Legend Management Bureau Chapter 246

[ … words ]

“You have an idea? What is it?” Xiao Nian asked.

“I know exactly what to do!” Du Yu gave a wicked grin, scanning the crowd of colleagues until he spotted a familiar face. “Shen Shi!”

“Ah, Brother Du, I’m here!” Shen Shi stood up with a smile and looked at Du Yu. “What are your orders? Do you need a gadget for this descent?”

“Exactly,” Du Yu replied with a chuckle. “Can you make a portable voice changer for Xu Liunian?”

“A portable voice changer?” Shen Shi had never heard of such a thing. “Brother Du, you’re going to have to explain what a voice changer is first…”

“Ha! It’s basically a red bowtie that Xiao Nian can wear around her neck. When she wants to mimic someone else’s speech, she just holds it up and speaks into it, and her voice transforms into theirs. I know a kid with glasses who has one, and it’s incredibly cool.”

Zhi Nv could not help but shake her head. “Du Yu, Xiao Nian is supposed to play a local tyrant. Have you ever seen a tyrant wearing a red bowtie?”

“I was just giving an example,” Du Yu defended himself. “As long as it’s something Xiao Nian can carry around easily, it’ll work. Can you pull it off?”

Shen Shi pondered for a moment before speaking. “I understand the concept. The item cannot hinder her movements, but it must be able to alter her voice. Is that correct?”

“It shouldn’t be difficult,” Shen Shi mused after a brief pause. “It operates on the same principle as the Translation Talisman. This little gadget needs to independently generate a miniature array formation that envelopes this girl, Xiao Nian. When her voice passes through the formation, it will alter, and others will hear the modified sound. The only catch is that it requires periodic replenishments of Magical Power, and she must not let anyone take it from her, or the disguise will be ruined.”

“Oh? You already have a design in mind?” Du Yu asked.

“I do, Brother Du,” Shen Shi confirmed. “But right now, we need to find someone capable of laying down a miniature array formation. I can craft the item itself, but array formations are not my forte.”

At that moment, Xie Yujiao offered a faint smile. “Rest assured, sir. With me here, setting up the array formation will be effortless.”

“Oh?” Shen Shi turned his head to look at her, finally recalling that when Du Yu introduced this young woman earlier, he had called her Array Master Xie Yujiao.

“However, I must make one thing completely clear to you first,” Xie Yujiao said, her gaze turning frosty as she looked at Shen Shi.

“Please go ahead, miss.”

“Work is work, and you had better not harbor any improper thoughts about me.” After delivering this warning, Xie Yujiao shot a glance at Du Yu and added, “After all, my heart already belongs to someone else.”

“Huh?”

Shen Shi looked utterly bewildered. How did setting up an array formation suddenly lead to accusations of improper thoughts?

“Miss… aren’t you overthinking things just a bit?” Shen Shi laughed awkwardly. “We’re merely setting up a formation. You’re making me sound like some kind of pervert…”

“Hmph.” Xie Yujiao shot him a look of utter disdain. “I have no idea what kind of man you are, but it is always better to lay down the ugly truths in advance.”

“Hey, is there something wrong with your head?” Shen Shi was not one to be easily pushed around. Hearing Xie Yujiao’s prickly remarks, his temper immediately flared. “Do you honestly think you’re some peerless beauty? I just asked you to set up a formation. Do it if you want, and if you don’t, then forget it! If Brother Du wasn’t being so polite to you, do you really think I would even bother giving you the time of day?”

“You!” Xie Yujiao’s face instantly flushed crimson, looking absolutely furious. “Your words are exceptionally vulgar!”

“Vulgar? Could they possibly be any worse than yours?” Shen Shi sneered at her. “We are all sitting here together solely for the sake of work. Stop acting like you’re somehow superior to the rest of us!”

“I never claimed to be superior, I was merely giving you a warning!” Xie Yujiao shot to her feet as well. “Are you truly so narrow-minded as a man that you cannot even accept a simple piece of advice?”

“Your advice is absolutely absurd!” Shen Shi slammed his hand on the table. “I want to advise you not to fall in love with me either! Are you willing to listen to that?”

“You!”

Du Yu groaned inwardly. Xie Yujiao was already giving him enough of a headache, and he never expected Shen Shi to clash with her head-on. It truly proved that you could never judge a book by its cover.

“Alright, enough… both of you, just drop it.” Du Yu shook his head in exasperation. “We are all colleagues here, how did this turn into a shouting match?”

Hearing Du Yu’s reprimand, the two of them huffed indignantly, turned their faces away from each other, and sat back down.

“Xie Yujiao, Shen Shi was the very first employee I recruited after the Legend Management Bureau was established. His position is vital, and his abilities are outstanding. I trust his character completely, and he definitely wouldn’t harbor any improper thoughts about you,” Du Yu explained to her.

Hearing Du Yu’s words, Shen Shi suddenly felt a pang of guilt. He was clearly the one who had lost his temper first, yet Du Yu was still vouching for him.

“Brother Du… I… I was also out of line just now.” Shen Shi offered an apologetic smile. “Besides, I’m not as amazing as you make me out to be. I just try to do my job properly.”

Upon hearing this, Xie Yujiao leaped to her feet again and snapped, “So even you admit you aren’t that great?! It is precisely because you look so suspicious that I gave you that warning in the first place!”

Seeing Xie Yujiao act like this, everyone in the room could not help but frown. Just how low did someone’s emotional intelligence have to be to say something like that?

A person like her seemed incredibly difficult to work with.

Seeing her attitude, Shen Shi felt a surge of nameless fury and stood up once again. “Are you ever going to stop, woman? Brother Du is the one who recognized my worth; I owe him a debt of gratitude. He offered me a way out, and I had to take it. But why are you interrupting? What does this have to do with you?”

Du Yu found himself in a truly difficult spot and could only try to placate him. “Shen Shi, let it go… Miss Xie Yujiao is just a bit traditional in her thinking, but she’s actually a good person. You’ll understand once you spend a bit more time working together.”

Although Shen Shi was seething inside, he couldn’t take it out on Du Yu. Swallowing his anger, he gave a curt nod. “Fine, Brother Du. I have absolutely no desire to interact with her anyway. I will finish crafting the item and hand it over to you personally, and you can go find her to set up the array formation.”

Du Yu scratched his head and reluctantly agreed.

It seemed that the more people they had, the harder it became to manage them. As the old saying goes, once a crowd reaches a hundred, you will find all sorts of characters. The Legend Management Bureau was now filled with individuals from every corner of the world, making occasional friction inevitable.

After Shen Shi took his seat, many of the colleagues sitting near him began offering words of comfort, urging him to cool down.

In stark contrast, absolutely no one dared to approach Xie Yujiao.

Zhi Nv, naturally witnessing such a scene for the first time, felt the immediate need to change the subject. Thus, she asked, “Young man Shen Shi, how long will it take you to complete this device?”

When Shen Shi looked at Zhi Nv, a trace of deep respect appeared on his face. He bowed his head to her in greeting and replied, “To answer the fairy maiden, if it does not involve the array formation, I should be able to finish it in mere moments.”

“Oh?” Zhi Nv looked mildly surprised. “That fast?”

“Ha!” Du Yu interjected with a wide grin. “Zhi Nv, you’ve only just met Shen Shi, so you aren’t familiar with his capabilities yet. If you gave him three days, he could even forge an ancient Magical Treasure for you.”

Zhi Nv could not help but show genuine astonishment. “Does the Immortal Realm truly possess someone of such caliber? I have never even heard of him.”

“Hehe.” Shen Shi gave a sheepish smile. “Brother Yu, fairy maiden, you are flattering me far too much. I’m just a lowly artifact refiner making a living through my craft. I’m not worth mentioning, really.”

“Hmph, at least you know you aren’t worth mentioning…” Xie Yujiao muttered under her breath.

Shen Shi could no longer contain himself. Gritting his teeth, he shot up from his chair and pointed a finger at Xie Yujiao. “Hey! Do you have water for brains? Did I do something to offend you today? Why are you targeting me at every turn, you stinking array layer?”

Du Yu and Zhi Nv exchanged a glance, both mirroring looks of utter helplessness.

“You! How dare you call me a stinking array layer? You stinking artifact refiner!”

“Stinking array layer!”

“Stinking artifact refiner!”

The two of them pointed at each other like squabbling children, repeating the same insults over and over, causing no end of distress for everyone in the Legend Management Bureau.

Du Yu finally threw his hands up in defeat and declared, “You know what, forget it. You two keep arguing. I’ll just assign this task to someone else.”

The moment the words left his mouth, their bickering stopped dead.

“Wait… Brother Yu, I’ll stop arguing, I’m done.” Shen Shi hastily sat back down, completely ignoring Xie Yujiao.

Xie Yujiao also averted her gaze and hurriedly said to Du Yu, “That will not do. A promise is a promise. This is the very first task you have assigned to me, and I will absolutely comply.”

“If that’s the case, neither of you is allowed to argue anymore.” Seeing that he had finally managed to pacify the two, Du Yu let out a long sigh of relief. “Shen Shi will construct the device, and Xie Yujiao will establish the array formation. The remaining colleagues will split into two teams. The first team, led by Qu Xi, Ying Ning, and Xiao Qi, will go and reopen the Legend Broadcasting Room. The second team, led by Zhan Qisheng, Dong Qianqiu, and Elder Pu, will focus on preparing for the Liu Ling’s Drunkenness legend.”

The crowd acknowledged their orders and were just about to disperse when Du Yu’s Mobile Phone suddenly rang.

Du Yu flipped his phone over and was stunned to see an incoming Ghost Message voice call. The caller ID read: Jade Emperor Zhang Jian.

Taken aback, Du Yu scrambled to answer the call. “Boss?! Why are you calling me?”

“Ah! Mister Du! I wanted to ask… has the Western Queen Mother visited your bureau?”

“Uh…” Hearing this question, Du Yu was momentary at a loss for words, completely unsure of how to respond. “Did something happen, Boss?”

“It’s nothing major, really. It’s just that an eccentric individual has arrived at the Southern Heavenly Gate. The guards didn’t dare let him through on their own, so they asked me to make the decision. However, this person doesn’t seem to be a Chinese Immortal Being. The arrival of a foreign immortal is a significant event that the Western Queen Mother must be informed of. I sent her a Voice Transmission, but she hasn’t replied, so I was wondering if she might have gone to the Legend Management Bureau?”

Because Du Yu had his phone on speaker, everyone nearby heard the Jade Emperor’s words loud and clear.

Shiranui Asuka suddenly gasped in shock and cried out, “Oh my! It’s Brother Jinjianglang!”