Hell's Handbook

Chapter 397

Su Jin sighed. Reputation, if not maintained, deteriorated over time too. If he had appeared like this ten years ago, the royal guards, who were all martial artists themselves, would probably fall to their knees and idolize him, not attack him and try and capture him. Su Jin might have had a higher position in their hearts than the emperor at that time.

Just like the saying, when one walks away the tea becomes cold, reputation suffered in the same way. Bu Su Jin didn’t need this title. He just thought it might have helped to save him some trouble.

He ignored their attacks and just continued walking. The guards were frozen about a meter away from him, as though someone had hit the pause button.

Just like that, Su Jin marched through the place. He had locked down the location of that mighty presence, so he didn’t need anyone to actually show him the way. The presence of that person was the best guide.

Inside a luxuriously furnished hall, a large number of martial artists working for the palace had already gathered. All of them had tense looks on their faces. It was clear that news of Su Jin’s arrival had spread through the entire palace as well as the emperor’s ears.

Su Jin glanced nonchalantly at the martial artists before him, then noticed a man in royal robes staring at him from behind the martial artists.

“Martial god, Su Jin! I’ve heard about you from a long time ago!” This man was the emperor of Great Qi, the greatest ruler of this generation.

“Not you.” Su Jin frowned. Now that they’d met face to face, Su Jin immediately realized that the manifestation of the Handbook he was looking for wasn’t actually the emperor of Great Qi after all.

“Show yourself!” yelled Su Jin. In that instant, he could sense the presence flicker. The tense, ready to fight stance from that presence showed that the manifestation had also realized who he really was.

The martial artists and the emperor were both shocked by Su Jin’s shout. Just then, a black beam shot out from behind the emperor’s throne. It shot out so quickly, it hit Su Jin’s chest in less time than it took for someone to even breathe. It also hit dozens of martial artists along the way, and every person who was hit exploded and left blood and flesh strewn all over the floor.

When the beam came into contact with Su Jin, a silver glow surrounded his body. That was armor made from psychokinesis, which would react even if an attack was made on Su Jin that even Su Jin did not notice.

The black beam was shattered by the silver glow, and everyone in the palace finally realized what happened. They stared at the bloodied floor and many of them began to panic, but the martial artists immediately moved closer to the throne to protect the emperor.

“Don’t bother moving in that direction. The thing that can kill you is right behind you,” said Su Jin with a smile. The silver glint in his eye had seen through the darkness behind the throne. A beautiful woman was slowly making her way out from behind the throne.

“My empress, why did you come out here? Go back inside! It’s too dangerous here!” said the emperor as he grabbed hold of the woman’s hands.

“Your Majesty, I’m tired of this game of being your empress. Let’s… put an end to this today,” said the woman with a faint smile. She gently kissed the emperor on the cheek and his skin immediately began to dry up and crack.

And when he was about to become a mummy, his cracked skin suddenly regained its glow. Su Jin had appeared next to the man in time and grabbed hold of one of the emperor’s hands.

“Leave this place! I’m borrowing your palace today!” Su Jin shook his wrist and a silver beam ran down the emperor’s arm and toward the empress, so she had no choice but to let go of the man and retreated. After he had been saved, the emperor still looked stunned, but at least he remembered that the empress had tried to kill him. But he was also in utter disbelief. Why would the woman who had gone through thick and thin with him for the past 30 years, helped him to rule this country, and worked so hard all this time, suddenly want to kill him? Besides, when did the empress even gain such an ability? She was merely a frail woman.

“A frail woman? I’m afraid there isn’t anything stronger than her in this world.” Su Jin didn’t need to check what the emperor was thinking. The emperor’s body language alone spoke volumes.

“I…” The emperor was still hesitant.

“Go!” shouted Su Jin. A silver glow covered everyone else in the hall, and they immediately turned and ran out. Su Jin breathed a sigh of relief and muttered, “Psychokinesis is still very useful!”

He then turned to look back at the empress. She did not stop the rest from running out, since it was more important to deal with Su Jin right now.

“Hello there, manifestation of Hell’s Handbook,” said Su Jin to the empress.

She smiled faintly and said, “Hello there, heresy.”

“Heresy? That does sound like a suitable way to describe me,” said Su Jin with a chuckle. His expression turned frosty immediately after that as he said, “I’m sorry, but I want to free this world, so I have no choice but to kill you. Or rather, not really kill you, but to make you leave this place.”

“It’s true that I can’t actually die. Even if you destroy this body, I’ll find a different way to continue living. Moreover, once this body is destroyed, I’d be set free immediately and you won’t be able to do anything about that,” said the empress with a smile.

Su Jin nodded, but eyed her and said, “If that’s the case, why are you trying to send a message to the Handbook’s main body?”

“Humph!” she snorted.

“Don’t bother trying. I’ve locked this entire planet down with my psychokinesis, so you won’t be able to send any message out of this place. And once this body of yours is gone, I’ll go through all the information you’re carrying and make sure you don’t get to send any message out either,” said Su Jin calmly.

The empress flew into a rage and bellowed, “You will be judged for betraying the universe! Heresy, you shall pay for doing this!

“There’s judgment? The first ones to be found guilty are you guys.” His sword glowed bright as he swung it at the empress, slicing her in half at the waist.

The empress’ body fell to the floor, but Su Jin remained cautious. The energy in this body had not weakened, but had strengthened. That slice had not only cut open her body, but also whatever was containing her.

Black, sticky liquid jumped out of her body. Within seconds, the liquid quickly stuck together and multiplied, transforming into a muscular monster that resembled those in comics, except that the head was still the empress’.

The monster was about three meters in height, and every muscle in her body was perfect for destruction. Her black fingernails seemed to be made from blackened gold as they shone brightly.

“You wanna fight?”

“Yeah!”

White smoke exploded from beneath their feet. That was heat caused by the friction between their feet and the floor as they charged at one another.

Boom! They both gave up on using non-physical methods to fight, throwing a punch at each other instead. Their fists collided and it was hard to see who was stronger. Su Jin’s physical body was already as tough as a demon’s or tougher, while the manifestation had somehow realized what she really was. That helped her to become much stronger than before.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Their punches struck each other again and again. If any of these punches struck the palace, it would instantly turn the entire palace to dust. That was how powerful they were.

Boom! Su Jin hit her in the abdomen, causing her to curl up like a shrimp. Su Jin seized this chance to continue punching her and increased his speed to its maximum, punching her so quickly it was impossible for the naked eye to see.

If an ordinary person were here, they would have thought Su Jin had only punched her once and stopped. But in the eyes of a truly high-level martial artist, they would see that in that same time, Su Jin had punched her a few hundred times. It was just too fast for most people to actually see clearly.

Craaack!

The empress flew backward, her muscles breaking in the process. They cracked loudly as they broke like bowstrings.

The empress crashed onto the floor and did not move, but Su Jin did not rush over. He judged her condition purely based on her energy level. And her energy level still hadn’t weakened at all. In fact… it had strengthened again.