Hell's Handbook

Chapter 69: General’s Tomb

Back in S City, Su Jin, Kevin and Thomas had been brought by Han Mengyao to an offshore island. This island was apparently privately owned and they had to board a specially chartered boat to get there.

“My father hopes to make some investments here and New Moon Island is very important to the future of his business. Unfortunately, we heard that there are some problems with this place, so I was hoping that the three of you could help me with these issues,” Han Mengyao said to the three of them.

Su Jin frowned. “Miss Han, our job is to ensure your safety. Everything else is…not within our job scope.”

“You are right, Mr. Su. So, I don’t need any of you to do anything, just ensure my safety,” said Han Mengyao with a sly look in her eye.

Su Jin sighed inwardly. Han Mengyao was determined to use them for anything she liked. He turned and said to Kevin and Thomas, “New Moon Island is very famous here. Rumor has it that…this was where a military general was buried. In other words, it’s a tomb.”

“A military general?”

“That’s right. This military general had killed a lot of people when he was alive and is apparently still not satisfied. Apparently, anybody who sets foot on the island will be attacked by the spirit of the general,” Su Jin continued to explain.

“The spirit of the general? HA! I don’t believe in this sort of thing. If such things really existed, someone in our line of work would have run into one by now,” said Thomas with a loud laugh. He didn’t believe what Su Jin just said at all.

Actually, Su Jin didn’t believe in such things either. Even though he had run into evil spirits and vengeful ghosts during the Challenges, he hadn’t run into such things in the real world. Furthermore, while the rumors surrounding this island were frightening, nobody had ever heard of anyone actually running into a mishap here.

“I would advise all of you to take it seriously. From the information that I have gathered, it seems that this island is indeed problematic but only on a full moon night. We’ve got a full moon tonight, and it’s said that only those who go to the center of the island will run into trouble,” said Han Mengyao very solemnly.

Su Jin was confused. “Miss Han, if you’re so sure that there’s a problem with this place, why not give it up? I don’t think there’s a need to risk your life, right?”

Han Mengyao smiled and shook her head. “Mr. Su, I’m sure you know that every inch of land in S City is worth millions. My father doesn’t have that much money to invest, so he has no choice but to look at places like this island. If we can resolve the issues with this place, I’m sure you can imagine how much profit we will be able to reap.”

Su Jin already smelled something fishy about Han Mengyao from the start but he didn’t have any evidence to prove it. But she was his client after all. Since she wanted to explore this island, he had no choice but to follow her.

Han Mengyao led them to the center of the island where the general was supposedly buried. Some said that a general had really been buried here, while others felt that the government had made up this story and built something just to attract tourists.

But Han Mengyao knew that this was really the tomb of a general. It wasn’t built later by the government and all the rumors about it were real. If the tomb of a general were perfectly fine, it wouldn’t be standing here in one piece anymore. Graverobbers would have emptied the entire tomb and it might even be in ruins by now.

According to the information she had, one would just lose their way and eventually come crawling out hours later if one entered the tomb on a normal day. But if one entered the tomb on a full moon night, then you were dead meat for sure. And the dead person would be found outside the tomb the next day, as if the person had been flung out of the tomb or something.

“What I intend to do is to go in and take a quick look. It’ll be best if we can get out before nightfall,” Han Mengyao said to the three men.

Kevin and Thomas didn’t believe in ghosts, so they were fine with it. Su Jin wasn’t afraid because he had Psychokinetic Spirit Power now. Even if there were to be evil spirits hiding inside, he was sure that at least he could get out of there safely.

Han Mengyao had prepared a number of tools, including daggers, gas masks, rope, torch lights, some medical supplies and even some explosives. Other than the explosives, each of them got one of every item. Su Jin took a set of the items as well so that he wouldn’t stand out.

The entrance to the tomb really surprised Su Jin. This was a hole that had been dug diagonally into the ground and looked like it had existed for quite a while. It was a tunnel that graverobbers typically dug.

“It’s a general’s tomb after all, so there was a period of time when graverobbers wanted to try their luck here. But the only thing they left behind besides their lives were these tunnels,” said Han Mengyao.

She told everyone else in her entourage to stay outside the tunnel and went in with only Su Jin. Kevin and Thomas wanted to go along, but this tunnel was clearly meant for someone smaller. Su Jin could barely fit, never mind the two taller and more muscular men.

But Su Jin didn’t mind this arrangement. He felt that Han Mengyao was up to no good, so anything happened, he didn’t want to end up hurting Kevin and Thomas for nothing. It was probably easier for him to see what Han Mengyao was up to if he was alone with her.

They followed the tunnel down around 30 meters or so, then the space in front of them suddenly widened. This was a fairly large tomb, which did sound very likely for a real general. They took a few steps forward and immediately saw two rows of statues that resembled soldiers. Each one of them held a long spear in their hands.

“Be careful. Even though it’s not night time yet, one can still get lost in here. If we get lost in here and can’t get out by nightfall, we’ll be in danger,” said Han Mengyao to Su Jin.

“Since you know it might be dangerous, why did you purposely choose to come today?” asked Su Jin.

She laughed and said, “It’s simple. If you want to know a person, you’ve got to get close to him. Since I want to know the truth behind this tomb, I’ve got to pick the most dangerous time to come.”

“Forgive me for being rude, but you’re seriously insane,” said Su Jin in a playful voice.

She grinned and shrugged, then continued walking. They walked inside the tomb for more than 30 minutes and Su Jin suddenly felt that something was amiss. He took his dagger out and made markings on the wall as they walked on.

After another 30 minutes had passed, Su Jin said, “Stop. We’ve been going round in circles.” He pointed to the markings he had made on the wall earlier.

Han Mengyao nodded and asked, “What should we do now?”

“What should we do now? Didn’t you have a plan at all before coming in here?” he asked in horror.

She shook her head immediately without even hesitating.

Su Jin sighed. He looked around, then squatted down to touch the soil on the ground. He picked up a bit of it, smelled it, then flung it back onto the ground.

“There’s a slight inclination in the ground that we can’t sense, since our bodies would adjust itself as we walk. We’ve been following this path that’s in the shape of an ‘8’ all this time without realizing it,” explained Su Jin.

She looked a little doubtful and asked, “How do you know this?”

“When I threw the soil down just now, it rolled a little. If you look carefully enough, you’d realize this,” said Su Jin nonchalantly.

Han Mengyao asked, “How do we get out then?”

“We’ll go by a path that we can’t go through,” replied Su Jin immediately.

“Go by a path we can’t go through?” Han Mengyao was even more confused now.

He didn’t bother explaining and kept walking, except that this time, he kept his body close to the wall. She noticed that he was sliding his toes along the wall like a knife, and he quickly cut through a lot of the wall.

Han Mengyao suddenly realized what Su Jin was trying to do. He was going to slam right through the wall. Using brute force on a wall inside a tomb sounded crazy and futile at the same time, but Su Jin was capable of doing such a thing.

As Su Jin followed the wall and made sure he was going forward at all times, he seemed to arrive at a dead end. But his lips curled into a smile and he smashed his fish against the wall. A hole appeared in the wall to reveal a space on the other side.

“That’s the actual tomb!” Han Mengyao became extremely excited. She had brought others to check out this tomb before but nothing ever came out of it. The team always just got lost and eventually just walked out without finding anything. She was pleasantly surprised that Su Jin had not only solved the mystery behind why they always got lost but had also found a hidden tomb behind the wall.

But Su Jin wasn’t as excited. He had realized they were going round in circles not because he was smart but because he had used his psychokinesis to scan the place and realized where the problem was. But he was also very sure that there was something strange about this place. The moment he smashed through the wall, he felt an eerie and chilling feeling that he only got when he entered a Handbook Challenge.

“Miss Han, I suggest we go back the same way we came in right now. There’s…there’s something here that we can’t deal with.” Su Jin narrowed his eyes and noticed a figure seated in the distance slowly getting up.

“Since we’re here, we should go in and take a look.” Han Mengyao didn’t want to leave at all. She had come here so many times and this was the first time her exploration of the tomb actually got somewhere.

But Su Jin ignored her. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to the side as a violent force shot out from inside like an arrow, reducing the wall where they were standing earlier into dust.

“What…what was that?” Han Mengyao was initially annoyed by how Su Jin had rudely dragged her away like that, but once she saw what happened to the wall, her displeasure instantly turned into terror.

“I don’t know, but I’m sure it’s something we shouldn’t have disturbed,” said Su Jin as he ran back up the tunnel. He meant what he said: he could sense that whatever was in there was extremely dangerous. If he had a team like Team Wind and Rain, he might stand a chance. Otherwise, he was definitely doomed.

The minute he finished saying that, he could hear something chasing after them. Thankfully, they had arrived at the entrance of the tunnel. Once he leaped out, he said to Kevin and Thomas, “Seal this entrance as quickly as you can!”

Thomas immediately grabbed a stick of dynamite, lit it and threw it in. The tunnel collapsed instantly with a loud boom.

“Leave the island right now and make sure nobody can get to it!” said Su Jin immediately. He didn’t think that blasting one tunnel could stop the thing inside the tomb from coming out, since it seemed as dangerous as a monster inside a Handbook Challenge. Everyone had to leave this island right now.