Chapter 374
“But… but why? Aren’t you a god who works for Hell’s Handbook?” Su Jin simply could not understand why the God of Sins was actually letting him go just like that.
The God of Sins was silent for a moment, then he raised his head to look at Su Jin as he said, “What sin do you think I committed back then?”
“You mean… wait, you…” Su Jin realized what the God of Sins was talking about. He nodded slightly at the God of Sins and said, “Thank you so much. I don’t know what’s going to really happen, but like you said, I will do what I can to survive.”
“Yeah, yeah,” the God of Sins nodded nonchalantly, then tapped the air with his finger to make a white door of light appear in front of Su Jin. “If you’ve got guts, use this door! It’ll save you quite a bit of trouble.”
Su Jin nodded and walked into the door of light without hesitation or making any preparations. The God of Sins watched as Su Jin disappeared, then sighed heavily as he let out a few sad laughs. “There are really so many fools like us! But I hope his luck’s better than ours.”
After passing through the door of light, Su Jin did not appear in his Personal Hell Domain, but appeared in his own bedroom. The God of Sins mentioned that taking this route would save him some trouble, and he was probably referring to this.
Immediately after he returned, the Demon Lord appeared in front of him. She stared at him in disbelief and murmured, “What’s… what’s going on with you? The shackles in your genes are gone… you’ve… you’ve chosen to take that path?”
Su Jin was surprised that the Demon Lord had realized this so quickly. He scratched his head and asked, “Is it that obvious? You can tell with just one look?”
“Nah, it’s the powers I have. Do you remember the Demon Lord’s Eye? I have the ability to see the true nature of everything, and the people who choose this path… are too obviously different from everyone else. It’s as if their genes have huge lightbulbs hanging from them, so it’s impossible for me miss that!” explained the Demon Lord excitedly. But her expression faltered after that as she said, “It’s too bad. You’ve been pretty good to me and I thought we’d be able to live like this for a longer period of time. But since you’ve chosen to take this path… I guess I should prepare a nice gravestone for you. What sort of design do you prefer?”
Su Jin didn’t know if he ought to laugh or cry at that. “I don’t need a gravestone. In fact, I’ve collected a bunch of them!” He stretched an arm and tore a hole in the space in front of him. Nearly a hundred gravestones from the Grave of the Gods were inside. He had collected all of them after he understood the path he wanted to take.
Now that he was outside of the rules created by Hell’s Handbook, Su Jin could understand powers even more clearly now. With his psychokinesis as his foundation, he was able to imitate all sorts of Spirit Powers. It was as though he had gone from being just a student to becoming a professor. In the past, he only knew what was taught to him. But now, he could be an advisor to others.
“You have spatial powers now. Sometimes the people who choose this path are pitiful, but sometimes they make me feel so envious. It’s so easy for you to learn and execute all sorts of powers,” said the Demon Lord with an envious look on her face.
Su Jin ignored her comment and searched through the space he had created, then retrieved one of the gravestones. He held it up in front of the Demon Lord and said, “This one should be useful to you, right?”
She took one look at the gravestone and shuddered all over. Her eyes widened in disbelief and she stuttered nervously, “This… this is the gravestone of the God of Destruction! How… how did you bring this out with you? Even if you’ve chosen to take that path, it’s impossible to take anything out of the Grave of the Gods, no?!”
Su Jin scratched his head and mumbled, “You mean I wasn’t supposed to be able to do this?”
“Of course not! The Grave of the Gods is a resting place for gods! Besides the one who is the highest of all beings, nobody can take any of the gravestones in there out. What in the world is going on?!” The Demon Lord was completely befuddled. As far as she knew, not even Hell’s Handbook could achieve such a thing. The people who went through the test inside could only take the gravestones to the God of Sins, absorb the energy from the gravestones, then return the gravestones.
Su Jin paused to think, then touched his palm. He had been able to do this probably only because of the thing that Kano Mai had given him. It had made him invisible to the Handbook, so it had also hidden all the things he carried with him, including these gravestones.
“I guess I got lucky?” Su Jin grinned. “Anyway, the powers of this gravestone are a perfect match for you. It’ll be useful to you, right?”
The Demon Lord nodded immediately and said, “It’s not just a perfect match. This was the exact one I used to become a god back then. If you’re really going to give this to me and I absorb the energy from it, I will definitely return to my peak. In fact… I can even continue being a god in the new cycle. I will… I would become a new god. Or rather, I would be no different from a new god.”
“Of course I’m going to give this to you,” said Su Jin without any qualms. “But I have a suggestion, and I’m wondering if you’d like to consider it.”
“I know what you’re thinking about. You want to set up your own god army, right?” said the Demon Lord without waiting for Su Jin to elaborate.
“My own god army?” Su Jin paused to appreciate the term that she had used. He nodded and said, “That’s exactly what it is. I need my own faction to fight against the will of the universe, so it’s correct to say that I would need my own god army.”
“The will of the universe?” The Demon Lord looked confused.
“You know, that highest of beings you were talking about earlier. Don’t you know who that is?” asked Su Jin curiously.
She shook her head and said, “I have no idea. That person’s existence is a huge mystery and he’s very powerful. Even when I had become a top tier god, I only caught a glimpse of him from afar. I have no idea who he really is.”
“So, what’s your choice? Do you want to just become a new god and get through one more cycle, or do you want to become part of my god army?” asked Su Jin with a smile.
The Demon Lord looked like she was having a hard time making a decision, so he said, “You can take your time to think about it first.”
She nodded, then grabbed hold of the gravestone Su Jin gave her and went to her room. Just when Su Jin’s expression turned to one of disappointment, she poked her head out from the room and said, “It’s not that I don’t want to become part of your army. It’s just that… I’ve seen others take this path before, and every single one ended up getting hunted down by Hell’s Handbook. If… if you can survive and become someone even greater than a top tier god, I will join you.”
“It’s a deal!” Su Jin smiled and nodded. That condition wasn’t too hard to fulfill. With that thing he received from Kano Mai, he had time to develop and grow.
He went on to rest for a few days before Xu Ran came knocking on his door. Xu Ran’s first words were, “You came back alive?”
“Yeah,” Su Jin nodded. He knew why Xu Ran said that. “I know Durand and the rest asked you to join them too, but you turned them down.”
“Yep. I’m not really powerful enough yet. I’m good enough to go, but it’s simply too dangerous. I’ve not seen them for a long time now and I thought all of you died in the Grave of the Gods, so I came over to check things out,” said Xu Ran.
Su Jin nodded, then tried asking, “Did you… did you receive any mission about me recently?”
“Any mission about you? What do you mean?” Xu Ran didn’t understand what Su Jin was trying to say.
“Oh, it’s nothing. Just a casual question,” Su Jin laughed it off quickly. Back inside the Grave of the Gods, every owner of every race had received the mission to kill him and the reward was to become a top tier god. But it now seemed like it was a mission only given to the owners inside the Grave of the Gods at that time. Other owners did not receive the mission.
Xu Ran knew that Su Jin had a secret he wasn’t willing to share, so he did not probe further. Instead, he asked curiously, “What’s the Grave of the Gods like?”
Su Jin knew that Xu Ran would have been excited about the Grave of the Gods, but while Xu Ran was usually someone who never used orthodox methods to deal with anything, he wasn’t a risk taker at all. Since Su Jin had returned unscathed, Xu Ran wanted to know how it could be done.
Su Jin was hoping to get Xu Ran to be part of his army, but after thinking about it, he decided to leave that for later. Most people would not want to join him unless he could prove that he was powerful enough to fight Hell’s Handbook. It was clear that he wasn’t at that level yet.
He went on to describe everything in detail to Xu Ran, since Xu Ran was considered half a friend to him. Su Jin was happy to help him in any way possible.
“Different races from other Handbook systems, you say…” Xu Ran stroked his chin. He didn’t seem surprised, as though he already knew about this.
“You knew about this?” asked Su Jin.
“Nah, I just discovered a few traces from other Challenges. I couldn’t figure out some things in the past, but I’ve figured it all out now,” said Xu Ran with a smile. He ended up leaving after chatting with Su Jin for a while, because when he went to say hello to the Demon Lord, they found that she had gone gallivanting again.
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