Hell's Handbook

To a certain extent, witches had human bodies, but after many years of training in witchcraft, they had turned into creatures of evil.

“Jin, they might look like humans, but… they have already turned into monsters and some poisons are no longer effective on them,” Wu Chen reminded Su Jin.

Su Jin nodded and grinned widely. “Of course I know that. But that doesn’t matter. In any case, if something untoward happens to anybody in my group after eating these things, I’ll kill them.”

Unfortunately for the two witches, the words of the one in power was the law. Su Jin was behaving like some dictator now, but his priority was protecting his group. The two witches had seen how Su Jin killed the other evil creatures. Shapeshifters and ogres seemed like innocent sheep in the hands of Su Jin. The harmless looking human named Su Jin was the real evil creature to them.

The two witches checked through all the food in each box and confirmed that some items did contain poison, so they got rid of the poison before letting the rest eat. Also, while they were eating, Su Jin kept White Ash aimed at the two witches. He didn’t need to tell them why he was doing that.

The two witches were extremely nervous as they watched the group eat, afraid that their late sister might have laced the food with some poison they didn’t know of. As long as just one of these people was poisoned, both witches were going to end up dead.

Everyone finally had satisfied smiles on their faces after they had finished eating. It was hard for newbies to go an entire day and night without eating or drinking anything, after all. If any of them had a poorer constitution, they might end up fainting or even dying from their own hunger.

“What do we do next?” asked Situ Jin.

Su Jin paused to think for a moment, then said, “We don’t have a lot of creatures left to get rid of, just vampires and werewolves. Let’s try to settle them all tonight! It’s only a Level D Challenge, but if we wait for too long, I’m afraid things will change over time.”

The rest shared similar sentiments. They had been given three days to complete the Challenge, but the owners didn’t want to really spend a full three days in this sort of place. If possible, they would rather leave as quickly as they could.

Search bit.ly/3iBfjkV for the original.

“Tonight, Situ will continue to be in charge of protecting the newbies. Mai, myself, and Wu Chen will go on a hunt. Mai will be one team with Wu Chen, along with one of the witches. I’ll be on my own team along with the other witch. Situ, you haven’t used any of your items yet, so pick a weapon for him,” Su Jin started giving instructions.

Situ Jin had no objections. He nodded and retrieved a spear from his Handbook. It turned out to be a Spirit Power weapon.

“I got this before joining the team. It’s a Spirit Power weapon too. I don’t think Wu Chen’s Spirit Power works with this weapon, but the spear itself has holy elements, which makes it suitable for this Challenge.” Situ Jin threw the spear to Wu Chen.

Wu Chen checked it over and looked incredibly surprised. Su Jin asked curiously, “Wu Chen, what’s wrong?”

“This thing… this is the Lance of Longinus!” said Wu Chen with a strange look on his face.

The rest were surprised too. The Lance of Longinus was also known as the Spear of Destiny. In the real world, it was a sacred object and it was supposed to be the spear used to pierce the side of Jesus’ body.

“This has got to be some amazing weapon, right?” said Su Jin curiously.

Wu Chen threw the spear to Su Jin. Su Jin caught it and wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry after he had checked out its characteristics. This was indeed supposed to be the Lance of Longinus, and the words “Spear of Destiny” were in parentheses. But its effect was very different from what he had imagined.

“The Lance of Longinus was a weapon that had pierced the body of a holy man, and because it has been stained with the blood of the holy Son, its attack contains holy elements.”

“This item comes with one skill, the Spear of Destiny. Activating the skill requires 100 points of a holy type of Spirit Power in order to deliver a stab that can destroy heaven and earth. It can cause tremendous damage to an evil opponent. After the skill has been activated, the Lance of Longinus will shatter from expending too much energy.”

It was a good weapon, and the skill that came with it was a pretty powerful one. But it was an item that could only be used once. Of course, as long as you didn’t activate the skill, this item was quite solid.

“It’s alright, I guess. You don’t have a holy type of Spirit Power, so you won’t be able to activate the skill.” Su Jin threw the weapon back to Wu Chen.

Wu Chen nodded as well. They were very lucky to have an item like that when going through such a Challenge, since it wasn’t easy to find equipment with holy attributes.

Everyone rested in the church until night had fallen. At the same time, the holy water was ready. After one day and night of preparation, the holy water began to sparkle faintly.

Situ Jin got a little on his finger, then wiped it on the hair of one of the witches. The strand that he had touched immediately stood up and turned into nothing but green smoke.

“No problem.” Situ Jin gave a pleased nod. The effect that this water had on evil creatures proved that his hard work behind the scenes throughout this Challenge had not been in vain.

Su Jin filled a bottle with a little of the holy water, then left the rest with Situ Jin. The people left inside the church were mostly newbies, and Situ Jin was the only one who could fight, but he had handed his only item to Wu Chen. The newbies needed something to protect themselves with.

Once they walked out of the church, Su Jin looked up at the sky. The moon shone brightly in the high sky, and it would have been lovely to invite a few friends to bring along some snacks and tea and have a little party. Unfortunately, they were now in the midst of a Challenge. What they were about to face was blood and murder.

Su Jin split the two witches, then said to Wu Chen and Kano Mai, “I don’t think the two of you will have any trouble dealing with the monsters in a Level D Challenge, but I think it’s best to remind both of you to run away without hesitation if you meet any danger. Understand?”

Wu Chen was very annoyed by the way Su Jin kept harping on this matter. He glared at Su Jin and said, “It’s as if you are the one who went through a few dozen Challenges. Look, before joining your team, I went through way more terrifying Challenges than this one, but I still survived them all.”

Kano Mai laughed as well. “We’re going to be fine, Jin. If we can’t fight them, we’re well capable of running too.”

They made it sound easy, but Su Jin remained worried. He even decided to slow down so that he could stay at the same speed as the other two, since it would be safer to travel as a group of three.

Just then, the spear in Wu Chen’s hands started moving. It sparkled brightly as the spear came toward Su Jin’s vital body parts.

Su Jin instinctively tried to dodge the attacks but failed. Wu Chen’s attacks were very crafty ones. His technique wasn’t a mystifying one and probably couldn’t even be considered any sort of martial arts. That was simply a technique that displayed an excellent control of speed, strength and accuracy. This was a technique meant for killing a person.

There were five sparks as the spear hit Su Jin’s throat, heart, lungs, stomach and the area between his brows. But the spear merely touched that part and was pulled back before it could do any damage.

“Now you will stop saying all those useless things, right?” said Wu Chen with a scoff.

Su Jin scratched his head embarrassedly. Wu Chen was a powerful character who had gone through a few dozen Challenges after all, yet he had often underestimated the older man’s prowess. But that display of skill alone showed that besides himself, nobody else in the team would have been a match for Wu Chen. Besides, Su Jin was able to defend himself only because his physical body was extremely strong and wasn’t afraid of such attacks. If he didn’t possess such a body, he was probably going to get killed by Wu Chen within seconds.

“Wu Chen, what kungfu was that?” asked Su Jin rather curiously.

Wu Chen glanced at Su Jin, and Su Jin could see that Wu Chen had nearly rolled his eyes. But the older man answered him anyway, “Kungfu? This is murder kungfu – if you want to learn it, then when you return to your Personal Hell Domain, set up a battlefield and kill nonstop for a few decades. You’ll get it eventually.”

Su Jin and Kano Mai were both a little shocked. Kill nonstop for a few decades on a battlefield? Back then, in order to build up his physique, Su Jin had trained himself in his Hell Domain for a few years. When he got out of it, he nearly suffered a breakdown. And his training had been done under relatively subdued circumstances.

But Wu Chen was different. In order to train up these killing techniques of his, he killed nonstop in a battlefield and finally attained this level after spending a few decades doing so. That was a hundred or even a thousand times harder than Su Jin’s training back then. Then again, anyone who could survive a few dozen Challenges was definitely no ordinary person.

Wu Chen ignored Su Jin’s and Kano Mai’s shock. He held the spear tightly in one hand, grabbed hold of one witch with the other hand, then hopped onto a horse, galloping off without waiting for Kano Mai. Kano Mai quickly ran after him.

Su Jin scratched his head awkwardly. He couldn’t ride a horse, so he had no choice but to walk. He motioned to the other witch to walk next to him and they slowly made their way out.

The night was dead silent again. The little life in the air they experienced in the day seemed to have disappeared with the night wind, leaving behind nothing else but the icy moonlight.

“The werewolves you’re looking for are at this tavern.” The signboard of a tavern appeared in the witch’s crystal ball. That was one of the few places in the dead night of Mo City that was actually still bright.

Actually, Su Jin felt that even without the help of the witch, he would notice something amiss once he spotted the tavern, because that place was abnormally lively compared to the rest of the city.

He walked toward the tavern with the witch and pushed the doors open. The noisy people inside immediately stopped what they were doing. They continued to hold onto their beer glasses, but their gazes were focused on Su Jin and the witch with him.

Su Jin ignored the strange look in these men’s eyes. He walked to the bar counter, sat down, and motioned to the bartender to pour him a drink.

“What would you like?”

“The strongest drink you have.”

“You get drunk easily if you take something too strong. But that’s not a bad thing. If you die when you’re drunk, you won’t feel any pain!” The bartender grinned, revealing his sharp wolf fangs.

Su Jin glanced up at him and smiled. “Looks like you have a lot of experience in this area. But let me buy this drink for you instead. If you die when you’re drunk, you won’t feel any pain!”

The bartender narrowed his eyes slightly and his pupils began to constrict. The other muscular men in the bar kept their eye on both of them, as though they were waiting for the signal from the bartender.

Su Jin sat at the bar counter and placed his arms casually on the countertop. He held one hand out to invite the bartender to have a drink.

“I don’t treat others to drinks often, you know,” said Su Jin with a smile.

“That’s great. I… don’t have the habit of taking drinks from others so… you can save this drink for yourself!” The bartender pushed the glass of alcohol toward Su Jin. In that instant, the entire tavern echoed with ear deafening roars.