Hell's Handbook

Chapter 192: A Different Universe

In one corner of Hell’s Bar, a man with some questionable fashion choices sat to the side by himself. He was covered in gold jewelry, including a gold watch, gold rings and gold necklaces, as though he were made from gold himself.

He was enjoying some fine wine and his server was a beautiful woman with deep red hair. All the other owners in the bar seemed unwilling to go anywhere near him, so the entire area around him was completely empty.

Xiang Nan and his other teammates did not come along, so only Han Linmei and Su Jin were here. Han Linmei had told Su Jin earlier that this man in gold accessories was actually from that robbery organization and stayed in the Level C section of the bar. If anybody wanted to use that rare item to move from one universe to another, they had to come here and strike a deal with this man.

“Hey, you! We want to move to a different universe. Here’s what you wanted.” Han Linmei flung a bag toward the man unceremoniously.

The man was not angry, since he knew that his identity as a member of such an unscrupulous organization would never get respect from other owners. But he didn’t care about that anyway. From the moment he joined this organization, he only cared about getting more resources and the rest didn’t matter anymore.

He threw the entire bag into his Handbook, checked its contents and gave a pleased nod. He then placed a crystal on the table.

“Get someone from the destination universe to inject some traces of themselves inside, then once the crystal turns black, it will teleport you to that universe. When you want to come back, crush the crystal,” explained the man before closing his eyes again and ignoring the two of them.

Han Linmei didn’t want to talk to him either, so she took the crystal and walked away. Once she and Su Jin had reached a quiet corner, she handed it to him.

“Mr. Su, I’m going to fill this crystal up, and because it’s from me, you’re going to appear at the headquarters of the Resistance Army,” said Han Linmei before sending him to her universe to avoid any confusion or misunderstandings. That could result in disaster.

Su Jin nodded. He watched as Han Linmei injected some sort of energy into the crystal. It was definitely some sort of Spirit Power, except he couldn’t identify it. So, she’s a veteran too, he thought.

The color of the crystal began to change. When it had turned completely black, Su Jin felt like he was floating, as though he were in a vast world of nothingness.

Boom! Before Su Jin could enjoy this surreal experience, he suddenly felt like he was falling rapidly, which was something that could really frighten someone, especially someone who was as afraid of heights as Su Jin. When he felt his feet hit solid ground, he immediately squatted down fearfully.

“This is the person you’ve found? He seems… a little cowardly, don’t you think?” resounded a voice in Su Jin’s ears. He looked around him and saw more than a dozen others staring at him like he was an exhibit in the zoo. Han Linmei was among the group.

She smiled awkwardly at Su Jin, then glared at the man who spoke earlier and snapped angrily, “Li Jinpeng, if you have nothing nice to say, then shut up! Mr. Su is a respectable man who’s completed a Level A Challenge perfectly before! You think you could compare to that?”

Li Jinpeng frowned and looked at Su Jin with some disbelief. “This fellow? This little toyboy completed a Level A Challenge perfectly before? Are you sure you didn’t get scammed?”

Han Linmei was furious, but Li Jinpeng was one of the best fighters in the army, so she didn’t dare to be too nasty to him. At the same time, it was precisely because Li Jinpeng had been regarded as one of their best fighters that he got really irritated that Han Linmei had gone to ask Su Jin for help with this matter instead. He felt like Han Linmei didn’t trust him to get the job done.

Su Jin touched his own face when he heard the way Li Jinpeng just described him. While it was true that he was an office worker before this and didn’t see much of the sun or get much exercise, calling him a toyboy didn’t sound quite right either. He didn’t understand how Li Jinpeng reached that conclusion.

“Li Jinpeng, if you spout nonsense like that again, I’ll have to punish you,” said Han Linmei angrily.

Li Jinpeng’s neck stiffened and he retorted, “I’m not going to let you get scammed like this. Okay, punk, show us what you’ve got!”

Su Jin couldn’t help but laugh when he saw the expression on Li Jinpeng’s face. It was obvious that Li Jinpeng had a crush on Han Linmei and was being unreasonably offensive because he saw Su Jin as a rival for her affection. This was one really sensitive fellow!

Li Jinpeng thought that Su Jin was laughing at him because Su Jin despised him, which made him even angrier. It was bad enough that Han Linmei had chastised him in front of so many others along with Su Jin, and now, Su Jin was actually laughing at him!

“How dare you laugh! Look, the Resistance Army is not filled with people you can trifle with! If you dare to lie to us, I’ll make sure you return in a body bag!” He retrieved a large sword from his Handbook and stabbed it fiercely into the floor.

Han Linmei couldn’t do anything about him, so she walked over to Su Jin and whispered, “Mr. Su, it cost us a lot to bring you over, so there are some members who… are rather unhappy about it. If it’s alright with you, I hope you can show them why we wanted to get you to help us.”

Su Jin shook his head inwardly. It seemed like besides Han Linmei, the other members of the Resistance Army didn’t trust him. Then again, that made sense too. If Kano Mai had suddenly brought someone to the team randomly and just insisted that this person was amazing with nothing to show for it, he might not take her word for it either.

“How do you want me to do this?” asked Su Jin. He looked back at the rest of the people in front of him and said, “I am Su Jin, team leader of Team Boning Knife. I’ve come here because of Chu Yi, one of my team members. Since all of you would like me to show you what I’ve got, you need to tell me how you want me to go about doing that.”

“Simple. How about a round against me?” Li Jinpeng picked up the sword that looked like it weighed at least 50 kilograms without a problem and stuck his chin out at Su Jin in an antagonistic manner.

“Sure, as long as it makes you happy.” Su Jin stuffed his hands into his pocket. Since these were people who couldn’t handle Chu Yi at all, it meant that they were really as weak as Xiang Nan had described them.

“Move aside!” bellowed Li Jinpeng. Everyone around him seemed to know that Li Jinpeng enjoyed a good fight and was also very good at fighting, so they immediately moved aside when he shouted and gave the two men a good amount of empty space to show off their moves.

Li Jinpeng’s moves were decisive as he charged at Su Jin with his sword in hand. He didn’t have any fancy moves, and his sword did not have any special powers. He was just relying purely on his strength to fend off anything that came his way.

Su Jin’s defense was even simpler. He raised his hand, stuck one finger out and blocked the attack from Li Jinpeng. It just took him one finger to deflect the heavy sword that came swinging toward him.

Li Jinpeng blinked in shock and almost couldn’t believe what he had just seen. But that didn’t stop him from simply pulling his sword back and attempting another swing with more strength this time.

Su Jin didn’t budge and used the same finger to fend off the attack. This time, he didn’t even bother moving his finger and just held it where he knew the sword would strike.

DANG! The sound of metal against metal resounded loudly, and Li Jinpeng ended up flying backwards from the impact. Su Jin inspected his finger and saw that it was perfectly fine. Li Jinpeng was probably as strong as he was after he had taken the Mid Level Body Strengthening Elixir. In fact, if he was still only as strong as when he had taken the High Level Body Strengthening Elixir, he might have been able to hold up against Li Jinpeng’s attack, but he wouldn’t have gotten away unscathed like this.

What made him really as strong as he was right now was that bottle of wine from the boss of Hell’s Bar. He had finished drinking the entire bottle now, so he felt like his body had become even stronger. But Li Jinpeng wasn’t strong enough to help him test the limits of his physical body.

Everyone watching just gaped in shock. Li Jinpeng was one of the best fighters of the Resistance Army and was especially excellent at close range combat. When the cult sent Chu Yi to fight the Resistance Army, Chu Yi had killed a large majority of the team sent out to fight him and only a small group survived, thanks in part to Li Jinpeng. If Li Jinpeng and a few others hadn’t managed to hold off Chu Yi long enough, these few wouldn’t have gotten the chance to escape.

Because of that, everyone believed in Li Jinpeng’s capabilities and felt that even if Li Jinpeng lost to the person Han Linmei brought back, he wouldn’t be defeated very easily. They didn’t think someone at Li Jinpeng’s level would be no match for just one of Su Jin’s fingers.

“Are you done with your attack? It’s my turn then!” Su Jin pulled his hand back, then thrust his finger out again with great strength. This finger was like a long spear to Li Jinpeng. It was so powerful and so fast that Li Jinpeng didn’t even have the chance to dodge it.

Whoosh! Su Jin’s finger went past Li Jinpeng’s ear and a hole appeared in the wall behind Li Jinpeng. Li Jinpeng’s ear started bleeding, cut by the wind caused by the movement of Su Jin’s finger.

Su Jin put his hand down again. He hadn’t used any special technique at all, like Li Jinpeng and his sword. The difference was that Su Jin’s strength was greater and faster.

“Is that enough?” said Su Jin nonchalantly.

Li Jinpeng had an embarrassed look on his face. He was angry, not at Su Jin but at the fact that he had failed to even dodge that finger coming so close to him just now. He flung his sword onto the floor and walked off without a word.

Han Linmei sighed in exasperation and smiled apologetically at Su Jin. Su Jin shook his head to tell her that he wasn’t offended. He could understand where the others were coming from. The army had paid a high price for him to come here. If he had turned out to be less capable than they had hoped, that would be a terrible loss on their part.

“Mr. Su, would you like to rest for a day? Or…” asked Han Linmei.

Su Jin said, “There’s no need for that. Where’s Chu Yi now? Just bring me there, since we need to settle this matter urgently.”

“Sure!” responded Han Linmei. “Gather everyone, we’re setting off now,” she instructed the rest before running after Li Jinpeng and yelling, “Li Jinpeng! Come back here right now!”

An hour later, everyone set off from the headquarters. They got into cars and drove toward another city, but when they were about to enter it, they got out of their cars and walked in instead.

There were ten of them, including Han Linmei and Li Jinpeng. Before entering, Han Linmei said to Su Jin, “Mr. Su, this city is the cult’s territory and Mr. Chu resides here now. Before we reach our target destination, I hope that you can listen to my instructions. If the cult discovers us, we’ll be in danger.”

“No problem,” said Su Jin with a nod. The group proceeded to enter the city.