Episode 208

Su Jin looked in the direction in which Wu Chen was pointing and saw that some clothing fibers had caught onto a sharp part of the boulder. If you drew a line from the dead owner to the fiber, you could figure out where the man had been flung from.

He looked around a bit, then touched the boulder. His eyes widened as he realized that the boulder was wet, but there was no source of water in the vicinity. He looked at the trees and other plants around him, and discovered that there was water on one side of the boulder but none on the other side.

“Was this done by a dragon that can control water or frost?” Su Jin glanced at Wu Chen.

Wu Chen nodded. He pointed at the dead owner on the ground and said, “Based on what we’ve seen, the three of them were forced to come here by a dragon that can control water or frost. Or perhaps, the dragon didn’t know that they were here, but they panicked and to save themselves, they threw him down here to distract the dragon.”

Wu Chen’s analysis made sense and Su Jin’s guess wasn’t far from his. They had a sad smile on their faces as they shook their heads. There weren’t many owners who were truly kind at heart, and the two newbies had actually walked into a trap.

That old timer had not intended to help them at all. He wanted to make use of the two newbies for selfish reasons. In this case, if he ran into danger, he could just use the two newbies as human shields.

“I’ve seen worse things before. There are owners who would groom newbies for their own pleasure. Some women don’t even get a chance to go through their first Challenge – they get assaulted by such old timers and are killed in the end,” said Wu Chen with a heavy sigh. Handbook Challenges were a twisted universe in itself, so it made sense that there would be some owners who would become twisted after going through such a universe again and again.

Su Jin immediately frowned when he heard what Wu Chen said. He didn’t really care if newbies could survive Challenges, since most owners had trouble keeping themselves alive in the first place. But he certainly did not condone the fact that some owners went around deliberately bullying and even enslaving newbies.

“Can we catch up?” Su Jin asked Wu Chen.

Wu Chen looked at Su Jin’s expression and could guess what Su Jin intended to do. He sighed and said, “We could, but it’s already night time and it’ll take some time. That might delay our mission to find the dragon.”

Su Jin shook his head. “We’ll definitely end up running into the dragon because of the way the Challenge is set up, so I’m not worried about that. I believe that old timer should be running after the dragon as well, or at least he won’t fall too far behind the dragon. If we find him, we might be able to find the dragon as well.”

Since Su Jin put it that way, Wu Chen did not object to this plan. They didn’t consider what Fabian thought at all, and Fabian didn’t say anything either. He was willing to follow them wherever they went.

Wu Chen’s tracking skills were not mere boasting. An hour later, they began to see more obvious traces. There were bloodstains on the ground. Either the old timer or the other newbie with him was injured.

Su Jin was following the trail of blood when suddenly his hair all stood on end. He used his hands to grab hold of Wu Chen and Fabian, then moved backwards at high speed. Immediately after he shifted backwards, several thin beams of electricity shot up from the ground. If he had pulled them back just one second later, then Wu Chen might be injured and Fabian would definitely be dead by now.

“That was a trap! Looks like the injured one is the old timer.” Wu Chen remained calm despite what just happened. That was also how he managed to survive so many Challenges.

Su Jin nodded in agreement. On the contrary, Fabian had been frightened out of his wits.

Just then, they heard a maniacal laughter coming from afar. Su Jin and Wu Chen turned to look at where the laughter had come from and immediately flew into a rage. The other newbie was in the old timer’s embrace, her clothes mostly torn off, while the old timer was naked waist down.

The newbie’s gaze was empty, as though she had lost her soul, even as tears streamed down her face. When she saw Su Jin and Wu Chen coming toward her, she did not look hopeful at all and looked even more terrified instead. She had clearly assumed that Su Jin and Wu Chen were just like this old timer.

“Let go of her!” yelled Su Jin angrily. He was furious and would have charged at the old timer if the old timer weren’t still holding onto the newbie.

The old timer took one look at the expressions on Su Jin and Wu Chen and scoffed. “Looks like you two are the chivalrous sort. You wanna save her? Let me give you a word of warning! If you kill me, she will die together with me, so you’d better think carefully before you do anything!”

Wu Chen frowned and said quietly, “It’s a dual cultivation sort of thing.”

The old timer was surprised that Wu Chen knew what he was doing. He laughed loudly and nodded. “That’s right! That’s something I obtained from one of the Challenges, and thanks to it, my strength has been increasing nonstop, as long as I have enough women to keep me going.”

“Any woman who has had relations with me will enter into a pact with me temporarily. If I die in this Challenge, she will die as well. And if she dies, I will get injured as well. I said I was going to protect her earlier on, and this is a way to protect her. In order to make sure I don’t get injured, I will do my best to make sure she doesn’t die. Don’t you agree?”

“You’re a filthy fellow and even your logic stinks. I’m going to kill you! No pact of any sort will be able to save you.” Su Jin’s expression hardened. He was ready to kill this old timer.

The old timer was feeling nervous inside as well. He knew that since Su Jin had chosen to approach him in such a hostile manner, Su Jin was definitely someone who wanted to save this girl. In other words, as long as he held this girl as a hostage, he would be safe as well. But now, Su Jin looked like he was confident of killing him without injuring the girl whose fate was tied to his.

But even though he was secretly panicking, he didn’t show it. He retorted, “A pact is a pact! If you’re willing to kill the innocent as well for the sake of your so called righteousness, then go ahead!”

Wu Chen was also a little hesitant as he glanced at Su Jin, but Su Jin kept his eyes on the old timer. He said frostily, “So what if you have a pact? I’ll just annul it.”

“Annul it? What a joke! HAHA!” The old timer laughed, but his gaze never left Su Jin and Wu Chen. He was prepared to escape or fight back at any moment.

“It is a little troublesome, but it’s not impossible.” Su Jin flicked his finger and some wind flew toward the old timer.

The old timer seemed surprised that Su Jin would attack so swiftly. He gave a low shout and a layer of lines started flickering around him. The wind that Su Jin shot at him hit the layer of lines and faded. It wasn’t strong enough to go through the layer of lines.

“You’re a veteran.” Su Jin did not expect this man to also be a veteran. That layer of lines looked very mysterious and resembled the emblem of a race of sorts. It was actually able to block his attack.

“You actually dared to attack me!” The old timer was surprised that Su Jin had attacked without hesitation. If he weren’t prepared for an attack already, he might have gotten hurt.

Su Jin was very annoyed because his physical strength had been reduced by 40%. If he had that additional 40%, then regardless of how incredible this old timer’s Spirit Power was, he would have been able to cut through it with one finger. It didn’t matter whether the old timer had been prepared for an attack beforehand or not.

While the Handbook said that Su Jin’s physical strength would be reduced by 40%, this 40% was not just a matter of the amount of strength. This additional strength would have also enabled Su Jin to reach a new level in the way he controlled and used his strength. Having more of something could sometimes make a difference in the quality produced.

The old timer grabbed hold of the newbie’s neck and snarled. “Don’t you dare come any closer! And don’t you dare try to attack me again! Or else, I’ll kill her!”

Su Jin’s heart tensed up. He was here to save her in the first place. If he allowed the old timer to kill her, then he would have done all this for nothing.

Su Jin and Wu Chen raised their hands and the old timer slowly relaxed. Just then, Su Jin sent a very weak wisp of psychokinesis into the old timer’s head. He wanted to confirm if the pact that the old timer mentioned was true or not, so that he wouldn’t end up causing the death of the newbie.

A few seconds later, Su Jin located the old timer’s memories. He didn’t dare to go too far in, because that would draw the attention of the old timer. But based on the information he could get, the old timer had not been lying. If Su Jin killed the old timer, the newbie was definitely going to die as well.

“It’s just a pact, right? I can annul that. But before the process is completed, you must make sure that this girl doesn’t get hurt, or else I’ll get hurt too,” Fabian suddenly spoke up.

Su Jin and Wu Chen were surprised that an NPC-like character like Fabian would actually know how to do something as complicated and high level as annulling a pact.

“Are you sure?” asked Su Jin a little worriedly.

Fabian said, “Don’t worry! I’ve learned how to annul pacts from the village chief before. The only problem is that it takes some time, and I must not be disturbed during the process.”

“How long will you need?” asked Su Jin.

“Ten minutes,” said Fabian confidently.

Su Jin nodded. He exchanged glances with Wu Chen and they charged at the old timer at the same time. The old timer got a terrible shock because he really didn’t expect these two crazy men to attack despite his warnings about how this might end up killing the girl.

Just then, the old timer froze. Or rather, he couldn’t move at all. Su Jin had used his psychokinesis on him. He wasn’t left with much, but it was enough to stop this old timer from moving.

Once the old timer froze, Wu Chen grabbed the newbie out of his arms like he was a gust of wind. The old timer paled and began to feel afraid. If these two men hadn’t used a sneaky attack to curb his movement like that, he wouldn’t have been afraid. Unfortunately, they decided against fighting him head on and he couldn’t fight back at all.

Meanwhile, Su Jin had already raised his fist and threw a punch, causing the old timer to fly and land so hard that he immediately lost consciousness. Su Jin rubbed his wrist and said, “Fabian, I need you to work quickly.”