Hell’s Handbook - Chapter 179
Chapter 179 – Pig-headed Demigod
Now that each team had been assigned to a different carriage, the other owners viewed the members of Team Boning Knife with much less hostility. After all, if Su Jin hadn’t discovered the secret behind this supposed train ticket, how many of them would have survived the payment process?
The Handbook didn’t leave owners with a lot of time to move from one place to another, so they had to hurry toward their own carriage. When the woman from Red Dragon who lost many years of her life earlier walked past Su Jin, she glared at him with hatred in her eyes.
Su Jin was certain that it was hatred. His psychokinesis had become stronger and stronger, so if anybody felt very strongly toward him, he could sense it now.
But he didn’t understand why she would hate him. After thinking about the possibilities, he laughed sadly to himself. Was she angry because she thought that he already knew the Handbook was the ticket but purposely didn’t tell her earlier, which caused her to end up in this state?
He shook his head and scoffed. He had thought of this possibility only after the goat-headed man had pointed at him, so there was no way he could have told her. Besides, this was the world of the Hell’s Handbook after all. Every owner had to take responsibility for their own life and death, and nobody was obliged to take care of another’s life. And so what if he had known about this earlier and had deliberately held the information back? He was responsible for taking care of his teammates, but he wasn’t responsible for other owners’ teammates.
Once he had straightened his thoughts out about this matter, he led his team toward the carriage they were assigned to. It was only two carriages away from the one they had first appeared in, while the carriage of Liu Bowen’s Team, High Mountain, was right beside theirs.
When Team Boning Knife walked through the first carriage to get to theirs, their hearts skipped a beat in fear. The other carriages were indeed filled with other passengers. But these other passengers didn’t look human at all. Su Jin felt like he was looking at a 3D version of some of those folklore stories he read as a child. There were some creatures he had never seen before.
The creatures sat quietly in their seats. Some looked up curiously to glance at them as they walked past, but they only took one glance.
The five of them nervously passed through the first carriage and came to the second one. Just like the previous one, this carriage was also filled with strange creatures. A humanlike one would appear from time to time, but they were either ridiculously good looking, or so ugly, you instinctively wished you could gouge your eyeballs out.
This was the carriage allocated to Team High Mountain. Their seats were located in one corner of the carriage. They couldn’t help but look up when Team Boning Knife walked past them, but they dared not greet them or even make a single sound, because a monster with devilish wings was sleeping soundly right next to them.
“This is the Train of the Supernatural… so, these are all creatures from those legends and folklore?” thought Su Jin. Just when they were about to get through the second carriage, a gigantic figure suddenly appeared and blocked their way.
“Goddess of the Harvest! How dare you trick me! I’m going to kill you!” The huge thing in their way turned out to be a monster with a pig’s head. For a moment, they thought that this was Zhu Bajie from Journey to the West.
The Goddess of the Harvest turned out to be a beautiful and elegant woman. She had a head of green, long hair and there were green stalks growing out from her shoulders and the tips of her ears, so she seemed approachable.
“Ennui! You might be a god from the Camishya civilization, but your powers are nothing compared to a real god, so don’t you dare challenge me, or I’ll let you know how terrifying a real god can be.” The Goddess of the Harvest did not seem the least bothered by the pig-headed creature’s threat.
The pig-headed creature called Ennui instantly flew into a rage and roared angrily, but he did not dare to go anywhere closer to the goddess, so perhaps the goddess had been correct in saying that Ennui was nowhere as powerful as she was.
The Goddess of the Harvest looked at Ennui’s ugly pig head in disgust. She tapped the air with her skinny branch like finger and a bright green stem instantly grew out of Ennui’s nose, quickly filling his nostrils.
“No, no! Goddess of the Harvest, I was wrong! I admit to my wrongdoing! Please spare me!” Ennui apologized profusely and no longer had any of the pride a god should have. It seemed like this wasn’t the first time he was doing something like this.
The Goddess of the Harvest took back the stem from his nostrils and Ennui quickly took several steps backwards, causing him to ram straight into Su Jin.
Su Jin had to admit that this Ennui was truly a god of a civilization. Su Jin’s physique was almost invincible now, yet he still stumbled several steps backwards after Ennui bumped into him, and the rest of his teammates nearly fell as well.
“Where did this blind bat come from? Are you tired of living?!” Ennui roared angrily at Su Jin and his companions. The saliva spraying out of his mouth and nose were incredibly disgusting.
Su Jin frowned but didn’t say anything. It was better not to offend any of the creatures inside a Challenge.
Ennui immediately became smug when he saw that Su Jin and the rest just bowed their heads without uttering a word. As they walked past him, he suddenly took a few sniffs.
“Wait! Stop right there!” There was a strange glint in his eyes as he walked to Kano Mai and kept sniffing her up and down.
“Ahhh! This smell… you’re very close to my strength, even though… there’s a tiny difference. But it’s all good. I’m taking this woman,” said Ennui as he moved to grab Kano Mai.
Su Jin wasn’t going to let him take Kano Mai away just like that, so he dashed over to stand in front of her and snapped, “Wasn’t the lesson that the Goddess of the Harvest gave you just now enough?”
Ennui was a little taken aback as he glanced at the Goddess of the Harvest for a moment, then looked back at Su Jin and the rest behind him. He had never seen these fellows before. Could they really be actual gods?
He decided to be careful and asked, “Why? Are you all real gods too?”
Su Jin fell silent for a few seconds, then insisted, “We’re not real gods, but… we’re spokespersons for real gods. Offending us is the same as offending our god!”
Immediately after Su Jin said that, Ennui had a look of contempt in his eyes. How dare a bunch of spokespersons behave so arrogantly?
Meanwhile, Liu Bowen and his team had turned to watch as well. Su Jin’s team was the strongest among the three, so they wanted to see if he could handle this crisis in the train.
“Heh heh! Since you’re not a real god, then I’m not going to listen to your nonsense. I’m taking this woman with me. If you want her back, get your god to talk to me.” Ennui reached for Kano Mai again.
Kano Mai had a terrified look in her eyes. This pig-headed creature was very strong and was comparable to Prince Charming of the Fairytales of Horror Challenge. Su Jin and the rest were stronger than when they went through that Challenge, but it was still impossible for them to defeat a demigod easily.
But Su Jin grabbed hold of the hand that Ennui had stretched toward Kano Mai. His expression was stern as he said, “Are you sure you want to do this?”
Ennui trembled slightly as he looked in surprise at Su Jin. The other passengers also looked up and the Goddess of the Harvest exclaimed softly.
“Goodness me! This power comes from a real god of the darkness and he is extremely powerful. More powerful than I am!” The Goddess of the Harvest gave an assessment in less than a second.
Su Jin had used the Demon Lord’s Eye that had replaced his heart to unleash some of the Demon Lord’s Spirit Power. The only thing he could do now was to pretend to be more powerful than he really was, hoping that the Demon Lord’s name would be enough to scare off this pig-headed demigod.
Just like he had hoped, the pig-headed demigod hesitated before withdrawing his hand. The team breathed a sigh of relief and was about to move on when Ennui yelled at them to stop again.
“Young man, since your god is so powerful, I won’t snatch her from you. But since we’re both gods, then I’d like to strike a deal with you. How bout that?” said Ennui with a cackle.
“There’s no need for that,” Su Jin turned him down without hesitation. He didn’t want to bring any unnecessary trouble to himself. He wanted to quickly get to the carriage he was supposed to be in, find his seat, and just sit down.
But the demigod wasn’t taking no for an answer. Su Jin immediately felt a terrifying energy gathering behind him. He turned his head stiffly to see that Ennui looked furious. Several sharp fangs had appeared in his mouth, and he looked ready to swallow them anytime.
“Just because your god is powerful doesn’t mean you can speak to another god like this! I’m informing you, not negotiating with you!” Ennui was like a demon in charge of meting out punishment in hell. He took a step forward and stared down at Su Jin from his height of more than three meters. If Su Jin’s psychokinesis wasn’t strong enough, he would have buckled from the terrifying aura that Ennui exuded.
There was clearly no choice but to comply. Su Jin sighed inwardly, then nodded in agreement. “How do we go about doing this?”
Once Su Jin asked that question, Ennui stopped emanating that terrifying aura and the teeth in his mouth instantly shrank. He gave a pleased nod and said, “I can give you an item in exchange. What do you want?”
Su Jin frowned because it was really hard to deal with this demigod. But a faint smile spread across his lips almost immediately. “I want a weapon that’s made by a god. Do you have anything like that?”
Ennui stared blankly at Su Jin and the other passengers looked like they couldn’t believe their ears either. A moment later, Ennui glared at Su Jin and said, “Did you think it’s easy for a god to make a weapon? Those who can do that are the most powerful among the real gods!”
“So… you don’t have any to offer?” asked Su Jin calmly.
Ennui had a nasty look on his face. “I don’t have one, but… tell you what. I’ll use this guy in exchange. It’s not a bad deal, I promise.”
He took out a little figurine that resembled those used for playing chess. The figurine was a warrior with a long sword hanging from his side, and… he had a pig’s head for a head.
“I don’t need this. I’ve already told you what I want, and if you don’t have it, then… I’m sorry.” Su Jin shook his head. He didn’t care what the heck that figurine was. There was no way he was letting go of Kano Mai.
Ennui was about to burst into a rage again when the Goddess of the Harvest said, “Ennui, you need both sides to agree before you can strike a deal. You can’t just force the other party to agree to a deal.”
After she said that, he had no choice but to suppress his anger. He said to Su Jin in a muffled voice, “I’ll give you another chance. Let’s do a gambling battle and if you win, you can have this thing. But if you lose… she’ll belong to me!”