Hell’s Handbook

Once inside his Personal Hell Domain, Su Jin slowly opened his eyes and breathed a long sigh of relief. He thought he was going to die when he took that step out of Mo City. He thought he was going to end up dying at his first Level D Challenge.

Then again, perhaps he was just lucky. He had stumbled out of Mo City just as Kano Mai and the rest had also slayed the vampire and the last witch. If they had left out either of them, he would definitely have died.

“I was really lucky,” said Su Jin with a bitter smile. He had a new understanding of how dangerous the Challenges could be now that the rules had changed.

If he had gone through this Challenge before the rules had changed, his own and his team’s prowess would have breezed through a Level D Challenge as though it was merely a holiday. He could have used his own capabilities to crush all these enemies. But after the rules changed, his physique was greatly weakened, and the Challenges were made more difficult. All of them had to be very careful when going through Challenges now. Death followed them like a shadow and could take their lives at any moment.

He climbed to his feet and touched his chest. His Hell’s Domain had restored his body the moment he had arrived. If he had been delayed by just a few more minutes, he would probably have died out there. The feeling of nearly dying was simply awful.

“Blackie, calculate the points.” Su Jin walked to the pedestal and put his Handbook on it.

“Sure. Before doing that, I’d like to remind you that you’ve received a special item from the Challenge and I’ve already converted it to a tangible form,” responded Blackie.

“A special item?” Su Jin didn’t remember receiving any special item. Could it be that dagger? But that was a Spirit Power weapon at best and couldn’t be considered a special item.

“What is this special item?” asked Su Jin.

A light screen instantly lit up. A wisp of black smoke could be seen struggling nonstop. Upon closer inspection, he saw a face with two horns in the black smoke struggling like crazy and roaring away. It was the affliction demon that Su Jin had trapped within his own consciousness.

“The affliction demon?” Su Jin didn’t expect this special item to be the high level affliction demon. It was true that this demon had not been able to break free of his seal even after the Challenge had come to an end. It was a matter of time before the demon could break free, though. He didn’t think he would end up bringing the demon back to his Personal Hell Domain and become a tangible special item.

“A Demon’s Soul – within the dark depths of hell, besides the devil himself, only high level demons have their own souls. And the soul of each high level demon is an extremely precious treasure.”

Su Jin’s eyes widened. The item description was very simple, but it was the last few words that made Su Jin feel so excited, he started trembling.

“It is one of the items required for the Ceremony of the Gods.”

Su Jin clenched his fists tightly. He already had four items needed, including the Key to Immortality. This Demon’s Soul was the last item he needed. He could now revive Chu Yi. And Su Jin believed that reviving Chu Yi was only the first step. If he continued to work hard, it was possible to revive the other members. Ning Meng, Yang Mo – they were all members of Team Boning Knife. Su Jin believed he could bring them back to life someday.

Level D Challenge “Exorcist” completed perfectly: 2000 points

Guiding object obtained: Badge of a Laborer in Holiness

Number of Surviving Team Members: 5, 800 points

Participation and Extent of Contribution: A-, 500 points

Completed Optional Quest: 500 points

Discover the complete story on pawread dot com.

Points Received: 3800

Total Points: 8700

Su Jin was a little surprised when he saw the badge that had a cross as part of its main design appear in his Handbook. He hadn’t planned to complete this Challenge perfectly. The Challenge required them to chase these creatures out of Mo City, so he thought that he would have to kill all of them if he wanted to complete the Challenge perfectly.

The evil creatures weren’t very powerful, but if they became agitated and determined to get away from them, Su Jin wasn’t sure if he could really destroy them all either. He didn’t think they would end up completing the Challenge perfectly by some accident. Then again, when he thought about it, he had killed one witch, and since his companions had finished the Challenge within that short amount of time, they must have also killed the other witch. If that was the case, then it was true that every evil creature still within Mo City had been killed at the end of the Challenge.

When he arrived in the Team Hell Domain, everyone else was already there. It was clear that they were all very worried about his safety. Their Handbooks had stated that all five of them had survived, but they still felt uneasy. They were relieved when they saw Su Jin appear in front of them in one good piece.

“Jin, what happened on your end?” asked Wu Chen.

Su Jin was a little embarrassed, but he recounted what happened at the end of the Challenge to his teammates. Everyone couldn’t help but gasp in horror. Even someone like Su Jin had nearly died right at the end of the Challenge. This was supposed to be a Level D Challenge too!

“It’s that shapeshifter that got away earlier!” Wu Chen frowned and went on, “Usually I’m the one who uses my shapeshifting abilities to plot against others. This time, we got tricked by a monster in a Challenge in that way instead.”

“Emotions can make someone stop thinking straight. Otherwise, I don’t think you could have fooled Su Jin like that, given how observant he usually is,” said Situ Jin.

Everyone agreed. Su Jin nodded as well. The image of Kano Mai dying in battle had clearly affected his judgement. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have noticed a problem with the shapeshifter so late.

Kano Mai had a slightly different look in her eye, however. Actually, everyone in the team, including Bo Ya, their newest member, knew exactly how Kano Mai felt toward Su Jin. And even Su Jin himself knew too. But matters of the heart were sometimes like this. It wasn’t that one party was not good enough or anything like that, but that their feelings had come too late or were expressed too late, so things turned out very differently.

Su Jin retrieved the Demon’s Soul that he had received and said, “This is the soul of the affliction demon from the Challenge. It was somehow brought back with me to this place and turned into a tangible item. Also… it’s one of the items required for the Ceremony of the Gods.”

Besides Bo Ya who didn’t know about this ceremony, the rest froze for a moment. They all knew that Su Jin had four of the items needed, and this would make up the final item required. That meant that they could proceed with the ceremony now.

The most excited among them was Wu Chen. He had four items too. He had spent all these years making all sorts of deals within Hell’s Bar, so he had amassed these items quite easily too.

But he did not ask Su Jin for the Demon’s Soul. There were several reasons why he couldn’t do that. Firstly, Su Jin and Chu Yi were friends who were willing to die for each other, and Chu Yi had sacrificed his life fighting for the team. On the contrary, his own daughter had no relation whatsoever to Team Boning Knife.

Logically speaking, Chu Yi was excellent at fighting, so once he was revived, the team would have another good fighter and become an even stronger team. The chances of the team getting through future Challenges alive would increase as well.

Su Jin glanced at Wu Chen and was relieved when he saw Wu Chen nod slightly at him. He had been worried that Wu Chen might demand the Demon’s Soul from him. Thankfully, that didn’t end up happening.

After they placed the five items for the Ceremony of the Gods together, a beam of light shot out from in between the items. Everyone held their breaths.

Suddenly, a glow burst from the beam of light, turning into a misty, colorful screen. A voice started speaking from the screen.

“Congratulations on activating the Ceremony of the Gods. Based on the items you have put together, you have three choices. One, you can revive someone who has already died. This person can be an owner or an ordinary person. Two, you can get an item that is at least at Earth Grade. Three, I can help you to bring up your physical body or Spirit Power by one level,” said the ethereal yet authoritative sounding voice.

The five of them were dumbstruck when they heard the options. This was a Ceremony of the Gods alright. Every option was amazing and almost impossible to attain otherwise.

The benefits of the first one was obvious. The second one offered an item at least at Earth Grade. What did that even mean? Su Jin had an Earth Grade item, which was the Gift from the Gods. But since this item was at least at Earth Grade, it meant that if you were lucky, you could get something that was way more powerful than the Gift from the Gods.

The third option was something that made high level owners like Su Jin salivate. This was an option to bring up one’s physique or Spirit Power by one level. If Su Jin chose this option, then he was going to god level, regardless of whether he decided to use it on his body or on his psychokinesis.

But Su Jin had already decided. He wanted to revive Chu Yi. So he said to the light screen without hesitation, “I want option one. I want to revive someone.”

“No problem! You just need to think of the person you want to revive now!” said the voice in the screen.

Su Jin started chanting Chu Yi’s name in his head. As he did that, a human shape began to form on the screen. The shape stabilized after a few moments and came walking out from the light.

“What’s going on? Boss! Sister Mai! Uncle Wu! Situ!” Chu Yi was the one who had walked out from the light screen. He started running toward the team when he saw the people in front of him. Once he had walked out from the screen, the entire screen disappeared. The five items on the floor also turned to ash within a short time and were blown away by a wind that appeared from nowhere.

Everyone surrounded Chu Yi and stared at him strangely, which made him feel very weirded out. “What’s… what’s going on? Why are all of you staring at me like that?”

Su Jin patted Chu Yi’s shoulder, then said to the rest, “Yup, he’s real. He’s made of flesh and blood.”

“Boss! What’s going on? What do you mean by that?!” Chu Yi was getting more and more confused.

Kano Mai said to him gently, “Chu Yi, do you still remember… what happened before this?”

“What happened before this? OH! That stupid pighead launched a secret attack on me! That shameless thing!!” Chu Yi immediately rolled his sleeves up angrily, as though he was going to get revenge on that pighead.