt to try and vomit everything back out again.

Su Jin grabbed hold of his arm and whispered, “Don’t worry! Out of the four of us, you’re the only one who’s been eating. If I were a shapeshifter, I wouldn’t poison the food, since that would look way too obvious. That would draw unnecessary attention to them.”

Kang Ze was a little assured, but he still decided to put the plate of food away and didn’t dare to touch it anymore. He also quietly remained by Su Jin’s side.

Wu Chen approached Su Jin after he had chatted with the castellan for a while. “How’s it? Are there any monsters here?”

“I think there must be some, but we’ll need the cooperation of the castellan if we want to find out who it is,” said Su Jin with a grin. Wu Chen nodded and grinned back. He knew what Su Jin wanted to do, so he went to get the castellan.

“Sir, we need to announce some things to everyone, so please ask everyone in this house to gather here. And I mean every single person,” Wu Chen said to the castellan.

The castellan agreed immediately and told his servants to gather everyone immediately, including even the gardeners. Before long, the banquet hall was filled with people.

Su Jin stood at the entrance to block anyone from getting out. Wu Chen said in a loud voice, “Everyone, Mo City has been invaded by evil creatures and any person here could be an evil creature in disguise. To ensure the safety of the castellan’s residence, we seek your cooperation to undergo a test.”

A crystal appeared in Wu Chen’s hands, which was the one item that he had chosen to use for this Challenge. This item could not attack, but it was extremely sensitive to any evil energies in the air. He had already discussed this matter with Su Jin earlier on, and had chosen this crystal as his only item for the Challenge.

Everyone immediately exchanged nervous glances. There was fear in their eyes and they quickly moved further away from the people around them, afraid that the person next to them might be an evil creature. For the same reason, nobody objected to being tested.

Wu Chen smiled and said to the castellan, “Sir, why don’t you be the first one?”

“My pleasure.” The castellan nodded without hesitation. Wu Chen placed the crystal on the castellan’s arm and nothing changed after waiting for a few seconds. Wu Chen nodded and thanked the castellan.

Now that even the castellan had gone through the test, nobody had any reason to refuse. Wu Chen began to test everybody and in the end, all of them proved to be normal humans. That surprised Su Jin and his companions.

Su Jin paused to think for a moment. Was Wu Chen’s item ineffective? If that was the case, he was going to have to shoot every single person here.

He scanned the crowd, and a thought suddenly hit him. He asked the castellan, “Sir, are you not married?”

“Hoho, you have got to be kidding. How could a man my age still be unmarried?” said the castellan with a laugh.

Su Jin said curiously, “If that’s the case… nobody here looks like they might be your wife.” Su Jin scanned the crowd again. There were some women in the crowd, but they were all dressed like servants, so they were definitely not the wife of the castellan.

The castellan turned to scan the crowd as well, then asked a maid puzzledly, “Where’s my wife?”

“Master, Madam said that she doesn’t feel well, so… she’s still resting in her room,” replied the maid as she bowed her head.

Su Jin exchanged glances with Wu Chen. Wu Chen said, “Sir, for your own safety as well as the safety of Mo City, could you…”

“I’ll get her to come over right now,” said the castellan.

But Su Jin stopped him. “No need. Since she’s not feeling well, let’s go over to her instead. Her room is within the residence, so that’s just a short walk for us.”

“Thank you for being understanding,” the castellan thanked Su Jin, then led the trio toward his wife’s room.

When they reached her door, the castellan called out, “Alinda, the three exorcists heard that you’re not feeling well, so they’ve come to see you.”

“Thank you so much, but I’m really feeling very unwell today. I’ll make up for it once I get well, but I really can’t see anyone today…” responded a female voice from inside the room. She sounded very frail indeed.

But Su Jin took a step forward and kicked the door open. Everyone was shocked to see that the room was completely empty, except for a crystal ball floating in the air.

“ A witch!“ said Su Jin immediately.

“She’s run off already.” Wu Chen frowned. The other party had been very careful and seemed to have realized what they were doing in the house, so she made her escape before they even arrived at her room.

“She hasn’t run far!” Su Jin was very sure. Even if she had escaped before they arrived, she wouldn’t have run too far in such a short time. Or perhaps she had hidden herself somewhere instead of running.

With that in mind, Su Jin raised his gun and shot the floating crystal ball.

“Ahh!” A scream came from somewhere in the house when the crystal ball shattered. The crystal ball turned out to be still connected in some way to the witch. She had left the crystal ball behind so that it could broadcast her voice and stall for time, but if the crystal ball was destroyed, it would still end up injuring her.

Su Jin could detect where the voice was coming from immediately and flew out like a bolt of lightning. The castellan and his servants had still not fully realized that the castellan’s wife was actually a witch.

Su Jin moved at an extraordinary speed and discovered the witch in mere seconds. The witch seemed to be shocked that Su Jin had come for her so quickly and looked terrified. But that look of terror disappeared in a flash as she suddenly threw pink powder at him.

The pink powder exploded in midair and turned into a wall of flames that blocked off Su Jin’s access to her. But Su Jin wasn’t bothered by these flames. He drew White Ash out and fired a shot. The holy bullets passed through the flames without any problem and hit the witch accurately.

A quick look at tinyurl.com/2p9emv8w will leave you more fulfilled.

The witch stared at him in disbelief and slowly fell onto the ground. The flames in the air were extinguished shortly after that as well. Wu Chen and the rest had come just in time to witness this. The castellan looked in shock at the woman lying dead on the ground, then sighed heavily. It was hard to say if he was sighing from sadness or anger.

Su Jin said to Kang Ze, “Mr. Kang, check your Handbook and see if we’ve gotten rid of the witch.”

Kang Ze nodded and flipped open his Handbook. The number next to the witch category had become 2/3, which confirmed that this witch was dead.

“No problem, she’s gone,” said Kang Ze as he held out his Handbook to let Su Jin see the numbers.

Su Jin nodded and was ready to walk away when the witch’s corpse suddenly stood up. She pounced onto Su Jin, hugged him tightly, then exploded with a loud boom.