Hell’s Handbook

Su Jin turned around and got a shock. The other party looked so much like him, he felt like he was looking into a mirror.

“Who are you?” asked Su Jin instinctively.

The other party smiled faintly as he tapped his own nose. “You really don’t know?”

Su Jin fell silent for a moment, then gasped. “You’re… the will of the universe!”

“See? You do know who I am. Are you surprised by my looks?” The will of the universe looked exactly like Su Jin. They were like twins or something. Even their mannerisms were identical.

Su Jin remained silent for a moment, then turned to say to the Demon Lord, “Looks like you weren’t by my side for nothing, huh.”

“I… didn’t have a choice. The will of the universe is the one that will last forever, after all. I don’t want to be swept into the trash pile of history again, so I had no choice but to join him,” said the Demon Lord with a look of resignation in her eyes.

Su Jin clapped his hands and laughed bitterly. “Indeed. If you can’t beat them, join them. That’s exactly what a clever person would do.”

“What about you? Are you a clever person or a foolish person?” asked the will of the universe with a smile.

Su Jin smirked and said, “I’m afraid I’m a foolish one. If I were a clever one, I would have joined your side a long time ago. Why would I have become an insurgent?”

“No, no, I’ve always felt that insurgents are not foolish people. They just have an ambition that they should not have. If you are willing to join me, I will accept you and you will have the same special rights as the geniuses of history. Or actually, no… you will have even greater rights than them. I can make you Hell’s Handbook’s number two in command!”

“And you’re number one?” asked Su Jin with a smile.

The will of the universe hesitated, then shook his head. “No. The god of the primordial deities is number one.”

“But he’s already gone.”

“Because he did something he shouldn’t have.”

“I might do something like that in the future too.”

“That… I do not deny.” The will of the universe did not lie, or rather, he didn’t need to lie. He wrote all the rules of this universe and he was the reason why this universe even existed. He could just say out loud what he wanted or what he wished to do.

“And if that’s the case, then this conversation is pointless. I will eventually do something that you cannot tolerate, so the war between us will merely be postponed and not canceled. Besides… once I become one of your underlings, I will never be able to win a battle against you,” said Su Jin.

The will of the universe stared straight at Su Jin and grinned. “You’ve gotten it wrong. It doesn’t matter whether you join my side or not. You didn’t stand any chance of winning right from the start!”

“We’ll only know if we try,” said Su Jin with a shrug.

“If you really thought that way, you wouldn’t have sent a clone of yourself made from your power while hiding far from me,” said the will of the universe.

Su Jin smiled and said, “Well, I’m still a lot weaker than you right now, so I have to protect myself.”

“Oh? And do you think your defense tactics have worked?” A bright light suddenly shot out of the will of the universe’s eyes.

Su Jin froze, then cursed, “Damn it!” His clone threw the Demon Lord a disappointed look, then disappeared in a colorful cloud.

The Demon Lord was silent for a moment, then she looked at the will of the universe and asked, “O Great One, are you able to catch him?”

“Are you hoping I’ll catch him? Or no?” the will of the universe suddenly asked her.

She was too stunned by the question to respond immediately, but the will of the universe moved on like he hadn’t asked that question. “It’s not going to be easy to capture this insurgent, but… it won’t be easy for him to run either. Playing a game of cat and mouse is pretty childish, but if he wants to play, I’m happy to play with him. After all, very few in the long passage of time are qualified to play this game with me.”

Meanwhile, Su Jin was enveloped by maniacal power in the middle of a star, without any regard for the five-digit temperatures he was in. Nobody in their right mind would have thought a lifeform could hide themselves in such a place.

Jing Hua grinned as he looked at the star and murmured, “Insurgents are truly incredible people. So, he’s able to ignore the laws of nature and possess superpowers?”

Phoenix frowned and said, “Even someone born out of the flames like myself wouldn’t dare to enter the core of a star just like that, because we would end up becoming one with the star and lose our own consciousness.”

Tiny piped up, “I agree. We’re immortal and we’ve been able to stay the way we’ve always been, plus we have special rights. But we can’t ignore the laws of this universe and we have to abide by them.”

“What’s all this useless talk for? Everyone knows insurgents are extraordinary people. If they weren’t, the will of the universe wouldn’t see them as enemies. But we’re not here to discuss all this. We’re here to smash that star and force him out of hiding!” said the Dog God in an icy voice. A black spear in his hands sparkled brilliantly as it struck the star that Su Jin was hiding in.

The black spear seemed even smaller than a microorganism compared to the gigantic star, but when the spear struck the star, the star suddenly started shaking violently as its light seemed to burn intensely. It shrank suddenly, then exploded.

Phoenix transformed herself into blazing flames and stood in front of her three companions. The heat from the explosion came hurtling toward them, but she absorbed all of it.

“This is like a perfect supplement for my body. This body I have is a little too fragile for my liking, but now that it’s charged with all this heat, I’ll be able to execute my full potential temporarily!” Phoenix looked like she was really enjoying this process as the flames around her body grew twice as large.

“He’s about to run, isn’t he?” Jing Hua withdrew the sword on his belt as he stared intensely at the bright core of the star. Most humans wouldn’t be able to stare into the core of a star, but Jing Hua had no problem at all.

“Wait, what?” Jing Hua exclaimed in surprise. But before he could tell the rest what he saw, a tremendous force struck him and blew him away. It turned out that Su Jin hadn’t run away at all and was actually charging at them.

Jing Hua’s body was blown to pieces from the impact, but the pieces came together again immediately and his body was restored.

“That was a really good attack! Astonishing power!” Jing Hua had a crazed look on his face as black scales began to cover his body and he turned into a demon in black armor.

Su Jin dashed out from the heart of the core. The explosion had caused a shockwave that turned everything it hit into nothing in an instant.

“Die!” roared Su Jin as his boning knife appeared in his hand. He swung it toward the Dog God as another black spear appeared in the Dog God’s hand, and he used it to block Su Jin’s boning knife.

Clang!

Both parties were pushed backward from the impact. The Dog God realized that his black spear had shattered, but that wasn’t the only thing that had shattered. His palm and arm had shattered too.

“What in the…” The Dog God was too stunned for words. This was not something that pure strength could do. His opponent had powers that did not belong to this universe.

Su Jin’s gaze burned fiercely. He named his power “maniacal power” because it was a power that could get him what he wanted by just thinking about it, a power that existed because he thought of it. As long as he believed strongly in it, he could make it happen. But he wasn’t the most familiar with it yet and his usage of the power wasn’t the most stable either. But as long as he wasn’t fighting against the will of the universe, it was good enough.

The Dog God immediately chopped off whatever remained of his arm. He could sense that this otherworldly power was creeping into the rest of his body through his wound, and it would endanger him if he allowed it to continue.

The arm turned to dust and disappeared, so the Dog God couldn’t sense that power he felt earlier anymore. That power felt really numbing, like the energy that would be produced if the universe were to be destroyed.

Meanwhile, Su Jin launched attacks on Tiny and Phoenix. Tiny instantly turned into a beam of light that pierced through Su Jin’s chest. He moved so unbelievably quickly that even Su Jin didn’t realize what just happened to him.

“That was fast!” Even though his chest had been pierced, Su Jin wasn’t bothered. His body was no longer the sort of physical body he used to have, so he did not have to protect his vital organs anymore. He could even be blasted to smithereens and it wouldn’t matter. To put it simply, he wasn’t quite human anymore.

“God Destroying Fire!” Phoenix launched an attack too. Large flames used the space they were in as fuel and everything in its way was burned to nothing, regardless of what it was made from.

Su Jin’s body was instantly engulfed in flames and turned to ashes in front of them. But immediately after Su Jin’s body turned to ashes, a brand new Su Jin reappeared behind Phoenix.