Episode 167

“Promise me to let him off, will you?” Ye Yun sounded like she was pleading as she said, “If you’re willing to let him off, I’ll leave with you immediately.”

Shen Wu shook his head slightly and chuckled. “You know the way I am. He’s killed some of mine, so he must die. Nobody will be able to get him out of this fate.”

Su Jin narrowed his eyes. Perhaps this young fellow was capable enough to do that, but Su Jin’s philosophy was to make sure he did not go down without a fight. If this boy tried to kill him, he was going to make sure the boy was as badly hurt as possible.

Ye Yun could sense the murderous thoughts running through Su Jin’s mind and grabbed his hand immediately as she shook his head at him. She took a deep breath and said to the boy, “Shen Wu, you and I both know what you want. If you don’t let him off today, I promise you will not get anything at all.”

Shen Wu merely laughed at her threat. He shook his head, like he was mocking her for thinking too highly of herself. “Ye Yun, if the only change in you during this time is that your ego has grown bigger, I’ll be really disappointed.”

Ye Yun placed her hand on her Handbook and held up a branch that was covered in mysterious engravings for him to see.

His expression faltered a little as he fell silent for a moment. “I did not expect you to actually get a Divine Branch from the Garden of Eden. Very well, I will agree to your request and let him off.”

She breathed a long sigh of relief. “I want some time to say goodbye to him.”

He frowned at that, so she added, “Don’t worry. I will not go back on my word.” He nodded and seemed to trust what she said.

Ye Yun turned to look at Su Jin. She took his hands in hers and gave him a bright smile as she said, “I’m so sorry, dear cousin. This time…you’ll have to return on your own.”

Su Jin gritted his teeth and whispered, “Don’t give up! If we work together, I believe we—”

“But I don’t believe we have a chance at winning,” Ye Yun cut him off. She laughed bitterly and shook her head. “Shen Wu is very powerful and he’s more powerful than anybody can ever imagine. Even if you’re also an owner, it’s almost impossible for you to reach the stage that Shen Wu is at.”

“As far as I know, there are no more than three owners who can fight him. They are all owners who went through very special experiences and survived situations that should have been impossible. They…they’ve taken a different path.”

Su Jin was indignant. He wanted to protect Ye Yun and he didn’t want Shen Wu to take her away. But he suddenly realized that he couldn’t move anymore.

He stared down at the hands that were holding his and looked back at her with wide eyes. “You…what have you done?” He tried his best to move but his body refused to respond.

She grinned and held her palms up to show him a greenish substance on it. “I got this from one of the Challenges. It’s a plant that can temporarily stop someone from moving, even if you’re a veteran. The effects don’t last very long and it will not hurt you in any way.”

“Don’t do this? Please? I’m begging you,” said Su Jin in a pained voice. He had never felt so helpless before. The person he loved was right in front of him, but he was unable to protect her from harm.

She looked into his eyes and smiled even more brightly than before. Her eyes were like two twinkling crescents as she suddenly put her hands around his head, tiptoed and slowly came closer to him.

She gently kissed him on the forehead, then let go of his head. Her smile remained as bright as ever as she said, “Goodbye… Being able to meet you during these hopeless times has made me very happy.”

“I… Me too. Meeting you is the best thing that has ever happened to me,” said Su Jin through clenched teeth. Tears welled up in his eyes. He hated himself for being so weak. If he were stronger, he wouldn’t have to bid her farewell.

Ye Yun took a step back and started walking back toward Shen Wu, while turning back from time to time to look at Su Jin. Shen Wu looked a little impatient but he did not say anything.

“Let’s go,” Ye Yun said to Shen Wu.

He nodded and said, “For everyone’s sake, I’m going to have to seal you. Is that alright with you?”

“It’s up to you,” said Ye Yun with a bitter smile.

Shen Wu tapped the air and Su Jin could sense that his surroundings had become even colder than before. His eyes moved from side to side and he realized that all the snow and frost on the mountain was gathering together. The frost on Cloud Mountain slowly melted away to reveal the mud and rocks beneath.

“He…he’s absorbing all the coldness in this area.” Su Jin could hardly believe what he was seeing because what Shen Wu was doing seemed absolutely insane. The snow that had accumulated on Cloud Mountain over so many years had melted completely in a short time. Shen Wu had forcibly sucked in all the icy air of the mountain.

All the iciness gathered together to form a large block that encapsulated Ye Yun entirely.

Ye Yun was like a pure and beautiful fairy inside the block of ice. She was still looking at Su Jin with that cheery smile, as if she had been frozen in time.

Shen Wu gave a pleased nod and raised a finger. An icy platform appeared beneath Alex, which carried him to where Shen Wu was.

“There are others within the mountain. Do we take them along with us?” asked Alex.

Shen Wu shook his head. “There are other things that need to be done in this universe, so leave them here for the time being.” He then looked at Su Jin with a mocking smile.

The slit in the air appeared once more. Shen Wu and Alex walked in, and the block of ice with Ye Yun inside flew off the ground as well.

Su Jin suddenly felt energy pass through his body as he finally regained the ability to move. He ran like a madman toward the block of ice and used his fists to punch repeatedly at the ice.

“Let go of her! Let go of her!” roared Su Jin furiously. His fists punched the ice continuously, causing several layers of ice to chip off. But all he had managed to chip off was the outermost layer of ice.

The block of ice finally squeezed itself through the slit and disappeared completely. The slit itself also slowly disappeared, leaving Su Jin alone to bellow angrily at the sky like he had completely lost his mind.

His roaring echoed for a long time until he finally fell weakly to his knees. He saw the bodies of the two veterans he had killed earlier. He had been able to do that because he was more powerful than them. But he was not as powerful as Shen Wu, so he had no choice but to watch Shen Wu take Ye Yun away.

“I…I want to become more powerful. I want to bring her back,” muttered Su Jin as he clenched his fists tightly.

Just then, there was a small commotion coming from a distance. It was the 20 odd owners that had been hit by Kano Mai’s slothful powers earlier and had recovered. They came running from afar to find Su Jin kneeling on the ground all by himself.

“There’s only one left! Everyone, get him!”
“Can’t you see the bodies of those two veterans just there? If we try to attack him, we’ll end up like them!”
“I don’t think he killed them. They were probably killed by the lady we were targeting.”
“But he’s a veteran too.”

The crowd of owners were hesitant, because veterans were way more powerful than they were.

Meanwhile, Su Jin had gotten to his feet. Once he spotted the owners approaching him, his eyes lit up with a murderous glint.

“All of you…deserve to die!” He marched toward them with a vengeance. To him, these people belonged to a band of robbers who were able to bully others because they had an advantage in numbers. Their organization had taken Ye Yun away, so he was going to get back at them in whatever way possible before getting Ye Yun back.

The owners could sense the murderous intent coming from Su Jin as he took large strides toward them, so they quickly stopped arguing among themselves and got ready to put up a fight.

“Everyone, it’s one of him versus more than 20 of us! Not even a veteran can defeat so many! Let’s kill him!” yelled one of them, believing that they outnumbered Su Jin sufficiently to kill him.

Su Jin remained unfazed by this fact. He dashed into the group like a strong wind. Since he had sealed his Spirit Power away, the only thing he had was his boning knife.

He brandished his knife left and right, resulting in continuous screams and blood spurting in all directions.

He was like a wolf that had rushed into a flock of sheep. It didn’t take long for all the owners to die at his blade. He was much stronger and tougher than all of them, so he could attack them without worrying that any of their weapons would hurt him. After all, regardless of whether they had cold or hot weapons, the most they could do was to inflict him with some light injuries. They could not stop him at all.

Su Jin had gone completely insane. His boning knife slashed one after another without any rationality, sending howls and cries of despair echoing in the mountains. The noise finally died down after about half an hour.

That evening, Su Jin made it back to the hotel with blood all over his body. Everyone on the street who saw him were terrified as they saw the state he was in, but he didn’t seem to see them at all and just carried on walking.

Kano Mai was also shocked when she saw Su Jin covered in blood. She sighed quietly when she saw the pained look on his face and could guess that he hadn’t been able to bring Ye Yun back.

“Go and take a rest first? I’ll settle everything else.” Kano Mai filled the bathtub with warm water for Su Jin and got him a clean set of clothes.

He snapped out of his daze a little when he saw Kano Mai. After nodding at her, he walked into the bathroom and went to lie in the bathtub in silence.

Kano Mai walked out of his room and gave Situ Jin a call, since this was a situation that only Situ Jin could handle. Su Jin had caused quite a stir after walking through a touristy area covered entirely in blood, which was something that could raise a panic.

Situ Jin was quite surprised to hear what had happened to Su Jin, but he did not turn Kano Mai’s request to deal with the aftermath. The Department of Supernatural Affairs was willing to clean up after Su Jin.

The next morning, Kano Mai bought herself some newspapers. She was quite surprised by what she read. There was no mention of anybody like Su Jin, but there was still an entire page dedicated to Cloud Mountain.

A mysterious phenomenon has occurred at Cloud Mountain. All of its snow has melted within a day and visitors to the mountain have reported the strong stench of blood in the air. Investigations into this matter are ongoing.

Kano Mai knew that the information written in the newspapers definitely had something to do with Su Jin. A huge battle must have occurred after she had left and Su Jin wasn’t one of the winners.

After an entire night of rest, Su Jin looked much better. He was still upset about how he had failed to bring Ye Yun back, but at least he wasn’t behaving like a zombie anymore.

“Mai, call the rest to meet at Hell’s Bar. There are some matters I need to talk to you guys about,” Su Jin suddenly said to Kano Mai.

“Sure. I’ll contact Chu Yi and Mr. Situ,” replied Kano Mai without asking any questions.

He nodded and activated access to Hell’s Bar. It was time to make proper plans for the future of Team Boning Knife.