Legend Management Bureau Chapter 193

[ … words ]

Du Yu hadn’t expected Niulang to be so bold. According to the legends, he was just an ordinary cowherd, but right now, he really gave off the vibe of a mob boss.

“Although I hate owing people favors…” Du Yu said, “I’m not a long-winded person either. If you don’t want this money, I’ll take it back. But if you ever need my help in the future, just give the word. Even though I only owe you thirty thousand spirit stones today, what I pay you back will absolutely be far more than that.”

Niulang chuckled and replied, “Your personality is quite similar to Sister Meng’s.”

The older brother, who was currently being bandaged, couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of gratitude toward Du Yu. He tried to stand up several times, only to be pushed back down by the nurse treating his wounds.

Noticing his restless movements, Du Yu turned around and said, “Stop moving around so much. Why are you being so fidgety?”

“I am truly ashamed…” the older brother smiled bitterly. “I just wanted to properly thank my benefactor. Not only did you save my life, but you also gave me the means to keep on living…”

“What kind of talk is that?” Du Yu retorted. “Is ‘staying alive’ really that difficult? From now on, the Legend Administration is your backer. All you have to do is mention the name of the person at the ‘very top,’ and it’ll be enough to scare off even a Great Luo Golden Immortal.”

“Huh?” The older brother paused, unsure if Du Yu was exaggerating. Even if a regular administration had powerful higher-ups, just how powerful could they be? Scaring off a Great Luo Golden Immortal with just a name was way too much of a stretch. Could it be the Queen Mother of the West?

Right at that moment, the younger brother, who had been lying on the other bed this whole time, furrowed his brow and slowly opened his eyes.

Everyone turned to look. The younger brother had indeed woken up. With a pained expression, he slowly sat up and looked at the crowd in confusion.

“Huh?”

He hardly recognized anyone in front of him. Turning his head, he caught sight of his equally heavily injured older brother.

“Brother, what happened to you?! Did they not let you go?” the younger brother asked weakly. “I already handed over one of my soul fragments to them! Did they still hurt you?”

“No, no, no…” The older brother shook his head. “Of course not. I brought these injuries upon myself… But thanks to these wounds, I was able to replace that missing soul fragment of yours.”

“Replace my soul fragment?”

“Yes, I met two benefactors.” The older brother smiled at him. “Let me introduce you. This is Brother Lang. You were unconscious last night, and it was Brother Lang who took us in. He bought you a soul fragment from the black market.”

The younger brother bowed his head respectfully toward Niulang. “Greetings, Brother Lang.”

“And this is Brother Yu,” the older brother continued. “Brother Yu not only saved my life but is also going to find us a job. We won’t have to live in constant fear anymore.”

The younger brother turned to Du Yu. “Greetings, Brother Yu.”

Du Yu felt incredibly awkward. How did he suddenly become ‘Brother Yu’?

“Don’t call me ‘Brother Yu,’ I’m an upstanding citizen…”

Niulang blinked. “Brother, who exactly are you calling not upstanding?”

The younger brother was just about to say something when his face suddenly contorted in agony, and he collapsed heavily back onto the bed.

Before anyone could figure out what was happening, he began thrashing and rolling around on the mattress. His complexion flickered between pale and flushed, his expression shifting erratically in a highly bizarre manner.

“Oh no!” Niulang immediately rushed out of the room and shouted out the door, “Quick! Get the Soul Caller in here to take a look!”

A moment later, a white-haired old man carrying a medical kit stumbled into the room.

“Brother Lang! What happened?!” the old man asked in a panic.

Du Yu could not help but wince internally. It was deeply weird hearing an old man call a young guy ‘Brother.’

“Something went wrong with this kid! Hurry up and check if there’s a problem with that black market soul fragment we bought!”

Hearing this, the old man did not dare delay and immediately stepped forward to examine the younger brother’s condition.

He pulled out a small bell and rang it, tossed a handful of rice into the air, and finally drew a paper talisman and set it ablaze.

While it was supposed to be an examination of the soul, in Du Yu’s eyes, it looked more like an exorcism.

“Brother Lang, logically speaking, there shouldn’t be any issue with the black market fragment we bought. The problem lies with this young man… His constitution is very unique, making it incompatible with ordinary soul fragments. Right now, the fragment you bought is on the verge of being completely devoured by his other soul fragments.”

“Souls devouring each other?” Niulang was stunned. “Are this kid’s souls really that vicious?”

Gritting his teeth, the younger brother forced out a few words through his agony. “…I couldn’t protect the soul fragment you bought… I am truly ashamed…”

Du Yu frowned and muttered, “What is up with you two brothers? Do you know any words other than ‘ashamed’?”

Yet, at that exact moment, the two brothers spoke in perfect unison: “We are ashamed…”

“Alright, alright…” Du Yu shook his head in resignation. “Let’s drop the subject. Brother Lang, what happens if the soul fragment is devoured?”

Niulang’s expression filled with concern. “If that happens, he’ll still be missing a soul fragment. If we don’t hurry and buy a new one, he still won’t survive…”

The older brother’s face fell. A single soul fragment on the black market cost thirty thousand. How could they possibly afford another one?

But Niulang didn’t hesitate for a second. He immediately turned to his subordinates and ordered, “Go find out who is selling resilient soul fragments right now. If you find one, don’t bother reporting back to me. Just buy it immediately, no matter the price.”

The old man looked at Niulang awkwardly and said, “Brother Lang, it’s not that I don’t want to buy one, but an ordinary soul fragment will probably just get devoured again… We need to figure out this young man’s exact bloodline first, and only then can we find a compatible soul fragment…”

Niulang found the old man’s words reasonable. He turned back and asked, “Brother, what bloodline are you? Demon, ghost, spirit, or beast?”

Thrashing in pain, the younger brother stammered, “Brother Lang… I… I can’t remember my past, nor do I remember my bloodline…”

“Well, this is tricky…” Niulang narrowed his eyes in thought for a moment before turning to Zhinu. “Wifey, you’re much smarter than I am. Hurry up and think of a good solution, will you?”

Zhinu had already calmed down from her earlier anger. Seeing this situation, she naturally wanted to help. However, as a celestial immortal, she rarely dealt with matters of the soul. Without knowing the younger brother’s bloodline, she was completely at a loss.

Off to the side, Du Yu suddenly spoke up:

“Uh… just asking since I don’t know, but what exactly are you guys stressing over?”

“Stressing over what?” Niulang replied. “Naturally, we’re trying to figure out where to find a suitable soul fragment to restore this brother’s soul.”

“Isn’t your line of thinking completely backwards?” Du Yu pointed out. “Didn’t someone steal his original soul fragment? Why don’t we just go snatch it back?”

Zhinu blinked in realization. “That’s right, why don’t we just go take it back?”

“Sigh…” Niulang let out a breath and said softly, “It’s not that I haven’t considered it, it’s just… in the Inner Underworld, there is only one person who likes to collect people’s soul fragments… Rather than clashing with him head-on, it’s better to figure out how to buy a black market soul fragment.”

“Oh?” Du Yu raised an eyebrow. “Brother Lang, even with your power, you can’t go up against him?”

“That’s right, Brother Yu.” Niulang nodded. “This person’s faction is far stronger than mine. He commands countless evil ghosts.”

“Wait… why are you calling me Brother Yu now too…”

“It’s a title of respect around here.” Niulang smiled at him. “Brother Yu, you should listen to me on this one. We need to find a way to buy a black market soul fragment as quickly as possible. Worst comes to worst, we’ll just buy a fragment of every bloodline and try them all.”

Even though Niulang said that, Du Yu still felt it was inappropriate.

Right now, he needed this pair of brothers to ‘owe him a favor’, not ‘owe Niulang a favor’. Although Niulang was a good guy, Du Yu had to play a few minor tricks here.

“Brother Lang, buying those black market soul fragments one by one is going to take a considerable amount of time, right? Why don’t you just tell me who this guy is?”

Seeing that Du Yu refused to give up, Niulang had no choice but to speak. “It’s an organization called ‘Desolate Mountain.’ Their leader is An Lushan, the ‘Head of the Underworld’s Ten Great Villains.'”

“What did you just say?!” Du Yu exclaimed.

“An Lushan.”

“No, no, no, the sentence before that.”

Niulang thought for a second. “Desolate Mountain?”

“No, no, no, the sentence after that.”

“Uh… ‘Head of the Underworld’s Ten Great Villains’?”

“Yes, yes, exactly!” Du Yu nodded frantically. “You said he’s the head of the Ten Great Villains of the Underworld?!”

“Yeah, what about it?”

Du Yu let out a dry laugh. He had definitely heard that title before!

After all, he had a living, breathing ‘Head of the Underworld’s Ten Great Villains’ residing right inside his own body!

“When… when exactly did this An Lushan become the head of the Ten Great Villains?” Du Yu asked.

“Uh… it should have been fairly recently, right?” Niulang recalled. “Originally, he was only ranked second. But the previous head of the Ten Great Villains, ‘Villain Chun,’ hasn’t shown any signs of activity for a long time. He might already be dead, so An Lushan naturally became the new head of the villains.”

“Alright, leave this matter to me. I’m going to go meet this An Lushan.” Du Yu patted Niulang on the shoulder and turned to head out the door. Before leaving, he glanced back at Qu Xi. “Qu Xi, don’t follow me. Stay here and look after these two brothers for me. You guys are going to be colleagues from now on.”

Qu Xi seemed to be spacing out. It took Du Yu calling her name twice before she finally responded.

“Qu Xi, are you still worrying about the ‘memory’ thing?” Du Yu asked.

“Yes…” Qu Xi slowly nodded.

“Stop overthinking it,” Du Yu said. “I think I’ve come up with a solution. I’ll tell you about it when the time is right.”

“Huh?” Qu Xi was taken aback. “You have a solution?”

“How should I put this…” Du Yu pondered for a moment. “I do have a method, but I’d rather not use it.”

Qu Xi didn’t understand what he meant.

As Du Yu turned and walked out of the room, Niulang, Zhinu, and the two brothers were left completely dumbfounded.

“Brother Yu!” Niulang hurriedly chased after him. “What are you doing?”

“What am I doing?” Du Yu looked confused. “Isn’t that obvious? I’m going to go snatch that soul fragment back.”

“N-No way!” Niulang cried out. “If I remember correctly, the Operators of the Legend Administration… are mortals, right? Why would you pit the strength of a mortal against evil ghosts?”

“Hah!” Du Yu laughed. “I’m not just a simple mortal… Anyway, I’m going to go see him first. The title of ‘Head of the Underworld’s Ten Great Villains’ isn’t something he can just claim because he wants to.”

Niulang still felt this was a terrible idea, so he hastily offered, “If you’re really going to challenge ‘Desolate Mountain,’ Brother Yu, then I’ll gather my men right now and we’ll march over there together!”

“Eh?” Du Yu paused. “Do we really need to make such a big scene?”

“To be honest, ‘Desolate Mountain’ has always opposed us. I’ve been wanting to deal with them for a long time! Since you’re going, brother, our entire ‘Lang Syndicate’ will risk our lives to back you up!”

“Lang Syndicate…?”

The older brother, still being bandaged, hurriedly chimed in, “I am ashamed… If my brother and I weren’t injured, we would absolutely charge in there to help Brother Yu…”

The younger brother also spoke up with a pained expression, “Yes, exactly… I am ashamed…”

“Stop being ashamed!” Du Yu was genuinely getting scared of these two. “Since you guys love saying you’re ashamed so much, why don’t we name the older brother Ah Can and the younger brother Ah Kui? You two didn’t have names anyway!”