Hell's Handbook

Chapter 376

Su Jin and the cult leader had both projected their own voices into the heads of others, but that alone was enough to differentiate them in terms of how highly skilled they were. Su Jin had managed to pick out only his enemies within an instant and sent his voice only to them, but the cult leader was clearly unable to do that and had no choice but to send her voice into every person’s head.

The resistance army and the cult’s followers automatically moved aside to make space for Su Jin and the cult leader to fight. Both parties were too powerful for them to fight on their own.

The cult leader wore a black cloak, and a black mist swirled around her as she marched into the empty space first and stared frostily into the distance.

Su Jin stepped into the empty space as well, dressed simply in casual clothing. He came within about ten meters of the cult leader so that they could see each other clearly.

“It’s you!” The cult leader was rather surprised, and she seemed to have recognized Su Jin.

“Oh my, you actually still remember me? How touching,” chuckled Su Jin.

But she shook her head and said, “I don’t remember what you look like, but your smell is very unique. It is a smell that does not belong to our universe.”

“Yep. And your Spirit Power is…” A silver glint flashed in Su Jin’s eyes, and he looked enlightened as he said, “I see. You have the ability to interrogate souls. I didn’t know such a powerful Spirit Power existed.”

The cult leader was stunned and she asked puzzledly, “How do you know my Spirit Power?”

“I don’t know how to explain it to you, but it’s like reading a footnote that helps me to understand easily,” Su Jin shrugged. He was no longer part of Hell’s Handbook’s system, so besides the will of the universe, he was the only other person for this cycle who wasn’t within the control and limitations of the Handbook’s system.

Su Jin was like a character in a book who had walked out of the book, so he could understand the book from a different perspective. When he was part of the book, as long as it wasn’t written with him in it, he had no idea what was happening in the other parts of the story. But once he was out of the book, he became someone superior to the characters inside. When he looked at the characters, he was able to understand what the book was writing about easily. It was like how a lower lifeform could not understand what it was like to be a higher lifeform, except that higher lifeforms did not understand what it was like to be a lower lifeform either. But that didn’t affect Su Jin because he had started as a lower lifeform.

“Humph! I don’t care about how you found out. In any case, you should not have returned after you managed to escape the last time!” scoffed the cult leader. Her Spirit Power was a very rare and powerful one, since it could interrogate souls directly. It was very useful for dealing with all living creatures, and especially useful when dealing with supernatural beings. That had helped her to grow exponentially as an owner, and she had been able to create such a huge cult and dominate her planet because of this power. Nobody was able to go through her interrogation process and not surrender.

“I was no match for you back then, but things change, don’t they? I’ve actually become really powerful now,” said Su Jin with a big grin on his face.

Of course, the cult leader knew he had become very powerful. They had not exchanged blows, but the difference in skill they had displayed earlier made it clear that she was not as formidable as he was.

She remained silent, and both sides did not dare to launch any attack as long as the two parties did not do anything. They were waiting quietly when the cult leader suddenly took a step forward.

“If you leave now, I will take it that nothing ever happened.” Those words stunned everyone. The cult leader seemed reluctant to fight Su Jin.

But Su Jin shook his head and said, “I’m sorry, but for as long as you remain a problem, we won’t be able to do the things we need to do without worrying.”

“You think you and all these people can handle me? Who do you guys think you are?” spat the cult leader disdainfully.

Su Jin shook his head again and pointed a finger at her as he said, “It’s not me and all these people here, but just me!”

The cult leader suddenly felt like she had been thrown into hell. Her followers turned into nothing but piles of bones, and she was on a floating platform that was surrounded by nothing but lava.

“This… this is an illusion!” said the cult leader to herself with a snort. Her Spirit Power was the ability to interrogate souls, and this idiot was using illusions to fight her? She felt she had been overly cautious and had totally overestimated Su Jin’s abilities after all.

Su Jin stood in front of her and stared at her calmly. The cult leader said to him, “Trying to use illusions to deal with me? What a joke! Watch as I tear your soul to shreds!”

The black mist around her flew toward Su Jin, but he did not budge. When the mist flew close enough, he grabbed hold of it with one hand, took a close look, then swallowed all of it.

“It’s a high level Spirit Power, alright. How interesting. Thanks!” said Su Jin with a smile.

“It’s an illusion… it must be!” The cult leader couldn’t believe someone could possibly swallow her Spirit Power like that. Not even a god could do that.

She immediately started charging at Su Jin, because she believed that Su Jin was the key to the illusion. Once he was dead, the illusion would disappear. But the moment she set foot in the lava, a terrible pain shot through her body. She looked down only to see that her fair feet had been burned by the lava, and the pain… felt incredibly real.

“It’s just… it’s just an illusion! It’ll go away once I kill you!” shrieked the cult leader as she struggled to reach Su Jin. But before she even managed ten meters, the lava had burned her to ashes.

“Illusions… there are many types of illusions in this world, including the tastes your tongue tastes, the scenery your eyes see, the sounds your ears hear, or even the textures your hands and feet touch. All these things could possibly be illusions… but right now, everything is real. What you see… is capable of killing you.” Su Jin seemed to be murmuring to himself, because the beautiful cult leader had completely disappeared. She was no longer able to hear what he just said.

To the rest of the people, they only saw that the cult leader had stared at Su Jin for a few seconds before making her way toward him. But with each step she took, her body would be engulfed by even hotter flames, until the flames finally burned her to a crisp.

Everyone was too stunned for words. They began to wonder if they were also seeing things, but they quickly realized that this was all real. The shackles around their souls that the cult leader had put in place had disappeared. That was the real reason why they were loyal to her in the first place. It wasn’t because they believed that Handbook owners were the only people with the right to rule the world.

Perhaps some did really think that way, but they were in the minority. Most of them were loyal because of the shackles around their souls. With those shackles in place, the cult leader could kill them instantly, so they had no choice but to listen to everything she said. But now… they could feel very clearly that those shackles had disappeared. Combining that with what they just saw, they figured everything out quickly. The cult leader… was really dead!

The resistance army was stunned too, but they quickly accepted reality and began cheering loudly. They screamed and shouted for joy, not caring if their noises were intelligible or not, because they were simply too overjoyed.

“The cult leader’s dead! She’s dead!”

“Hurray! She’s finally gone to meet her maker!”

“The war is over! We’ll have peace again!”

The resistance army was cheering, but so were the cult followers. They were cheering loudly to celebrate the fact that they had regained control over their own lives.

The cheering from both sides confused Chu Yi for a moment, and Han Linmei was also a little bewildered at first. But soon after, she let out an excited squeal.

“Ahhhh!!” She screamed like she had gone mad as she hugged Chu Yi tightly with tears running down her cheeks.

“Gosh, the people on your planet are… really weird,” Situ Jin didn’t know what to say. These people were supposed to be fighting each other, yet they all started cheering after one person died.

Chu Yi laughed as he patted Han Linmei on the back, then said to Situ Jin, “I don’t know about the other side, but the resistance army comprises many people who’ve lost family members to this cult. Miss Han’s parents and one younger brother were all killed by these cult followers too.”

Situ Jin then realized what was happening and nodded. If the same thing happened in his world, he would definitely have joined the resistance army too.