Hell’s Handbook

Su Jin’s punch landed on Phoenix, who was now in flame mode. She wasn’t afraid of the punch, since she was now one huge flame and in general, physical attacks didn’t work on her. But Su Jin’s punch made her stumble backward quite a bit as her body started breaking up and the flames were rapidly going out.

“You have to be careful! This insurgent has powers outside of the laws of this universe!” the Dog God called out to her.

“Damn it, why didn’t you say so earlier!” Phoenix quickly reverted to human mode. If she remained in flame mode and all her flames were put out, she would die.

“It’s our first battle with him, after all. It seems the only thing he’s bad at is speed,” said Jing Hua to the rest of them.

“Leave him to me then!” Tiny charged at Su Jin at an alarming speed. He reached almost the speed of light as he tore Su Jin’s body into tiny fragments. Each time Su Jin pieced himself together again, Tiny would tear him apart once more. There was no chance for Su Jin to fight back at all.

“Even an insurgent will eventually run out of energy. Piecing himself together again at this rate requires a lot of energy,” said Jing Hua confidently.

He was right. Su Jin had to consume a particular amount of energy each time he put himself back together again. While the amount consumed did not decrease Su Jin’s energy levels significantly, the bigger problem was the fact that Tiny was moving way too quickly. Trying to keep up with him was too hard, and fighting back was simply impossible.

“I have to find a way to deal with him, otherwise I won’t even get the chance to escape.” If this battle was just him versus the four of them, Su Jin was confident of winning the fight. But he would have to consume a huge amount of energy in the process, so if the will of the universe suddenly turned up, he wouldn’t be able to hang on.

While thinking about what to do, Su Jin stopped piecing himself together and floated in space as tiny molecules. But he couldn’t remain like this for too long, because he wouldn’t be able to put himself back together again.

His maniacal power enabled him to do things that were beyond the laws of this universe, but it didn’t mean that he could ignore those laws altogether. Even hiding within the core of the star earlier required maniacal power. His body was also an amalgamation of maniacal power.

As long as he used maniacal power, it would come together to form his body. Or rather, one of the laws of this universe was that power had to come from a physical object. If Su Jin wanted to ignore the laws of this universe, he had to use maniacal power. But if he wanted to use maniacal power, he had to have a body first.

“Since I can’t match his speed, I’ll just make him slower!” A thought struck Su Jin. He gathered himself together again, but this time, there was a bright, flickering aura around his body.

Immediately after his body was formed, Tiny launched an attack. But this time, he suddenly slowed down after he came within the aura around Su Jin’s body.

Tiny became painfully slow, his body wobbling as he made his way toward Su Jin like a feeble old man. Su Jin could just grab hold of him without any effort.

In reality, Tiny was moving really quickly. The aura around Su Jin’s body could make everything else move terribly slowly, so most things would end up freezing once they came within the boundary of the aura. The fact that Tiny still managed to move along slowly was proof of how quickly he was moving outside the aura.

When Jing Hua, the Dog God, and Phoenix realized that Su Jin was about to catch hold of Tiny, they quickly charged at Su Jin and came within the boundary of his aura.

Their bodies came to a sudden halt, because they couldn’t move as quickly as Tiny. It looked like they were now immobile, but Su Jin’s expression shifted immediately.

“Oh no, the four of them are too powerful and I can’t keep this aura up for long,” thought Su Jin with a frown. This was something he had thought of on the fly, so it wasn’t the most well planned strategy and it wasn’t anywhere near perfect.

He gave up the idea of catching hold of Tiny. It was only going to take him one second to do that, but doing so might cause the entire aura to shatter and he would be in bigger trouble then.

He immediately withdrew from the aura, deactivated it and flew out of sight. His four opponents wanted to chase after him, but gave up in the end. So what if they could catch up? They were no match for him. Only the will of the universe could take Su Jin down now.

“Let’s go! The Great One didn’t intend to get rid of him that quickly in the first place anyway. He’s now like an unripe fruit that doesn’t taste so good now.” Jing Hua motioned to his three companions, and all four of them returned to where they had come from.

Su Jin traversed several universes and only stopped after he was sure that he was safe. He panted heavily even as he wondered what the will of the universe was trying to do. The will of the universe could have teleported himself over and kill him right there and then. But the will of the universe didn’t do that. Why?

“Could it be… oh no! The primordial star!” Su Jin stiffened in horror. The will of the universe wasn’t only wary of him, but also of The Beginning, since it was a system that was comparable to Hell’s Handbook. The will of the universe might have already started attacking the primordial star.

Su Jin hesitated for a moment. If he went over now, he and The Beginning might not be a match for the will of the universe. But if he didn’t go over to help and The Beginning got destroyed, he would definitely have one less powerful ally.

“What should I do?” murmured Su Jin. Just then, the image of The Beginning, that brilliant ball of light, came to mind.

“If I die, so be it!” Su Jin clenched his fists as he started locating the maniacal power he had left on the rune creature the last time and found the primordial star’s location in no time.

“I was right? It has already been attacked?” Su Jin could sense that the primordial star was no longer moving.

He flew through space to get to the universe where the primordial star was and he saw the will of the universe standing in front of the planet. Phyge was nothing but a gigantic, floating dead body in space, while Carl was desperately fighting off the will of the universe.

They didn’t detect Su Jin, so he sent a message to Carl’s brain: Su Jin here! Let me enter the primordial star!

The primordial star was covered in a dazzling aura which was a protective layer designed by the gods of the first cycle. Not even the will of the universe could enter the star without breaking through this layer.

Carl was a little stunned at first, but he quickly made a gap in the protective layer, and Su Jin snuck in without allowing himself to be detected.

“Su Jin, take The Beginning away with you! You’re our only hope now, so protect The Beginning!” Carl’s voice rang out in Su Jin’s head. Carl had already lost all hope. He was the last god from the first cycle standing, but he knew that he wouldn’t be able to protect The Beginning.

“What about you? Or… why don’t you get in quickly and I’ll take both of you away? The will of the universe won’t be able to find us for a while,” said Su Jin.

But Carl responded, “No, once I head back to the star, the will of the universe will locate me immediately and nobody will be able to get away. I’m going to distract the will of the universe now, so take The Beginning and run for it! You’re an insurgent and you have special technology from a primordial deity, so the will of the universe won’t be able to locate you.”

“How did you know that?” Su Jin was surprised to hear that Carl knew about this. He had never told Carl how he managed to hide from the will of the universe.

“Haha… I think you’ll hate me for telling you, but… weren’t you looking for a primordial deity named Kano Mai?” said Carl with a hearty laugh. “She’s the core of The Beginning’s system!”

“What?!” Su Jin was shocked by this revelation. He was now standing before The Beginning and its brightness looked like it would last forever. He had sensed something familiar about The Beginning before but couldn’t place it. Now he knew. It turned out that The Beginning was actually Kano Mai.

Su Jin reached out to The Beginning and The Beginning’s light flickered as it came in contact with Su Jin’s hand, as though it were an obedient child.

“Take him away! He’s the only thing that the gods of the first cycle have left behind and you will need him. An insurgent plus a system that’s comparable to Hell’s Handbook – that’s the only way you can become powerful enough to fight the will of the universe!” roared Carl.

Su Jin did not hesitate any longer. He enveloped The Beginning in maniacal power, then stepped back out into space and disappeared. When Carl sensed that Su Jin was no longer in the star, he looked relieved and started roaring at the will of the universe.

“My light will never go out! I will live for all eternity!” Carl turned into a light bright enough to illuminate the vast universe, even space that was a few hundred light years away.