Hell's Handbook

Chapter 96: Foreknowledge

Inside the house, everybody had stopped moving, not because they decided to stop but because they couldn’t move at all. The moment the man’s voice resounded inside the house, nobody could move anymore.

“What’s going on?” Su Jin was equally taken aback. It was clear that everyone was under someone else’s control. Some of them had leaped into the air and were still in midair. This looked completely insane to Su Jin. Did someone have the ability to stop time or something?

If Su Jin was just taken aback, Ron and his team were absolutely terrified. They were Handbook owners and were more formidable than an ordinary human being themselves. But now, they couldn’t even see their enemy, yet their entire bodies could be controlled by him. They couldn’t imagine how powerful this person must be.

They soon heard the sound of someone coming up the stairs. A young man soon appeared within their line of sight. He walked over to Su Jin, squatted down beside Su Jin and picked up Su Jin’s hand.

“Hello there, my surname’s Xu. My friend came to make trouble for you the last time and I wanted to apologize on his behalf. Could I have a chat with you?” The man had a big and friendly smile on his face and didn’t look like a bad guy.

“I’m afraid I don’t have the time to talk to you,” said Su Jin with a sigh.

The young man looked up at Ron and his team and frowned slightly. After staring at them for a few seconds, he said, “I’m shocked that such an organization exists. I’ve never seen you people before.”

He then flicked his fingers and four out of five of them instantly dropped dead. A protective beam of light flickered around Ron, so he remained unhurt.

“I see you have something to protect yourself,” murmured the young man nonchalantly. That beam of light didn’t bother him at all.

“Xu Ran, you can’t kill me! Our organization has never done anything to offend you! If you kill me, you’re just asking for trouble! You can’t do that! You can’t!” yelled Ron in terror.

Ron knew exactly who this young man was. Before arriving in China, he had received a list of people they must never offend. Xu Ran was right at the top of this list.

“That’s not true.” Xu Ran flicked his finger again, causing the protective light around Ron to shatter, and also crushed Ron’s brain at the same time.

The floor was instantly covered with a mushy white liquid mixed with blood. Su Jin was used to bloody and cruel deaths, but this sight still made him feel uncomfortable.

“Can we talk now?” Xu Ran smiled as he lifted a finger and Su Jin immediately floated up from the floor.

Su Jin’s expression changed dramatically when he felt the force that was moving his body. This force felt exactly the same as his psychokinesis. In short, Xu Ran was also someone with Psychokinetic Spirit Power.

Xu Ran put Su Jin down on a chair, then pulled the chair that Ron used earlier and sat down across from Su Jin.

“Mr. Su, your situation doesn’t look too good. Let me see…hmm, you’ve gone through enlightenment once. Not bad! But you seem to have used a rather aggressive method to train up your psychokinesis. I need to warn you at this point that doing so is very dangerous. You were only paralyzed this time, but you might die the next time.” Xu Ran looked a little curiously at Su Jin. His control of his psychokinesis was much better than Su Jin’s, so it only took one glance for him to know what happened to Su Jin.

After Su Jin realized how much more powerful Xu Ran was in terms of his psychokinetic powers, he wasn’t surprised that Xu Ran had been able to read him so easily.

“This method might have almost cost me my life, but if I didn’t do that, I’d definitely be dead by now.” Su Jin then asked, “Mr. Xu, you mentioned that you were here to apologize on behalf of a friend. This friend of yours…”

“Oh! That! My friend’s name is Situ Jin and he’s from the Department of Supernatural Affairs. He came to make some trouble for you but…well, he ended up in trouble himself.” Xu Ran immediately started chuckling when he talked about how Situ Jin ended up on the losing end.

“Situ Jin?” Su Jin frowned and asked, “Mr. Xu, are you really here to apologize? Or are you here to…take me to task?”

“Oh no, of course I’m here to apologize! If I were here to take you to task, I’m afraid you’d be dead by now,” said Xu Ran as he rolled his eyes to act out what a dead man would look like. But he didn’t look or sound threatening when he said these words. He was just stating facts to Su Jin.

Su Jin nodded and said, “Mr. Xu, you’ve helped me to get rid of these fellows, so you’ve not only done me a big favor, but you’ve actually saved my life. I’m not going to pursue Mr. Situ’s matter any further.”

Xu Ran gave a pleased nod and said, “That’s great! Honestly speaking, that friend of mine is a little stubborn and he might give you trouble again in the future. I hope that you could let him off on account of the favor I’ve done for you today.”

Su Jin paused for a moment. He had amended Situ Jin’s memories the last time, so Situ Jin should not be suspicious of him anymore. But since Xu Ran knew about what happened, it probably meant that Situ Jin had regained his original set of memories.

“Mr. Xu, did you help him regain his memories?” Su Jin asked directly.

“Yup.”

“If you don’t want me to hurt Mr. Situ in any way, then I don’t think you ought to have helped him regain his memories. I don’t think changing anybody’s memories is an appropriate thing to do, but in that situation, that was the best way to make sure he never came knocking on my door again,” said Su Jin with a frown.

Xu Ran grinned and said, “Of course I understand that, but I have my own reasons. It’s too bad that he’s my best buddy and I have no choice but to clean up after him.”

He shook his head and looked like he really couldn’t do anything to make the situation better. Su Jin felt like he could understand how Xu Ran felt.

“Actually, I’ve got a really good way to make sure you never worry about me hurting your buddy ever again,” said Su Jin.

Xu Ran glanced at Su Jin, then burst out laughing when he realized what Su Jin was driving at. “Look, I’m not the bloodthirsty type. Besides, we’re all Handbook owners, so we’re in the same boat. There’s no need for us to attack one another.”

Su Jin burst out laughing this time. “Well, judging from how expertly and decisively you killed those guys, I’m not really sure if you’re not the bloodthirsty type anymore.”

Xu Ran glanced at the dead bodies on the floor and sneered, “These fellows are anomalies among Handbook owners, robbing other owners to empower themselves. What’s even worse is that they’re doing this outside of the Handbook universe, so they’ve crossed the line. Such people are just asking to be killed.”

Su Jin agreed. It was clear that Xu Ran really wasn’t here to kill him. After all, Xu Ran just had to snap his fingers and Su Jin would breathe his last.

“In any case, if that friend of mine comes looking for you, I hope you’ll be merciful towards him. As a show of my gratitude, let me repay you this way.” Xu Ran suddenly stood up, walked over and placed a finger on Su Jin’s temple.

Su Jin had an astonished look on his face but before he could ask what Xu Ran was doing, he felt a powerful force flow into his brain from his temple.

The brain was a human’s most powerful yet most fragile organ. If a person’s brain was damaged, it would affect the rest of the body severely.

Right now, Xu Ran’s Psychokinetic Spirit Power was travelling through Su Jin’s brain. Su Jin could feel the strength of that Spirit Power, but he could also sense that this power had no malicious intent and it was actually helping his own Spirit Power to take control of his body again.

Xu Ran’s Spirit Power did not forcibly take control of Su Jin’s body. Instead, it helped to push Su Jin’s Spirit Power along and guide it to where it should go.

Under the guidance of Xu Ran’s Spirit Power, Su Jin’s Spirit Power slowly began to fill his body and he was able to control his movements again.

Su Jin’s fingers moved slightly and a look of joy spread across his face. He was now able to move normally again.

Xu Ran took his own Spirit Power out of Su Jin’s body once Su Jin had recovered. He smiled and said, “Remember that feeling. If something similar happens again, I believe you’re now able to resolve it yourself.”

“Thank you so much!” Su Jin was truly grateful to Xu Ran. If not for Xu Ran, he had no idea when he would be able to take control of his body again. If he was still paralyzed by the time he had to start his next Challenge, he would be in grave danger.

“No need to thank me. Treat it as my way of thanking you in advance for letting my buddy off. I have a bad feeling that he’s going to look you up pretty often, so please remember what you promised me. You can beat him up and teach him a lesson in any way you like, but no matter what you do, please don’t kill him,” Xu Ran said very solemnly to Su Jin.

Su Jin nodded, but he still had questions. “But don’t you think it’s very troublesome to handle it like this? I mean, if there’s a misunderstanding between Mr. Situ and myself, wouldn’t it be better if we resolved that misunderstanding directly? Or seriously, if you just kill me, you won’t have to worry about this ever again. Not being the bloodthirsty type has nothing to do with this.”

But Xu Ran shook his head and sighed. “There are some things you don’t understand. If I didn’t have to, I wouldn’t do something that’s unnecessary either. Moreover, you’ve got great potential and I don’t want to kill someone like you. Also, if Situ Jin makes trouble for you again, please don’t mention my name, okay?”

Su Jin nodded in agreement. He couldn’t possibly refuse any of Xu Ran’s requests, since Xu Ran had just saved his life.

There was one more question on Su Jin’s mind. “Did you come here because you knew I was in danger?”

Xu Ran nodded, paused to think for a moment, then said, “Just like me, you’ve activated Psychokinetic Spirit Power. Some people think that it’s a useless type of Spirit Power, which is not entirely wrong, since it’s so hard to increase or improve it. But once you manage to grow it, this Spirit Power will become an extremely powerful force that can do wonders.”

“Daoists have a philosophy about foreknowledge. If a cultivator becomes one with the heavens, you will be able to sense danger before it happens. When Psychokinetic Spirit Power reaches a certain level, it will be capable of this as well.”

“I found out about you from Situ Jin, so I kept you on my mind since then. Just now I sensed that you might be in danger, so…I came over.”

Take someone to task - reprimand or criticize someone severely for a fault or mistake.