Hell's Handbook

Chapter 254: Stealth Move

Zhou Zhenghe wasn’t going to let Black Leopard get away just like that. He stroked his palm gently, but wisps of white mist began to rise rapidly.

Black Leopard felt all the hair on his body stand on end. Perhaps it was because he had been merged with the soul of an animal: he was extremely sensitive and sensed how dangerous Zhou Zhenghe’s palm was immediately.

“HA!” He gave a loud shout like an angry leopard as he rolled over to dodge his opponent’s palm, then remained on all fours and swung himself back and forth. He really looked like a leopard in human form.

Zhou Zhenghe broke into a smile and ran toward Black Leopard like lightning. The white mist from his palms whooshed out, leaving a trail behind him. Just before he reached Black Leopard, his palms suddenly whipped to the front like it had been shot from a tightened bow.

KABOOM! The sound of thunder made everyone else in the building turn to look, only to see a Chinese man slam two clouds at Black Leopard.

Black Leopard’s pupils contracted and he let out a mighty roar as he leaped from the floor and grabbed hold of Zhou Zhenghe with all four limbs. This was the ultimate move a leopard had when capturing prey. Once the prey had been held onto by the leopard like this, it wasn’t far from death.

Su Jin and Kano Mai couldn’t help but frown when they saw this scene. The two of them had both launched their best killing moves on each other. If nobody stood up to stop them, both of them would end up getting badly hurt, which wasn’t what either side would want.

His finger moved a little and he was about to intervene when he saw two people rush into the arena. These two were Kassimo and Yun Tianye.

Kassimo pointed a finger at the area between Zhou Zhenghe’s brows like it was a needle and just stood there with his arm outstretched, but Zhou Zhenghe didn’t dare to move an inch forward. He wasn’t as sensitive as Black Leopard was, but he knew well that if he took another step forward, this finger was going to pierce his forehead.

At the same time, a whirlwind of white mist spun rapidly around Yun Tianye, which engulfed Black Leopard entirely as well. Black Leopard let out a muffled sound as he was shocked by the sudden turn of events.

The two older men had launched an attack, but they had also prevented one of the younger men’s attacks from doing harm to the other. They were basically trying to protect their own disciples from the opponent. Su Jin had a better impression of Yun Tianye now, since he too, was the type to protect the people closest to him.

“Oho, my boy couldn’t stop attacking once he started, I’m so sorry about that.” Even though Yun Tianye spoke apologetically, there was clearly a look of approval in his eyes toward Zhou Zhenghe.

Kassimo smiled too and replied, “Exactly. They’re not mature enough and don’t know when to hold back. So… why don’t the two of us older ones take each other on?”

“That sounds good!” Yun Tianye smiled.

Thomas was a little perplexed. Kassimo was very formidable, and that was something anyone in the mercenary world knew. He felt that only Su Jin would be good enough to fight an experienced killer like Kassimo, and he didn’t like Yun Tianye’s attitude from the start because he didn’t think much of the old man. He was nice to him only because Tang Ning treated them with respect. He didn’t think much of Yun Tianye and the rest because after Su Jin and Ye Yun had taught him a lesson the last time, he had tried to hunt down experts within China to teach him. Yet, he had failed to find one who really knew how to fight. All of them only knew how to do a few fake moves like the ones in movies.

It surprised him to find that the people Tang Ning had hired for this event had turned out to actually know what they were doing. Black Leopard wasn’t as immature nor did he have as poor of judgement as Kassimo made it seem. That young man was the best that Kassimo had and was very important to Kassimo, yet Zhou Zhenghe had been able to keep him under his thumb so easily, which meant that Zhou Zhenghe was more capable than Black Leopard.

Despite knowing that, Kassimo was now challenging Zhou Zhenghe’s teacher to a fight. It had been a long time since Kassimo even did something like that. The last time was probably more than ten years ago, when he helped Firebird become the winning team during that year’s International Mercenary Exchange to become the top mercenary army in the world.

“Jin, what do you think of this upcoming showdown?” Kano Mai asked Su Jin curiously.

Su Jin gave the two men a glance, then smiled faintly as he said, “I’m afraid we’ve underestimated Uncle Yun Tianye before this. He’s… actually at grandmaster level.”

“What about Kassimo?” asked Kano Mai.

“If you’re judging him based on just his level of martial arts, then he’s at master level at best. But he’s gone through some form of strengthening process, so his body’s speed, strength and resilience are at extremely high levels. So if you take all that into consideration, you could say he’s also a grandmaster.” Su Jin wasn’t as well versed in martial arts as Chu Yi, but he had a good eye. In fact, after training with Chu Yi for so long, he could analyze all these people very accurately now.

“Who do you think will win?” she asked again.

“If the fight goes on for a long time, Kassimo will. If it’s a quick one, Yun Tianye will,” said Su Jin without hesitation. He added, “So everything will depend on whether Kassimo is able to drag the fight on long enough.”

“Oh? Why do you say so? Isn’t Kassimo an expert in sudden bursts of speed and strength?” Kano Mai was surprised by his analysis.

“He is, but… Yun Tianye’s white mist should be very good at defending against such attacks. However, Yun Tianye is quite advanced in age and nobody has infinite amounts of internal energy. Once his body runs out of internal energy, he will definitely lose. So, if Kassimo wants to win, the only way is to drain Yun Tianye of his internal energy. And if Yun Tianye wants to win, he has to think of a way to defeat Kassimo while he still has plenty of internal energy,” Su Jin explained in detail to Kano Mai.

While they were speaking, Zhou Zhenghe and Black Leopard leaped off the arena. They continued to glare at each other hard, as though they wished they could carry on the duel.

At the same time, Kassimo and Yun Tianye had begun their fight. Kassimo’s arms were like two spikes that shot continuously at Yun Tianye like bullets.

Yun Tianye, on the other hand, was like a rock statue. He surrounded his body with a layer of moving white mist which absorbed the attacks from Kassimo, so the impact was gone before it could even reach a meter or two of his body.

Zhou Zhenghe’s eyelids twitched nonstop when he saw this. At the rate Kassimo was going, he was sure that he wouldn’t have been able to hold up for long. In other words, if Kassimo wanted to kill him, he would only need a few seconds to do so.

Black Leopard was equally shocked by the white mist around Yun Tianye’s body. He knew how formidable his own team leader was, since he was often made to train and spar with Kassimo. And yet, Kassimo’s attacks weren’t able to get through that layer of white mist at all. If he were the one trying to fight Yun Tianye, he could forget about winning.

Kassimo kept moving from side to side like a ghost of sorts. But strangely enough, he didn’t seem anxious to really attack Yun Tianye. He just kept moving about quickly.

Yun Tianye was an expert in fighting himself and knew what Kassimo was trying to do. If he were to let Kassimo continue like this, he would be too ashamed to even hold his head up. So, he moved his palms and activated his technique. He took control of the white mist and made it swirl toward Kassimo.

Actually, fighting on a stage like this was advantageous to Yun Tianye, because this arena wasn’t very large. Yun Tianye could cover the entire area with his white mist within seconds. But once he did that, nobody around them could see what was happening on the inside. It would feel like one was sitting in a sauna filled with steam.

Su Jin and Kano Mai weren’t affected by this at all. One could see any movement with just his psychokinesis, while the other had super vision, so it wasn’t a problem for either of them to continue observing the fight.

Yun Tianye’s Flying Cloud Hands technique was a pretty good one and would have cost quite a number of points if it were available within the Handbook. And if Kassimo were fighting Yun Tianye in an open space, his speed would definitely have been able to drain Yun Tianye of all his energy. Unfortunately, they weren’t in an open space at all.

But Kassimo continued to put his best foot forward. He continued to aim his attacks at the white mist, dissipating any that came near to him. But doing so didn’t make much of a difference to the amount of mist around him.

Yun Tianye seized this chance to get closer to Kassimo, and eventually they were so close that Kassimo could no longer keep running around Yun Tianye and had to fight his opponent head on.

“Yun Tianye’s going to win!” said Kano Mai with a faint smile.

But Su Jin’s pupils suddenly constricted, and he dashed out of his seat like a bolt of lightning. A black shadow suddenly burst through the white mist, which shocked everyone.

By the time the white mist dissipated, Kassimo was already on the edge of the arena. He had an extremely deep wound on his shoulder, and the one facing him was not Yun Tianye but Su Jin. In fact, Yun Tianye was just staring in shock at Su Jin.

Everyone else outside the arena was even more confused because nobody knew what had just happened. Only two people were supposed to be on the arena, but a third person had suddenly appeared, and this third person looked like he had the right to be there.

“Mr. Kassimo, I want an explanation for what you just did.” Su Jin glared fiercely at Kassimo. As mentioned earlier, Su Jin was someone who was protective of those in his team.

Meanwhile, in an old castle somewhere in Europe.

A man dressed in a suit hung up the phone then called out to the man lying tiredly on the couch behind him.

“Murray, Keith’s dead. His body was found by someone in a small African nation.”

The man named Murray frowned, then sat up reluctantly. “What the hell? Didn’t that twisted guy go to Africa specially to create trouble? I can’t believe he got himself killed. So much for being a Handbook owner.”

“Ha! That fellow was stupid in the first place. But we can’t just let someone from the Dark Council just die out there like that, can we?” said the man in a suit.

Murray ran a hand roughly through his messy hair. He had an aggressive glint in his eye as he snorted and said, “Of course. No matter what any member of the Dark Council does, these ordinary people will have to just accept their fate. Anyone who dares to kill a member… will suffer our revenge a hundred, or a thousand times over.”

“So, can I book tickets to Africa now?” asked the man in a suit with a grin.

“Sure. Three tickets. You, me, and Tracy,” said Murray after grabbing a cup on the table filled with some liquid and drinking it down.

The man in a suit frowned at this. “Is that necessary? Keith’s dead, but he wasn’t a very formidable guy in the first place. Don’t you think you’re making a mountain out of a molehill?”

“I’m not worried that I can’t defeat the killer. Tracy likes to go missing very often, and by bringing her along to kill someone now and then, it’ll bring glory to the Dark Council. I think it’s a good idea,” said Murray with a smile.

“Sure, if that’s what you want,” said the man in a suit as he sighed inwardly.