Hell’s Handbook

Su Jin did not want to force Ye Yun or any of his friends into doing anything, because he wanted them to live happily in any way they liked. But right now, if they wanted to live with that sort of liberty, they needed to become stronger. The Beginning was not able to strengthen owners like the Handbook could, so until they became gods, his friends still needed to rely on the Handbook.

“I’ll keep doing Challenges then,” said Ye Yun without hesitation. She was a clever young lady and Su Jin knew that right from the very first time he met her. He still couldn’t forget her dirty blonde hair, her adorable smile, and her charming eyes from that day.

After going through so many Challenges, Su Jin had met several women who were almost perfect, but even the Nine-tailed Fox who could charm the whole world couldn’t be compared to the cheeky smile Ye Yun gave him that afternoon.

“Go ahead and do that then, I believe in you!” Su Jin gave her all his trust. He was certain that Ye Yun was no frail little girl. In fact, Ye Yun was such an impressive owner, most other owners wouldn’t want to get into a fight with her at all. This was a powerful fighter who could kill so many of Shen Wu’s best subordinates.

Su Jin checked in with the rest of the group and everyone had the same opinion. Everyone had decided to attain godhood. Even Wu Chen, who had finally been reunited with his daughter.

“Are you kidding? Of course I have to protect my own daughter! How am I going to do that if I don’t become more powerful?” sneered Wu Chen.

“My father-in-law, you can leave that job to me, actually,” said Chu Yi as he came closer to Wu Chen, only to be kicked aside. Chu Yi was excellent at close range fighting, but he didn’t dare to protest after getting kicked. Everyone sneered at him in disdain, but Wu Jingru was so happy to hear these words.

Since his friends had all decided on what they wanted, the next step was to ask if Durand and the rest wanted in. Su Jin decided to personally invite them himself.

“The temple will travel through the universes by itself and The Beginning will protect it, so you don’t have to worry about the will of the universe finding you guys,” said Su Jin to the group before leaving. The will of the universe had managed to locate the primordial star because he had come into contact with it before and knew a lot about it, so he was able to come up with a way to find it. But the same could not be said about Su Jin’s temple, so the will of the universe would not be able to locate it the same way.

Su Jin left the temple and tore through the walls of the universe to arrive at a blue planet where Durand lived. He searched for Durand’s presence and eventually found him on an island in the Pacific Ocean.

Su Jin teleported himself to the island and Durand instantly detected him. He didn’t know that his visitor was Su Jin and only sensed that the visitor was extremely powerful.

If Su Jin wanted to, he could have concealed his presence altogether and Durand wouldn’t have noticed at all. But that would be like breaking into another person’s house, and Su Jin thought it would be rude of him to do that.

“Oh my gosh, I got such a shock! When I sensed such a powerful presence, I thought I’d pissed off some deity out there and they had come to finish me off!” Durand was dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and casual shorts because he was actually holidaying here. Of course, if a huge tropical storm wasn’t also happening in the waters at the same time, it would have felt a lot more like an actual holiday.

Su Jin laughed and said, “How could the highest ranked owner of Hell’s Handbook be frightened by something like that?”

“The highest ranked owner?” Durand rolled his eyes with a scoff and said, “It sounds hilarious now, but there was a period of time when I was really proud of being in that position. But after going through the Grave of the Gods, I feel that this whole ranking thing is nothing but a joke. If someone else besides yourself said those words to me, I would think that they were trying to challenge me to a fight.”

Su Jin smiled and shook his head. “Don’t be too upset. Back then, none of us knew that there were so many other parallel universes. The fact that you were able to become the number one owner among the humans is still something you should be proud of!”

Durand burst out laughing. “HAHA! You’re right! I used to be an amazing man who was ranked even higher than an insurgent!”

“That’s right!” said Su Jin as he laughed along.

After exchanging a few laughs, Durand asked, “So, why are you here? I saw the wanted notice sent out by the Handbook to capture you. Gosh, you have no idea how many people were tempted by the reward!”

“Some were just tempted, but there was also a group that actually tried to kill me. They ended up walking into the Handbook’s trap and became sacrifices in order for Hell’s Handbook to be incarnated. That was one battle where… I nearly died,” said Su Jin with a shudder. If Hell’s Handbook had managed to gather more owners and absorbed all of their energy, he might really have lost his life back then.

“What the heck? Are you saying… Hell’s Handbook itself tried to kill you?” asked Durand in disbelief.

“Yup. An incarnation of Hell’s Handbook,” Su Jin nodded.

“What did it look like?”

“Ugly. Real ugly.” Su Jin shook his head with a sigh. But he was telling the truth. That clown was ugly enough to make some people with particular phobias die from fright. Su Jin knew there were many who were afraid of clowns.

Both of them sat down to talk about the Handbook as well as reminisce about their past. But a few hours later, Durand couldn’t stand it anymore. He had to find out why in the world Su Jin was here.

“Hey, you aren’t here just to diss the Handbook, right?” asked Durand.

Su Jin nodded and said, “Do you remember the conversation we had the last time?”

“The conversation we had the last time?” Durand stared blankly at him. “Which one?”

“The one about me setting up my own temple and getting you to join,” said Su Jin.

Durand blinked a few times in stunned silence, then stood up with a start. He glared at Su Jin and said, “What the hell?! You went round and round the bush for so long before talking to me about something so important?!”

Su Jin scratched his head and said, “I know it’s important, but that’s also why I wasn’t sure how to approach the subject…”

“Are you serious?! This is not the time to feel awkward about this topic! If I hadn’t stopped to ask you, were you going to continue this small talk forever?!” asked Durand, only for Su Jin to actually nod in response.

“I mean… you were bound to ask at some point…” said Su Jin with a nervous laugh.

Durand wasn’t sure whether he ought to start laughing or start crying. In reality, Su Jin really didn’t know how to bring this topic up. After all, if he declared war on his own and chose to fight by himself, it didn’t matter what he did. But by asking Durand to join him, it meant that he was asking Durand to fight his war as well. Most importantly, he couldn’t ensure anybody’s safety at all. Durand could join today and very well get himself killed the next day.

It didn’t take long for Durand to guess what Su Jin was worried about. He cackled and said, “You really didn’t have to overthink this whole thing. When Oscar and I agreed to join you at that time, we had already thought through this carefully. We’re all adults anyway, so we’ll take responsibility for any choice we make.”

“I had mentioned it casually and you guys agreed on the spot. You consider that thinking through carefully?!” Su Jin looked horrified, which made Durand glare at him.

“Fine, I’ll take your word for it. So, Mr. Durand, I am now officially inviting you to join my temple!” Su Jin stretched one hand out.

Durand took his hand and said with a smile, “Going up against the Handbook is going to be a great challenge. I accept your invitation!”

“That’s great! Let’s look for Oscar next,” said Su Jin as he breathed a big sigh of relief inside. He had been prepared for Durand to say no, since he had seemingly agreed without thinking the last time. But of course, even if they decided to say no despite giving it serious consideration, Su Jin could not force them to join him.

Just the concept of going against the Handbook and the will of the universe already sounded insane, and he figured that he had a 99% chance of losing right now. He couldn’t blame anyone for not wanting to become part of this.

“When we get to Oscar’s place, I’ll take charge of the conversation, otherwise I don’t know how long you’ll take to get to this topic,” said Durand impatiently while Su Jin gave him a silly grin.

Durand got Su Jin to wait for some time, because he had to take care of some domestic matters first. He had his own faction here too, but he did not force them to join Su Jin’s temple. Just like how Su Jin did not think it was right to force Durand, Durand did not want to force his subordinates.

Three days later, Durand had made all the necessary arrangements and headed for Oscar’s universe with Su Jin.