Hell's Handbook

Chapter 112: The Original Sins Reappear

After going closer, Su Jin and the rest realized that these animals were just gold in color but not actually made from gold. Su Jin caught hold of a toad and it felt exactly the way a toad should. Besides its golden color, the rest of it was the same as an ordinary toad.

“They’re not made of gold.” Cai Dexiang had caught a snake and made the same observation immediately.

Su Jin said, “It’s probably a color for protection. Since everything in this place is gold, it’s easier to survive if you’re the same color.”

The rest agreed with Su Jin’s hypothesis. Thousands of animals in the real world made themselves the same color as their surroundings in order to camouflage themselves and keep themselves from getting eaten.

“But why are they running?” They had initially thought that the toads and rats were being chased down by the snakes, but they realized that this wasn’t the case at all. There were some snakes that had caught up with the rats and toads, but they were clearly escaping from something and not interested in hunting the other animals.

Su Jin had caught one of each animal and tried to keep them inside his Handbook. To his delight, the Handbook allowed him to keep these golden animals inside just like any other item.

“That’s a clue!” Su Jin’s eyes lit up. The Handbook did not allow owners to keep anything else besides weapons purchased with points and items that were essential to the Challenge. Since it allowed him to keep these animals inside, it meant that these small animals were vital to this Challenge.

The rest of the group also started collecting these animals, since these things might very well be able to save them in times of trouble. Even Chu Yi and the two girls bravely came forward to catch a few themselves.

It didn’t take long for the seven of them to catch all the golden little animals. Once they were sure that they had caught them all, they continued on their way.

Woong! A black mist suddenly came towards them.

Su Jin and Long Zhenglei recognized this black mist instantly. The four veterans reacted quickly by activating their Spirit Power to protect the group. They had to work together to keep the black mist at bay.

“It’s Sloth!” Su Jin began to look around. Since Sloth’s black mist had made an appearance, it meant that Sloth itself had to be nearby.

But what Su Jin found was not Sloth. Instead, he found a creature covered with arms. Nobody else recognized this Original Sin, but Su Jin did. It was Gluttony.

“Everyone, be careful! We’ve got two Original Sins here!” Su Jin felt that something was very wrong here. They hadn’t run into any Original Sins along the way. Why did they appear only within the city of gold and even start attacking them?

Gluttony pounced towards the group. The seven of them were food to it, and it had to gobble all of them up.

“Crap!” Everyone’s heart sank. It was already hard enough to deal with one Sloth, and now, Gluttony had joined in. They were going to die at this rate.

“We can’t just stand around and wait to die. We’ve got to fight with all we have!” Su Jin gritted his teeth and yelled at the other three veterans, “You guys hold off Sloth, I’ll deal with Gluttony!”

They nodded and Su Jin retracted his Spirit Power. He retrieved the Demon Lord’s Longbow and pulled the string back. Sparkles in the shape of an arrow immediately took shape and Su Jin sent the Roar of the Demon Lord out towards Gluttony.

Gluttony did not bother dodging the attack at all and even remained where it was so that the Roar of the Demon Lord would hit it. It turned into dust and disappeared altogether.

“Huh?!” Su Jin was surprised by what just happened. Gluttony was no fool. He had threatened Gluttony with the Longbow before too and Gluttony had chosen to flee before he even had the chance to shoot. Why did it remain in position and let him kill it so easily this time?

“Don’t just stand there! We’re not going to hold up for long!” yelled Cai Dexiang. The three of them were still struggling to keep the black mist at bay and were under a lot of pressure.

Su Jin looked into the black mist and noticed a golden pyramid in the middle of it. He pulled his string back and aimed the Roar of the Demon Lord at the pyramid. The pyramid instantly disappeared along with Sloth that was hiding behind it.

“Something’s not quite right!” The fact that both Original Sins had been killed so easily made Su Jin feel very uneasy about this situation. How could the clever Original Sins that got away earlier suddenly become so easy to vaporize?

Just then, Su Jin started convulsing. The side effects of using the Demon Lord’s Spirit Power in quick succession was taking its toll on him. His psychokinesis had increased by quite a bit since the first day he activated his Spirit Power and was better able to suppress the Demon Lord’s Spirit Power as well, but using so much of it at one shot was still too much for his body to take.

“Boss!” Once the black mist disappeared, Chu Yi ran over to keep Su Jin from collapsing.

Su Jin shook his head. All this was part of his training, after all. If he wanted to become stronger, he had to pay the price. At least now he had reached an agreement with the Demon Lord and didn’t have to worry about becoming the Demon Lord’s lackey. That was good enough for him.

On the other hand, Cai Dexiang and Long Zhenglei were pleased that two Original Sins had been killed off just like that. That was a pleasant surprise.

“Don’t be happy too soon. Something’s not quite right here. These Original Sins can’t possibly be so weak,” said Su Jin. This whole thing didn’t make sense, so he preferred to err on the side of caution.

Long Zhenglei began to realize that this didn’t make sense either. He knew how hard it was to deal with Sloth. If Sloth had been so easy to deal with, he wouldn’t have suffered so badly earlier on.

Immediately after Su Jin finished speaking, brilliant sparkles appeared where Gluttony once was and was beginning to come together to form Gluttony again.

Su Jin stared at the sparkles in shock. How could something shot by the Demon Lord’s Longbow possibly come back to life? He spun around to look at where Sloth had once been and saw that the black mist was gathering again.

“Run! Run! Run!! We must not stay here anymore! RUN!” yelled Su Jin with all his might. They had to get out of this place before the two Original Sins took shape again.

As the seven of them ran through the city, the two Original Sins were restored and started chasing them. Gluttony was moving rapidly towards them, while Sloth was much slower.

“What’s going on?” wondered Su Jin to himself as he ran and made observations at the same time. He suddenly realized one strange thing about these two. The Original Sins were all very talkative fellows, but these two hadn’t said a single word.

“Is it possible that these two aren’t Gluttony and Sloth in their actual forms?” This thought popped up in Su Jin’s mind, but he dared not stop to test this theory out. If his guess was wrong, he was definitely going to end up dead.

But they couldn’t outrun Gluttony and Gluttony was going to catch up soon. Chu Yi suddenly stopped and yelled, “All of you go ahead, I’ll stall this fellow!”

“And you think you can stall it yourself?!” Cai Dexiang yelled right back. But he also stopped running. There were only four veterans in the group. If Chu Yi died, then they would be at an even greater disadvantage. Su Jin and Long Zhenglei were both injured, so he was the only one who could assist Chu Yi in a fight.

Chu Yi’s style of fighting had always been very aggressive, so he leaped towards Gluttony, brought both palms back, then thrust them towards Gluttony as he exhaled with all his might.

“Quadruple Qi Thrust, Billowing Sea Waves!”

Boom boom boom boom! Gluttony stopped in its tracks as the area hit by Chu Yi’s internal energy exploded four times in a row and blasted Gluttony to pieces.

“Wow…” Cai Dexiang wanted to help, but Chu Yi had actually killed Gluttony with one move, so he couldn’t help but marvel at Chu Yi’s prowess.

Boom! Another blast filled the air, but this time, it came from Chu Yi. One of his arms started spurting blood because his blood vessels had burst from overexertion.

Chu Yi clutched his arm and retreated, then bandaged his arm very simply while saying to Cai Dexiang, “It can’t be helped, I had to go all out. Unfortunately my body is not really strong enough, so I think I might have broken something elsewhere too.”

“You’re crazy!” said Cai Dexiang. Executing a move that was too much for the body to take sounded completely insane to him.

As they spoke, Cai Dexiang’s expression turned to a one of horror, and he immediately started running. Chu Yi turned to look behind him puzzledly, only to find that Gluttony was beginning to piece itself together again despite being blasted to nothing just moments ago.

Chu Yi instantly started running as well and they quickly caught up with the rest. After they told the rest what happened earlier, Su Jin was even more stumped. “There’s no way the Original Sins are unafraid of dying. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been so afraid of my Demon Lord’s Longbow.”

“But that’s exactly what happened! These things simply will not die!” Cai Dexiang couldn’t believe he had to argue with Su Jin over this. Gluttony had been reduced to nothing twice now, but it was still able to revive itself. These creatures were clearly immortal.

“Boss, I smell a lot of sulphur ahead!” said Ning Meng as she held onto Kano Mai.

Su Jin blinked in surprise and looked around for the source of the sulphur. He immediately noticed a place engulfed by flames. The smell was coming from there. Su Jin ran over to take a closer look to find that it was a huge area covered in flames, as if it was the entrance to hell or something.

“Fire and brimstone!” This was a place that was also mentioned in the introduction to the Challenge. But while it was easy to keep those golden little animals in the Handbook, how was he going to keep this place in there?

He decided to try flinging the Handbook into the flames. He wasn’t afraid that the Handbook would be destroyed since he had tried several times to destroy this Handbook in the real world, but it seemed like no natural means could destroy this book.

The Handbook gleamed brightly, then all the flames and sulphur disappeared as they were absorbed by the Handbook.

Su Jin picked up his Handbook again and gave a pleased nod. This fire and brimstone was definitely of some use, just that he didn’t know how right now.

After he walked back to where the group was, the other team member of Shadow of Thor waved his Handbook at Su Jin and said excitedly, “Mr. Su, I found a golden carriage and it’s inside my Handbook now!”

“That’s for tearing someone apart!” Su Jin’s eyes lit up. He didn’t think they would be able to gather so many items related to the punishments so quickly.

“Enough talking, Gluttony’s catching up soon,” Cai Dexiang reminded the rest.

But they couldn’t run any further. Two Original Sins were standing silently in their way, one glowing pink and the other glowing milky white.

“Is it just me or…is that another two Original Sins?!” Chu Yi’s lips twitched uncontrollably.