Legend Management Bureau Chapter 365

[ … words ]

The Great Emperor of Beiyin Fengdu ignored Du Yu. Instead, he looked toward Mahakala and muttered to himself, “We might lose.”

“Lose?” Du Yu asked coldly. “Are you done pretending? If you kill me here, then we truly have lost this battle.”

“No.” The Northern Emperor shook his head. “I told you, killing you holds no meaning for me.”

Du Yu could not figure out the man before him. He only knew that he was not familiar with the Northern Emperor and could not completely trust him no matter what. Therefore, he kept the powers of Zhongli Chun and Zhan Qisheng circulating within him, ready for any unexpected developments.

“Du Yu!” Xiao Qi cried out in Du Yu’s mind. “Chief Judge Cui Jue is nearby. I’ve already notified him!”

“Oh?” Du Yu raised an eyebrow. He looked up and sure enough, he saw a figure rushing rapidly toward him.

After landing, Cui Jue narrowed his eyes slightly, took in the situation before him, and cupped his hands in greeting. “Greetings, Northern Emperor.”

The Northern Emperor glanced at Cui Jue impassively and nodded.

Cui Jue asked, “Northern Emperor, I have a matter to discuss with Du Yu. May I have a word with him in private?”

With that said, Du Yu swaggered over toward Cui Jue.

“Hold on.” The Northern Emperor grabbed Du Yu’s arm. “Cui Jue, whatever important matter you have, you can say it right here. I am a leader of the Underworld; I assume there is nothing you need to hide from me, right?”

Seeing this, Cui Jue frowned slightly. He then rolled his eyes in thought and said, “Since the Northern Emperor has spoken, that works too. Old Brother Du Yu, lean in…”

Cui Jue beckoned to him, and Du Yu took two steps forward.

“Chief Judge, what exactly is going on?” Du Yu asked in confusion. “What do you want to tell me?”

Cui Jue slowly leaned his mouth close to Du Yu’s ear and whispered, “Old Brother Du Yu, I’m sorry.”

“Sorry?”

Du Yu’s eyes widened instantly as an ominous premonition washed over him.

In the next second, a Soul Capturing Brush materialized out of thin air in Cui Jue’s right hand. He rapidly wrote the character for ‘death’ in midair, and it flew straight toward Du Yu.

“Death-Hastening Order!”

As he watched that massive ‘death’ character draw closer and closer, countless strands of silvery-white hair suddenly shot out from behind Du Yu, firmly blocking the strike for him.

The Northern Emperor reached out and pulled Du Yu behind him, his expression intensely gloomy and cold.

A split second later, the myriad strands of hair acted like countless sharp needles, piercing toward Cui Jue at extreme speed.

Because the distance was too short, Cui Jue had absolutely no time to dodge. His body was impaled by the countless strands of hair.

All of this happened right before Du Yu’s eyes.

This ‘benefactor’ who had personally brought Du Yu into the Legend Management Bureau was now pierced through by a sky full of silvery-white hair.

Du Yu stared blankly at the scene unfolding before him, utterly speechless.

“Cui… Cui Jue!” It took a long time for Du Yu to snap out of his daze, and he immediately cried out, “Are you okay?”

Cui Jue lowered his head in disbelief, looking down at his own body. He then revealed a bitter smile and said, “Du Yu, you need to be careful…”

The Northern Emperor did not give him a chance to speak further. He simply ripped all the hair out. Blood instantly gushed from the countless small holes in Cui Jue’s body, and like a puppet whose strings had been cut, he plummeted rapidly from midair.

“Chief Judge!”

Du Yu roared in anger and was about to fly over to save him, but he was held back by the Northern Emperor again.

“Northern Emperor! What exactly are you doing?!” Du Yu asked through gritted teeth.

The Northern Emperor looked coldly at the direction where Cui Jue fell, then looked back at Du Yu. “Can’t you tell? I’m saving you. I don’t want to answer this question for a third time.”

Du Yu recalled the way Cui Jue had just attacked him, and a wave of delayed fear washed over him.

His relationship with Cui Jue was not shallow; he truly had no idea why the man would suddenly attack him.

But was the Northern Emperor standing before him really a good person?

“Northern Emperor, if you wanted to save me, you should have had countless ways to stop Cui Jue. Why did you have to kill him?!”

The Northern Emperor manipulated his hair, flicking off the bloodstains, and said, “Because I am not familiar with Cui Jue. Whether he lives or dies makes no difference to me. In that situation just now, the most direct method was to kill him, otherwise, it would have been very troublesome.”

“Are you a piece of trash?!” A fierce gale instantly gathered in Du Yu’s right hand; it seemed he wanted to trade blows with the Northern Emperor.

“I advise you to save your strength. I was not the one who killed Cui Jue.” The Northern Emperor turned around, looking in the direction of Mahakala. “It was him.”

“Him?”

Du Yu followed the Northern Emperor’s gaze. Mahakala was still sitting there, not having moved an inch.

“He is reciting the Heart Sutra backwards,” the Northern Emperor said calmly.

“Backwards?” Du Yu blinked. “You mean the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra? Reciting it backwards?”

No wonder Du Yu felt like he hadn’t been able to understand a single thing Mahakala had been muttering this whole time. So he was reciting it backwards?

“Correct.” The Northern Emperor nodded. “It was originally a scripture capable of ‘washing away’ sins, but now it has become a weapon that ‘stimulates’ them.”

Du Yu shook his head, still not understanding.

“But stimulating sins… what does that have to do with the Eastern Emperor from earlier and Cui Jue?!”

The Northern Emperor gave Du Yu a profound look and asked, “The Eastern Emperor became the Eastern Emperor because of you, didn’t he?”

Du Yu thought about it for a moment, nodded, and said, “That is true… but he did it willingly!”

“He did it willingly, that’s true.” The Northern Emperor nodded. “But over these thousands of years, if the Eastern Emperor ever harbored even the slightest thought of ‘wavering’ in his heart, it could be unearthed by this backwards-recited Heart Sutra. It becomes a ’cause’, which is then infinitely magnified to form an ‘effect’.”

Du Yu seemed to realize something. “Are you saying… the Eastern Emperor once had a fleeting feeling of regret, and because of this Heart Sutra, it ultimately formed a ‘motive to kill’ me?”

“Correct,” the Northern Emperor nodded.

“But that’s not right either!” Du Yu suddenly thought of something. “There’s no way the Eastern Emperor could recognize me… When I met him back then in the Jade Emperor’s legend, I was still wearing a veil.”

Just as Du Yu was about to continue, he suddenly froze.

He remembered the bizarre situation when the Eastern Emperor saw him earlier.

The Eastern Emperor had asked, “Du Yu, why are you here?”

Presumably, the Eastern Emperor had only seen Du Yu’s back at the time and found it exceptionally familiar. He knew this back belonged to the person who helped him swap identities with the Jade Emperor, and thus, murderous intent arose within him.

But he didn’t expect that this person would actually be Du Yu, so he hesitated.

However, he then realized that precisely because this person was Du Yu, everything made perfect sense.

That was why he had shouted in a fit of rage, “So it was you!”