Legend Management Bureau Chapter 196

[ … words ]

An Lushan felt that something was off. He had dispatched hundreds of his subordinates to take over West Street, and an hour or two had already passed. Why was there absolutely no news?

‘Could those hundreds of subordinates have occupied West Street and set up their own faction?’ he wondered.

His forces here were already outnumbered. If any other accidents occurred, he would definitely end up suffering a crushing defeat.

What was worse, the two helpers Niulang brought were astonishingly powerful. Even with his High Immortal cultivation base, he couldn’t see through their true depths. However, they seemed to be following some unspoken rule and had yet to make a move against him.

Right at that moment, a man with both arms severed stumbled over.

Seeing this, An Lushan immediately forced Niulang back with a shockwave and hurried over to check on his subordinate.

“Boss Shan!” the man grit his teeth, looking as though he wouldn’t live much longer. “Our plan failed… Liu Ling is guarding West Street. His strength is too terrifying. He instantly slaughtered hundreds of us all by himself…”

“Liu Ling?!” An Lushan’s eyes widened. “Brother, are you lying to me? Liu Ling’s reputation on this street isn’t even as big as Zhi’er’s. How could he possibly have that kind of strength?”

The man gave a bitter smile and coughed up a large mouthful of blood. He looked at An Lushan and spoke weakly, “Boss Shan, my soul is about to scatter. What point is there in lying to you? Both of my hands were chopped off by him. I didn’t even have a chance to resist…”

The brother in his arms twitched a few times before going completely still.

An Lushan couldn’t help but wonder to himself, ‘If that Liu Ling, who has never shown his face, also charges over to team up with that twin-blade swordswoman and that man with the bizarre movement techniques, do I even have a chance of winning?’

“Even if I truly fall here today, I’m dragging Niulang down to hell with me,” he muttered fiercely.

An Lushan quickly cleared his mind, raising his head to glare at Niulang.

Niulang sensed a shift in the fat man’s aura. Earlier, An Lushan had merely been trying to humiliate him, but now, he was radiating pure killing intent.

“Niulang, out of all the mistakes you could have made, challenging me personally was your worst,” An Lushan declared.

“But here I am.” Niulang offered a faint smile. “If I die here, it only proves that I don’t have what it takes to manage this street.”

“Then go to hell.”

An Lushan roared, shattering the ground beneath his feet. The stone club in his hand instantly expanded as he swung it down viciously at Niulang.

Not being skilled in spells, Niulang could only rely on his physical body to resist. He raised both hands to catch the stone club, causing the ground beneath him to violently splinter and crack.

Niulang grit his teeth, desperately holding his ground against the crushing assault. He opened his mouth and let out a heaven-shaking bellow. The massive phantom of a water buffalo materialized behind him. The buffalo tossed its horns upward, instantly knocking An Lushan’s weapon into the air.

Immediately after, Niulang and the buffalo phantom launched themselves at An Lushan in unison.

An Lushan seemed to have anticipated this move. He easily dodged it with a slight sidestep, and just as they brushed past each other, he reached out and grabbed Niulang’s ankle.

Niulang cried out in alarm internally. He had actually been caught by this fat man with monstrous strength.

An Lushan sneered. Gripping Niulang’s leg, he ruthlessly slammed his entire body into the ground.

Niulang immediately coughed up a mouthful of blood, and the various protective spells swirling around him instantly shattered.

Without giving him a moment to recover, An Lushan hoisted him up into the air again.

“I’m going to break every bone in your body!”

But just as he was about to swing his arm down, someone grabbed his wrist.

Turning his head, he saw a handsome young man holding a rapier standing beside him. It was none other than one of the helpers Niulang had hired.

An Lushan’s eyes darted around before he asked, “Where are you from, friend? If you were hired by Niulang, my Desolate Mountain faction is willing to pay ten times the price.”

“Brother… Brother Yu…” Niulang forced the words out with great difficulty.

“Don’t worry, Brother Lang. Zhinü already knows how charming you are,” Du Yu smiled at him. “Leave the rest to me.”

Du Yu exerted force with his grip. A sharp pain instantly shot through An Lushan, forcing him to let go of Niulang.

Clutching his chest, Niulang staggered to his feet and said, “Brother Yu, please be careful…”

Seeing Du Yu nod, Niulang turned around and threw himself back into the battles in the other areas.

“Just who exactly are you?” An Lushan demanded.

Du Yu did not reply. Instead, his expression turned icy, and his gaze shifted, emitting an overwhelmingly intense killing intent.

“Who… am I?” Du Yu asked slowly. “I should be asking you. Since when did you become the number one villain in the Underworld?”

Hearing this, every hair on An Lushan’s body stood on end.

“No… that’s impossible…” He clutched his wrist, trembling as he backed away. “You… this voice… this aura… could it be?”

“Did you forget what I told you? If I ever saw you again, I would scatter your soul until nothing remains.”

An Lushan was completely at a loss. Back then, he had truly been blind enough to provoke “Chun the Wicked.”

At the time, he had only wanted to compete with her for the title of “Number One Villain,” but he never expected to be beaten so badly that he couldn’t even fight back.

In the days that followed, he had been forced to live in seclusion in the Inner Yellow Springs, never daring to show his face carelessly for fear of running into Zhongli Chun one day.

But why had Zhongli Chun shown up at his doorstep now?

“You… you’re not dead?” An Lushan stared at Du Yu, completely unable to wrap his head around the situation. “Word on the street was that you were injured by a few spectral envoys on Past Life Stone Pedestrian Street and vanished without a trace. How could you possibly still be alive?”

“Do I not deserve to live?” Du Yu slowly stepped forward, while An Lushan retreated step by step.

“No, no… I…” An Lushan frantically tried to think of a countermeasure. He absolutely could not deal with this woman using normal methods. In a head-on clash, no one was her match.

‘The situation is dire…’ An Lushan made his decision. ‘As long as the green mountains remain, I won’t have to worry about firewood! I need to survive first!’

With that, he pulled a black orb from his robes and smashed it fiercely onto the ground. A massive surge of nether energy instantly flooded the area, whipping up a sinister gale that forced Du Yu to shut his eyes.

A moment later, the dark wind dissipated, and An Lushan was nowhere to be seen.

“Du Yu! What do we do?!” Zhongli Chun asked anxiously.

Du Yu glanced outward and spotted An Lushan’s massive, twisting figure squeezing into an alleyway in the distance.

“We can’t let him escape! Ah Kui’s mortal soul is still in his hands!” Du Yu shouted. “Switch back to me. I’ll chase him!”

Upon hearing this, Zhongli Chun relinquished control of the body back to Du Yu, who immediately launched himself forward in pursuit.

Zhinü turned her head and saw An Lushan and Du Yu running off into the distance. “Du Yu! An Lushan is full of tricks! Don’t chase him!” she screamed.

“Don’t worry, Zhinü! I know what I’m doing!”

Du Yu naturally knew that this fat bastard definitely had something prepared if he chose to run into an alleyway. But he wasn’t someone to be trifled with, either. Combining the powers of Zhongli Chun and Chada, he had absolute confidence in killing An Lushan, even if the man was a True Immortal.

As he ran, Du Yu circulated Zhongli Chun’s movement technique, quickly closing the distance between himself and An Lushan.

Rounding the street corner, Du Yu was surprised to find that it was a dead-end alley.

And right now, An Lushan was standing at the very end of it, turning around to look at him with a mocking sneer.

“Oh? A dead end?” Du Yu scanned his surroundings. “Whatever tricks you have up your sleeve, just bring them out.”

An Lushan pulled a metallic garment out of his Cosmos Bag and draped it over himself. Then, he took a detonator from his robes. With a faint smile, he triggered some unknown mechanism, and a thick wall suddenly erected itself directly behind Du Yu.

“I’ve rigged this entire alley with explosives. I don’t care how strong you are, your soul is going to be blown into oblivion! Now you can’t leave and you can’t escape, so you can stay here forever!”

Du Yu scratched his head. He really hadn’t expected a trick like this. He could probably escape using Chada’s portal.

But running away now would be meaningless. He still hadn’t retrieved Ah Kui’s soul fragment.

As Du Yu hesitated, An Lushan assumed he was terrified.

“How about it? Do you want to make a deal with me? You go out there and kill Niulang, we become sworn brothers, and we’ll let this whole thing slide.”

Du Yu frowned slightly and said,

“How about this? Hand over the mortal soul you stole yesterday, and I’ll spare your life for now.”

“Mortal soul?” It was only then that An Lushan realized what Du Yu’s true objective was. “So it’s a mortal soul you’re after? Then this is easy!”

He frantically pulled numerous glass bottles out of his Cosmos Bag, displaying all of them in front of him. “These are the mortal souls I’ve collected recently. If you need them, take them all!”

Du Yu slowly shook his head. “I only want the mortal soul you stole yesterday.”

An Lushan’s eyes darted around slyly. “Alright then, come over here and get it!”

With that, he picked up a bottle from the ground and proclaimed, “It’s this one!”

“Heh.”

Du Yu scoffed coldly. ‘Come over and get it?’

‘Is this An Lushan still refusing to give up?’

‘Does he take me for a three-year-old?’

“Fine, I’ll come get it.” Du Yu smiled faintly. “If you dare try anything else, I promise you’ll be dead before you even press that detonator.”

An Lushan was startled by Du Yu’s threat, though he didn’t dare admit that he did, in fact, have ulterior motives.

Du Yu slowly walked over. An Lushan watched his every movement nervously.

Just as he reached the halfway point of the alley, Du Yu felt his foot step on something strange. A strong sense of foreboding washed over him.

An Lushan had likely been bluffing earlier. It was impossible for this entire street to be rigged with explosives; otherwise, even with a magical treasure protecting him, the fat man would definitely die too.

Right now… the explosives were probably only planted directly under his feet.

“Hahaha! Go to hell!”

An Lushan roared with laughter. Just as his left hand went to press the detonator, a bloody hand abruptly tore through the center of his chest.

He froze as a torrent of blood spilled from his mouth.

“Huh?”

An Lushan completely failed to comprehend what had just happened. He was wearing the Black Iron Armor, yet someone had managed to pierce straight through his body with a single bare hand?

The detonator in his hand slowly slipped to the ground as his entire body slumped forward.

Once An Lushan collapsed, Du Yu finally saw the bare-chested young man standing behind him.

It was clearly a dead-end alley, yet this young man looked as though he had been standing there the entire time.

“Ah Can?!” Du Yu was stunned. “Why are you here? Are your injuries alright?”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Du Yu felt that something was off.

The Ah Can in front of him didn’t have any fresh wounds; instead, his body was covered in old scars.

He raised his head to look at Du Yu, a sinister smile creeping across his face. “I’m quite ashamed. Last time, you were wearing monk robes, so I didn’t recognize you immediately. This time, I will definitely take your life.”