Hell's Handbook

The Beginning was in shambles, but its eyes were completely calm. It was a system, so it only took orders from the one authorized to give it instructions and carried those instructions out.

Across from The Beginning was the incarnation of Hell’s Handbook. That somewhat hilarious yet horrifyingly terrifying clown. He was faring no better and was just floating in midair, his eyes glazed over. The one controlling him was gone and only one person was allowed to control him. Once that person was removed, he didn’t know what to do.

Su Jin gave the command and a group of current gods and Deities appeared before him. They had suffered a lot of casualties too. The current gods were almost all dead. The Deities fared better, but even so, a good half of them had been wiped out. Another clown had been teleported to this space along with them.

Hell’s Handbook was much more powerful than The Beginning. Even though it was fighting with The Beginning, it managed to allocate some power to its actual body to protect itself. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for it to fight a bloody war against the current gods and the Deities.

“It’s been hard on you guys.” Su Jin sighed. This was a victory at the expense of many people’s lives. Many who had supernatural powers, many who had been considered gods by ordinary people, had lost their lives in this fight.

As Su Jin sighed, the injuries of the Deities and the current gods healed up immediately, and they returned to their peak state. They bowed slightly toward Su Jin to thank him for everything he had done.

The two clowns merged into one and he muttered, “The authorized one has disappeared; permissions function is locked, Hell’s Handbook will now go into hibernation mode.”

After he said those words, he slowly shut his eyes and floated away. Su Jin glanced at it, then grabbed hold of Hell’s Handbook. This thing was too dangerous, so he couldn’t just allow it float away just like that.

“You’ve worked hard as well,” said Su Jin to The Beginning. The Beginning nodded slightly at him but there was no life in its eyes. Just like Hell’s Handbook, it was nothing more than a system. If Su Jin had lost the war, its fate would be worse than the Handbook’s.

At the same time, several Su Jins appeared within the different universes. He stopped the fight between the current gods and the new gods, and announced the end of the war.

Everyone was too stunned for words. The new gods felt like a weight was lifted from their bodies. Their badges of godhood had been liberated!

In the blink of an eye, three days had passed. Su Jin was reunited with all the gods within his seven planet temple. While they no longer had a reason to fight, they were still worried.

The will of the universe had used a violent way to rule the universe, but his violence had indeed prevented the main world from dying because the other branch worlds had taken too much energy from it.

The new cycles and old cycles was the process by which the main world regenerated itself. A large number of lifeforms were wiped out each time, but there were always some left behind. Now, Su Jin had defeated the will of the universe. How was he going to rule the universe?

Su Jin looked at all of them, then said, “Everyone, the previous era is over. This cycle will not be destroyed, so you can go ahead and enjoy the life you like.”

“My lord, what about… the future?” asked a Deity loudly.

Su Jin smiled and said, “Time will create the future. Why should we worry about it?”

“But if the branch worlds continue to drain the main world of its energy and it really dies, then… wouldn’t all our efforts go down the drain?” asked one of the gods.

Su Jin shook his head and said, “Don’t worry about that. I’ve found someone who can keep tabs on how much energy is flowing out of the main world and take back the correct amount each time.”

“Is there actually someone who can do that?”
“Someone who can watch over millions of universes? Only he can do that, no?”

Everyone started whispering among themselves. Even Xu Ran and his companions stared oddly at Su Jin.

Su Jin tapped the air and a beam of light flew out from his fingertip. It was a clown grinning away, but he looked silly and cheery, not terrifying and sinister like he used to.

“Oh my god, it’s Hell’s Handbook!”
“Didn’t it already lock its system down?”
“Damn, this guy is way too dangerous, isn’t he?”

The gods felt their hair stand on end. They weren’t as terrified of the will of the universe as they were terrified of Hell’s Handbook, since they had way more contact with the Handbook. The Handbook was practically etched into their memories. Almost their entire life had been within the control of the Handbook.

Su Jin noticed the horrified looks on everyone’s faces and quickly explained, “There’s no need to worry, The Beginning has already reset his system, so from today onward, Hell’s Handbook will change its name to The Start. He will watch over the main world and make sure he gets back any energy that leaves the main world.”

“What about the other branches?” asked another god.

“We’ll leave that to nature. The development of life should not be constrained by the possibility of future destruction. From now on, no new branch worlds will be formed, but the existing ones will not disappear. Life will give us the best answer. Perhaps we will finally be able to judge if our decision today was right or wrong thousands of years later,” said Su Jin quietly.

Was the will of the universe wrong to do what he did? Not necessarily so. Was Su Jin doing the right thing? Not necessarily so either. Only time would give a fair answer. But compared to the will of the universe, Su Jin was willing to wait for the answer, while the will of the universe wanted to make sure the answer was what he wanted.

Su Jin went on, “I will let everyone go their own way and this temple will cease to exist. Gods will no longer exist in this world. Everyone can go back to their own race, or travel from world to world. Or you could find a place and create your own little country. You are the pioneers of a new civilization. Of course… if anyone tries to be funny and brings trouble to others… don’t blame me if I come down hard on you!”

Su Jin glared at everyone to warn them. But in reality, it was impossible to erase all evil and desires. Su Jin himself had no idea what would happen in the future. He could only do his best to keep the peace.

Everyone present was too shocked to speak. Su Jin had absolute authority over the universe, but he had decided to dissolve the temple. The Nine-tailed Fox said to Su Jin, “My lord, what about you? What will you do now?”

“Me?” Su Jin smiled faintly as he took Ye Yun’s hand in his. “We’re going to wait for an old friend to come back, and we’ve got many old friends we need to meet.”

With that, the seven planets of the temple separated from one another, each becoming the core of a gigantic nebula. Su Jin and Ye Yun disappeared as well, but Chu Yi and the rest continued to smile because they knew where to look for them.

Back on Earth, in the small mountain village where Su Jin was born, Su Qing stood in the living room with reddened eyes. She had cried so many times. Shen Wu stood in front of her and tried to console her, “My dear, I’ve told you before that you can’t discipline a child like that!”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m the one who gave birth to her and not you, so only I feel the pain,” snapped Su Qing as she glared at Shen Wu before caressing Yuan’er’s little head gently.

But Yuan’er pushed her mother’s hand away and ran to her uncle instead. Su Jin sighed and said, “Shen Wu, I managed to save your soul and allowed you to live one more time – are you regretting it now?”

Shen Wu burst out laughing. “Only an idiot would regret it! I killed so many people and did many evil things, but I made up for it during that last battle. I deserve to live this new life!”

Su Jin’s lips twitched. This man was really annoying!

Meanwhile, Ye Yun covered her mouth and giggled as she said to Su Jin, “My cousin’s coming over later. She knows that you erased her memories back then, so… you’d better watch out!”

Su Jin felt his head spin and quickly said, “Dear, I have to attend to something else, so I’m off!” He disappeared in a flash, leaving the ladies behind to laugh.

At night, a beautiful moon hung in the sky, but Su Jin held an equally bright moon in his hand. He looked into the distance and smiled as he said, “It’s very cold and foggy on the mountain, you’ve got to take care of yourself.”

“What are you talking about?! You know well that even if you threw either of us into icy waters right now, our bodies would hold up just fine,” said Ye Yun as she made a face. She sat down next to Su Jin and sighed as she looked at the little moon in his hand. “Jin, when can Sister Mai come back?”

“I have no idea. This was all that was left of her soul when I took The Beginning apart. I’m afraid we might have to wait for a long, long time. But we’ve got plenty of time. Even if we have to wait for an eternity, we’ll wait for her to come back!” Su Jin smiled.

Ye Yun nodded vigorously. Just then, several beams of light came shooting their way. Su Jin got up and said, “Tsk! They’re here for a free meal again! This place seems to have become Team Boning Knife’s personal dining hall or something!”

“Why, you don’t like it when they do that?” asked Ye Yun as she hooked her arm around his.

Su Jin smiled brightly, “Oh no, no, I LOVE IT!”