Legend Management Bureau Chapter 252

[ … words ]

Du Yu opened his eyes to find everyone gathered around a strange man.

After a brief introduction, Du Yu realized that this person was A’xiang’s older brother, Shiranui Jinjiro.

He wanted to give him a proper greeting, but Shiranui Jinjiro’s face was etched with anxiety. He grabbed Weaver Girl and demanded, “The protagonist of this legend, can you still find him right now?”

“The protagonist of the legend… you mean Liu Ling?” Weaver Girl nodded. “Yes, we can find him. What do you intend to do?”

“Take me to him, quickly!” Shiranui Jinjiro urged. “If we are late, something terrible will happen!”

Bewildered, the group had no choice but to hurriedly lead Jinjiro to find Liu Ling.

Weaver Girl activated her shawl Magical Treasure, carrying Du Yu, Jinjiro, and Shiranui Asuka. Feeling uneasy about the situation, Zhan Qisheng also followed closely behind.

The group soared through the wind, heading straight for Meng Po’s domain—the Inner Yellow Springs.

“Faster, go faster…” Shiranui Jinjiro muttered repeatedly.

“Yes! They are going to catch up to us at any moment!” Jinjiro confirmed with a sharp nod.

“Is something chasing us?” Du Yu and Zhan Qisheng both glanced back. “Or are we running away from something?”

Shiranui Jinjiro narrowed his eyes at Du Yu and replied solemnly, “It is time. We are racing against time.”

Weaver Girl silently channeled more magical power into her artifact. In no time, they crossed the Naihe Bridge and arrived at the Inner Yellow Springs. Without even taking a moment to greet Meng Po, they flew straight toward Cowherd’s bar.

Cowherd was chatting with the Can Kui Brothers with a cigarette dangling from his lips when he spotted Weaver Girl’s Magical Treasure descending from the sky. Several figures leaped down from it, all looking incredibly rushed.

“Eh? Wife?” Cowherd froze, quickly tossing his cigarette to the ground. “I wasn’t the one who wanted to smoke…” he stammered in a panic. “A Can and A Kui forced me to…”

“Huh?!” A Can and A Kui were equally bewildered. “Brother Lang… why do you turn into a completely different person the moment you see Sister Zhi…”

“Cowherd, I will settle this smoking score with you later!” Weaver Girl glared at him in exasperation. “Where is Liu Ling? Take us to him immediately!”

“Liu Ling is sleeping in his room…” A Can replied. He then turned to look at Du Yu. “Brother Yu, what happened?”

“To be honest, I have no idea…” Du Yu shook his head helplessly. “Just take us to see Liu Ling first.”

Just as Shiranui Jinjiro was about to follow the group inside, his brows furrowed sharply.

“Oh no! They are here!”

“Here? What is here?” The others looked around, but there was absolutely no one in sight.

Jinjiro turned around, slowly unfastened the massive pair of scissors from his back, and stared up into the midair.

Everyone followed his gaze toward the sky, but there was nothing there.

Silently, Jinjiro pulled a handful of white powder from his robes and crushed it in his grip. His eyes brimmed with killing intent. The eerie atmosphere made everyone around him tense up involuntarily.

“What in the world is going on?”

Jinjiro did not answer. He simply tossed the powder into the air. The dust clung to invisible objects floating above, revealing their forms.

Du Yu gasped. Transparent threads had appeared out of nowhere in the sky, hurtling rapidly toward them. Had Jinjiro not scattered the powder to coat them, they would have remained completely invisible to the naked eye.

Now exposed, the threads seemed enraged. Their breakneck pace slowed, and they coiled in the air like venomous snakes, locking their sights on Jinjiro.

“Operator of Huaxia, allow me to show you the combat style of a Time Master.” Jinjiro slowly raised his scissors and charged straight at the threads.

With swift and decisive snips, he severed several threads, causing them to instantly vanish into thin air.

Watching this bizarre battle between a man and floating strings, Du Yu was utterly baffled.

“Brother Yu… is this your friend?” A Can and A Kui asked. “Should we help him?”

“Uh…” Du Yu wanted to help too, but where would they even begin?

Jinjiro efficiently snipped through the majority of the threads until only a sparse few remained circling above.

His gaze turned frigid as he leaped toward one trying to escape. Raising his giant scissors, he clamped down on the strand. But this time, something went wrong. Despite the force he applied, the thread showed no signs of snapping.

The thread rapidly thickened until it was as wide as a finger, its color shifting from transparent to crimson.

“Damn it…!” Jinjiro exclaimed in shock. “It is ‘Lovesickness’!”

He hurriedly pulled out several talismans and slapped them onto his scissors, causing the blades to instantly glow with a bright red hue.

“Infinite Reversal! Cut Lovesickness!”

Jinjiro’s scissors erupted in a blinding crimson light, gripping ‘Lovesickness’ tightly. It seemed it was only a matter of time before it was severed.

While Jinjiro was deadlocked with ‘Lovesickness’, another thread suddenly turned pitch-black. Emitting an aura of sheer cunning, it slipped right past him and darted straight toward Du Yu and the others.

“Oh no! People of Huaxia! Do not let that thread connect with the protagonist of the legend!” Jinjiro roared frantically. “That is ‘Suffering’!”

Although the group could not fully comprehend the situation, they knew this was no trivial matter.

Making a prompt decision, A Can reached out to grab the black thread. Before Jinjiro could even shout a warning, A Can seized it firmly in his grasp. But instantly, his face twisted in agony, and his entire body convulsed as if he were being electrocuted.

“You cannot touch these threads directly! Use an artifact or a spell!” Jinjiro bellowed.

Du Yu rushed forward and yanked A Can away. The scarred youth collapsed limply to the ground, trembling faintly as if trapped in a horrifying nightmare.

“A Can! Are you alright?!” Du Yu shook him frantically.

Tears slowly pooled in A Can’s eyes as he mumbled, “Brother Yu, it hurts so much…”

“It hurts?!” Du Yu was stunned. “A Can, don’t scare me. Aren’t you incapable of feeling pain?”

Yet A Can’s expression was so agonizing it looked as though he was experiencing physical torment for the very first time in his life.

At that moment, the black thread watched Du Yu and A Can like a viper eyeing its prey. Finding a blind spot, it shot directly toward Du Yu.

Zhan Qisheng shoved Du Yu and A Can aside. Clenching his left fist, he roared, “Time Art, Reversed Flowing Fire!”

With a loud bang, a massive burst of flame ignited within the black thread, engulfing it from the inside out. But whatever bizarre structure this thread possessed, burning from within had no real effect on it. It only slightly hindered its speed.

Du Yu turned his head, a wave of doubt washing over him. “Old Zhan, can you not break it?”

“This is strange. I have never seen anything like this before.” Zhan Qisheng’s expression grew stern as he unleashed another spell, “Time Art, Retrograde Wind!”

Fanned by the roaring winds, the flames burned even more fiercely. Yet, the black thread simply grew brighter and more polished, entirely unharmed by the fiery assault.

Suddenly, a sharp snap echoed across the sky. Jinjiro had finally severed ‘Lovesickness’. The finger-thick red thread disintegrated into ashes in midair. Without pausing for a breath, he plummeted to the ground, slapped several black talismans onto his scissors, and watched as the blades turned completely pitch-black.

“Infinite Reversal! Ten Directions Ferry!”

This ‘Suffering’ did not seem as durable as ‘Lovesickness’. The group watched as Jinjiro brought his blades down in one swift motion, cleanly snapping the fiercely burning black thread in two.

Having resolved the crisis, Jinjiro let out a long sigh of relief and slowly put his scissors away.

“Uh…”

Du Yu and the others looked at each other in dismay, completely clueless as to what had just transpired.

“Umm… Big Brother Jinjiro, what exactly were you fighting just now?” Du Yu asked cautiously.

“You will find out soon enough,” Jinjiro replied with a frosty expression. He scanned their surroundings, then raised his hand to calculate something with his fingers. “It seems we are missing one.”

“Missing one?”

The tension instantly returned to Du Yu and his companions, and they eyed their surroundings with high alert. After all, those threads were terrifyingly bizarre; even someone with a resilient body like A Can could not endure touching them.

“It is ‘Vicissitude’…” Shiranui Jinjiro pondered for a moment before speaking aloud, “As the most important thread of all, are you still refusing to show yourself?”

The group helped A Can to his feet and slowly gathered behind Jinjiro, unsure of what he planned to do next.

Jinjiro raised his head and spoke to the empty air, “Lovesickness, Confusion, Reluctance, Suffering, Resentment, and Circumstance—I have severed them all. Now, only you remain. As ‘Vicissitude’, since the rest have scattered, what will you do?”

The air remained dead silent. No one had any idea who Jinjiro was talking to.

“With me standing guard here, you will not succeed.” Jinjiro once again unfastened the scissors from his back and gently planted them into the ground. He muttered to himself, “Infinite Reversal! Guide to Naraka!”

The moment the incantation was finished, an eerie magical array materialized on the ground.

“My original intention was never to sever you,” Jinjiro said softly. “Leave on your own accord.”

The atmosphere in the air seemed to shift subtly. A multi-colored thread slowly revealed itself. It circled overhead for a few moments, radiating a sense of reluctance, before plunging into the array Jinjiro had laid out. Once its form was entirely swallowed by the magic, the array lost its glow and vanished.

Jinjiro secretly let out a breath of relief. If ‘Vicissitude’ had not left willingly, he likely would have faced another grueling battle.

He silently turned around and asked, “Is this ‘Liu Ling’ some sort of leader among the immortal beings of Huaxia?”

“A leader of immortal beings?” Cowherd shook his head slowly. “Forget being a leader. Right now, Brother Liu Ling isn’t even an immortal being. He’s nothing more than a lonely, wandering ghost.”

“A wandering ghost?!” Jinjiro jumped in shock. “His ‘influence’ was so incredibly difficult to cut, yet he is merely a wandering ghost?!”

‘The legends of Huaxia are truly extraordinary,’ Jinjiro thought to himself. ‘If we were actually dealing with a high-ranking immortal being today, I probably would have been completely helpless.’