Hell's Handbook

A martial arts arena was quickly filled with spectators. All the spectators were extremely important characters, members of Japanese high society. Any one of them was able to stir up a storm no matter where they went. But today, they weren’t the stars. They were just spectators.

Su Jin arrived at the arena first. Kano Yuuko was the one who decided on the venue and, neither Su Jin nor Kano Mai raised any objections. The venue itself wasn’t really important, anyway. The more important part was the prowess of the competitors.

Su Jin changed out of his suit and into appropriate attire for a duel that the arena provided. The black attire made Su Jin look more energetic, and he also found that this attire made it easy for him to move his limbs.

A few moments later, Miyamoto Tooru arrived as well. His wooden sword had been replaced by an actual samurai sword. The handle of the samurai sword looked extremely old, as though it had been fished out from a pile of antiques.

Miyamoto Tooru walked toward Su Jin, then bowed slightly toward his opponent. Su Jin put one palm over his other fist in return. One used a traditional Japanese way of greeting while the other used a traditional Chinese way of greeting, but they both showed equal amounts of respect for their opponent.

“Mr. Su.” Miyamoto Tooru suddenly drew his sword from its sheath. The temperature in the arena mysteriously went down immediately after the blade was exposed.

“Hmm?” Su Jin was a little surprised. That samurai sword gave off the same aura as a Spirit Power weapon, except that it was probably a low level weapon. Could this samurai sword have been taken out of the Handbook?

“This sword is called Shuusui, or Autumn Water. According to legend, this was brought to Japan during the Tang Dynasty and it is a family heirloom of the Miyamoto family. Even after it has gone through so many centuries, it remains extremely sharp. Cutting through skin and hair is nothing to it. May you be able to experience its sharpness today!” Miyamoto Tooru gently ran a finger down the blunt side of the blade, making the sword ring at a pleasant pitch.

“That’s Shuusui? I heard someone offered to pay ten billion yen for it but the Miyamoto family absolutely refused to sell it.”

“An excellent sword is a warrior’s companion. No outstanding fighter would betray their own companion for the sake of money.”

“That’s a really beautiful sword. I wonder if it’ll look even more beautiful after being stained with blood…”

“It’s from the Tang Dynasty, so this sword was originally in the hands of the Chinese? Using this to kill someone from China couldn’t be more appropriate!”

The spectators in the arena were even more excited than the two competitors. This sort of primitive, gladiator-style fight really got the crowd excited. That was why these members of high society were willing to pay any amount for a spot in the spectator stands.

Su Jin motioned to Kano Mai and she brought over a boning knife wrapped in a white cloth. Miyamoto Tooru immediately furrowed his brow when he saw her present the weapon to Su Jin personally, but did not say anything. As a martial artist, the only thing he ought to focus on was his opponent and not someone else.

Su Jin pulled off the white cloth around the boning knife and said calmly, “This is a boning knife that I got just yesterday. It doesn’t have any special history and hasn’t gone through centuries either, but… it’s also very sharp.”

“Haha! He thinks he can use a boning knife meant for slaughtering pigs to fight a prized sword of the Miyamoto family? This guy definitely has a death wish!”

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“Sheesh! I was looking forward to this fight because I thought the opponent was an amazing martial artist from China. I’ve placed a lot of money on this duel!”

“Representative Yamazaki, I warned you earlier, didn’t I? This young man is just a Chinese fellow whom nobody knows anything about, but you went ahead to bet heavily on him? That’s really… HAHA!”

“A boning knife?! Is this a joke to him? Is he trying to insult Miyamoto Tooru?”

When the crowd saw Su Jin hold up a boning knife, they instantly went into an uproar. Other outstanding members of the Miyamoto family were watching from the front row as well, including Miyamoto Tooru’s father, Miyamoto Takeshi, who was also the current head of the family. Miyamoto Tooru was the son he was proudest of, yet his son’s opponent was going to fight with a mere boning knife. This made Miyamoto Takeshi frown deeply, since using such a weapon was certainly an insult to a kendo master.

Miyamoto Tooru frowned as well. He was clearly a little surprised that Su Jin was going to fight him with a boning knife. He said in a frosty voice, “Mr. Su, are you joking with me? If you are, I will give you a chance now to switch weapons.”

Su Jin shook his head slightly and replied, “When it comes to things like weapons, you can use whatever feels best in your hand. Your Shuusui is a famous sword of historical significance and it’s worth a fortune, while my boning knife is cheap – but the damage both of these weapons inflict are no different, don’t you agree?”

Miyamoto Tooru was too stunned to speak. He looked straight into Su Jin’s eyes to find that Su Jin was serious about this. He decided against saying anything and took a step backward as he held his sword at waist level.

“It starts now!” declared Miyamoto Tooru in a deep voice.

Immediately after he said those words, he raised his sword and swung it down. The force from the blade swept across the floor of the arena. The difference between a warrior and a master was that a master was able to gather blade qi, but not for long. If he wanted to injure his opponent, he would have to make sure the opponent was no further than three meters away.

Su Jin was a little surprised. He didn’t expect an ordinary person to be able to gather actual blade qi from just cultivating long enough. But he just had to shift himself slightly and he avoided the blade qi from Miyamoto Tooru’s sword. In reality, Su Jin didn’t even have to move. Even if blade qi at this level hit his body, it would only have as much effect as wind hitting his skin.

But in the moment that Su Jin took to move aside, Miyamoto Tooru took the chance to move closer to him. The weak blade qi from his first move was actually to distract Su Jin. His truly fatal move was this close range attack while Su Jin was distracted.

DING! Miyamoto Tooru used all his strength to swing his sword down. That was a move that was strong enough to lop the head off a rhinoceros. But he didn’t hit his target. Su Jin stood in a very awkward stance and held his boning knife in front of him, successfully blocking the attack.

That was fast! Miyamoto Tooru’s expression shifted. The way Su Jin had blocked this attack told him that this young Chinese man was no ordinary fellow who didn’t know any martial arts. In fact, this young man was very formidable.

After Su Jin blocked the attack, his next move was to instinctively swipe it at his enemy. He had gone through many, many hours of practice in his Personal Hell Domain, so if a martial artist challenged him to a fight with only martial arts, most martial artists in the real world were no match for him. You could even say that martial arts ran in Su Jin’s veins now.

What?! Miyamoto Tooru did not expect this attack from Su Jin at all. Su Jin’s attack had come from a very odd angle and Miyamoto Tooru wasn’t sure how to defend himself.

“HA!” Miyamoto Tooru let out an angry shout and did a somersault on the floor away from Su Jin’s knife in order to get away from him.

All the spectators in the stands were too stunned for words. This wasn’t the first time they were watching such a duel, but it really wasn’t common to see one somersault like that.

Miyamoto Takeshi widened his eyes. The sword fighting techniques that the Miyamoto family practiced emphasized on constantly attacking, so they didn’t have a lot of defense techniques. But as far as he could see, Su Jin’s attack looked pretty ordinary. Why would his son have to resort to tumbling on the floor in such an unglamorous fashion so as to get away?

He had no idea that his son actually had no choice but to do that. The angle Su Jin had chosen had made it impossible for Miyamoto Tooru to defend himself in any way. If he had tried using his sword to block the attack, he wouldn’t have succeeded and Su Jin would have succeeded in stabbing him instead.

In fact, Miyamoto Tooru was a genius indeed. Somersaulting away like that was pretty much the only way to get out of this unscathed.

Su Jin did not pursue Miyamoto Tooru and waited for his opponent to get up and catch his breath. After Miyamoto Tooru got up from the floor and caught his breath, goosebumps appeared all over his body. That somersault had been an instinctive reaction, and that same warrior instinct told him that Su Jin’s attack had been incredibly terrifying.

“Is this a coincidence? Or is he really that capable?” Cold sweat appeared on Miyamoto Tooru’s forehead. It had to be a coincidence, he told himself. That attack had looked so casual, yet it had been so fatal. That wasn’t a calculated attack. There was no school of martial arts that could allow one to immediately detect every angle of defense their opponent had in that instant. There would be some angles that were missed.

With this in mind, Miyamoto Tooru began to calm down again. That was just a lucky attack, and he had merely been unlucky.

“You wanna continue?” asked Su Jin with a smile.

Miyamoto Tooru’s calm state of mind was riled up again. He realized that he couldn’t go on like this. He had to be on the offensive. Regardless of whether that was a lucky attack earlier or not, he had to corner Su Jin and not give Su Jin any chances.

With that, Miyamoto Tooru leaped out again. He increased his alertness to its highest level and unleashed a dazzling number of attacks, as though he were a video game character doing a special move.

“That’s amazing! He’s truly the genius of the Miyamoto family!”

“What terrifying speed! What terrifying technique!”

“Miyamoto Tooru is definitely going to become a grandmaster in the future!”

The spectators were in a frenzy and were floored by Miyamoto Tooru’s torrential attacks on Su Jin. They were certain that if they were standing in front of Miyamoto Tooru right now, they would have been hacked to pieces.

Kano Yuuko was even more excited. She didn’t think that anybody could possibly survive Miyamoto Tooru’s storm of attacks raining down on them.

But as time passed, their expressions began to shift. Miyamoto Tooru’s attacks were violent, swift and destructive, but the person he was attacking was dodging each and every attack very calmly. He looked more like a teacher testing his student on the moves he had learned.

“Right from the start, all of you thought that Miyamoto Tooru was definitely going to win. None of you have any idea that… the result is going to be the exact opposite,” said Kano Mai with a sigh. Her gaze was filled with confidence in Su Jin. Then again, it wasn’t really confidence. To her, this was a given.

“Humph! Tooru-kun is Japan’s best…”

“He’s only Japan’s best. But the one he’s up against is not someone whom tiny, tiny Japan can contain,” Kano Mai cut her sister off.

Back in the arena, Su Jin shook his head in disappointment. From the start of the duel until now, the only thing that had surprised him was that wisp of blade qi that Miyamoto Tooru had demonstrated right at the beginning. The rest was just disappointing.

“It’s time this ended,” said Su Jin quietly.

Miyamoto Tooru suddenly felt all his hair stand on end as he felt something in the air that made him terrified. He desperately tried to retreat, but his feet bumped into something.

“A fight to the death, was it?” Su Jin had suddenly appeared behind Miyamoto Tooru and whispered these words with a smile, as he put a palm on Miyamoto Tooru’s back and pinned his opponent’s hand down.