Legend Management Bureau Chapter 291

[ … words ]

Du Yu bid farewell to Lady Houtu and headed down the mountain with Shiranui Asuka.

Along the way, they ran into the Western Queen Mother and Dong Qianqiu, who were heading up the mountain. Both were overjoyed to see him awake, as he had been in a coma for a full half-month.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the group entered the Legend Management Bureau together.

With no time to greet everyone individually, Du Yu gathered a few key figures and headed straight to the conference room for a discussion.

Seeing his condition, the group couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sympathy. Du Yu was just recovering from a severe ordeal. Was it really a good idea for him to dive straight back into work on his very first day awake?

“Everyone…” Du Yu began with a heavy expression. “I now have a perfect opportunity to completely shake off Saint. I can’t afford to waste a single second. I need to enter the next legend immediately.”

“Saint?” Zhi Nv looked puzzled. “Haven’t we already gathered all the Seven Holy Heroes? Logically speaking, it should be very difficult for Saint to make a move against you now.”

“No.” Du Yu shook his head. “Gathering the Seven Holy Heroes only means they won’t attack me anymore. It doesn’t mean Saint won’t.”

Zhi Nv pondered for a moment, looking into Du Yu’s eyes before asking, “Hearing you say that, it doesn’t feel like you’ve just been in a coma for half a month. It sounds more like you’ve experienced something…”

Dong Qianqiu had already prepared two sets of documents. Flipping through the files, she told him, “Du Yu, you really shouldn’t be working right now… but Super Grade A legends are indeed extremely thorny. It’s better to start preparing early.”

“I know,” Du Yu nodded.

Dong Qianqiu smiled. “Fortunately, the Bureau Chief has already helped us temporarily seal away these two legends. We have plenty of time to figure out a countermeasure.”

“No…” Du Yu silently shook his head. “I don’t have much time left. If possible, I will enter the legend within the next day or two.”

“The next day or two?” Everyone gasped in surprise. “Are you in that much of a rush?”

“Yes, I am,” Du Yu declared. “What are these two legends, specifically?”

Recovering from her shock, Dong Qianqiu glanced down at the documents and answered, “The two Super Grade A legends that went wrong are ‘Gonggong Angrily Headbutts Mount Buzhou’ and ‘Nuwa Repairs the Sky’.”

“What?!”

Du Yu froze. He clearly remembered the bet he had made with Saint. They had agreed that Saint would enter the legend with the longer name, while he would take the one with the shorter name.

In that case, the legend with the shorter name was…

Nuwa Repairs the Sky?!

Du Yu silently shook his head, thinking to himself, ‘This is way too risky.’

“Nuwa Repairs the Sky” concerned the survival of all humanity. How could he possibly use this legend for a speedrun against his opponent?

“Right, Sister Qianqiu,” Du Yu suddenly thought of something. “Does this legend of ‘Gonggong Angrily Headbutts Mount Buzhou’ have any other names?”

Dong Qianqiu pondered for a moment before answering, “Some people also call this legend ‘Water God Gonggong’.”

“Water God Gonggong?” Du Yu felt as though he had discovered a loophole. If he insisted that the legend was “Water God Gonggong”, wouldn’t both legends have the exact same character count in their names?

Now, having no other choice, he could only resort to playing dirty.

If both legends had the same name length, he would just need to enter the one that happened later chronologically.

“Sister Qianqiu, I have one more question. Did the ‘Nuwa Repairs the Sky’ legend occur earlier?” Du Yu felt his question was a bit stupid. After all, Great Goddess Nuwa was an ancient deity; her legend had to predate Gonggong’s.

However, to his surprise, Dong Qianqiu shook her head very seriously and replied, “You’re wrong. ‘Nuwa Repairs the Sky’ happened after the legend of ‘Water God Gonggong’…”

“Huh?”

Du Yu’s eyes widened. If that were the case… not only did “Nuwa Repairs the Sky” have a shorter name, but it also occurred later in time. No matter how he looked at it, he was forced to enter this particular legend…

Could this have been planned by Saint in advance?

“You insidious, cunning bastard…” Du Yu muttered to himself.

“What did you say?” Dong Qianqiu asked.

“Nothing…” Du Yu felt disheartened. His only option now was to figure out what exactly had gone wrong with “Nuwa Repairs the Sky” and see if he could resolve it.

“If there are no objections, I will begin outlining the details of both legends,” Dong Qianqiu said slowly, turning the pages in her hands. “Although two Super Grade A legends reported errors simultaneously this time, our careful investigation revealed that the task isn’t as difficult as we imagined.”

“Oh?” Du Yu raised an eyebrow. “Why do you say that?”

“Because these two legends, much like ‘Yi Shoots Nine Suns’ and ‘Chang’e Flies to the Moon’, are deeply interconnected,” Dong Qianqiu explained. “As long as something goes wrong in the ‘Gonggong Angrily Headbutts Mount Buzhou’ legend, the ‘Nuwa Repairs the Sky’ legend is highly likely to experience issues as well.”

As it turned out, in the Primordial Era, Water God Gonggong and his father, the Fire God Zhurong, had always been at odds.

Gonggong had a perverse and unpredictable temperament. The slightest trivial matter could cause him to unleash his Magical Power, triggering massive floods with total disregard for the lives and safety of the common people.

Zhurong argued with Gonggong countless times over this and was ultimately forced to expel him from the Yan Emperor’s clan.

Yet, being cast out did nothing to restrain Gonggong. Instead, he acted even more recklessly, causing the lands of the Nine Provinces to periodically suffer from raging floods due to his actions.

Yu the Great stepped forward multiple times to negotiate with Gonggong to no avail. Eventually, he led Yinglong, the White Dragon, the Yellow Dragon, and the Azure Dragon into battle against him. The fight ended in a stalemate, leaving Gonggong to continue his arbitrary ways without any sign of the floodwaters receding.

Grieving for the people, Yu the Great could only call a truce and focus entirely on finding ways to tame the floods caused by Gonggong. During that period, the commoners lived in utter destitution, turning pale at the mere mention of water.

Finally, the day came when Zhurong couldn’t tolerate it any longer. He knew that, since Gonggong was his son, it was both his logical duty and moral responsibility to step forward and resolve the matter.

Thus, Zhurong and Gonggong engaged in an earth-shattering battle.

A war representing the clash between Fire and Water.

Zhurong, possessing superior prowess, utterly defeated Gonggong.

Everyone assumed the defeated Gonggong would finally back down. Instead, consumed by humiliation and rage, he headbutted Buzhou Mountain directly, shattering the towering peak upon impact.

This was the legend of “Gonggong Angrily Headbutts Mount Buzhou”.

Du Yu was slightly dumbfounded after hearing this. “Wait… Sister Qianqiu, did I miss something? Didn’t you say ‘Gonggong Angrily Headbutts Mount Buzhou’ and ‘Nuwa Repairs the Sky’ are connected? Where’s the connection?”

Dong Qianqiu looked at Du Yu, shaking her head helplessly. “Du Yu, Buzhou Mountain is the Pillar of Heaven!”

“Ah?! The Pillar of Heaven?”

Only then did realization dawn on Du Yu.

Because Gonggong had shattered Buzhou Mountain with his head, the sky tore open, forcing Nuwa to step in and mend it.

Dong Qianqiu continued her explanation.

Following the events of “Gonggong Angrily Headbutts Mount Buzhou”, the entire sky tilted toward the west, while the earth collapsed toward the east.

It was exactly for this reason that, to this day, all the stars, sun, and moon in the sky set in the west, and all the rivers, lakes, and seas flow toward the east.

During that era, rampant fires spread day and night, while endless floods erupted across the world.

Due to this cataclysm, massive chasms tore open across the earth, and countless hidden Demonic Beasts emerged from the underground, wreaking havoc upon the mortal realm.

Great Goddess Nuwa, looking down through the tears in the sky, witnessed this horrifying scene and couldn’t bear the suffering.

Thus, she smelted the Five-Colored Stones to mend the heavens, severed the legs of a Giant Turtle from the sea to serve as the four cardinal pillars to prop up the sky, slew numerous Demonic Beasts to save the populace, and finally used the Ashes left over from smelting the Five-Colored Stones to dam the roaring floods.

Yet, after exhausting all her materials, one final rift remained in the firmament. Countless stars continued to plummet through it, smashing deep craters into the earth. At the critical moment, Great Goddess Nuwa soared into the heavens, transforming her physical body into a rainbow to seal the final fissure. Only then did she completely rid the people of this colossal disaster.

Great Goddess Nuwa’s actions achieved Boundless Merit, blessing all creation and reaching up to the Thirty-Third Heaven of Parting Sorrow.

Though her physical body was destroyed, her Primordial Spirit did not dissipate. From then on, she transcended beyond the Thirty-Third Heaven of Parting Sorrow, entering the Heaven of Free Transformation of Others’ Pleasures, where she enjoyed infinite and absolute freedom.

As Dong Qianqiu slowly finished recounting the story, Shiranui Jinjiro and Asuka, sitting off to the side, listened with rapt attention.

After all, compared to their own ancestral legend of Izanagi, this was an entirely different style.

Izanagi was a Great Deity, and Nuwa was a Great Goddess, yet why did they feel so completely different?

After listening to Dong Qianqiu recount these two stories, Du Yu’s complexion gradually darkened. A deeply ominous premonition swelled in his heart.

“Sister Qianqiu, what exactly is the problem with these two legends now?”

“Well…” Dong Qianqiu frowned. “Judging from the current situation… ‘Nuwa Repairs the Sky’ can’t exactly be considered as having a problem. Rather, it was forced to report an error because something went wrong with ‘Water God Gonggong’.”

“Could it be…” Du Yu pondered aloud. “Could it be that Gonggong didn’t angrily headbutt Buzhou Mountain?!”

“Yes,” Dong Qianqiu nodded. “I really can’t hide anything from you.”

Du Yu lightly massaged his forehead. In truth, it was quite easy to guess. The sole connecting point between the two legends was Buzhou Mountain. If Buzhou Mountain never fell, Nuwa would have no need to repair the sky.

Rather than saying something went wrong with Nuwa Repairs the Sky, it was more accurate to say there were no problems on her end whatsoever—after all, she had no sky to repair.

All the problems stemmed from Gonggong’s end…

“Damn it, I’m bound to lose this bet…”

Du Yu said with a grim expression.