Hell’s Handbook

Su Jin didn’t want to explain what happened with Team Boning Knife, and it wasn’t easy to explain what happened either. Part of it would probably sound like a tall tale to ordinary owners.

“Let’s not talk about me anymore. You wrote a letter to me and asked for my help. What happened?” Su Jin changed the topic. He still didn’t know why Zhou Xinyu had written to him.

Zhou Xinyu quickly piped up, “Oh yes! We need your help with something! Or rather, we need you to save us!”

“So serious? What’s going on?” asked Su Jin with a smile.

Miu Zhengtao, the team leader of Team Vast Ocean, stepped forward and said, “Mr. Su, this might sound a little offensive, but could you… have a friendly match with us?”

“A friendly match?” Su Jin was even more confused. Weren’t they in need of help? But Su Jin could also see that Miu Zhengtao, or rather, everyone in the team except Zhou Xinyu, did not seem to believe in his abilities. To put it simply, this friendly match was basically a test for him. But Su Jin wasn’t obliged to let them test his abilities.

“Well, it’ll just be a simple duel. You can choose to fight any member of the team. We will need everyone to cooperate to resolve the issue at hand, so we need to have a good understanding of your abilities,” Miu Zhengtao explained with a smile.

But Su Jin shook his head. “I think you’re a little mistaken.”

“A little mistaken?” Everyone in the team was confused by his statement.

Su Jin nodded slightly and said, “I’m asking you why you’re asking for help, and I’ve not agreed to help, so I’m not obliged to go through a test of any sort.”

The team wasn’t sure how to respond. Those were their exact assumptions, but the fact that Su Jin said it out loud made them look bad.

“Forget it then. Since Mr. Su is not willing to help, then we shouldn’t force him to. Don’t you think so, Zhengtao?” said Ke Tong in a displeased voice.

Su Jin chuckled. This guy was a prideful one. Miu Zhengtao looked a little displeased too. It was true that they were in need of help, but if the one helping them was an arrogant and uncooperative person, then it might make their troubles worse, since they weren’t facing some low level enemy.

Zhou Xinyu knew from Miu Zhengtao’s expression that he was going to give up, so she said anxiously, “Zhengtao, my shifu is really very capable, so there’s no need to test him.”

“Xinyu… as the strategist of the team, you should know very well that if Mr. Su is not used to cooperating with others, that might get us all killed,” said Miu Zhengtao with a frown. He didn’t have to get Su Jin to help. He had other connections too, or he could spend some money to hire someone else. Doing that was better than getting someone he didn’t know at all who also refused to be tested.

But Su Jin was becoming more and more curious about the problem Zhou Xinyu’s team was facing. He rubbed his chin and said, “You just want to test me, right? Fine, I’ll do it.”

Miu Zhengtao and his teammates were a little confused. Wasn’t Su Jin against this whole thing? Why was he agreeing to it now? Miu Zhengtao hesitated too. He had initially decided not to get Su Jin’s help anymore, but since Su Jin was agreeable, he felt that he ought to test Su Jin out since he was a friend of Zhou Xinyu. If he wasn’t pleased with the test results, he could always find another reason to reject Su Jin’s help.

“That would be great! Please come with me, Mr. Su.” A smile spread across Miu Zhengtao’s face as he led Su Jin and the team to the bar counter.

He said to the boss, “Please open up a training arena for us.”

“Training arena?” Su Jin didn’t know what that was.

Zhou Xinyu explained, “Training areas are a new thing. It’s meant for owners who aren’t part of a team to spar, and it’s a recent update.”

Su Jin nodded. He hadn’t taken note of these updates, since Team Boning Knife had just disbanded, then he was attacked by a god, which kept him very busy.

The boss waved his arm and a portal door appeared before them. Miu Zhengtao walked in first, followed by the rest.

After walking through the door, Su Jin found himself in a vast, empty space. Besides grass on the ground that resembled the type found in soccer fields, there was nothing of note around him.

“Shifu, the training area can be customized according to the desires of the one who opens one. Any sort of terrain or environment can be created instantly. Also, as long as the sparring mode is chosen, then you won’t die even if the other person tears you to pieces,” explained Zhou Xinyu to Su Jin patiently.

Su Jin nodded slightly. This was the same with the training area in the Team Hell Domain, but this one was publicly available to all owners and not exclusively for members of one particular team.

Miu Zhengtao smiled brightly as he said to Su Jin, “Mr. Su, which mode would you prefer?”

“Which mode? We’re going with sparring mode, aren’t we?” Su Jin couldn’t believe this was even a question. He wasn’t going to die for a mere test.

“Of course, of course. Silly me,” said Miu Zhengtao with an awkward laugh.

“Coward,” muttered Ke Tong quietly out of nowhere. It was only fair to assume that a test would be conducted in sparring mode, and it wasn’t as if the team had a feud to settle with Su Jin either. But Ke Tong despised Su Jin for making this choice only because he was annoyed with Su Jin’s attitude earlier and not for any other reason.

Su Jin did not bother to respond to that. There were all sorts of people in the world, and there were some people who had more brawn than brain. If such a person could not control their temper as a Handbook owner, they wouldn’t survive for long. There was no need for Su Jin to waste time arguing with him.

Miu Zhengtao selected the mode they wanted, then asked Su Jin another question, “What about the terrain? Do you have any requests regarding that? Is there a particular terrain you fight best in?”

“No need, this terrain is fine with me,” said Su Jin with a shrug. It would be a joke if he needed favorable terrain to spar with owners of this level.

“Choose an opponent then. You can choose any of us, but I wouldn’t suggest that you choose Xinyu, since she’s our strategist and isn’t very good at fighting,” said Miu Zhengtao.

Su Jin scanned the team members, then stared straight at Ke Tong and said, “How about you, Mr. Ke?”

Ke Tong was a little surprised, but snorted soon after. To him, Su Jin was definitely a coward for choosing him, the member who had gone through the least number of Challenges. He assumed Su Jin thought that he would be the weakest member besides Zhou Xinyu, but did not realize how highly skilled he was as a martial artist in the real world. Ke Tong’s fighting abilities would have surpassed the rest of the team if they weren’t veterans.

“I’m good.” Since this guy has the guts to look down on me, I’m going to teach him a lesson, thought Ke Tong.

Once all the necessary selections had been made, the rest moved to one side and left Su Jin and Ke Tong to fight. Ke Tong got himself into a fighting stance, then wiggled his finger at Su Jin with a look of contempt on his face, to signal to Su Jin to bring it on. He was actually giving Su Jin the chance to make the first move.

Su Jin snorted. “Thanks!”

Instead of stepping forward, Su Jin suddenly threw a punch. The strength that someone with a body like his was way beyond anything most people could understand. The wind from just swinging his arm felt like a typhoon, and Ke Tong found it difficult to even stand properly.

But this was only the first wave from the punch. The actual impact came a little later. Ke Tong felt like something incredibly heavy was weighing down on his body. He gradually found it hard to breathe, then felt a tremendous pain shoot through his body. He watched as blood and flesh separated from his bones before finally losing consciousness.

By the time all the dust settled again, the vast field had lost most of the grass on it and a lot of soil had gone flying. Ke Tong was nowhere to be found, because Su Jin’s punch had turned Ke Tong to ashes.

Su Jin retracted his fist. The entire team was too stunned to speak. Only Zhou Xinyu smiled proudly. That was what they deserved for looking down on her shifu!

Miu Zhengtao was really shocked. He was so shocked that he couldn’t believe Su Jin was capable of doing this by his own strength and thought that Su Jin might have used a weapon or two. Owners were free to use weapons in the training arena and there were no limits on them, so they would use this space to get used to using powerful weapons or figure out how to combine their weapons.

“Was that… done by a weapon?” blurted Miu Zhengtao.

Zhou Xinyu glared unhappily at her team leader, while Su Jin merely stretched his neck and said, “That’s it? That’s not very exciting. How about everyone in the team fight me at the same time?”

“That’s… that’s not necessary. Even if you used a weapon, we recognize that you are indeed very formidable. After all, this weapon is enough to give us a huge advantage in the upcoming fight against our enemies. You’ve passed,” said Miu Zhengtao. Those were words from the heart. That punch had been truly terrifying, after all. Nobody could deny that.

But Su Jin burst out laughing at these words. “Weapons? That’s definitely the sort of attitude a weakling would have. But you don’t get to decide if this ends here. Come at me all at once! I want to find out the true abilities of Team Vast Ocean.”

Su Jin purposely spoke in a provoking manner. He initially wanted to take this as a form of exercise, but Ke Tong had proved to be way too weak. He wasn’t satisfied with just one punch, and he also wanted to find out if this team was able to protect Zhou Xinyu, since she was his disciple. He didn’t care if the team was willing to fight him or not. They had no choice but to fight him!

Miu Zhengtao had a nasty look on his face, because he felt that Su Jin was way too full of himself. Su Jin had merely defeated the newbie of the team, and had done so with the help of weapons, yet he was speaking so boastfully. He decided that it wouldn’t be unethical to outnumber such a person in a fight.