Legend Management Bureau Chapter 13

[ … words ]

“Big cat?” Da Yi and the Queen Mother of the West both froze.

The Queen Mother glanced around, secretly cursing in her heart:

‘Big cat? Is he referring to this Queen again?’

Du Yu struggled to his feet and smiled at Da Yi. “Brother Yi, this is Big… this is the Queen Mother of the West.”

“Hey, were you just about to say something insolent?!” the Queen Mother scolded.

“The Queen Mother of the West?!” Da Yi had never imagined that such a high-ranking immortal would be standing right before him. He fell to his knees with a heavy thud.

“Brother Yi, there’s no need for formalities. The Queen Mother is here to bestow a reward upon you.” Du Yu helped Da Yi up, then held out his hand to the Queen Mother. “Hurry up, hand it over.”

“You are incredibly rude! How can you demand a reward with such an attitude?!” the Queen Mother snapped, clearly displeased.

‘This Queen Mother is such a diva,’ Du Yu thought to himself. He leaned close and muttered, “We’re all just cleaning up your mess here, so let’s not point fingers. Hurry up and give him the elixir so I can get off work.”

“Wait a minute! Boss, do you have a Voice Amplification Talisman?”

“A Voice Amplification Talisman?” The Queen Mother was perplexed. “With my current cultivation, I haven’t carried such low-level talismans in a long time. What are you trying to do?”

“I want to shout something really loudly. Can you help me?”

The Queen Mother nodded. “Simple enough. I can just amplify your voice.”

She placed a hand on Du Yu’s chest. “Speak.”

Du Yu took a deep breath and bellowed, “Wow! Isn’t this the Queen Mother of the West?! Yes, I am Da Yi, the one who shot down the suns! What?! You want to thank me?! No need, no need! Oh, please, what’s this?! The Elixir of Immortality?! A mortal can become an immortal just by eating it?! Ah, this is far too precious! It’s an honor just having you visit, you really didn’t need to bring a gift! I really can’t accept it, hey, no, no!”

The villagers at the foot of the mountain heard this speech loud and clear.

“So that’s how it is! Da Yi truly is a hero among us!”

Da Yi and the Queen Mother stared dumbfoundedly at Du Yu.

“Even if you have no shame…” The Queen Mother withdrew her hand from Du Yu’s chest. “The two of us still have reputations to uphold.”

“None of that matters!” Du Yu let out a long sigh of relief. “Everything is finally settled. Brother Yi, hurry up and take it. Thank her for her immense grace.”

Da Yi smiled bitterly and waved his hand. “Forget it. You were clearly the one who put in the most effort this time. How could I accept the Queen Mother’s reward…”

“Brother Yi!” Du Yu suddenly grabbed his shoulders, his expression turning entirely serious. “If you don’t take this reward, all my previous efforts will have been in vain. So you must promise me—accept it.”

“If you put it like that…” Da Yi pondered for a moment before nodding helplessly. “I’ll accept it. But from what you just shouted about it being an Elixir of Immortality, I doubt I’ll ever have a use for it.”

“Yeah…” Du Yu already knew what Da Yi was thinking, so he said, “Whether you can use it or not, just hold onto it.”

“What do you two mortals take me for? A flower girl?” The Queen Mother, who had been standing to the side holding the box for ages, finally snapped.

“Ah, Boss Big Cat, my apologies, my apologies,” Du Yu hastily apologized.

“Insolent! You are forbidden from calling me ‘Big Cat’! And you are not to call me ‘Boss’ either!”

“Brother Yi!” Du Yu immediately turned back to Da Yi. “Look how angry the boss is! Hurry and take it! It’d be rude to refuse any longer!”

“Ah? Right, right…” Da Yi quickly agreed and took the box containing the elixir. Upon opening it, he saw that it indeed held the promised spiritual medicine. The elixir was pure white, radiating a dense spiritual aura. Curiously, however, there was one whole pill and another broken half.

“Huh?” Du Yu was confused when he saw it. “Boss, didn’t you promise me two pills in total? Why is half a pill missing?”

The Queen Mother’s expression turned complicated. She looked at Du Yu and admitted, “I… I actually only had one and a half left. The whole pill can allow a person’s physical body to achieve sainthood and ascend to immortality. As for the half pill, due to its insufficient spiritual power, it can at most allow some livestock, like cattle or sheep, to ascend…”

“Well, that’s just poor form on your part…” Du Yu sighed. “You should have told me that beforehand.”

“Du Yu!” Dong Qianqiu suddenly interjected over the comms. “Don’t give the Queen Mother a hard time. She was originally supposed to consume that half pill herself. If she had taken it, she would have been able to completely assume a human form. The fact that she would rather cultivate for another few hundred years just to give that half to you shows her absolute sincerity!”

Hearing Dong Qianqiu’s explanation, Du Yu’s heart suddenly softened. He looked up at the Queen Mother. This big cat still wore a fierce, unruly expression, holding her chin high in stubborn pride even while making concessions.

“Big Cat, I didn’t expect you to actually be such a nice person…”

“What…?” The Queen Mother’s face instantly turned beet red. “Insolent! How dare you!”

“Alright, alright!” Du Yu stepped forward and patted the Queen Mother on the shoulder. “Enough with the scolding. Since you’re already here, do you want to come over to the house for a meal?”

“I…!” The Queen Mother glared at Du Yu. “I absolutely will not! Farewell!”

With a flick of her sleeves, the Queen Mother shot directly into the sky and flew away.

“Brother Pang Meng, is that Queen Mother of the West a friend of yours? She’s so strange.”

“Yeah, she’s weird, but she really is a good person.” Du Yu felt a lingering ache in his body, so he leaned against Da Yi for support. “Brother Yi, let’s head home.”

The two men supported each other as they descended the mountain. The villagers cheered wildly upon seeing them, but all their praise was directed entirely at Da Yi. No one had any idea who Du Yu was.

“Sister Qianqiu, how did I do? I finished the mission in just five days.”

He thought he’d be able to bicker a bit with Dong Qianqiu, but his remark was met with absolute silence.

In Du Yu’s memory, this was the first time Dong Qianqiu had failed to respond to his call.

“Sister Qianqiu?”

He called out a few more times, but there was still no answer.

‘Weird. Did she go to the bathroom?’

Du Yu didn’t dwell on it. He followed Da Yi back home, where Da Yi invited You Qiong over. Heng E cooked an entire table full of delicious food, and everyone enjoyed a joyous, hearty meal together.

For Du Yu, this was easily the happiest day since he had arrived in this era. They ate and drank, eventually welcoming a long-awaited sunset.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, the entire earth began to cool rapidly. Lying in bed, one could almost hear the ground itself exhaling its heat.

Yet, Du Yu couldn’t shake a nagging sense of unease. In TV shows, whenever there was such a harmonious, happy scene, it usually meant the main character was about to bite the dust.

“Sister Qianqiu, are you back yet?”

Du Yu called out to Dong Qianqiu once more, but still, no one answered.

This time, Du Yu began to panic. An idiom involuntarily floated into his mind.

‘Burning bridges after crossing the river.’

When it came down to it, he was just a wandering, lonely ghost. All that talk about “only a very select few can enter the legends,” or “reincarnation slots for the ultra-rich”—what if it was all a scam?!

‘They abandoned me!’

These paranoid thoughts surged forth crazily, making Du Yu increasingly restless as he lay in bed.

Was he really going to have to live out the rest of his days as Pang Meng?

In this ancient antiquity, during the era of Emperor Yao, where absolutely every resource was in desperately short supply?

“Du Yu.”

Just as Du Yu was on the verge of a mental breakdown, a familiar voice suddenly rang out.

“Qian… Sister Qianqiu?” Du Yu didn’t know what attitude he should adopt. “Why… why did you ignore me for so long? I…”

“I’m sorry, Du Yu,” Dong Qianqiu said, her tone filled with apology and utter exhaustion. “I didn’t mean to.”

“Oh, it’s… it’s nothing. I was just a little worried about you.” Du Yu hadn’t expected Dong Qianqiu to actually apologize, leaving him momentarily at a loss for words.

‘What happened to Dong Qianqiu?’

Countless questions assaulted Du Yu’s mind.

How could this seemingly meticulous workaholic reveal such a defeated demeanor?

Since she had taken the initiative to contact him, did that mean he hadn’t been abandoned after all?

“Du Yu, just get some rest for today. After you wake up tomorrow, I have something to discuss with you.”

“Give me a break,” Du Yu said, rubbing his forehead. “Who could possibly sleep after hearing you talk like that? Just tell me right now.”

Silence. Once again, silence.

“Sister Qianqiu,” Du Yu said. “I’ve accepted it. I just imagined a bunch of terrible endings, but whatever it is, I’ve come to terms with it. As long as you tell me the truth and give me some peace of mind, I’ll accept it.”

Dong Qianqiu let out a heavy sigh. “Du Yu… the truth is, the legend you are currently in still has a massive problem.”

“A massive problem?” Du Yu thought for a moment before realization quickly dawned on him. “Could it be… Chang’e Flying to the Moon?”

“Exactly. I originally told you that after Da Yi shot down the suns, Chang’e’s flight to the moon was inevitable. But I was wrong. No matter how we run the simulations, the Heng E in your version of the story will absolutely not swallow the elixir. After the suns were shot down today, we intended to begin wrapping up the legend. However, the instruments’ predictions defied everyone’s expectations. The machine calculated that if ‘Chang’e Flying to the Moon’ fails to occur, our modern society will spontaneously generate twenty-one million temporal anomalies.”

“Twenty…” Du Yu gasped, drawing a sharp breath. “How could there be so many?! It’s just a story about Chang’e flying to the moon! So what if this particular immortal doesn’t exist in the legends?”

“You’re wrong. If there is no Chang’e, then Marshal Tianpeng will never be banished to the mortal realm for secretly meeting with her. If Tianpeng is never banished, Zhu Wuneng will never exist, and the entire legend of ‘Journey to the West’ will collapse. The final consequences of that would be unimaginably profound…”

“This…” After Dong Qianqiu laid it out, Du Yu finally understood. So there was this underlying chain of events.

“Therefore, no matter what…” The guilt in Dong Qianqiu’s voice was palpable. “Please make Heng E swallow the elixir.”

‘What the hell is this?!’

Wasn’t this ending even worse than him being abandoned here?

Da Yi and Heng E were clearly a match made in heaven, yet they had to be forcibly torn apart. Didn’t that make his previously touted “best of both worlds solution” a total joke?

Du Yu stared at the moon outside his window, a profound sense of melancholy washing over him.

“Sister Qianqiu, can I refuse this proposal?”

“I’m afraid not. This is the very reason the Legend Administration exists.” Dong Qianqiu didn’t know how else to answer Du Yu, only managing to add, “Compared to Da Yi’s romantic feelings, I care far more about the lives of tens of millions of people. I’m sorry.”

Du Yu didn’t close his eyes for a single second that entire night. He watched straight through until the sun rose. When dawn broke, Da Yi came to knock on his door, but Du Yu refused to open it.

“Brother Pang Meng, are you alright?” Da Yi called out from outside.

“I’m fine. I just don’t have much of an appetite. Please don’t come looking for me today.”

Da Yi felt thoroughly confused. They had been happily drinking and chatting just last night. Why did Brother Pang Meng suddenly act like a completely different person today?

Du Yu’s mind was in utter chaos. He was completely at a loss, caught between a rock and a hard place.

Suddenly, a thought struck him, and he bolted upright in bed.

‘The brocade pouches!’

Mr. Kongming’s third brocade pouch!

He had once said that if Du Yu ever found himself entirely out of options, he should open the third pouch!

Du Yu felt like he was grasping at a lifeline. Right now, perhaps only Mr. Kongming could help him!

He stumbled over to his waist pouch and frantically dug out the final slip of paper.

‘Mr. Kongming, please tell me. What am I supposed to do?!’

Du Yu slowly opened the third brocade pouch. He took just one look at it before collapsing weakly to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably.

‘Is that so? Mr. Kongming, is this truly what you believe?’

The slip from the third pouch lying quietly on the ground contained only four words—

“For the common people.”

It was true. Mr. Kongming had been dead for many years, yet he still worried about whether the common people of the world lived in peace and prosperity, and whether the children had enough to eat. If it were him, he would undoubtedly make this choice…

But then Du Yu thought of the way Heng E looked at Da Yi, remembering how they had cried and laughed while holding each other tight…

“Do I really have no other choice…”

Watching Du Yu slumped on the ground, Dong Qianqiu couldn’t help but tear up. He Suoyi walked over and gently patted her shoulder. “Little Dong, this is a test. Whether or not he can become an official operator depends entirely on this moment. Neither of us wants a repeat of what happened with Little Zhan, do we?”

Right up until the sun set again, Du Yu did not leave his room.

Still worried, Da Yi came to knock on the door once more. “Brother Pang Meng, I’m going to hunt some game so we can all eat later. Seeing you like this has us really worried. If something is bothering you, you absolutely must tell us.”

Du Yu listened quietly in the dark, remaining utterly silent.

Da Yi shook his head helplessly and left.

Turning the corner of the street, Da Yi arrived at You Qiong’s house and said, “You Qiong, Brother Pang Meng hasn’t recovered from the injuries he sustained helping me shoot down the suns, and your sister-in-law is home alone with no one to look after her. I need to go hunt some game shortly. If you’re not busy, could you head over to my place and help me keep an eye on them?”

“Of course, Brother Yi!” You Qiong said, waving his hand enthusiastically. “Oh, and Brother Yi, can you stop calling me You Qiong from now on? I’ve changed my name! I’m going to be the second ‘Yi’ after you. I want to be called Hou Yi!”

“Hou Yi?” Da Yi chuckled. “Hahaha, alright, alright.”

Bidding You Qiong farewell, Da Yi made his way toward the forest.

“Hou Yi? I feel like I’ve heard that name somewhere before…” Da Yi muttered to himself.

But where exactly had he heard it?

He just couldn’t remember.

Once Da Yi was far away and the sky had darkened completely, Du Yu finally stepped out of his room.

Looking like a man who had lost his soul, he walked straight to the stove, grabbed a sharp skinning knife from the counter, and then turned toward Heng E’s bedroom.

Du Yu knocked on the door. It wasn’t long before Heng E peeked her head out. “Ah! Brother Pang Meng! How are your injuries?”

Du Yu cast a dull, lifeless gaze her way before pulling the sharp knife from behind his back.

“Brother Pang Meng, what… what are you doing?”

Du Yu advanced step by step, forcing Heng E to retreat continuously until they were deep inside the room.

“Bring out the Elixir of Immortality,” Du Yu demanded coldly.

“The Elixir of Immortality?” Heng E looked confused. “Brother Pang Meng, my husband told me about the elixir. He never wanted it to begin with and intended to give it to you, but you refused it that day. If you want it now, I’ll go fetch it for you.”

Du Yu bit his lip hard.

‘How can they be so endlessly kind…’

‘Every single one of you is so painfully kind. How am I supposed to play the villain here?’