Legend Management Bureau Chapter 67

[ … words ]

In the Myth Administration, all the employees stood frozen in terror. Some of the female staff had already begun to tremble.

Just moments ago, a young woman named Xiao Qi had been taken away alone into Assistant Dong’s office. Shortly after, she let out a bloodcurdling scream. Nobody knew what she had just been put through.

Cui Jue observed the terrified expressions on the employees’ faces and couldn’t shake the feeling that this was inappropriate. He turned to Xie Bian and whispered, “Old Seventh, don’t you think we seem a bit like perverts acting this way…”

“It’s fine, it’s fine… Don’t worry, big brother…” Xie Bian smiled awkwardly at Cui Jue, lowering his voice. “Even if we act like massive perverts, they still have no idea who we are…”

“Seventh Lord… can I ask you a question?” Little Jin, one of the employees standing by the wall, asked timidly.

“Sure, go ahead and ask,” Xie Bian replied, turning his head. However, he quickly realized something was very wrong. “Holy crap! What did you just call me!?”

“Seventh Lord…” Little Jin said, looking rather confused.

“How did you figure out that I was Xie Bian?!”

“I wasn’t entirely certain at first… but now I am,” Little Jin replied. “You just admitted it yourself…”

“We’re doomed… absolutely doomed…” Cui Jue said, trembling like a leaf. “I, Cui Jue, have no face left to see my parents… no face to face the world… I, Cui Jue…”

“Big brother, stop exposing your name!”

“And stop calling him big brother!”

The highly respected and powerful Eight Great Underworld Emissaries completely devolved into a chaotic mess…

“First Lord, Seventh Lord…” Little Jin continued to ask, “Just what exactly are you all trying to do here?”

Xie Bian paused for a moment upon hearing this. Having no other choice, he sighed and pulled off his mask. A face as beautiful as a woman’s was revealed. The moment the crowd saw him, they knew he was the genuine White Impermanence.

“Everyone, to tell you the truth, I am indeed Xie Bian, the White Impermanence.”

Dead silence filled the room. The staff members neither knelt to pay their respects nor continued their panic. They simply stood there, utterly dumbfounded.

“A matter of grave importance is currently unfolding, one that concerns the stability of the entire immortal realm,” Xie Bian said, offering a polite bow to the crowd. “Please forgive us for the offense today, and we hope you will cooperate.”

The crowd began to murmur quietly among themselves.

So that was the truth?

If they reframed this “masked robbery” as a “classified operation,” it certainly sounded far more reassuring… But what about Xiao Qi’s bloodcurdling scream?

Not long after, Xiao Qi slowly walked out of the office. Several of the female staff immediately rushed forward to check if she was alright. Fortunately, her clothes were perfectly intact; it didn’t look like she had been violated in any way.

“Xiao Qi… are you okay?”

Xiao Qi shook her head in confusion and replied, “I’m fine… They just needed to ask a few questions… But the person interrogating me… I think it was the Fourth Lord…”

Xiao Qi hadn’t expected the people around her to remain completely expressionless after she dropped that bombshell. Wasn’t this something worth being shocked over?

She slowly raised her head, and her eyes immediately landed on Xie Bian. He had removed his mask and was standing there out in the open.

“Ah?! S-S-S-Seventh Lord?!”

Xie Bian smiled and waved his hand dismissively. “Calling me Seventh Lord is too formal. Your name is Xiao Qi, and I’m Old Seventh. We’re practically of the same generation, so just call me Brother Qi from now on.”

Little Jin comforted Xiao Qi, explaining, “They really are the Eight Great Underworld Emissaries. They probably aren’t here to hurt us.”

“The Eight Great Underworld Emissaries…” Xiao Qi looked around the room. “But there are twelve people here…”

Du Yu chuckled as he and Dong Qianqiu took off their masks. “There’s also us.”

Seeing that the newcomers were familiar faces, everyone naturally felt much less tense.

Du Yu knew that since things had already reached this point, there was no longer any need to hide their identities. All twelve of them just needed to…

Wait a minute!

Twelve people?

Du Yu froze. The Eight Great Underworld Emissaries plus himself and Dong Qianqiu made ten. Adding the Charm Ghost who had come to help, that was only eleven people!

Where did the twelfth person come from?!

Du Yu quickly counted the group. Sure enough, there were twelve people!

“Why is there an extra person?!”

Scanning the room, his gaze inevitably stopped on a tall, slender figure standing in the back. This person’s build didn’t match any of the Eight Great Underworld Emissaries, nor did they resemble the mountain demons or malevolent spirits.

He slowly walked toward the figure, instinctively growing cautious. Because everyone had been wearing masks earlier, no one had noticed that an imposter had slipped into their ranks.

Upon closer inspection, the person was wearing the mask of a beautiful young girl and was completely shrouded in a cloak, making it impossible to tell their gender.

“Who… are you?” Du Yu asked the figure in a hushed tone.

“This lady is just a passerby,” the person replied slowly.

“This… lady?!”

Du Yu’s heart skipped a beat. This was a massive problem!

He hurriedly dragged the person into a side room, shut the door tight, and threw multiple locks. Only then did he turn around and scold in a hushed whisper, “Boss, what are you doing here?!”

“This lady just came to take a look…” Lady Houtu pulled off her mask, revealing her strikingly beautiful and elegant face.

“Take a look, my foot! I almost made everyone take off their masks just now!”

“So what?” Lady Houtu replied. “You guys get to come here and have fun, but I can’t?”

“Have fun?!” Du Yu groaned, clutching his forehead. “No matter how much we mess around, we’re still just your juniors. If things really go south, you could have at least spoken up for us. But now that you’re here in person, who’s going to save us if this all blows up?”

“Will it blow up?” Lady Houtu asked.

“Huh?”

“If all the employees are here, doesn’t that mean the problem is about to be solved?” Lady Houtu pointed out. “Since that’s the case, what could possibly go wrong?”

Du Yu paused. Lady Houtu made a perfectly valid point.

It seemed as though everything was on the verge of being neatly resolved, yet he couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that they were missing a crucial piece of the puzzle.

“Then… alright, Boss,” Du Yu said helplessly. “But let’s get one thing straight right now: you have to listen to me no matter what.”

The interrogation lasted for the entire afternoon. Horse Face exhausted his spiritual energy several times, but thankfully, Cui Jue had plenty of medicinal pills on him. This allowed Horse Face to repeatedly recover and push forward. Over the course of six grueling hours, all forty-five employees of the Myth Administration, including the twelve transmitters, were completely interrogated.

Du Yu helped Horse Face to a nearby seat, his expression heavy and grim.

“Nobody is guilty…?” The group exchanged bewildered glances.

The employees didn’t look too good either.

This was because they had all clearly heard the question Horse Face had asked them: “Were you involved in the plot to assassinate the Northern Emperor of Fengdu?”

Just what kind of earth-shattering crisis had occurred in the Underworld… to warrant such a terrifying question?

“Du Yu,” Xie Bian said thoughtfully. “There are still two employees who haven’t been interrogated.”

Du Yu froze, but quickly realized what he meant. He and Dong Qianqiu had not yet been questioned.

Du Yu obviously knew that he had no part in this conspiracy, but Sister Qianqiu…

“I really don’t think that’s necessary…” Du Yu said, feeling conflicted. Lately, other than sending transmissions to him, Dong Qianqiu had spent all her time with Lady Houtu. How could she possibly have the time to orchestrate such a massive conspiracy?

“It’s fine. Since everyone else has been questioned, one more won’t hurt,” Dong Qianqiu said, voluntarily stepping up to Horse Face.

“Ah…? Little Sister Dong…”

Horse Face seemed to care deeply for Dong Qianqiu, stubbornly refusing to draw his dharma treasure. It was only after she repeatedly insisted that he reluctantly wrapped his whip around one of her arms, terrified of hurting her.

After asking a few consecutive questions, the flames on the whip dwindled smaller and smaller. Seeing this, Horse Face didn’t even bother asking anything else and immediately retracted his treasure.

“Hold on a second, Brother Horse… you still have to test me!” Du Yu interjected, stopping him.

“You…? Give me a break…” Horse Face waved his hand in exasperation. “Stop busting my chops. If I’m not mistaken, you didn’t even know the Wheel-Turning King and King Biancheng before this. Plus, you’re a mortal. How exactly would you send them a transmission?”

“Uh…” Du Yu’s face flushed with embarrassment. It was true that he had never met the two kings before. “Who says you can’t assassinate the Northern Emperor just because you don’t know them?”

“Well, do you know the Northern Emperor?”

“Uh… no.”

“Then stop wasting my spiritual energy, alright?” Horse Face rolled his eyes at Du Yu. “You were the one who came up with this whole plan to raid the Myth Administration in the first place. What point is there in testing you?”

Du Yu pursed his lips. He secretly felt that being interrogated would have been pretty cool.

However, didn’t this mean they had hit a dead end once again?

Not a single person in the Myth Administration had ever sent a transmission to the Wheel-Turning King or King Biancheng!

Then what exactly had caused the sudden anomaly thousands of years ago?

This wasn’t an issue with the myth itself; it was clearly the result of outside interference!

“Are you absolutely certain that all the transmitters are here?” Du Yu asked Dong Qianqiu.

“Positive,” Dong Qianqiu nodded, before turning to Xiao Qi. “Xiao Qi, just in case my memory is failing me, have everyone cross-check with each other.”

Xiao Qi replied timidly, “Sister Qianqiu, I’ve already checked. Every single transmitter really is here…”

“Then what in the world is going on?” Du Yu was utterly baffled.

Pushing his way through the crowd, Du Yu walked over to a desk. He picked up a pen and paper and began to jot down their current dilemma:

First, King Biancheng received a bizarre transmission. This transmission never existed in the original legends, meaning it was highly likely he had only received it recently.

Second, this person’s transmission did not disrupt the myth, which was why the Myth Administration never received any warning signals. This proved that the culprit possessed a deep understanding of the Administration’s operating procedures.

Third, all the transmitters and support staff had been cleared of any involvement in this incident.

As Du Yu scribbled away on the paper, the Eight Great Underworld Emissaries and the staff members gathered around, standing behind him to watch.

“Therefore, there are only two people who could have possibly done this,” Du Yu declared, writing down one of the names.

Zhan Qisheng!

“Zhan Qisheng?!”

The crowd gasped in shock the moment they saw the name.

“But there are other problems with that theory… He exists in the past and has no knowledge of current events. How could he accurately predict that the Five Ghost Emperors would wage war against the Ten Yama Kings?”

“Exactly,” Xie Bian nodded in agreement. “Zhan Qisheng does not exist in the present, only in the past. He has absolutely no reason to disrupt the current hierarchy of the Underworld. It doesn’t benefit him in any way.”

“It seems we’re all on the same page.” Du Yu smiled. “I also don’t believe Zhan Qisheng is the one behind this. I’ve met him once before. His goal isn’t to control others, but to liberate them.”

Xie Bian and Fan Wujiu nodded as well. They had some understanding of Zhan Qisheng’s character.

“Then, the way I see it, there’s only one person left who could be the mastermind,” Du Yu said slowly.

“Who?”

“Everyone might have overlooked a crucial detail. The people present here today… do not make up the entire staff of the Myth Administration. There is one person… who still hasn’t shown up.”