Legend Management Bureau Chapter 286

[ … words ]

Du Yu first ran over to A Can and slapped him across the face with a sharp smack.

A Can spun in a full circle from the force of Du Yu’s blow. When he regained his senses, his eyes were filled with utter confusion.

“Brother Yu… did you just hit me?”

“That’s right, I hit you,” Du Yu nodded.

“But why?” A Can asked.

“Because you were bewitched. I had to smack you awake.”

Hearing Du Yu’s words, A Can finally realized he had just fallen into the illusion of Lovesickness. A wave of lingering fear washed over him.

“So that’s what happened… thank you, Brother Yu…”

“Don’t mention it…” Du Yu said with a deadpan expression. “A Can, if you really want to express your gratitude, go do something for me…”

Du Yu flashed him an apologetic smile, then slowly enunciated a few words.

Upon hearing them, A Can gave a polite little smile before completely panicking.

“Are you kidding me?!” A Can bellowed. “Brother Yu, I treat you as my savior, but you want to use me as cannon fodder?!”

“What kind of nonsense is that?!” Du Yu shouted anxiously. “A Can! All you have to do is go up there and slap the Western Queen Mother across the face! You won’t die…”

“Good heavens!” This was the first time A Can had ever received such a daunting task, and he was on the verge of a mental breakdown. “I might not die right away… but I’ll definitely wish I was dead!”

“Don’t worry… I’ve got your back…” Du Yu promised awkwardly.

“Brother Yu! You don’t have any confidence in this at all, do you? If I actually slap her, heaven knows what will happen…”

“No, no, no.” Du Yu shook his head. “You know yourself that when someone is bewitched, a perfectly timed slap can snap them out of it. We’re only hitting the Western Queen Mother to save her! She’ll thank us when she wakes up…”

“If it’s such a great deed, why don’t you do it yourself?” A Can stared at Du Yu, thoroughly speechless. “This is clearly a terrible idea…”

Seeing Du Yu and A Can bickering endlessly, Shiranui Asuka could no longer hold herself back.

Her wooden sandals clacked sharply against the ground as she dashed toward the Western Queen Mother. She leapt into the air, wound up her arm, and hollered, “Little Xiang’s wake-up service!” before delivering another crisp, resounding slap right across the goddess’s face.

The Western Queen Mother clearly froze for a second before snapping back to reality.

Du Yu cried out internally. The Western Queen Mother’s temper was notoriously unpredictable; A’xiang was undoubtedly in for it now.

The moment Shiranui Asuka landed, she whirled around without missing a beat and screamed at Du Yu, “Senior Du Yu! Stop hitting the Western Queen Mother!”

“Huh?” Both Du Yu and the Western Queen Mother were taken aback simultaneously.

But a split second later, Du Yu realized exactly what had just happened. “You damn A’xiang… are you trying to get me killed?!”

Looking rather bewildered, the Western Queen Mother touched her cheek, then turned her piercing gaze toward Du Yu. “You brat, you dared to strike me?”

“Ah, I…” Du Yu stammered nervously. That was quite a difficult question to answer.

“I will put this debt on your tab and settle it with you later,” the Western Queen Mother declared. With that, she launched herself into the sky and once again summoned her heavenly lightning.

Du Yu pointed fiercely at Shiranui Asuka. “You bratty A’xiang! I’m putting this debt on your tab too, and I’ll settle it with you later!”

Hearing this, A’xiang just stuck her tongue out at Du Yu, looking completely unfazed by his threat.

The Western Queen Mother was visibly enraged out of humiliation. She was already a Heavenly Venerable, yet she had been ambushed by a measly little nature spirit. The entire ordeal made her feel as though she had lost all face.

“Pitiful little nature spirit, do you truly know who you are fighting?” The Western Queen Mother’s eyes were terrifyingly cold. Channeling the power of thunder in her hands, she commanded the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder to strike down.

The divine thunder surged toward the white wolf on the ground. The white wolf glanced up, instantly adjusted its posture, and narrowly dodged the lightning strike.

The Western Queen Mother sneered coldly and hooked a finger.

As if possessing a life of its own, the divine thunder suddenly reversed its momentum and chased after the white wolf.

“Little White!”

Seeing the distant white wolf in peril, the girl in red cried out in alarm. A massive burst of crimson light erupted from her body, causing the few people entangled in combat with her to falter in surprise.

Seizing the opportunity, the girl flicked her wrists, sending two red threads shooting straight toward the Western Queen Mother.

The Western Queen Mother furrowed her brow, instantly manifesting a giant protective barrier composed of lightning around herself, blocking the red threads just in time.

Zhan Qisheng shook his head vigorously. He hadn’t expected the girl’s mere burst of aura to plunge him into a mild state of Lovesickness. If she actually touched him, he probably wouldn’t be able to withstand it at all.

Zhi Nv also snapped back to reality very quickly. After all, like Zhan Qisheng, although she held a person of Lovesickness in her heart, she hadn’t lost them.

On the other hand, Shiranui Jin Jianglang’s eyes were brimmed with sorrow. It took him quite a long time to finally break free from this mild bout of Lovesickness. Reining in his emotions, he began slapping numerous talismans onto the Golden Flood Dragon Scissors.

Since ordinary talismans were completely ineffective now, Jin Jianglang could only pin his hopes on sheer quantity.

“If the two of them are truly demons formed from Illusion Transformation of Lovesickness and Reluctance, it means they have soared across a full five thousand years to get here. Not only have they taken on physical forms, but they also possess profound emotions…”

Shiranui Jin Jianglang’s expression turned grim. Back in Fusang, he had never faced demons with such high levels of cultivation.

At that moment, the girl in red, who was fiercely battling the Western Queen Mother, screamed, “You’re not allowed to bully my Little White!”

The Western Queen Mother was having none of it. While fending off the red-clad girl’s attacks, she continued controlling the divine thunder to relentlessly pursue the white wolf.

No matter how fast the white wolf was, it couldn’t outrun heavenly lightning. It sustained multiple injuries, sending the girl in red into a frantic state.

“You’re all so mean! Ganging up on us just because you have more people! What did Little White and I even do wrong?!” The girl in red cried out hysterically. “We just want to find our master!”

“Your master does not need such fierce Lovesickness and Reluctance!” The Western Queen Mother’s face was as cold as ice as she continuously increased her magical power. “You should be glad that we are ganging up on you. If I wasn’t afraid of catching them in the crossfire, I would have leveled this entire place by now!”

Following clash after clash of spells, the girl in red finally realized that the cultivation of the woman before her had reached the absolute zenith—she was simply entirely beyond her ability to match.

“That’s not fair!” the girl in red shouted, unleashing countless red threads in all directions. Her entire body resembled an exploding firework.

“Dodge, quickly!” Shiranui Jin Jianglang bellowed. “Do not let the red threads touch you!”

Everyone was already well aware of how dangerous the red threads were. Showing off their unique abilities, they all scrambled to mount their defenses.

Fighting through the agonizing pain in his body, Du Yu attempted to use Zhongli Chun’s erratic movement techniques.

But to his absolute shock, when he stomped hard against the ground, his speed didn’t increase in the slightest. After stumbling forward for two steps, he crashed to the floor.

Terrified, he lifted his head and hastily called out to Zhongli Chun in his mind.

Yet, a thick, impenetrable fog seemed to have enveloped his heart, tightly sealing the spatial realm of the Eight Directions Ghost Record within it. He was completely cut off from contacting them, let alone drawing upon their power.

‘What’s going on?’ Du Yu’s eyes darted wildly as his mind raced. ‘Could this be the backlash of summoning Xing Tian?’

“Du Yu!”

Seeing Du Yu collapse, Zhi Nv let out a cry of alarm. She hurriedly launched two silk threads from her sleeve, wrapped them around Du Yu, and dragged him to the side.

“Are you alright?” Zhi Nv asked. “Are your injuries still hurting you that badly?”

“It’s not about the injuries…” Du Yu felt a wave of despair. “This is probably a problem much worse than mere injuries…”

For so long, he had grown entirely accustomed to relying on the Eight Directions Ghost Record. He was used to effortlessly wielding the powers of Zhongli Chun and Chada, never once considering that there might come a day when he would lose contact with them entirely.

‘Little Zhongli… can you hear me?’

Du Yu asked softly in his heart. Within that dense fog in his mind, he could sense a resilient soul desperately trying to break through the veil. But no matter how many times that soul tried, it remained utterly unable to communicate with him.

“Without the power of the Eight Directions Ghost Record… I probably won’t be of any help at all right now…”

Du Yu stared up at the sky, his face etched with worry as he watched the Western Queen Mother battling Lovesickness and Reluctance.

Seeing his expression, Zhi Nv offered a wry smile and asked, “Du Yu, you’re not actually worrying about the Goddess, are you?”

“Yeah. Those two nature spirits are incredibly bizarre. Even the Western Queen Mother would find it difficult to deal with them, right…”

Zhi Nv shook her head. “Rest assured, I know the Goddess far too well. Right now, she’s probably only using about thirty percent of her strength. If she unleashed her lightning at full power, I’m afraid the entire Underworld would tremble.”

“Thirty percent?”

Du Yu looked up at the sky in horror. Lightning flashed and thunder roared, each strike possessing earth-shattering might. And this was only thirty percent?!

Was the Western Queen Mother holding back this entire time because she was afraid the collateral damage would be too catastrophic?

Du Yu noticed the Western Queen Mother’s expression growing increasingly irritable. She looked as though her patience was wearing dangerously thin.

Just then, a ripple distorted the sky. Two figures—one black and one white—abruptly materialized. It was none other than the Black and White Impermanence.

“Western Queen Mother!”

“You’re too slow!” she barked furiously.

“This subordinate deserves ten thousand deaths!” The Black and White Impermanence bowed respectfully in unison.

Looking closely, Du Yu saw that the auras of the Seventh Lord and Eighth Lord were incredibly weak, and the injuries on their bodies hadn’t yet healed. They were likely lingering wounds from their previous battle against Houtu.

At the same time, several more figures descended from the sky. Looking closely, they were the Civil and Martial Judges, Ox-Head and Horse-Face, and Master Cangue and Master Lock.

The Civil Judge, Cui Jue, swiftly surveyed the situation before asking, “Western Queen Mother, is this girl in red the enemy?”

Upon hearing this, the Martial Judge, Zhong Kui, instantly summoned a vast array of magical treasures, which hovered relentlessly in the air. “A puny nature spirit actually dares to run wild in the Underworld?!”

The Black Impermanence drew his Soul Capturing Chain.

The White Impermanence brandished his Ghost Wailing Stick.

Horse-Face summoned his Nine-Turn Spirit-Cleansing Whip.

Master Cangue and Master Lock respectively summoned their Golden Cangue and Silver Lock.

Ox-Head momentarily froze before roaring with an utterly distraught expression, “Crap, I forgot to bring my magical treasure!”

Du Yu couldn’t help but let out a soft sigh. If he remembered correctly, he had encountered Ox-Head a total of three times, and every single time, the guy hadn’t brought a magical treasure.

‘Does this big brother even own a magical treasure in the first place…’