Legend Management Bureau Chapter 52

[ … words ]

Du Yu waited quietly outside the house. Before he knew it, the sky had already grown dark.

With a creak, the door opened, and Cui Jue slowly walked out. The hesitation that had previously clouded his eyes was gone, replaced by a newfound resolve.

“Boss, did you ask your mother?” Du Yu inquired.

“I did.” Cui Jue nodded slowly. “My mother wants the Underworld to have a righteous and understanding Judge even more than I do.”

“That’s great. It seems this legend has truly come to an end. Now, all we have to do is wait for Lady Houtu to come and take you away.”

Just then, Du Yu suddenly received a telepathic message.

“Hello, hello? Can you hear me?”

Du Yu found the voice incredibly familiar. “Lady Houtu?”

“Yeah, it’s me,” the voice replied casually.

“This afternoon?” Lady Houtu mused for a moment before asking, “Are things finished on your end? Has Cui Jue become a Judge?”

“Yeah.” Even though Du Yu felt Lady Houtu was acting a bit strange, he still nodded. “He has already accepted your invitation, Boss.”

“Alright then, do me a favor and ask him a question,” Lady Houtu said.

“What question?”

“Ask him if, one day, I ordered him to assassinate the Lord of the Underworld, would he be willing?”

Du Yu froze, as if he hadn’t fully processed the meaning of those words.

“Boss… say that again. I might have had a bad signal and misheard you.”

“I said, if one day I ordered him to assassinate the Great Emperor of Mount Tai, would he be willing.”

This time, he heard it loud and clear. Du Yu would rather have misheard.

Did this plot twist also happen in the legend? Du Yu called out to Xiao Qi with a troubled expression, having no idea what was going on right now.

“Xiao Qi, Xiao Qi…” Du Yu called out. “Is this part of the legend’s plot?”

But no matter how much Du Yu called, Xiao Qi did not respond.

“How bizarre. Sister Qianqiu and Xiao Qi are exactly the same—the moment a legend reaches its end, they go missing.”

“Boss… you need to think this through,” Du Yu said, realizing he had to handle this himself. “I have no problem asking him for you, but what if he refuses?”

“If he refuses, I have my own plans,” Lady Houtu replied.

Du Yu thought for a moment before saying, “Alright, fine… I’ll ask him for you.”

He looked at Cui Jue, organized his words, and said, “Boss, if… one day, Lady Houtu ordered you to assassinate a very powerful figure in the Underworld, would you agree to do it?”

“Lady Houtu wants me to be an assassin?” Cui Jue was taken aback. He pondered for a moment and said, “Xiangqin, are you being serious?”

“Pretty much. Lady Houtu told me to ask you this.” Du Yu twitched his lips; he certainly didn’t have the free time to make such a joke himself.

“It’s hard for me to say,” Cui Jue answered earnestly. “First, I do not understand Lady Houtu, and second, I do not know the enemy she wishes to assassinate. Although I do not know why Lady Houtu wants to resort to assassination, everything must be judged on right and wrong. If there is an issue, it can be discussed openly and honestly. Sending someone to assassinate another party is truly inappropriate.”

Hearing this, Du Yu felt that Cui Jue made a lot of sense.

‘Boss,’ Du Yu spoke to Lady Houtu in his mind. ‘Did you hear that? It’s really too early to be asking this. While I know you’re a straightforward person, you can’t just scare him like this. There’s still a thousand years ahead. I think whether Cui Jue remains loyal or not completely depends on whether you’re a good boss to him.’

Lady Houtu paused, not expecting this kid to be quite so interesting.

“It depends on me? Now that you mention it…” She pondered for a moment before saying, “I’ll tentatively take Cui Jue’s answer as ‘it depends on the situation.’ I suppose he passes.”

“Passes? What do you mean, Boss? What would happen if he didn’t pass?” Du Yu tried calling out to Lady Houtu for a long time, but she no longer gave any response.

After a long time, Xiao Qi’s voice slowly echoed in his mind.

“Du Yu… are you okay?” Xiao Qi asked timidly.

“Me? I’m fine.” Du Yu snapped back to reality. “What about you? Where did you go just now? Why weren’t you responding?”

“I was here the whole time, but your video feed suddenly vanished just now.”

“Huh? My feed vanished again?” Du Yu was stunned. “Shouldn’t you guys upgrade your equipment? It’s so dangerous for me like this.”

“It’s strange. Our equipment is constantly maintained; this kind of thing has never happened before.”

As the two were talking, a beam of golden light descended from the sky, and Lady Houtu descended to the mortal realm once again, clad in her brocade robes.

Du Yu looked back. “Boss… you…”

Lady Houtu smiled, glancing between Du Yu and Cui Jue. “Well, aren’t I punctual? Cui Jue, have you made your decision?”

“Yes… this humble official has decided to become a Judge… it’s just that I still have some slight doubts in my heart. The message you had Xiangqin pass on to me earlier left me feeling rather apprehensive…”

“I… had someone pass a message to you?” Lady Houtu looked confused. “What message?”

“Eh?” Du Yu was dumbfounded. “No, Boss, why are you acting like this? Are you playing dumb?”

Cui Jue was also taken aback. Could it be that Lady Houtu wasn’t the one who asked that question just now?

Lady Houtu was perplexed. “How am I playing dumb? What message are you talking about?”

Xiao Qi was equally puzzled. “Du Yu, what exactly happened just now?”

Looking at the situation in front of him, something suddenly dawned on Du Yu… If the Lady Houtu in front of him didn’t know what had just happened, then could the Lady Houtu from a moment ago be…?

Du Yu pulled out a jade pendant from his pocket. This was the jade pendant that the present-day Lady Houtu had entrusted the Charm Ghost to give him, saying that as long as he carried it, she would be able to send him telepathic messages at critical moments. Could it be that the one who sent the message just now was the present-day Lady Houtu?

No wonder her way of speaking had felt a bit strange… But that wasn’t right either. Why did the present-day Lady Houtu seem like she didn’t recognize him?

If they had met in the past, Lady Houtu should have remembered him, just like Zhongli Chun did.

“Little brother, we get along pretty well. Are you sure you don’t want to come work for me?” Lady Houtu looked toward Du Yu again.

“I… am someone from a thousand years in the future. I can’t go with you.” Du Yu gathered his wits and replied to Lady Houtu, a trace of caution unconsciously slipping into his tone.

“That’s fine, you can just come work for me in a thousand years.” Lady Houtu didn’t notice anything unusual and continued speaking to him, “Since you’re not coming with me today, the two of us will be leaving first.”

Du Yu nodded and said, “I’m afraid we’ll be seeing each other many more times. Maybe it’ll be a thousand years from now, or maybe it’ll be during the stories of the next two Underworld Emissaries.”

……

Lady Houtu took Cui Jue and slowly flew off into the distance, heading to parts unknown. Xiao Qi also activated the soul-summoning equipment, returning Du Yu to the Legend Management Bureau.

When Du Yu woke up, he had a complex expression on his face. He was still clutching that jade pendant in his hand.

He couldn’t help but think of another issue. If only Dong Qianqiu could transport items into legends, how exactly did this jade pendant follow him into the legend?

“Xiao Qi,” Du Yu called out.

“Here.”

“Where does Lady Houtu live now?”

“What do you want to do?” Xiao Qi asked, slightly confused.

“I feel like there’s something fishy going on. I need to see her.”

“See Lady Houtu?” Xiao Qi shook her head. “If Lady Houtu does not show herself voluntarily, no one in the Underworld can see her.”

Du Yu inwardly cursed. Lady Houtu wanted to kill the Great Emperor of Mount Tai—this was a catastrophic event that would undoubtedly shake the entire Underworld. When she told him about this, she had even cut off his connection with the Legend Management Bureau, showing that she clearly understood the grave consequences if too many people found out.

No wonder Lady Houtu had specifically ordered that the legend descents for the Eight Great Underworld Emissaries must be carried out. She was planning to use this clumsy method to screen all eight of them.

In Du Yu’s opinion, doing this would not only backfire but also make it easier to shake their resolve.

No matter what Lady Houtu’s goal was, he had to get to the bottom of this. Otherwise, if next time Lady Houtu used Dong Qianqiu as leverage to force Du Yu to mess up the story of a certain Underworld Emissary, the entire Underworld would be thrown into chaos before she even got the chance to kill the Great Emperor of Mount Tai.

But how exactly could he meet Lady Houtu?

“Du Yu, are you okay?” Xiao Qi looked at him, feeling a bit puzzled.

“I’m fine.”

“Then let’s hurry up and prepare for the legend of Black and White Impermanence, alright?”

The legend of Black and White Impermanence…?

“Xiao Qi, why are you also in such a rush to complete the legends of the Eight Great Underworld Emissaries?”

“Because these are the Director’s orders.”

Right, Du Yu suddenly realized that the Director’s behavior regarding this matter was also very strange. He seemed to know something.

“Where is the Director?” Du Yu turned his head and asked Xiao Qi.

“That I don’t know. Not long after you entered the legend, he went out.”

Du Yu was currently completely clueless. If he rashly entered the legend of Black and White Impermanence, he would probably run into Lady Houtu again. But was she friend or foe? And why would she do such bizarre things?

Du Yu looked down at the jade pendant in his hand. With things having reached this point, if he wanted to safely bring back Dong Qianqiu without ruining all the legends, the only person he needed to deal with was Lady Houtu. His eyes turned cold as a dense aura of killing intent rolled off his body. He raised his free hand and slammed a punch squarely into the jade pendant.

After a massive surge of energy, a crack appeared on the jade pendant.

“It really isn’t an ordinary object,” Du Yu said, looking at the jade pendant in his hand. “Little Zhongli’s power was only enough to leave a single crack on it.”

“Du Yu… what are you doing?” Xiao Qi couldn’t understand.

Du Yu didn’t answer. He raised his fist and smashed it into the jade pendant again and again, punching it until it completely shattered in his hand.

“Now you can’t send me telepathic messages anymore, Lady Houtu. What will you do this time? Are you still not going to show yourself?”

Just as Du Yu was mentally calculating his next move, the powdered remains of the jade pendant on the ground actually began to emit a slow wisp of green smoke. Before the two of them could react, a faint, eerie green light flickered out. The green light drifted around the entire room for a moment before gradually forming into a human shape.

Du Yu’s jaw dropped at the sight before him.

Slowly stepping out from the green light was a woman in a green dress. She reached out a slender hand to rub her forehead, tears shimmering in her eyes. Her soft pink lips were curved into an angry pout, but it wasn’t long before she surprisingly let out a tearful giggle.

“Why did you hit me…?”

The woman asked with a smile.