Legend Management Bureau Chapter 224

[ … words ]

Noon of the following day.

Qu Xi sprinted through the Legend Management Bureau, a look of absolute despair painted across her face.

She had never expected something like this to happen.

Now, she finally seemed to understand what Du Yu had told her last night.

Every word, every single syllable he had spoken finally made sense.

Because today, every trace of Du Yu’s existence had completely vanished.

Yet the entire bureau carried on as if nothing had happened, with everyone bustling about their usual tasks.

She had already asked over a dozen people in a row, but no one had any idea who Du Yu was. Qu Xi felt incredibly helpless, completely unsure of what to do next.

She ran around frantically, desperate to find even the slightest trace he might have left behind. But it was as if Du Yu had never existed; there was absolutely nothing.

“Miss Qu Xi?” Xiao Qi turned around in confusion. “Why are you in such a rush? Did something happen?”

Qu Xi tried her best to steady her breathing. She knew she could not rashly blurt out the name “Du Yu.” Judging by her interactions with the previous dozen people, the harder she pressed them for answers, the faster their memories faded.

Almost the entirety of the current Legend Management Bureau had been built single-handedly by Du Yu. His traces could not be erased so easily. As long as she chose her words carefully, she might still be able to jog everyone’s memories.

Qu Xi hesitated for a moment before finally asking, “Xiao Qi, do you remember how I ended up coming here?”

Hearing this, Xiao Qi burst into a fit of giggles.

“What on earth, Miss Qu Xi? That is such a weird question.”

“No… it is not weird…” Qu Xi pressed anxiously. “I really want to know. In your memory, how did I get here?”

Seeing Qu Xi’s serious expression, Xiao Qi felt a bit puzzled but still thought back carefully before answering, “Xie Jin and Fan Xiaoguo brought you here that day…”

Qu Xi shook her head and probed further. “There was someone else with them. Don’t you remember? Why would Fan Xiaoguo and Xie Jin randomly bring me to the Legend Management Bureau for no reason?”

“Someone else…?”

Xiao Qi furrowed her brow. Prompted by Qu Xi, she realized that there did seem to be another person that day… However, her memory of that figure was completely blurry. No matter how hard she tried, she could not recall a single detail.

After a few more moments of deep thought, even that blurry silhouette slipped from Xiao Qi’s mind entirely.

“I do not think so… Only the three of you came together that day. I remember you volunteered to join the Legend Management Bureau, and when we tested you, we discovered you actually had the aptitude to be an Operator. We considered ourselves quite lucky to have found you,” Xiao Qi stated confidently.

Qu Xi’s face immediately darkened. Letting out a soft sigh, she turned and walked away.

Xiao Qi seemed to remember a faint shadow of Du Yu, but it disappeared almost instantly.

Now, she planned to go see Dong Qianqiu. If Dong Qianqiu’s memory had also been wiped clean, then this entire situation was truly beyond comprehension.

At that moment, Dong Qianqiu was sitting blankly in the main hall of the Legend Management Bureau, staring at the screen.

Displayed on the screen was the legend of Yi Shoots Nine Suns.

“Sister Qianqiu…” Qu Xi called out tentatively.

Yet Dong Qianqiu seemed not to hear her, her eyes remaining fixed on Da Yi on the screen.

Only then did Qu Xi recall what she had been told before. When Du Yu first came to the Legend Management Bureau, the legend he operated on was Yi Shoots Nine Suns. Even though he was just a mortal at the time, he had completed a seemingly impossible task, shocking the entire Immortal Realm.

“Sister Qianqiu… you still remember, don’t you?”

Dong Qianqiu finally registered Qu Xi’s voice. She turned her head in a daze and looked at her. “Ah… Qu Xi, you are here. What did you say?”

“There was once a problem with Yi Shoots Nine Suns, turning it into a super-grade anomalous legend. A certain person descended and resolved it. You still remember all of that, right?”

Dong Qianqiu’s eyes went wide. Ever since this morning, she had felt a persistent sense of unease. She had a nagging feeling that she had forgotten something incredibly important, but no matter how hard she racked her brain, she could not remember what it was. Yet, a specific person’s voice kept echoing in her ears, constantly calling out, “Sister Qianqiu, Sister Qianqiu.”

Whenever she heard that voice, a sudden wave of profound sorrow washed over her.

The harder she tried to identify the owner of the voice, the further away it drifted.

The voice continually haunted her. She kept feeling that she could find some sort of clue in the legend of Yi Shoots Nine Suns, but after staring at it for the entire morning, she still had no leads.

“Qu Xi… do you know something? What exactly is wrong with me?”

Seeing Dong Qianqiu’s unnatural state, Qu Xi realized that Du Yu truly held a permanent place in Dong Qianqiu’s heart.

“Sister Qianqiu! We are experiencing a ‘Flashback’! One of our most important partners has disappeared!” Qu Xi finally felt safe enough to voice her thoughts aloud. From the looks of it, Dong Qianqiu was the only one who would not treat her like a lunatic.

“A Flashback? An important partner?” Dong Qianqiu immediately stood up and walked over to Qu Xi. “Is that really true? I thought there was something wrong with me. Did someone actually disappear?”

“Yes! Where is Zhan Qisheng?” Qu Xi demanded. “We have to find Zhan Qisheng right now. He might have a solution.”

“Zhan Qisheng should still be in his room…” Dong Qianqiu murmured. “But… who exactly is the person who disappeared? Was he really that important?”

“Extremely important!!” Qu Xi stressed. “Sister Qianqiu, you have to believe me! It is because of this person that I came to work here. It is also because of him that Zhan Qisheng returned to the Legend Management Bureau. If it were not for him, how could the bureau possibly have so many employees? He was the one who completed all those tricky legends in the past. He is our Operator, Du Yu! Someone must have tampered with his past and erased him from this place!”

Dong Qianqiu stared at Qu Xi in sheer disbelief before slowly shaking her head.

“Qu Xi… while I do believe you… the things you are describing are simply impossible…”

“Impossible?”

Qu Xi froze. Did Dong Qianqiu think she was crazy too? She clearly retained vague memories of Du Yu, yet she still refused to believe her?

“Qu Xi, although I am supposed to unconditionally believe you Operators whenever you mention the word ‘Flashback,’ you haven’t been here for very long. You probably aren’t entirely clear on the connection between the past and the present.” Dong Qianqiu offered a bitter smile. “Normally, if a person disappears in the past, everything related to them would disappear along with them…”

Dong Qianqiu looked at Qu Xi, realizing she hadn’t explained it clearly enough, and elaborated. “For example, you just said… you were invited to work here by him, and Zhan Qisheng was also brought back by him. But think about it carefully. If he had never been here, how could he have done those things? How could you and Zhan Qisheng even be standing here right now?”

Qu Xi finally understood Dong Qianqiu’s point. If Du Yu had never set foot in the Legend Management Bureau, then logically, none of these events should have occurred. She herself would have already reincarnated, and Zhan Qisheng would still be wandering through the legends.

“But… Sister Qianqiu,” Qu Xi countered after a moment of thought. “Haven’t you said before that this world has the ability to self-repair? Perhaps after Du Yu disappeared, the world simply performed a self-repair and chose not to wipe out the things he had accomplished…”

“Yes, the world does have the ability to ‘self-repair’…” Dong Qianqiu nodded. “But there has to be a limit! If there were changes to minor, insignificant details, then the world could manage a self-repair. But logic dictates that a repair of this magnitude is entirely impossible.”

“Why is it impossible?” Qu Xi asked frantically.

“Qu Xi, think about it carefully. If the current timeline could simply repair all the mistakes that occurred in the ‘past’… then what would be the point of our ‘Legend Management Bureau’?”

Dong Qianqiu’s single statement felt like a bucket of cold water waking her from a dream.

She was right. If future time could just repair any errors that cropped up in the legends, what need was there for the Legend Management Bureau?

They could just sit back, do absolutely nothing, and let nature take its course!

Suddenly!

Qu Xi shuddered as a sudden realization hit her.

The previous incident with the Black and White Impermanence was incredibly similar to this situation. Even though someone so vastly important had disappeared, the world acted as if it had suffered no impact whatsoever. It had forcefully repaired the resulting paradox, wiping all memory of the Black Impermanence from everyone’s minds.

If there was one common denominator between that time and this time, it was…

“Sister Qianqiu, it is the Saint!” Qu Xi screamed. “Whenever the Saint personally disrupts a legend, no Great Pivot appears. Regardless of how severe the problem caused by the legend is, time will forcefully repair it. While I do not know the exact reason, I can say with absolute certainty that the Saint is behind this!”

Dong Qianqiu sat stunned for a long while before slowly uttering a few words, “Who is… the ‘Saint’?”

Qu Xi was taken aback, a wave of confusion washing over her.

She could understand Dong Qianqiu forgetting Du Yu, but why did she also have no memory of the Saint?

Was the Saint only known to everyone because he attempted to assassinate Du Yu? Since Du Yu no longer existed, did the Saint cease to exist as well?

“Sister Qianqiu, where is Zhan Qisheng?” Qu Xi asked once again.

“I am right here.” Zhan Qisheng slowly emerged from the nearby corridor.

Seeing her savior, Qu Xi hurriedly rushed over. “Zhan Qisheng! I am so glad to see you, I…”

Zhan Qisheng raised a hand, stopping Qu Xi in her tracks.

“Come with me. Whatever you have to say, tell me in my room.”

Qu Xi felt a bit bewildered. It was just the three of them—her, Zhan Qisheng, and Dong Qianqiu. Was there really something they needed to hide from Dong Qianqiu?

However, anxious to save Du Yu, Qu Xi obediently followed Zhan Qisheng down the long corridor and into his room.

Zhan Qisheng’s room was spotless—so immaculately clean that it looked as if no one lived there at all.

“Zhan Qisheng, I will get straight to the point. Right now, in the entire Legend Management Bureau, we are the only two people capable of saving Du Yu. You have to help me.”

Zhan Qisheng slowly turned around and reached out to shut the door. He then looked at Qu Xi and declared with righteous solemnity:

“If you are trying to save Du Yu, I refuse.”