Chapter 398  

The energy level of the empress didn’t go down in the slightest, and actually went up by another level. That was definitely not a sign of a dying person.

“This thing… can change its form?” Su Jin looked curiously at the fallen empress. The broken pieces of muscle and flesh started wriggling like earthworms, and in the blink of an eye, these wriggling pieces covered the empress’ entire body once more.

The new body covered by the pieces was extremely skinny, and the pieces covered the head as well. The only trace of the empress was her face, which remained uncovered.

“I don’t think you’ve become any more formidable than before.” Su Jin was in no hurry to launch any attacks and continued observing the change in the empress.

“Humph! You are very strong indeed, but the one person you shouldn’t have angered is me! I am a manifestation, and I represent… the power of the universe!” The empress let out a roar, and her skinny body suddenly grew in size like air had been pumped into it. Her previous three-meter body had grown to five meters, and she looked a lot more threatening now.

“The universe? No, you can’t represent anything in the world,” said Su Jin frostily. He pressed his hand down in front of him, and the sounds of something exploding resounded in the air.

Her expression turned to one of horror as she sensed that she had to make sure that Su Jin’s hand did not stretch all the way down. It was a feeling that sent shivers down her spine, so she immediately charged toward Su Jin. But she had only managed a few meters before smashing into an invisible wall.

“What is this?” The empress was completely puzzled. She was the manifestation of Hell’s Handbook and ought to be the most powerful being in this world, a being that could do anything and knew everything. Yet, there was now something she could not see. That was something that should not have happened, but… it was happening right now.

“Like I said, you can’t represent anything.” Su Jin suddenly brought his hand down further. The explosions in the air crackled more loudly, as though it was about to hack the world in two.

“Ahh!” The empress let out a shriek as the ground under her gave way. A round hole of about ten meters in diameter appeared in the floor, as though a giant stick had been jammed into it.

Not only was Su Jin not happy about this, but he also began to frown. Her energy level did not decrease and increased yet again. This empress was like a Saiyan – as long as he didn’t kill her, a stronger iteration of herself would reappear.

Bam! A large hand appeared at the top of the hole. The empress had managed to climb out of a hole that was more than ten meters deep, so she was at least of that height.

Just as he had expected, she climbed out in no time and her body had gone through another round of changes. The body that had been covered in flesh and muscle was now covered in bones. Her face was still there, but it was now in the middle of the bones. Her upper body was probably some sort of additional bony growth, while her actual body was probably connected to her face.

“You can’t kill me! Nobody can kill the manifestation of the universe!” She cackled loudly, then raised a foot to step on Su Jin at an alarmingly high speed.

It seemed like Su Jin failed to dodge in time as her foot landed on him. She broke into a smile, but before she could start celebrating, her foot wrapped in bones suddenly exploded. Su Jin leaped up from the explosion and appeared in front of her face.

“Why don’t you understand? You are nothing,” said Su Jin as he grabbed hold of her face and a strange glow appeared in his hands.

“What… what is this? This power… doesn’t belong to Hell’s Handbook,” squeaked the empress in horror. She slammed her arms hard toward Su Jin, but Su Jin merely moved his hand back gently, and an invisible layer covered his body such that her hands couldn’t reach him.

“Of course it doesn’t belong to the Handbook. I’ve named it… maniacal power!” Su Jin’s hands suddenly started burning fiercely. The flames instantly gobbled up the empress’ body, and she turned into a pile of ashes before she could even let out a scream.

Maniacal power was Su Jin’s power. It didn’t belong to Hell’s Handbook, and it didn’t belong to the will of the universe. It was completely outside of anything that existed in this universe.

This time, the empress was unable to evolve. If Su Jin had tried to use something that existed within the Handbook to kill her, she would really be invincible. The empress was able to make use of absolutely any form of energy and power that existed within the Handbook, so using that to fight her was as good as feeding her more energy.

And the empress’ belief that she was all-powerful wasn’t completely groundless either. From the moment the rules, the powers, and lifeforms of this world existed, there was a rule carved into the DNA of all things. They were not allowed to hurt the empress in any way.

Unfortunately for her, Su Jin was no longer bound by the rules of the Handbook, and wasn’t even something that belonged to this particular world. That was why he was able to kill her.

“Trying to get away just like that? Not so easy.” Su Jin could sense the presence of the manifestation of Hell’s Handbook. After her body had been killed, she tried returning to the main body. Of course, Su Jin could stop her, but if he did that, the main body would take notice and it would be hard for him to get away if the main body traced this to him. So, he decided not to keep the manifestation here and erased everything about himself from her memory. The manifestation tried to fight back, but she was helpless in the face of Su Jin’s power. He let her go after he had erased a large amount of information.

After the empress was killed, Su Jin disappeared in a flash. The emperor noticed that there were no more sounds of fighting coming from inside the palace, so he sent some of his royal guards back in to check. The guards returned to report that both Su Jin and the empress had disappeared. This matter not only became a complete mystery to the empire, but it also became an event that world historians continued to speculate about years later.

Thousands of years later, many scholars had their own take on the matter. Some even speculated that Su Jin and the empress were actually lovers who were separated by the emperor. Su Jin was badly affected by this separation and decided to become a great martial artist, and eventually became the martial god of his era. And once he was powerful enough, he barged into the palace to take the empress away.

Of course, Su Jin knew nothing about the ridiculous rumors surrounding what had happened. After he left the palace, he went back to his cave on the mountain.

The demons and the Yun siblings didn’t expect Su Jin to return so quickly. The nine tailed fox asked with a smile, “How did it go? All settled?”

“Yup. I slayed the manifestation of the Handbook in this world,” said Su Jin with a nod.

The three demons were too shocked to say anything for a while. The nine tailed fox said, “Gosh, you’re a fierce one. We thought… we thought you merely sealed it away.”

“Seal it away?” Su Jin blinked a few times. That was actually a pretty good idea. Not only would it ensure that this world would remain unaffected by the Handbook, but it would make it impossible for the manifestation to return to the main body. That way, the Handbook wouldn’t notice anything amiss.

Su Jin nearly burst out laughing at himself. He had been a little too violent of late and used violence to resolve any problem that came his way. He had to come to terms with this sort of thinking. If he became too obsessed with his own strength, he could easily end up having trouble thinking of solutions and methods that did not involve the use of it. He was very convinced that it would take more than sheer strength to fight the will of the universe and Hell’s Handbook.

“Since you’ve already set this world free, does that mean… it’s time for us to leave?” asked Bifang.

Su Jin hesitated for a moment, then shook his head. “Give me a bit more time. Those two children… are a little too young.”

The three demons were not surprised. They had all the time in the world to spare anyway, since they had already slept for a good 20 years. A few more wouldn’t hurt. “How long would you need?” asked Daitengu.

Su Jin gave it some thought, then said, “Let’s give it six years! We’ll leave this world after six years.”

Six years was not a long time. Yun Shan would be 16, and could be barely counted as an adult. Su Jin would be less worried if he only left then.