Legend Management Bureau Chapter 27

[ … words ]

Guiguzi sat in the room, watching Du Yu and Zhongli Chun not far outside the window. He extended his right hand and calculated on his fingers, clearly taken aback. “To think… such an extraordinary person exists in this world?”

A short while later, Guiguzi swayed his head from side to side and silently murmured:

“Ascending to the heavens and descending into the earth, traversing the past and present, reigning over the legends of the world.

Unable to wander free and unfettered, struggling to feel emotion, and finding it hard to voice a sound.”

Guiguzi laughed aloud a few times, turned his gaze away from the two, and closed his eyes to rest.

Du Yu smoothed out Zhongli Chun’s clothes and said to her, “Let us not be sad anymore. I have several days here this time, so we can spend them happily!”

Zhongli Chun nodded slightly, forcing a faint smile.

“Did Mister Guigu not just ask you all to look for flowers? It just so happens I brought one for you!” Du Yu pulled a small, pure white flower from his time-travel gift pack and handed it to Zhongli Chun.

“This is the second time you have given me something…” Zhongli Chun accepted the little flower with a hint of joy, liking it very much.

“He is…” Zhongli Chun was about to introduce him but did not know how to begin. She did not even know Du Yu’s name.

“Oh, I am Lady Zhongli’s servant! I came on my master’s orders to see if the young miss is doing well! Do not mind me, Mister Sun, just go about your business!” Du Yu quickly smoothed things over.

“Oh, then I will… Wait? How do you know my surname is Sun…” Sun Bin scratched his head, thinking to himself, ‘This person is truly strange.’

“Disciples, if you have picked your flowers, come in and sit down,” Guiguzi called out from inside the room.

Hearing this, Sun Bin did not dare to delay. He took his vase and entered the house.

“Little Zhongli, you go ahead!” Du Yu said. “I will wait for you outside! I am not in a hurry to leave this time, so we can catch up later.”

Zhongli Chun looked at Du Yu and replied, “I am not going. I will stay here with you.”

Just as Du Yu was wondering what to do, Guiguzi spoke from inside the house:

“Wuyan, bring your servant inside as well. The wind is strong out there; do not let yourselves catch a cold.”

“Ah?” Du Yu froze for a moment. “Is this not a private matter for your school? Brother Gui, is it appropriate for me to go in?”

Guiguzi smiled faintly and said, “Our private affairs require your care all the more. Come in.”

Du Yu did not know what Guiguzi meant by this, but it seemed that if he did not go in, Zhongli Chun would not either.

“Alright then, Brother Gui, I am coming in. Sorry for the intrusion.”

“Do not call me Brother Gui. My surname is Wang.”

“Okay, Ghost King.”

Du Yu took Zhongli Chun by the hand and led her into the bamboo hut.

After a while, Pang Juan returned. Upon entering and seeing so many people, he said nothing and simply found an empty seat. He initially wanted to ask who Du Yu was, but seeing him standing behind Zhongli Chun, he lost all interest.

The last to return were Su Qin and Zhang Yi. The two could be heard bickering from far away, seemingly arguing over something, though their tone sounded more like playful banter.

“Oh? We have a guest?” Su Qin remarked after spotting Du Yu.

“Do not be rude. Sit down, you two.” After saying this, Guiguzi looked at his five disciples sitting neatly in the room and asked, “I requested a flower. Have you all brought one?”

The disciples wore varying expressions, making it hard to tell if they had actually found any.

“Juan’er, you go first. Hand over the flower you found,” Guiguzi said, looking at Pang Juan.

Pang Juan pouted and replied, “Master, I could not find a flower.”

Hearing this, Guiguzi calmly asked, “If you have no flower, then what is in your sleeve?”

Pang Juan knew his master possessed immense abilities and could naturally see through his lie. He had originally wanted to find a vibrant and beautiful flower to present, but given the season… Resigned, Pang Juan pulled a somewhat dried, exceptionally ugly flower from his sleeve and handed it to Guiguzi. “Master, please take a look.”

Guiguzi inspected the flower in Pang Juan’s hand, lowered his head in thought for a moment, and said, “This flower withered under the sun of Ghost Valley. ‘Ghost’ alongside ‘wither’ signifies that you will make a name for yourself in the State of Wei. However, you should not have lied to me. You are fiercely competitive and adept at deception. I fear that your future success will stem from deception, and your ultimate downfall will as well. Today, I bestow upon you an eight-word prophecy: Flourish upon encountering the sheep; perish upon encountering the horse. Remember this well.”

Upon hearing this, Pang Juan hurriedly knelt in gratitude. “Thank you, Master, for illuminating my future!”

“Descend the mountain,” Guiguzi said, giving Pang Juan a meaningful look.

“Yes!” Pang Juan replied, thrilling with excitement. Having waited for so many years, he never expected that today would finally be the day he could descend the mountain and unleash his ambitions.

Watching Pang Juan leave, Guiguzi turned to Sun Bin and said, “Bin’er, it is your turn.”

Sun Bin nodded and brought out his vase. Inside it rested a chrysanthemum he had picked during the summer, which was now completely air-dried. Sun Bin thought it looked beautiful, so he had kept it in his room. Hearing his master ask for a flower, Sun Bin knew the mountain would certainly be barren at this time of year, so he simply brought the vase from his room.

Guiguzi observed the dried chrysanthemum and said, “Bin’er, you are pure-hearted and easygoing. You dislike competing with others, so I could anticipate that you would present me with this ruined, dried flower. Yet, because this flower is ruined, I fear you will one day suffer a crippling physical affliction, much like it. This is a summer flower, but even after being broken, it stands proudly against the harsh winter. This signifies that you will ultimately overcome adversity despite your affliction, and someone will act like this vase, protecting you from falling. I give you this silk pouch; open it only when your life is in peril.”

Sun Bin felt a heavy weight settle in his chest at these words. It seemed his life’s path would not be smooth sailing. He could only accept Guiguzi’s silk pouch with trembling hands.

“Sister Qianqiu, Mister Guigu is truly incredible,” Du Yu murmured. “What kind of ability is this? He can divine a person’s future from just a single flower?”

“It is physiognomy and divination,” Dong Qianqiu replied. “Throughout history, many people have mastered various forms of divination, but most of these arts drain one’s lifespan. This time, for the sake of his disciples, Guiguzi did not hesitate to leak the secrets of heaven.”

“I am curious,” Du Yu asked. “What is written inside that pouch?”

Having once received a silk pouch from Mister Zhuge, Du Yu felt an inexplicable fascination with such things.

“I just had the colleague in charge of Sun Bin check it. The pouch reads: ‘Fellow disciples and the nation cannot both be preserved; if you wish to survive, feign madness.’ This pouch will save Sun Bin’s life in the future when Pang Juan tries to kill him.”

Du Yu nodded silently, unsure of what to say. Perhaps the one hurting the most was Guiguzi. His disciples were always slaughtering each other; had he foreseen this from the very beginning?

“Then, Master…” Sun Bin asked. “May I descend the mountain as well?”

“Your time has not yet come, so I cannot let you leave just yet. Wait until the spring warmth brings the blooming flowers next year, and you shall depart on your own.”

Hearing Guiguzi say this, Sun Bin dared not disobey. After kneeling in gratitude, he stepped to the side.

“Qin’er, what about you?” Guiguzi turned to look at Su Qin.

Surprisingly, Su Qin and Zhang Yi stepped forward together. Su Qin pulled a deformed flower from his robes; it was clearly two flowers, but they had grown together, one vertical and one horizontal.

“Master, the two of us searched for half the day before finding this. This should count as two, right?” Zhang Yi chimed in.

Guiguzi bowed his head in deep thought before stating, “You searched long without success for this flower, signifying that both of you will face a long period of unrealized ambition before finally being recognized. The intersecting vertical and horizontal growth represents that you two will shake the world with your School of Diplomacy—the Vertical and Horizontal Alliances. Since Su Qin presented this flower, the alliances will likely be initiated by Su Qin, with Zhang Yi following suit. However, descending the mountain now is not your time either. As for when you wish to leave, that will be entirely up to you.”

Su Qin and Zhang Yi immediately dropped to their knees in thanks.

Finally, Guiguzi looked toward Zhongli Chun and asked, “Wuyan, where is your flower?”

“It is in my robes, and I do not want to give it to you,” Zhongli Chun replied.

Guiguzi shook his head and said, “I do not want to take your flower. I merely wish to look at it.”

“Really?”

With extreme reluctance, Zhongli Chun pulled the small white flower Du Yu had given her from her robes and held it up to Guiguzi’s eyes.

Du Yu felt a bit anxious. Guiguzi could see all the manifestations of the world through a single flower, but this flower was given to Zhongli Chun by him. Would that not create a paradox?

Guiguzi examined the flower in Zhongli Chun’s hands and chuckled. “This flower does not belong to this world. For Wuyan to obtain it means she has the assistance of a noble benefactor. This flower traversed a millennium without withering, foretelling that your heart, Wuyan, will remain unchanged for a thousand years, always as pure and flawless as this white blossom.”

Upon hearing Guiguzi’s words, Zhongli Chun hurriedly tucked the white flower back into her robes, terrified it might be snatched away.

“Old man, when can I descend the mountain?” Zhongli Chun demanded.

“When you have mastered all my teachings on military strategy, politics, and diplomacy.”

“Hmph,” Zhongli Chun scoffed coldly. “Listening to all of you chatter every day, I mastered them long ago.”

“Ah?” Sun Bin exclaimed in astonishment. “Junior Sister, you should not be so arrogant. How could you master Master’s knowledge just by eavesdropping for a few days?”

Zhongli Chun shot Sun Bin a glare, pointed at Du Yu behind her, and declared, “I truly have mastered it all. I am going to descend the mountain with this man.”

“Oh?” Guiguzi’s interest was piqued. He knew that for the past ten years, Zhongli Chun had never lied. “Bin’er, among my disciples, your mastery of military strategy is the highest. How about you engage Wuyan in a few rounds of war games?”

“This… As you command, Master!”

Du Yu had no idea how things had reached this point. Logically speaking, Zhongli Chun was indeed supposed to leave the mountain after completing her studies, but had she really completed them?

To everyone’s utter shock, Sun Bin endured the most terrifying nightmare of his entire life over the course of that afternoon.

Out of twelve grueling rounds of war games, aside from one match where Zhongli Chun scored a narrow victory, she overwhelmingly crushed him in the remaining eleven.

“Bizarre… Absolutely bizarre…” Sun Bin stammered, pointing at the pile of small playing pieces on the table. “You were already fighting against vastly superior numbers, yet you split your forces into six paths and executed six stratagems consecutively! You launched a feint and an all-out assault at the exact same moment, driving straight into my main camp. How can such military tactics exist in this world?!”

On the map board, Sun Bin’s main army was still engaged at the frontlines while his home camp had just been utterly razed by a tiny squad of six hundred men.

Zhongli Chun asked icily, “Shall we continue?”

Sun Bin shook his head. “No more, Junior Sister… I concede defeat… With such astonishing skill, you are absolutely not inferior to any man. I sincerely hope I never face you on the battlefield.”

“Master, we would like to try as well…” Su Qin and Zhang Yi had long been unable to suppress their surging excitement. The existence of someone capable of handing Sun Bin twelve consecutive defeats in war games was truly unbelievable.

“Junior Sister, your military strategies are divine. There should be no problem if the two of us join forces against you, right?”

Zhongli Chun remained expressionless. “What a bother. Bring it on.”

Su Qin and Zhang Yi unleashed everything they had learned in their lives, and sure enough, they fought Zhongli Chun to a standstill.

“I have you,” Zhongli Chun announced coldly. She picked up a small piece she had hidden near the enemy’s main camp long ago and suddenly launched a fierce assault. “Assassination unit, deploy.”

Su Qin turned pale with shock, but fortunately, Zhang Yi had come prepared. He flipped over the wooden tile representing their main camp, revealing a hidden piece underneath—a concealed unit of three thousand troops.

“Junior Sister, I anticipated you would try this! That is why I chose to struggle on the frontlines to keep a three-thousand-man unit stationed at our main camp!”

Zhongli Chun did not say a word. She lightly placed her one-hundred-man unit piece on top of the three-thousand-man unit piece, then gave it a gentle tap. The three-thousand-man piece instantly shattered.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Zhang Yi shouted. “Junior Sister, you are cheating! You cannot just destroy the pieces with brute force!”

“I did not use brute force. Facing my assassination unit, your three-thousand-man troop is guaranteed to fall.”

“That is just twisting logic!” Zhang Yi retorted. “Junior Sister, tell me, how could one hundred men possibly wipe out three thousand? What scheme are you employing, and what strategy are you presenting?”

Zhongli Chun silently picked up her small piece and replied, “Because I am the commander of this unit.”

The group took a closer look and realized that Zhongli Chun’s main camp truly lacked a commander’s flag, meaning the commanding general was absent. Yet, a tiny commander’s flag was planted directly on the piece dubbed the assassination unit.

“Hah?!” Su Qin and Zhang Yi were utterly bewildered. “As the commanding general of an entire army, you actually led an assassination squad yourself to take out the enemy commander?!”

“Why not?” Zhongli Chun tossed the piece aside. “Do you think three thousand men could stop me?”

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone fell silent.

Right, could three thousand men actually stop Zhongli Chun?

It was honestly hard to say.

“Hahahaha! Brilliant! Truly brilliant!” Guiguzi burst into booming laughter. “This strategy is not only flawless but can only be executed by Wuyan!”

Du Yu chuckled along with them.

“You are laughing; do you understand?” Dong Qianqiu asked.

“I do not understand a thing, but I am profoundly amazed.”

Guiguzi slowly walked toward Zhongli Chun and said, “Wuyan, descend the mountain. Your fate changed the moment this servant appeared.”

“Really?” Zhongli Chun revealed a rare expression of joy.

“Yes,” Guiguzi nodded, his heart filled with endless emotion. Perhaps, among all his disciples, only Zhongli Chun would meet a good end.

This was likely only the second time in Zhongli Chun’s life that she had to face a parting, and an odd feeling bubbled in her chest.

“Junior Sister… Are you really leaving?” Sun Bin asked, feeling reluctant to see her go.

“Does this mean we will never see each other again…” Su Qin murmured.

“Junior Sister, remember to write to us…” Zhang Yi added.

Zhongli Chun bit her lip, feeling a strange sorrow. It was an ache she could neither voice nor explain.

“Old man, Sun Bin, Su Qin, Zhang Yi,” Zhongli Chun called out as she looked at their faces one by one.

“Hmm?” The men turned their gaze to her.

“The weather is freezing, so make sure you wear extra layers.”

“Huh?” The group exchanged bewildered glances. Was Zhongli Chun actually showing concern for them?

Zhongli Chun took Du Yu by the hand and walked silently toward the door. Just before stepping outside, she turned back, bowed deeply, and said,

“For these past twenty years… truly… thank you all.”

Watching Zhongli Chun walk away, Zhang Yi let out a loud wail, sobbing as he shouted, “You better call me Senior Brother in the future, you brat!”

Sun Bin and Su Qin were also quietly wiping their tears. They looked at their master, only to see Guiguzi’s aged face already streaming with tears.