Legend Management Bureau Chapter 425

[ … words ]

You Si was just about to step forward when she suddenly thought of something. She pulled a veil from her sleeve and covered her face.

She was somewhat fearful of everything in this world now. She no longer understood the meaning of “human nature” and didn’t know if she could truly accomplish that goal.

The people of this village were gathered in the central plaza. In the middle of the plaza stood a wooden stake, and tied to that stake was a bare-chested young man.

The young man was covered in wounds. His emaciated body stood out starkly against the snow-covered earth.

An elderly man stood to the side holding a torch. He shouted to the gathered villagers, “Do we burn him?!”

“Burn him to death! Burn him!”

The villagers roared.

“Sigh.” You Si slowly exhaled and turned away. She had seen far too many miserable souls in this world, and she had encountered several young men like this one. There was truly no need to rescue him now.

“I truly do not know where Qinglian and Taohua went…” the youth said slowly. “I am absolutely not lying.”

“No… you are wrong…” the youth said weakly. “I only heard Qinglian and Taohua say they were going up the mountain to gather medicine for their sick mother, but I genuinely don’t know why they haven’t returned. Instead of wasting your energy burning me, you should go up the mountain to search for them earlier. What if they encountered venomous insects or fierce beasts…”

Before he could finish speaking, the elderly man viciously smashed the torch into the youth’s abdomen. The skin instantly seared, revealing a patch of burned flesh and blood.

The youth immediately let out a muffled groan.

“Qinglian and Taohua saved me. How could I return kindness with enmity?” The youth coughed a few times and slowly raised his head. “Besides, if I truly wanted to make a move, who in this village could stop me?”

With that said, a tremendous aura erupted from the youth’s frail body.

The numerous villagers couldn’t help but look terrified, instinctively taking a step back.

Sensing this aura, You Si, who had been about to leave, stopped in her tracks.

Even though the youth was bound to the wooden stake, he genuinely looked like he possessed the strength to slaughter the entire village.

Then why hadn’t he fought back at all?

Du Yu felt that this youth’s aura was incredibly familiar. His lips trembling slightly, he stepped forward and scrutinized him. In mere moments, Du Yu’s eyes filled with utter shock.

“Old Zhan…”

He reached out his hand, as if trying to save Zhan Qisheng, but this was all an illusion after all; he couldn’t touch a thing.

Du Yu felt as though some clues were constantly intertwining in his mind, yet he couldn’t quite link them together.

This sequence that Time had shown him was simply too bizarre.

“Patriarch, this person is a disaster! We must burn him to death!” a village woman shouted. “If we let him go, he definitely won’t let this slide!”

Hearing this, Zhan Qisheng gritted his teeth slightly and said, “Fellow Villagers, do not push me. If I wanted to hurt you, I wouldn’t have waited until now.”

But the villagers were completely beyond listening to reason.

If, a minute ago, they had wanted to burn Zhan Qisheng to death out of “anger,” then right now, a minute later, their reason for wanting to burn him was “fear.”

How could someone countless times stronger than them possibly let them off?

Driven by this thought, the villagers went mad.

They repeatedly screamed, “Burn him,” their tones dripping with murderous intent.

You Si found the youth before her to be utterly laughable.

The opposing side already harbored such immense murderous intent, yet he could still hold back from attacking?

The Patriarch delayed no further. He tossed the torch in his hand, and it landed directly on the dry hay at Zhan Qisheng’s feet.

A blaze instantly flared up, and Zhan Qisheng immediately felt a heart-rending agony.

Right at that moment, a dragon’s roar echoed from the sky!

The crowd looked up, only to see a massive golden dragon spiraling down towards them. The dragon had iridescent wings on its back and gleamed with golden light all over.

“This is the place! You made this ancestor search hard!”

Seeing a true dragon descend, the crowd fell to their knees in worship.

But before they could even utter a single word of reverence, the giant dragon opened its massive maw and unleashed a devastating sonic boom.

Seeing that things were taking a turn for the worse, You Si hurriedly gave a gentle wave of her hand.

In an instant, her body was enveloped in a black mist, and the time around them paused entirely.

The crackling flames and the rippling shockwave of the dragon’s roar all froze in place, utterly motionless.

Upon noticing the anomaly, Zhan Qisheng also looked up in confusion. This was his first time witnessing such a miraculous spell.

And among the many villagers, only a single woman in black was still able to move.

You Si slowly walked up to Zhan Qisheng and asked, “Why are you also able to move?”

“How should I know?” Zhan Qisheng replied crossly.

Hearing this, You Si let out a cold sneer and said, “I have now stopped time. Do you not wish to beg me for help?”

Watching the two of them converse, a strong sense of dissonance rippled through Du Yu’s heart.

‘Zhan Qisheng has met You Si before?’ A massive question involuntarily arose in his mind. ‘Then why didn’t he recognize that Xie Yujiao was You Si?!’

Du Yu turned his head to look. Could it be… because You Si was wearing a veil?

But in the very next second, Du Yu was struck as if by a bolt of lightning.

A memory flashed through his mind.

The first time Zhan Qisheng met Xie Yujiao, he had raised his hand and slowly covered her facial features from the nose down.

At that time, Zhan Qisheng had said, “I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before.”

Du Yu had wholeheartedly believed that Old Zhan had recognized the “Masked Woman” from the bus, but who could have ever imagined… the person he had actually recognized was You Si!

Perhaps it was because Xie Yujiao and You Si had different auras, or perhaps it was because the Xie Yujiao at that time had been loudly reprimanding Zhan Qisheng for tarnishing her chastity.

Whatever the reason, Zhan Qisheng hadn’t connected her to You Si.

Zhan Qisheng only sneered coldly and declared, “If you are willing to save me, then save me. If you are not willing to save me, then go save those villagers.”

This left You Si feeling even more bewildered.

“Young man, you are quite strange,” You Si said slowly. “You bitterly pleaded with the villagers who wanted to burn you to death, yet you treat the one person who might save you with such icy indifference. Can you tell me why that is?”

“Because I am indeed at fault.” Zhan Qisheng coughed a few more times and said, “I was staying as a guest in Qinglian and Taohua’s home, yet I failed to protect the two of them. That is my responsibility.”

“What a joke.” You Si laughed loudly. “I’ve been listening for quite a while now. You are neither kin nor family to those two. Is there really a need to die for them?”

“There is.” Zhan Qisheng nodded gravely. “If it weren’t for the two of them, I would have died of cold and starvation long ago. Who could have expected that before I even had the chance to repay their kindness, those two would vanish without a trace.”

“Repay their kindness…?” You Si pondered for a brief moment. “What does it mean to repay kindness?”

Zhan Qisheng raised his head and spoke coldly to You Si, “Because they saved me, I am willing to lay down my life for them. That is what it means to repay kindness.”