Legend Management Bureau Chapter 21

[ … words ]

Du Yu patted Zhongli Chun’s shoulder. “Hey, it’s fine. Your injuries haven’t healed yet, this is exactly the time you need to rest.”

Hearing Du Yu say this, Zhongli Chun only then reluctantly agreed.

“Perfect timing. Could you take my jacket into the room too? Thanks!” Du Yu took off his outer coat and handed it to Zhongli Chun.

Zhongli Chun took the jacket, gently hugging it to her chest, and then slowly left, following the staff member.

“Alright, let’s get back to business,” He Suoyi said, stroking his beard. “The missions aren’t that urgent, but there are quite a few of them.”

“A lot?”

“That’s right. Over the years, we’ve accumulated countless Legends, mostly Grade C. Now that we have an Operator, it’s best to gradually resolve these Legends to eliminate any future troubles.” He Suoyi waved his hand, and a pizza box appeared right in front of them. He pointed at the box and said, “Take a close look at these Legends. The first one is called… Extra Cheese Pizza… Legend…?”

“Director, your condition seems to have worsened. You conjured a pizza box, not a screen,” Dong Qianqiu stated, pushing up her glasses.

“Ah? Is that so?” He Suoyi focused his eyes, quickly tossed the pizza box aside, and pulled over a display monitor. Acting as if nothing had happened, he continued, “Look closely. I have roughly divided these Legends into three categories: Underworld Envoys, Divine Envoys, and Historical Figures.”

Du Yu looked at the monitor. The screen was packed with names, looking exactly like a karaoke song list. There were dozens of Legends, major and minor, some of which he had never even heard of before.

“I believe our top priority should be resolving these two Legends first.” He Suoyi pointed a finger. “Cui Jue Judging the Tiger, and the Black and White Guards.”

Dong Qianqiu nodded, seemingly understanding the Director’s intent. Grand Magistrate Cui Jue and the Black and White Guards had clearly extended an olive branch to the Legend Management Bureau. Now that their Legends had issues, it was the perfect opportunity to consolidate their relationship.

“By the way, Du Yu, do you still remember that matter the Grand Magistrate entrusted to you?” Dong Qianqiu asked with some concern.

“I remember. But…” Du Yu glanced at the screen. “I don’t plan on handling their matters first.”

“Hmm?” He Suoyi also looked at the screen. “What, do you have another choice in mind?”

Du Yu reached out and pointed to a name in the corner of the screen: “The Woman of Wuyan.”

“This Woman of Wuyan, that’s Zhongli Chun, right?” Du Yu asked.

“Yes.” He Suoyi nodded. “That is precisely Zhongli Wuyan.”

Du Yu was lost in thought. ‘I want to see exactly what happened between her and me. This person really makes me far too curious.’

“Oh? You want to ignore the Grand Magistrate and the Seventh and Eighth Guards to deal with Zhongli Chun first?” He Suoyi pondered for a moment, then spoke with deep significance. “I wouldn’t highly recommend doing that. You need to think this through.”

Du Yu looked at He Suoyi, not understanding his meaning.

“Zhongli Chun’s Legend is quite troublesome. First, she was born in the Warring States period. There are many mortal Legends from that era, and they are all interconnected—pulling one hair moves the whole body. Second, hers is a relatively rare long-term Legend. Even though it’s a very low-difficulty Grade C mission, it requires the Operator to descend multiple times throughout her decades of life, which consumes a lot of manpower and resources.”

“Is that so?” Du Yu thought for a moment before asking, “Are there many of these long-term Legends?”

“Although they aren’t very common, there are indeed some,” He Suoyi replied. “Legends like those of Yang Jian and Sun Wukong are all long-term.”

“In that case, wouldn’t it be perfect for me to use this Grade C Legend for some hands-on practice?”

“Well… you are the Operator, so naturally, the decision is yours. We are merely providing advice.” He Suoyi nodded and said, “Since it’s settled, you will officially enter the Legend of the Woman of Wuyan tomorrow. It’s getting late today, so rest up first.”

After He Suoyi finished speaking, he remembered something else. He dug into his pocket, pulled something out, and shoved it into Du Yu’s hand.

“Right, as an Operator for the Legend Management Bureau, you should have your own phone. This was issued by the bureau, take it and use it for now.”

Du Yu took it and examined it closely. After a long moment, he couldn’t hold back his comment, “Director, this is a remote control…”

“Eh?” He Suoyi rummaged through his pockets for a long time again until he finally pulled out a cell phone. “This is the right one.”

Du Yu thanked He Suoyi, then grabbed the phone and walked toward his room with Dong Qianqiu.

“Sister Qianqiu… do we have any empty rooms left here?”

“You… are trying to settle Zhongli Chun in?”

“Yeah… it really doesn’t seem appropriate for her to keep staying in my room.”

“I’ll take her to stay at my place later,” Dong Qianqiu said. “We don’t have many mortals here, and most of us don’t need sleep, so there’s only that one guest room. However, I have my own private office, so Zhongli Chun can go there.”

The two arrived at the room and found Zhongli Chun quietly curled up on the bed, like an obedient kitten. She was sound asleep, hugging Du Yu’s jacket in her arms, but strangely, there were still tears at the corners of her eyes.

“Hmm?” Du Yu looked at Zhongli Chun. “Sister Qianqiu, didn’t you just say that only mortals need to sleep?”

“This… if I remember correctly… Zhongli Chun is a mortal. It’s just unknown why she refused to reincarnate and stayed in the Underworld all this time.”

“Are you saying…” Du Yu looked at Dong Qianqiu in disbelief. “Today, you almost had your soul shattered by a mortal…?”

“Yes. Even though it sounds unbelievable, Zhongli Chun absolutely cannot be understood with ordinary logic. She seems to understand some cultivation methods but hasn’t undergone systematic training, resulting in her directly wielding immortal power with a mortal body. I’m not too clear on the specific details; I’ve never paid attention to Zhongli Chun’s Legend before.”

As the two were talking, Zhongli Chun slowly opened her eyes.

“You’re back?” Her gaze skipped right past Dong Qianqiu and landed directly on Du Yu. “I… I didn’t mess this place up, did I…”

“Don’t worry,” Du Yu said to Zhongli Chun with a smile. “Even if you messed it up, no one would blame you.”

Zhongli Chun also forced a faint smile at Du Yu.

“Zhongli Chun,” Dong Qianqiu said. “You and Du Yu are an unmarried man and woman, after all. It’s inappropriate for both of you to stay here. I’ll take you to stay at my place.”

“Huh?” Zhongli Chun gave Dong Qianqiu a glance. “Why is it inappropriate?”

“Why?” Dong Qianqiu was a little angry. “Do you not only lack basic life knowledge but also moral common sense?”

Although Zhongli Chun couldn’t understand, she could feel that Dong Qianqiu was scolding her. She looked at Du Yu and asked, “Do you want me to leave?”

“Ah?” Du Yu felt put on the spot. He quickly waved his hands and said, “Miss Zhongli, you have to understand. I’m not asking you to leave because you’re in the way, but because it really isn’t appropriate for you to be here…”

“Miss Zhongli…?” Zhongli Chun looked at Du Yu like a child who had done something wrong. “You called me Miss Zhongli… If I leave, does that mean I’ll never see you again?”

“Never see me again?” Du Yu blanked for a second. “How is that possible? I have to stay here for at least another hundred years. You can come see me whenever you want.”

“A hundred years…” Zhong Wuyan muttered silently. “How is a hundred years enough… In order to see you again… I have already waited in this murky Underworld for two thousand three hundred years…”

“Miss Zhongli, what are you saying?” Du Yu asked.

“Nothing.” For the first time, Zhongli Chun did not directly answer Du Yu’s question. She seemed to choke up a bit, glancing at Dong Qianqiu before saying, “Hey, take me to your place.”

Before the two walked out the door, Dong Qianqiu tossed Du Yu a slip of paper and said, “Now that you have a phone, this is my number. You also have the Seventh and Eighth Guards’ numbers. Add each other on GhostChat so we can keep in touch.”

“Add what now?!” Du Yu thought he had heard incorrectly. “GhostChat?”

“Yeah, don’t you use it in the mortal realm?”

“That’s brilliant…” Du Yu said. “The stuff we use doesn’t have such a morbid name…”

After sending the two off, Du Yu laid on his stomach on the bed and started fiddling with his new phone. It was called a new phone, but it was obviously second-hand, with clear signs of use. Seeing the harsh conditions of the Legend Management Bureau, Du Yu was certain this phone had been retired by some other employee. Fortunately, even though the phone was old, it had everything it was supposed to have.

Du Yu searched around and opened GhostChat, which had a black icon featuring a little white ghost. The user interface was almost identical to what he used in the mortal realm, just full of underworld vibes. For example, features like Find Ghosts Nearby and Message in an Urn sounded completely abnormal just from their names…

Du Yu opened the add friend feature, entered the numbers for Dong Qianqiu, Xie Bian, and Fan Wujiu respectively, and sent the requests. Unexpectedly, Xie Bian accepted in less than three seconds.

“My, if it isn’t Sir Operator?” Xie Bian sent a message immediately.

“Seventh Guard, stop making fun of me. Just call me Brother Du,” Du Yu replied.

“Alright, Little Du. This is truly overwhelming, am I your first friend?”

“Looks like it.”

After those few short messages, Xie Bian stopped replying. Du Yu enjoyed the rare peace and quiet and began checking the phone’s other features. Speaking of which, this Underworld phone was pretty much the same as mortal ones. It had short video apps, social media, a browser, and even photo editing apps—nothing was missing.

A short while later, Du Yu suddenly realized his GhostChat was frantically popping up with notifications. He opened it up and saw over a dozen people sending him friend requests.

“Eh? What’s going on here?”

While Du Yu was puzzled, more friend requests popped up crazily. In just a short time, over thirty people had sent requests.

Du Yu looked at GhostChat in confusion and clicked on his feed, only to see that Xie Bian had posted an update three minutes ago:

“GhostChat ID of the Legend Management Bureau’s newly appointed Operator. Personally verified by me to be absolutely real. If interested, transfer hell money directly. Money first, ID later.”

“Holy crap?!” Du Yu never expected Xie Bian to start making a business out of him.

“Seventh Guard, that’s crossing the line,” Du Yu sent a message to Xie Bian.

“Hmm? Did you make other friends that quickly?” Xie Bian asked, playing dumb.

“Thanks to your blessing, Seventh Guard, I’m making friends all over the world.”

“You’re welcome, you’re welcome.”

“But Seventh Guard, I have something to ask you.”

“What is it?”

Du Yu smiled slightly.

“How are we splitting the money?”

“Split?” On the other end of the phone, Xie Bian looked confused. “Little Du, I earned this money with my own skills. Why should I split it with you?”

“Well, in that case…” Du Yu thought for a moment and said, “I’ll just reject all these friend requests. Adding them doesn’t do me any good anyway…”

“Ah? No, no, no, let’s talk this out…” Xie Bian panicked a bit. “If you don’t add them, doesn’t that make me a scammer?”

“Exactly.” Du Yu said with a mischievous smirk. “I’m not asking for much, a fifty-fifty split is fine. For every payment you collect, I’ll add one person.”

“Sigh… I, Xie Bian, have been clever my whole life, but today I’ve been conned by a brat like you.”

“Seventh Guard, how can you say that?” Du Yu comforted Xie Bian. “I have to add all these friends and greet them. I’ve put in hard work too.”

Heartaching, Xie Bian transferred the funds to Du Yu. The face value left Du Yu dumbfounded—a single transfer was one hundred million. Then he realized that the denominations of hell money were inherently huge; one hundred million probably didn’t have much purchasing power anyway.

Regardless of how much money he received, Du Yu began accepting all the friend requests. Some were named Underworld immortals and deities he could recognize, while others had names he didn’t know at all, probably ordinary Underworld Envoys or wandering immortals. In just a short while, Du Yu’s friends list grew by nearly a hundred, and it was still constantly rising.

Looking at this diverse crowd of people, it could truly be said:

The Four Heavenly Kings and divine warriors, Lord Cangue, Lord Lock, and the Kitchen God.

Earth Deities, Mountain Gods, the old River Lord, Heavenly Sovereigns, True Immortals, and Grand Mages.

Du Yu added them mechanically for a long time until his eyes were suddenly drawn to a specific name.

“Fairy Chang’e.”

“Oh, right, I’m not transferring the money for Fairy Chang’e to you, because I didn’t charge her. I pushed your contact to her proactively,” Xie Bian suddenly sent a message.

“Why did you push my contact to Fairy Chang’e?”

“Why?” Xie Bian thought about it. “You two are acquaintances, after all. It’s only natural to add each other on GhostChat.”

Du Yu accepted Fairy Chang’e’s friend request. Before he could even figure out what to say, the other party immediately initiated a video call.

“Eh?!” Du Yu was instantly a bit flustered. In all his years of living, he had never video called a girl before, let alone a girl who wasn’t ordinary, but a genuine fairy!

Amidst the urgent ringing, Du Yu spent a good while fixing his hair and clothes before shakily pressing the accept button.

Before Du Yu could speak, a flurry of chaotic sounds came from the other side.

“Ah? Oh no, oh no, why is it on video…”

“How do you turn this thing off… I’m doomed, I’m doomed…”

“Uhh…” Du Yu waited for a long while, but the screen remained pitch black, so he asked hesitantly, “Fairy Chang’e… are you alright…?”

“Ah?!” The screen burst with a bright flash of light, and Chang’e finally revealed her face. Although she looked completely caught off guard, her features and makeup remained exquisitely flawless.

“Brother Pang Meng, it really is you!”