Hell’s Handbook

Whenever anybody mentioned Africa, the first thing that most people would think of was the heat. And in reality, the continent of Africa was indeed hotter than the other continents.

A hot wind blew over Su Jin’s body and he could feel sweat dripping down his face. But besides actually feeling warm, he was also feeling a heat inside him.

Kano Mai stood in stunned silence in front of Su Jin. She was even more stunned than Su Jin was. Earlier on, once the explosions had stopped, she had forced Thomas to hand his keys over and drove over at top speed without even thinking. She was afraid that things could get troublesome if Thomas saw the aftermath of the blasts and how unscathed Su Jin was. She didn’t expect to see this. The situation was so awkward now.

Su Jin’s face was all red and he really regretted washing himself so well. At least if he were still covered in soot, it would have helped to cover some of him…

“I uh… I’ll get into the car…” said Su Jin awkwardly.

“Y-yeah… get into the car!” Kano Mai looked like she had been startled and quickly nodded before opening the door and diving back into the car.

Su Jin leaped into the back seat and did not say anything. He just hoped to get back to the bungalow as quickly as possible so that he could get some clothes on. They were too embarrassed to speak on their journey back, so they remained silent all the way until the car arrived back at the bungalow.

Meanwhile, both the local authorities and the residents were in chaos. As long as you had a working pair of ears, you would have heard those violent explosions. A slight earthquake accompanied those blasts too. On top of all that, the authorities had lost contact with all the soldiers they sent out to check out what happened, so they thought that an enemy country had disregarded their treaties and launched a secret attack on them.

But people from the Dark Council arrived in no time. They were the largest organization of owners in the western hemisphere and had tremendous influence over both owners and the world in general. Their philosophy was very similar to the cult in Chu Yi’s world, but their methods were a lot gentler and they were more willing to control ordinary people in secret instead of conquering lands like the cult.

The chaos was suppressed before long. Su Jin and Kano Mai continued to stay in the bungalow and Yun Tianye and his group had gathered here as well. They had not witnessed the fight between Su Jin and Abbas, but the huge commotion had occurred not long after the two men left the hall, so they were sure that the noise had something to do with the two men. But as long as Su Jin didn’t talk about it, they dared not ask either.

Find the original at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

“The Exchange has ended, right?” Su Jin asked Thomas.

Thomas pulled an exaggerated long face and said, “Of course it’s ended. Your performance in the arena was so shocking! Nobody’s going to dare to fight with Stellar Skies anymore!”

“Well, that’s good. Let’s pack up and go home then.” Su Jin rubbed his temples. He didn’t think that this working holiday would end up causing such a big commotion.

Thomas nodded and went to make some phone calls to arrange for the team’s return. Yun Tianye, however, kept glancing at Su Jin as though he wanted to ask him something.

“Mr. Yun, do you have a question for me?” Su Jin asked when he noticed Yun Tianye’s glancing.

Yun Tianye hesitated for a moment, then nodded gravely. He put a palm over his other fist and said in a very serious voice, “Senior Su, your junior here has a question and I would like to ask you for an answer.”

“Sure, go ahead and ask,” said Su Jin with a nod.

“Senior, I have been training in martial arts as a young child and I was able to detect qi in my body at the age of ten. I debuted as a martial artist at the age of 15 and I was one of the best among the younger generation of Chinese martial artists by the time I was 20 years old. I became a master by 23 and a grandmaster at 37. This journey is nothing short of the road that a genius would walk,” said Yun Tianye slowly, as he recounted his martial arts journey.

Su Jin nodded along the way. Yun Tianye wasn’t an owner, so he had earned everything through sheer hard work. Becoming a grandmaster before the age of 40 did make the man a genius. After all, if Chu Yi hadn’t become an owner, he wouldn’t have detected any qi yet, never mind continue developing as a martial artist.

“But… but I’m 46 this year and I’ve already become a grandmaster. I was hoping to go further in my journey but the chances of going further are very low and it seems like I’ve reached the end of my journey. But after I saw what you were able to do, I realized… I can still go further!” Yun Tianye had a gleam in his eyes and his disciples looked just as hopeful.

Su Jin knew what Yun Tianye was going to ask, but there was no way he could give him the true answer. In fact, Yun Tianye’s sense was correct. Under normal circumstances, most martial artists could not go further beyond the grandmaster stage. That was the end.

“Mr. Yun, I… know what you would like to ask me, but I’m afraid my answer is going to disappoint you. The road before you… is a dead end and there’s no way you can move forward from here,” said Su Jin quietly as he shook his head.

Yun Tianye’s body shook as though he had received a terrible blow. His entire body seemed to have lost a great amount of energy suddenly. He looked pleadingly at Su Jin. It was rare to see a grandmaster have such an expression on their face. But Su Jin wasn’t going to lie to him just to comfort him. Doing that would harm Yun Tianye and not help him.

“Yun Tianye, you have reached the end of the road and you have to stop here,” said Su Jin resolutely.

But Yun Tianye continued to look pleadingly at Su Jin. He knew that even if there was a path in front of him, he might not be able to walk down that path, but… as long as there was hope, he could go on! But Su Jin seemed to have given him a death sentence, a death sentence on his martial arts journey.

“No! You’re so formidable! So much more formidable than I am! You’ve managed to move on, so why… I’m not asking you how to move on, I’m just asking if there’s anymore ahead of me! Senior Su!” Yun Tianye’s internal energy suddenly started shaking. His gaze went from pleading to aggressive.

Su Jin smiled slightly in return. At the same time, a white mist swirled around Yun Tianye. He thrust his hand out as though he were throwing a spear. The white mist formed the shape of a spear and flew toward Su Jin’s forehead.

“Oh no!” Yun Han, Thomas and the rest exclaimed in horror. Only Kano Mai looked on indifferently.

Pfft!

The white mist stopped right as it hit Su Jin’s forehead. But it wasn’t Yun Tianye who had stopped the mist. The mist was enveloped by a silver glow, and the silver glow was the thing that had stopped Yun Tianye’s white mist from advancing.

“Happy now?” murmured Su Jin.

Yun Tianye sighed heavily. He dissipated the white mist, put his palm over his fist again to greet Su Jin respectfully, then turned and left. In that instant when Su Jin held the white mist with his psychokinesis, he had sent a message to Yun Tianye’s consciousness. Su Jin had told him very clearly that his powers did not come from training in martial arts, but from going down a completely different path altogether.

Yun Han and the rest had no idea what happened, but they were relieved that Su Jin did not seem to be angry with Yun Tianye for doing that. After all, while Su Jin was on friendly terms with them, this man was the same one who had been able to defeat seven others at the same time. And these seven others had been formidable foes who were on par with grandmasters. If they made such a man angry, they’d probably end up dead.

Of course, Su Jin wasn’t a cruel man. Yun Tianye had made an aggressive attack, but he really just wanted an answer. That was a move made by a man who just wanted to know if there was more ahead of him as a martial artist, even if the answer killed him. Su Jin couldn’t possibly kill a person with such a pure and innocent motive.

After everyone left, Su Jin sighed to himself. He felt that if someone like Yun Tianye got the chance to become an owner, they would never give up on finding ways to improve themselves.

People could be so troublesome like this. Some people were desperately trying to find ways and means to leave the world of the Handbook, while some were willing to stay at all costs, as long as the Handbook was able to satisfy every want they had.

“Aww, that’s a lot of sighing!” A voice suddenly resounded in Su Jin and Kano Mai’s ears. Their expressions flinched slightly, but they quickly realized who was here.

“Mad Hatter? Why are you here?” A man in a black suit and cane suddenly appeared in front of Su Jin and grinned at him.

The Mad Hatter said to Kano Mai with a smile, “Miss Mai, could I get a cup of tea?”

Kano Mai smiled and nodded. She made some tea and placed a cup in front of him. He looked satisfied after taking two sips, then pulled something out from his top hat.

“My Boning Knife?” Su Jin was a little hesitant when he first laid eyes on the item, because this knife with a long blade looked really different from the one he owned before this.

Su Jin’s boning knife looked very ordinary in the past and was no different from the ones used by butchers. But this one here had special runes carved into it and gave off iridescent sparkles.

The Mad Hatter noticed Su Jin’s puzzled expression, so he patted the knife gently and it returned to the way it normally looked. But if you looked carefully, you could still see very faint traces of those runes on the blade.

“It’s been modified accordingly and so it’s time for it to be returned to its owner.” The Mad Hatter pushed the knife toward Su Jin.

Su Jin picked it up, then put it inside his Handbook. A description of the knife immediately appeared in the Handbook. One look at the description made Su Jin’s eyes widen in shock.

“Boning Knife, God Level Spirit Power item. A weapon made from the combined powers of gods. It can be used on every element that exists, so there is nothing it cannot hurt, nothing it cannot kill!”

“Skill 1 Judgment: Requires 1000 Spirit Power points to activate a vicious attack. Anything within its attacking range will be destroyed, even space itself.”

“Skill 2 Punishment: Requires 10000 Spirit Power points to punish any creature with a soul. Their physical bodies and souls will perish and not even deities will be spared.”

“Skill 3 The Name of God: Passive skill. The one who wears the Boning Knife is a god.”

Su Jin stared at the knife. This thing couldn’t be simply called a boning knife anymore. This was a God Level Spirit Power item. That meant that besides Earth Level and Heaven Level, Spirit Power items had a higher level than that – God Level!