Hell’s Handbook

“What the hell? His body… hanged?!” cursed Su Jin under his breath. He couldn’t believe Zhang Yang’s body was acting up at such a time.

The evil spirit turned around to continue slamming itself against the protective force field made from Su Jin’s psychokinesis and growled loudly. Cold sweat dripped down Ning Ran’s forehead, but she did not allow herself to be distracted. She knew that their lives depended on her.

Su Jin’s protective layer of psychokinesis couldn’t hold up much longer. After the spirit struck it a few more times, the silvery glow disappeared.

He leaped in front of the spirit to block it, but it was able to pass right through him.

“Crap!” cursed Su Jin. He turned to see the spirit stab a claw into Ning Ran’s chest.

Su Jin’s eyes widened as he watched Ning Ran fall to the floor. But she smiled at him, because the drawing on the paper had changed. It now showed the three of them raising their arms joyfully as if to celebrate, while the two humans originally drawn lying on the floor had been changed to become defeated evil spirits.

The evil spirit let out a mighty roar, then fell into two pieces onto the floor just like the drawing and did not move anymore.

Su Jin ignored the defeated spirit and ran to help Ning Ran up as he asked, “Are you alright? Are you badly hurt?”

“I’m pretty alright, I don’t think… I don’t think any of my internal organs are hurt at all!” she responded with a smile. The claw looked like it had stabbed her rather deeply, but it was only because her clothing was oversized. The claw had only hurt her superficially.

He let out a sigh of relief. Her life wasn’t in danger at the moment. He turned to kick Zhang Yang in the butt and grumbled, “How could you hang at such a critical moment?”

That kick made Zhang Yang suddenly tremble a little and he snapped out of his daze. He stared at his surroundings with a confused look on his face, then noticed that both Su Jin and Ning Ran were still alive. “What’s going on? I seemed to have…”

“You hanged,” said Su Jin in an annoyed voice.

Zhang Yang shrugged nonchalantly. He noticed that Ning Ran was bleeding, so he leaned over to ask, “You think you’d be able to survive?”

“If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything!” Su Jin glared at Zhang Yang. This guy really deserved a beating at times.

Shortly after they had this conversation, everything suddenly went black. They realized the Challenge had come to an end, and they were sent back to their Personal Hell Domains before they could bid each other farewell.

Level B Challenge “Haunted House” completed: 1000 points

Points Received: 1000

Total Points: 7800

Su Jin checked how many points he had received. He had just gone through a Level B Challenge, yet he received so few points. That was also proof of how important having a small team was. You could only get more resources from being part of a team.

After he sighed at the results, he suddenly realized that he was still holding onto something. It was the mirror that he had found in the haunted house. He was surprised that he had been able to take this out of the Challenge.

“Does that mean this mirror can be used in other Challenges?” Su Jin immediately commanded Blackie, “Blackie, what’s this?”

A light screen appeared in front of Su Jin with information on this cracked mirror.

“Cracked Mirror of Reality: can be used once every 24 hours, allows user to see any supernatural beings, and gives the owner the ability to attack these beings during this time,” murmured Su Jin as he read the information on this mirror. This was a pretty good item that would come in very useful in supernatural Challenges.

He kept it inside his Handbook with a pleased smile, then looked through the catalog of items, but didn’t see anything he needed. It wasn’t really hard to find something that was useful to him, but he had raised his standards and didn’t think very highly of most things anymore.

After that, he spent a bit of time practicing in his Personal Hell Domain before returning to the real world. The Demon Lord was still as weak as before. But since she had helped him earlier, he allowed her to be as unreasonable as she liked and gave in to her whims and fancies.

Time went by slowly. Su Jin was feeling bored, so he decided to pay Hell’s Bar a visit. A waiter immediately approached him after he arrived.

“Mr. Su Jin, here’s a letter for you.” The waiter handed a letter to Su Jin, which surprised Su Jin. For most owners, if they got along well, they could add each other as a contact on their Handbooks. Writing a letter like this meant that the sender knew who he was, but didn’t know any of his real friends, so they couldn’t get them to pass on a message. Sending him a letter like this via Hell’s Bar would have cost them quite a bit too.

He opened the envelope curiously and the first line told him who the sender was.

“Shifu, it’s been several months since we last met. Then again, I can’t really say that, since that was the one and only time we met.”

“So, it’s Zhou Xinyu.” Only one person in Su Jin’s life would call him Shifu, and that was Zhou Xinyu. He had taken her in as his disciple, only because he had taken pity on her back then. At the same time, he had indeed promised her that she could look for him in Hell’s Bar if she ran into any trouble, but he thought that would happen a lot later in the future. He didn’t expect her to gain access to Hell’s Bar in a matter of months.

He continued reading: Shifu, I’ve really run into trouble this time, and the only person I could ask for help from is you. If you receive this letter within seven days from the time I sent it, then please look for me at Team Vast Ocean’s table. Someone will be waiting for you every day.

Su Jin did not waste any time and asked the waiter, “Where is Team Vast Ocean’s table?”

“Please come with me.” The waiter bowed slightly, then led Su Jin to one corner of the huge bar.

The waiter brought Su Jin to a bar table, where a man in his twenties was dozing off with a bored look on his face. He didn’t notice Su Jin at all.

“Is this Team Vast Ocean’s table?” asked Su Jin.

The young man suddenly straightened up when he heard Su Jin’s voice, but when he turned and saw that it was someone around his age, he looked visibly disappointed. However, he still nodded and smiled at Su Jin.

“Yes, this is Team Vast Ocean’s table. How can I help you?” Besides the disappointed look earlier, the young man remained polite.

Su Jin held up the letter he received and said, “Miss Zhou Xinyu got a waiter to give this to me. She asked me to look for this team’s table, so I’m here.”

“You’re Su Jin?” The young man looked at the letter, confirmed that it was the same one sent by Zhou Xinyu, then said, “Hello, my name is Meng Hong.”

Su Jin nodded and smiled as he said, “It’s been a while since I last saw Xinyu. How is she now?”

“Xinyu is doing well. She’s the strategist of our team and is very precious to us. We’ve managed to get through several Challenges thanks to her quick wit, and I’ve managed to survive thus far because of her too.” Meng Hong became bubbly when he talked about Zhou Xinyu, and looked like he had loads to say.

Su Jin smiled. He could see that this Meng Hong probably had a crush on Zhou Xinyu, but that was none of his business. He asked, “Can you ask her to come over? Or tell me why she’s looking for me?”

“Oh! Right! I’ll get her to come over right now.” Meng Hong got his Handbook out and started contacting Zhou Xinyu. Judging from his actions, Su Jin figured that he was contacting more than just her.

Before long, a few people started walking toward the table. Su Jin immediately noticed Zhou Xinyu. Compared to how pained she looked the last time, she looked much more energetic, like how someone her age ought to be.

“Shifu!” Zhou Xinyu ran over and gave Su Jin a big hug. Her actions not only shocked Su Jin, but it also shocked her teammates. They had never seen her behave so boldly before.

“Haha, this is Su Jin, the person Xinyu told us about who could help us,” said Meng Hong in a slightly awkward voice as he forced himself to smile and introduced Su Jin to his teammates.

“Alright, alright, why don’t you introduce your friends to me first?” Su Jin smiled. He could sense that Zhou Xinyu was attached to him, not because she was in love with him, but because she seemed to really treat him as her teacher and mentor, like a father figure of sorts.

She stuck her tongue out cheekily, then introduced her team members to her, “This is Team Vast Ocean’s team leader, Miu Zhengtao. He specializes in fighting and is a veteran.”

A man in his thirties nodded at Su Jin with a faint smile. “I’m the team leader of this team. When Xinyu said you were her Shifu, I thought you would be an old man!”

Su Jin laughed and said, “I’m sorry, I’m always full of surprises.”

“This is Ni Jing, the medic of the team. She’s an old timer who’s gone through more than ten Challenges already and she’s a veteran too,” said Zhou Xinyu as she looked toward another lady in her twenties.

“Hello,” Ni Jing nodded at Su Jin.

“Ke Tong is a newbie who has only gone through two Challenges, but he’s a highly skilled martial artist in the real world, so he’s pretty amazing,” said Zhou Xinyu as a man in his thirties nodded at Su Jin.

“Meng Hong is the sniper of the team, and he’s really amazing too,” she introduced Meng Hong last.

After she was done introducing the team, she turned to her teammates and said, “This is my shifu, Su Jin, who really awesome and has his own team!”

“Oh? What’s the name of your team?” Miu Zhengtao asked Su Jin with a merry laugh.

But Su Jin smiled sadly and shook his head. “My team has disbanded, so the name isn’t important anymore.”

“Disbanded?” Everyone seemed surprised to hear this.