Legend Management Bureau Chapter 378

[ … words ]

Shiranui Asuka suddenly felt a bit conflicted.

Shuten was right. At best, Xie Yujiao was her friend, not Shuten’s friend.

Having him step forward to resolve this matter now was indeed somewhat inappropriate.

“In that case… I will help Sister Xie Yujiao myself!”

Asuka stepped forward with a puffed-out chest and shouted loudly, “Hey! If you want to kill Sister Xie Yujiao, I will not allow it!”

Cowherd looked helplessly at the little dwarf in front of him and said, “Miss, please do not make things difficult for me. I have no grudge or enmity with you, and I do not want to accidentally hurt you.”

“You… you… I just will not allow it!” Asuka stood before Cowherd, her hands on her hips, looking incredibly arrogant.

Shuten was also in a difficult position at this moment. Every wrong had its perpetrator, and every debt its debtor. If this man was here for revenge, they had no reason to stop him; doing so would violate their code of honor.

However, having A’xiang standing at the front provoking him like this was also truly inappropriate.

“Hey, brother,” Shuten called out.

“Hmm?” Cowherd turned his head to look at Shuten.

“Why do you want to take this woman’s life?” Shuten gestured toward Xie Yujiao with his thumb.

“Revenge,” Cowherd answered with absolute certainty.

“What kind of revenge?”

Cowherd reached out and gently pulled A’xiang aside, stating, “Revenge for the murder of my wife, Zhi Nv!”

Shuten felt that the name “Zhi Nv” sounded somewhat familiar, but he simply could not recall who this person was.

Ootengu, however, paused in surprise. “Your wife is Zhi Nv? You are Cowherd?”

Cowherd looked back at this man with a pair of black wings and replied, “That is right, I am exactly Cowherd. You all do not look like people of Hua Xia, yet you actually recognize me?”

“Cowherd!!” Shuten opened his mouth wide in shock, pointing repeatedly at Cowherd. He turned back to the numerous yokai and exclaimed, “So he is that Cowherd from the Qixi Festival!”

Ootengu said in exasperation, “Shuten, back in Fusang, you hung up ‘Qixi dolls’ in your room every year during the Qixi Festival. But now you actually forgot that Zhi Nv’s husband is Cowherd?”

“Who said I forgot?” Shuten said awkwardly. “I just could not recall it right away.”

Ootengu sighed and slowly stepped forward, saying, “Cowherd, it is not strange that we know you. The legend of ‘Cowherd and Weaver Girl’ is not only spread throughout Hua Xia but also circulates in Fusang and Goryeo. We celebrate the Qixi Festival every July as well.”

Cowherd did not know what this person meant by saying these words, so he could only listen in silence.

Seeing that Cowherd did not reply, Ootengu had to continue, “I just want to confirm with you again… are you saying the lady behind us… killed Zhi Nv?”

“Exactly!” Cowherd replied.

“Utter nonsense!” Xie Yujiao could not listen to this anymore. Pushing past the crowd in front of her, she stepped up. “Sir, speaking like this is far too unreasonable! When did I ever kill Zhi Nv? When Zhi Nv died, I was not even with her!”

Cowherd gritted his teeth. He had long anticipated that Xie Yujiao would try to argue her way out of it, but he never expected her excuse to be so bizarre.

“Xie Yujiao, this news was told to me by Liu Ling and A Can together. Could it be that they would lie to me?!”

“What did you say?!”

Xie Yujiao’s eyes instantly widened. She clearly remembered that when Zhi Nv died, both Liu Ling and A Can were with her on Dragon Ancestor Island. It was bad enough that they would not act as ‘witnesses’, but now they were actually falsely accusing her?!

The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. She immediately declared, “The three of us were in ‘Nuwa Repairs the Sky’ at the time, while Zhi Nv was in ‘Gonggong Angrily Headbutts Mount Buzhou’. How could I possibly…”

Before she could finish speaking, she froze.

‘Wait a minute.’

‘Does the fact that Zhi Nv was in “Gonggong Angrily Headbutts Mount Buzhou” really prove she wasn’t with me?’

‘No!’

‘There was another “Xie Yujiao” in that legend as well!’

‘Could it be that that Xie Yujiao killed Zhi Nv?’

‘But why?’

What Xie Yujiao did not know was that the situation at the time was extremely urgent, and no one had ever told her that the troublesome enemy was actually herself.

You Si had once used a strange Array Formation to trap the future Ootengu and Zhi Nv, relentlessly launching lethal attacks at them.

When Dong Qianqiu went to Xie Yujiao for help, he had only said, “The enemy has someone highly skilled in Array Formations,” without revealing her identity.

Xie Yujiao turned around and grabbed Shiranui Asuka’s arm, demanding, “A’xiang, are you all hiding something from me?”

“Eh?”

Asuka was also completely confused. She did not understand the true situation either; she had merely heard Dong Qianqiu say the phrase, “You Si killed Zhi Nv.”

Who could help her now?

Who knew the full picture of everything that had happened?

At that thought, a person came to mind.

‘Is Sister Xiao Qi there?’ Asuka called out in her mind.

Hearing Asuka’s call, the future Xiao Qi could not help but pause in surprise, immediately focusing her screen on Shiranui Asuka.

“A’xiang, I am here. What is wrong?” Xiao Qi asked.

“Thank goodness! Sister Xiao Qi! Quickly help me see what is going on here!” Shiranui Asuka said anxiously. “Brother Cowherd has come to seek revenge against Sister Xie Yujiao!”

“What?!” Xiao Qi was instantly bewildered, but she quickly came to an understanding.

She could not resolve this matter.

Because this was a storyline that had never happened in her timeline.

In her timeline, although Zhan Qisheng, Ying Ning, and Zhi Nv had also been killed, the person who murdered them was the Black Monk.

Every wrong had its perpetrator and every debt its debtor. The Saint had gone to the Black Monk to exact this revenge.

But in Du Yu’s timeline, because the story had changed, the person who killed Zhi Nv became You Si.

This unforeseen event triggered a butterfly effect, leading to the current situation where Cowherd was seeking revenge against Xie Yujiao.

If A’xiang were to get involved, Shuten Doji and his ten thousand yokai would also join the fray, and this entire incident would escalate into a massive Vicissitude.

“Saint! What do we do?” Xiao Qi turned her head and asked anxiously.

Asuka listened carefully to the movements on the other end of the Voice Transmission. She could not hear the Saint’s voice; all her hopes were pinned on Xiao Qi.

After a moment, Xiao Qi brought news from the Saint.

“A’xiang, the Saint said… let her die.”

Shiranui Asuka thought she had misheard and confirmed once more, “Sister Xiao Qi, who did you say should die?”

“Let A’jiao die,” Xiao Qi repeated.

This time A’xiang heard it clearly, but she became even more confused.

“But why?!” Her expression grew so frantic she looked on the verge of tears. “Sister Xie Yujiao is our comrade! She is on our side!”

“No. A’xiang, you must remember, she is not Xie Yujiao. From beginning to end, she has always been ‘You Si’. She is not on our side, but on the side of ‘Time’.” Xiao Qi paused for a moment before continuing, “The Xie Yujiao by our side has completely turned into You Si. Not only did she kill Zhi Nv, but she also stayed within the legend and refused to return. That is the best proof. As soon as she remembers that she is ‘You Si’, she will treat us as enemies. Thinking about it this way, it is better to kill her early on. As long as Xie Yujiao is killed in your timeline, the ‘You Si’ in our timeline will also disappear.”