Legend Management Bureau Chapter 77

[ … words ]

One thousand years ago, at the foot of Mount Bugui.

“Little Zhan, Little Zhan, look!” A girl in a green dress hooked her index fingers into the corners of her mouth, pulling them up into a wide grin as she spoke to the man in black before her. “This is called a smile. Did you learn it?”

“Do you ever stop being annoying?” The man in black waved his hand dismissively. “I know how to smile. I don’t need you to teach me.”

“You know how?” The girl in green covered her mouth and giggled. “Then show me!”

“Why would I smile for no reason?”

“How dull…” The girl pouted. “You fished me out from the bottom of the lake, but you don’t even talk to me. If I had known it would be like this, I would have stayed and played with Little Red.”

“Who is Little Red?”

“A fish.” The girl chuckled. “She is my good friend.”

“Nonsense.” The man in black scoffed, turning to leave.

“Who knows.” He didn’t look at her, gazing off into the distance instead. “Maybe I felt… you were a lot like me?”

“Like you?” The girl stared at him with wide, innocent eyes. “Are you a vengeful spirit too?”

“Vengeful spirit, my foot.” The man shot her an exasperated look. “Maybe we just share the same… sense of loneliness.”

“Loneliness?” The girl looked at him in confusion. “You aren’t like me, locked away in a jade pendant at the bottom of a lake. You should be able to find plenty of people to talk to, right?”

“I don’t have friends. I am a cultivator. Even if there are people I can talk to, they are merely passing travelers in my life.”

Still struggling to understand, she asked, “So, you are an immortal. Can immortals not have friends?”

“My constitution dooms me to a life without friends,” the man in black replied, a hint of sorrow in his voice. “Unlike all other cultivators, I cannot comprehend the laws of the Five Elements; I can only grasp the Great Dao of Time. As someone capable of traveling through time at will, everyone I meet is just a passing traveler. It is impossible to make friends because they are destined to fade away in my lifetime. Unless…”

“Unless what?”

“Sigh, never mind. Anyway, stop going around telling people you are a vengeful spirit. From now on, behave yourself and stay inside the jade pendant. You aren’t allowed to come out unless I call for you.”

The man stole a glance at the girl and silently thought to himself, ‘Unless there is someone like you, who can accompany me as I freely traverse through time.’

The girl in green pouted, staring at the jade pendant hanging from his waist, and grumbled under her breath, “So fierce… You rescued me but won’t let me show myself. You stole my house, and you won’t even smile at me. Hmph.”

The man shook his head. “Yingning, I brought you back from the future. You do not belong to this era. If people see you, I fear it will cause problems.”

“The future?”

“Yes. The current world is ruled by the Great Song Dynasty, while the lake bottom you resided in belongs to the Great Qing.”

“Song or Qing, I don’t care at all. I was perfectly comfortable at the bottom of the lake. If you think I am in the way, I’ll just leave!” Feigning anger, the girl stomped her foot and turned to walk away.

“Don’t…” The man in black immediately grabbed her wrist, only to realize a moment later that she couldn’t go far anyway, considering the jade pendant was still tied to his waist.

“Hehe, what’s wrong? Worried about me?” she teased, turning back with a mischievous grin.

“Nonsense,” he muttered softly. “You aren’t going anywhere. Just stay by my side and quietly keep me company.”

“You really are a man who hates telling the truth.” The girl slowly leaned in close to his face, a faint, refreshing scent of fresh flowers drifting from her. “My mother told me that when you truly like someone, you will feel happy just being together, even if you do absolutely nothing.”

The man averted his gaze, not daring to look the girl in the eye.

“When I was with Wang Sheng before, even though I smiled all day, I never actually felt happy. Now, I am often silent, yet I feel incredibly joyous.” The girl dropped her teasing smile, a faint blush creeping up her cheeks. “Little Zhan, do you think I like you?”

“This!” The man nearly lost his footing. “How should I know?! It is your own heart, why are you asking me?”

“Hehe!” Seeing his flustered reaction, she couldn’t help but laugh out loud. “Little Zhan, do you like me too?”

“Nonsense!” He waved his hands frantically, his face burning red. “I… I…”

“You definitely like me!”

Laughing, the girl in green vanished back into the jade pendant, leaving behind a soft, lingering voice, “If you ever decide you don’t want me anymore, then just throw me away!”

A faint look of comfort touched the man’s face. Ever since this girl entered his life, his world felt as though it had shifted from dreary black and white to vibrant color.

He no longer felt like that solitary figure wandering aimlessly through the endless river of time. Now, whenever they arrived at a new place, the girl in the pendant would excitedly shout and chatter, livening up the atmosphere before he could even utter a word.

“Yingning, you shouldn’t follow me from now on. It is quite dangerous inside the Legends,” the man in black said to the pendant after completing one of the Legends.

“Absolutely not. I want to talk to you.” The pendant swayed, emitting her voice.

“Didn’t I teach you the Cross-Time Sound Transmission Art? You can use that to speak to me.”

“Are you getting annoyed with me?” The voice from the pendant carried a clear note of disappointment. “Do you not want me anymore?”

“How could that be?!” the man protested anxiously. “I am just worried you will be in danger! Besides… besides…”

“Besides what?”

“Besides, I am always forced to take lives in the Legends… I don’t want you to see the things I do.”

“But…” The voice from the pendant was puzzled. “Aren’t the things you do in the Legends meant to save people? Even if you have to take lives, it is only because you have no other choice.”

“No, I am growing tired of it.” The man shook his head, a faint sorrow swimming in his eyes. “That child named Jingwei today… she didn’t have to die. But the Legend dictated that she had to drown, so I had no choice but to push her into the sea.”

“Little Zhan, you can’t blame yourself for that…”

“Do you know how cruel that was? Under the guise of saving the world, I killed Jingwei without hesitation. I even stopped her from reincarnating, forcing her to become a seabird, spending the rest of her life endlessly trying to fill the ocean.”

Hearing his words, the pendant fell silent. Was this man’s heart truly so tender? He was doing things he despised, taking lives over and over again for the sake of saving the common people. Just how conflicted and helpless must he feel inside?

“Every time I close my eyes, I see that seabird. She skims across the waves, crying, ‘Jingwei, Jingwei.’ The world says Jingwei hates the sea, but I feel she truly hates me.”

The pendant transformed back into the girl. Carrying that familiar fragrance, she gently wrapped her arms around the man in black. Her body possessed no physical warmth, yet it made him feel incredibly warm.

For the first and only time, the man in black wept in front of her.

The girl became his spiritual pillar. Whenever he encountered something troubling, he would seek her out to talk about it.

A hundred years passed just like that. Sometimes, feelings were like a thin layer of window paper, ready to be pierced with a single touch. Other times, they were like a massive mountain separating the two of them, leaving both unable to voice the words in their hearts.

But during a Legend nine hundred years ago, everything quietly fell apart.

The ancient era, the Legend of Kuafu Chasing the Sun.

“Dong Qianqiu, say that one more time,” the man in black spoke coldly, staring at the broad back of a giant in the distance.

“Zhan Qisheng, did you not understand me? Kuafu must die,” a chilly female voice responded calmly from the other end. “I don’t care what kind of emotional fit you are suddenly throwing, but this is our job. If we want to turn the world into a paradise, sacrifices must be made.”

In the distance, the giant was leisurely strolling along the beach. He lifted his massive feet and stomped in the sea. Every step sent waves roaring, yet he laughed merrily like a carefree child.

“Just because Kuafu refuses to chase the sun, he must die…?” The man clenched his fists, his tone thick with anger.

“No, you misunderstand,” the woman corrected sternly. “It is not that Kuafu must die because he won’t chase the sun. It is that you must make Kuafu chase the sun, and keep chasing it until he dies.”

Through gritted teeth, the man replied, “But this time, he does not want to chase the sun.”

“Which is exactly why we need an Operator.”

The man in black remained silent for a long time before speaking slowly. “During the Legend of Jingwei, I already told you. If you ever force me to slaughter the innocent again, I absolutely will not comply.”

“And what can you do if you don’t comply?” The woman grew irritated. “This is your duty. I don’t want Kuafu to die either, but his ending has already been written!”

“Absurd!” he roared. “The lives I have taken over my four thousand years of bitter cultivation don’t even add up to the number I have killed in this single century at the Legend Management Bureau. You constantly claim to be saving the common people, yet why are my hands eternally drenched in blood?!”

“Zhan Qisheng… you…”

“You say they changed history, but why is your version of history the only correct one?! Why are they stripped of even the basic right to live?!” Zhan Qisheng trembled with rage. The immense conflict and resentment brewing in his heart had finally erupted.

“Stop this nonsense at once!” the woman shouted, looking anxiously at the Legend broadcast screen. “I admit I was wrong. My phrasing was poor. But you are currently inside a Grade-A Legend. If Kuafu does not die, the disastrous consequences will be endless. I am begging you, hurry up and complete the mission. You can yell at me all you want once you return.”

“I will help the Legend Management Bureau one last time. But after this, we sever all ties.” Upon delivering his cold ultimatum, Zhan Qisheng hovered into the air and flew straight toward the giant. “Pass a message to Old Man He for me. From this moment on, I, Zhan Qisheng, quit the Legend Management Bureau.”

Before the woman could say another word, the Legend broadcast feed abruptly cut off.

“Zhan… Zhan Qisheng?!” She slammed her hands against the equipment before her, but no matter what she did, no response came. “You and Old Man He built this Legend Management Bureau together! What is he going to do if you leave?!”

Only silence answered from the other end.

“Zhan Qisheng!”

On that day, the Legend Management Bureau permanently lost its Operator.

An unknown amount of time passed. The man in black slowly descended to the ground, staring up at the giant before him.

The giant swayed unsteadily and spoke, his booming voice echoing through the air, “Brother Zhan… We have been running for nine days and nine nights… Where is this heavily injured tribesman… you spoke of?”

“I lied to you. No one was injured,” the man in black replied slowly. “Kuafu, this is your resting place. Stop pushing yourself and just fall.”

“Is that so?” Kuafu’s massive frame crashed to his knees. “That’s wonderful… I was worried sick for nothing… Thank goodness… no one is hurt…”

The man in black clenched his fists tightly, a wave of unbearable sorrow crashing over him. As he watched the kindhearted giant slowly collapse, something deep within his own heart shattered completely.

“Brother Zhan… the heat here is unbearable… Let me do… one last thing for you…”

Moments before his death, the giant threw his walking stick. The staff transformed into a vast peach orchard that sprouted and blossomed in an instant.

“I wanted to kill you right until the very end, yet you were thinking of me all along. Brother Kuafu, if you come to claim my life in your next reincarnation, I will surely buy you a drink before handing it over to you.”

Forcing down his grief, the man in black was just about to take a step forward when he suddenly noticed a woodcutter frantically scrambling through the peach orchard. The rapidly growing trees knocked the poor man left and right, and it looked as though he wouldn’t hold on much longer.

“Not good!”

The man immediately flew over, grabbed the woodcutter, and slowly lowered him safely to the ground outside the orchard.

“Ah! That scared me to death! What in the world just happened?” the woodcutter gasped for air, patting his chest wildly. “How did a giant suddenly appear, and then a massive forest grow out of nowhere? That was far too bizarre!”

The man in black ignored him, turning around to walk deep into the peach orchard.

“Little Zhan, Little Zhan, wasn’t it wrong for you to do that?” The jade pendant swayed gently as the girl’s voice emerged. “That man was destined to die in that peach orchard. By saving him, his descendants will eventually become the Taishu.”

“Have you been brainwashed by the people from the Legend Management Bureau too?” he replied coldly. “That was a living, breathing human life. How could I just stand by and watch him die?”

“Immortal! Exalted Immortal!” the woodcutter shouted from behind him. “Could the Exalted Immortal please leave behind a name? You are my savior. I, Du Nanshan, will surely pray for the Exalted Immortal’s well-being every single day!”

The man in black kept walking without looking back, murmuring to himself, “Even if a Taishu lineage surnamed Du is born, I doubt they can stir up too much trouble.”