Hell's Handbook

Chapter 295: Individual Battles

A few moments later, a man came walking over. He scanned the area with a cruel glint in his eyes and frowned. This prey had been very difficult to catch and was very experienced. Despite injuring his prey’s leg so severely, the prey still managed to get away.

“Show yourself! I remember that you were one of Su Jin and Kano Mai’s teammates, so I will not let you off. But if you show yourself now, I’ll kill you with one shot. If you continue hiding, however, and I find you, I’ll make your last moments a living hell,” said the man in a calm manner.

Chu Yi had no idea how this madman was related to Su Jin and Kano Mai, but he knew that this man was not kidding. If the man found him, he was going to end up in a worse fate than death.

The man continued lingering around for a few more minutes, then gave up and moved in a different direction. Chu Yi remained in the darkness without moving, and after a few minutes, the man reappeared. Like what Chu Yi had predicted, the man had come back again after a while. If Chu Yi had come out of hiding earlier thinking he was safe, he would be dead meat.

The man finally gave up on this area for good and ran off quickly. Chu Yi also breathed a huge sigh of relief. He ended up fighting this man because he spotted the man trying to kill another owner. Chu Yi’s first instinct was to try and just stop him from killing the other owner, but to his horror, this man was very stubborn and incredibly formidable. It had only taken him one beam of sword qi to pierce his calf.

Thankfully, he wasn’t some newbie martial artist without any experience. He used his experience to find a way to shake him off, then created a few red herrings along the way to mislead him, earning him a bit more time to run.

But this guy was really terrifying. Despite being misled by his clues initially, the man realized he was being misled very quickly and started running toward Chu Yi again. The good part was that Chu Yi had gained sufficient time earlier and had continued to put more misleading clues along the way. That was how he managed to get through this crisis.

“He’s a grandmaster. He’s definitely a grandmaster. I used to think that my teachers had pretended that such people existed in order to motivate us. I didn’t expect a grandmaster to really exist!” Chu Yi tore his sleeve and bandaged his calf. He had used up quite a bit of his blood to make it look like he had escaped in a different direction, but if he continued letting himself bleed like that, he was going to die from the loss of blood even if that madman didn’t catch up with him.

“Boss! Where are you guys?” Chu Yi sighed helplessly.

Just then, he saw something in the ground in front of him move. This made Chu Yi break into a cold sweat and he grabbed a rock next to him. It was going to be too hard for him to dodge any attacks, since the wound on his calf made it hard for him to move quickly. If his attacker was a dangerous character, trying to run with his injury might kill him even faster, so… he figured it was better to try fighting instead.

As he grumbled to himself about how unlucky he was, he gripped the rock more tightly. He was going to give whatever came out of the ground the most aggressive attack he could muster the moment it surfaced.

Just then, the surface of the soil broke open and a muddy figure appeared in front of Chu Yi. He swung his arm hard.

“Chu Yi!” Just then, the figure suddenly called out to him.

Chu Yi stopped his attack halfway and found this muddy figure rather familiar. When he took a closer look, he realized that this muddy fellow was actually Wu Chen.

“Uncle Wu! Why… What’s going on?” Chu Yi was a bit confused and couldn’t figure out why Wu Chen would have appeared from underground.

Wu Chen stared at the rock in Chu Yi’s hand and widened his eyes. “Good heavens! I’m so glad I yelled your name in time, otherwise you’d end up killing poor ole me.”

Chu Yi threw the rock aside immediately and laughed sadly. “You were about to suddenly emerge from underground, so I had to get myself prepared. But why were you underground in the first place?”

“I wasn’t underground. I merely dug myself a hole and buried myself in it.” Wu Chen rolled his eyes.

“WHAT?! Why did you try to kill yourself?!” exclaimed Chu Yi.

Wu Chen rolled his eyes again and sighed, “And who said I was trying to kill myself?”

“You buried yourself alive.”

“Does burying myself alive mean I’m definitely going to die? I managed to climb out of the hole by myself in the end, didn’t I?” said Wu Chen. “Earlier on, I ran into a mad man who seemed to know Jin and Mai, but this guy refused to stop trying to kill me! Luckily, I have amazing disguise skills. If not, I’d have died at his hands.”

“You ran into him too?” Chu Yi was surprised. He was quite sure the man who tried to kill Wu Chen was the same one who came after him as well.

Wu Chen was surprised. “Too? You mean… you…”

Chu Yi showed Wu Chen the wound on his calf and said, “That guy is super vicious. He just kept running after me to kill me. A few monsters tried to block his way and he literally tore those things apart.”

“Damn it! Who in the world did Jin and Mai offend?” Wu Chen punched the ground, then said, “We can’t stay here any longer. Which direction did he leave in? We’ll go the other way.”

“That’s a good idea,” said Chu Yi without hesitation. They supported one another and hobbled off in the opposite direction.

Meanwhile, Situ Jin had just run out of a haunted house while holding Bo Ya’s hand. The two of them were very lucky to have been sent together to a haunted house. A total of five people had been sent to the same place, but he and Bo Ya were the only survivors.

“Thank you, Bo Ya! If you hadn’t solved that riddle just in time, we’d have both died,” said Situ Jin as he panted heavily. That haunted house had been terrifying. If it were a Challenge in itself, that would have made for a Level B Challenge involving supernatural beings. And they had been thrown into such a place without any additional powers or items.

Bo Ya had been terribly frightened as well and her face was pale. “I was just lucky. Mai and I went through some riddle solving training earlier on. I didn’t think it would turn out useful either.”

Situ Jin immediately responded, “Looks like if we’re able to get out of this place alive, I’ll make sure to train myself in those areas that seem completely useless on the surface!”

Bo Ya nodded. “What do we do now? Do we look for our teammates?”

“Yep. We’d be safest once we all get together. But before that happens, let’s rest here and recuperate for a while first.” Situ Jin looked concernedly at Bo Ya. He began to wonder if he did the right thing by allowing Bo Ya to become an owner back then.

At the same time, Ye Yun and Kano Mai were fighting against a burly, black man. Initially, the man launched a sneak attack on Kano Mai, and while getting away, she found Ye Yun, who had landed nearby. And of course, Ye Yun was going to help her.

“Watch out, Miss Ye! This man is well versed in all sorts of fighting techniques and he’s very formidable!” Kano Mai wiped away the blood on her lips. Without the help of anything from the Handbook, her physique was no match for a man. And it didn’t help that her opponent was a muscular, taller man trained in mixed martial arts.

The black man had a disdainful smile on his face as he said to them, “I thought I was only going to get one point, but you’ve come with a companion and I’m going to get two points now.”

“I hope I can make this clear to you: fighting among ourselves is meaningless. There aren’t that many of us in the first place, so even if you kill us and get two points… think about it. How possible will it be for you to get eight more from the remaining numbers?”

“Accumulating points is only meant for reviving anybody who dies in this Challenge. But if we join forces, the chances of all of us surviving will be much higher. You might get two points now, but if you don’t get another eight, then none of your points will be worth anything. I think working together will go a much longer way than trying to get these meagre two points from us,” Ye Yun said to the man calmly.

But the man shook his head immediately and grinned maniacally at her. “Accumulating points? I think you’re mistaken. Accumulating those points is just a bonus to me. What I want is that… exhilarating feeling from killing both of you.”

“A psychopath, huh.” Ye Yun frowned. If this man was a psycho, then there was no point in talking. She called out to Kano Mai, “Mai, help me to keep him in check! I’ll deal with him!”

Kano Mai was a little stunned. She didn’t know how this small-sized young lady was going to fight the muscular black man, but while she was still in a daze, Ye Yun had already charged toward the man.

The man cackled and said, “You’re very bold, but that’s about it! Killing someone like you makes me even more excited!” The man threw a punch toward Ye Yun.

Oh no, thought Kano Mai. The black man was very good at fighting and was both very quick and strong. If that punch landed on Ye Yun, she was going to be badly hurt.

But to both Kano Mai and the black man’s surprise, Ye Yun moved to the side just in time to dodge the man’s fist, then used her fingertips to jab upward, accurately jabbing into the man’s armpit.

“Ow!” yelled the black man in pain. He angrily tried to raise his arm to tear Ye Yun to pieces only to find that his arm seemed to be broken or something. He couldn’t raise it at all.

“How on earth…” exclaimed the man in shock. At the same time, Ye Yun swung her leg like a whip and kicked the man in the neck.

Pfft! The man sprayed a mouthful of blood after getting kicked, and was sent flying and rolling like a gourd.

Kano Mai was too stunned for words. Ye Yun… was amazing.

The black man struggled to get up. He stared at Ye Yun in disbelief and muttered, “You’re able to release your internal energy, you’re… you’re a martial artist at master level!”

“Oh? You know what a martial artist at master level is? You’re not some dumb gym rat after all! Tell me now, between the two of us, who do you think is the hunter and who is the hunted?”

A look of terror appeared in the man’s eyes. He was very good at fighting, but… he was no match for a martial arts master, unless he regained the powers that the Handbook had given him.