Legend Management Bureau Chapter 436

[ … words ]

“Xiang?” The only character Du Yu recognized was this word, “Xiang.”

‘Could this really be a gift from A’xiang?’

As soon as this thought popped up, even he had to laugh.

“What a joke…” he muttered. “Since ancient times, You Si and I are the only ones who could enter this cave. Am I hallucinating things on stones now?”

Du Yu wanted nothing more than to ruthlessly chuck the stone away, but he hesitated.

In tens of thousands of years, this was the only thing that had stirred his emotions.

If he just threw it away, his heart would feel empty.

Even if it was just a hallucination, even if it was just something to keep as a memento.

Thus, he could only gently grip the stone in his hand, rubbing it continuously.

Du Yu continued to ask questions, but within this cave, even the sole array formation that used to listen to him speak was gone.

He had become a truly solitary existence.

Twelve years later, You Si returned.

She wore an unsuppressable look of disappointment on her face, and Du Yu knew she couldn’t possibly have succeeded.

However, her existence was the key to triggering the next “qualified candidate.”

“Time… I am sorry…” You Si whispered to herself. “I am on the verge of finding the new Time.”

Du Yu slowly raised his head. It took him a long while to snap out of his daze. Staring blankly at You Si, he enunciated every word, “Come closer.”

You Si did not understand why, but she slowly walked over.

Du Yu flipped his palm over, revealing the stone. “Look at this. Are there words written on it?”

“Words?” You Si paused. “What are words?”

“You…!” Du Yu initially thought You Si was messing with him, but upon closer consideration, it was entirely possible that the current You Si really didn’t know how to read. He sighed and explained, “It means weirdly shaped patterns.”

You Si gently picked up the stone, examined it closely, and found that there was indeed a line of patterns on it.

“What do the patterns look like?!” Du Yu asked, his eyes wide.

“They are…” You Si extended a finger and traced a few shapes in the air. “The first one is like this, then this, and this…”

Hearing You Si’s description, Du Yu finally realized that this wasn’t a hallucination at all.

It was real.

But if it was real, didn’t that make everything even stranger?

There was quite a bit of crushed rock in this cave. A’xiang’s phantom had suddenly appeared and pointed out one specific stone to him, and it turned out to actually have writing on it.

What did this mean?

Du Yu felt as if he had grasped onto something intangible. He hastily urged, “You Si, quickly help me check if there are words on the other stones!”

“Oh…”

But You Si circled the stone chamber for several hours and couldn’t find any similar patterns on the other rocks. She could only return empty-handed.

‘Could this stone really be the only one of its kind?’ Du Yu shook his head in resignation.

“Forget it… Just give the stone back to me,” Du Yu said.

You Si blinked in slight surprise at his words. “I thought it was useless, so I casually tossed it back.”

“You…!” Du Yu’s eyes widened instantly. He looked at the multitude of identical-looking stones scattered across the ground, so anxious that he tried to bolt up from his chair, but he was physically unable to. “Find it for me right now! Get it back immediately!”

“Why is that so hard?” You Si curled her lips. “That stone has a faint trace of spiritual energy. It is quite easy to find.”

She merely waved her hand, and the small stone flew over, landing securely in her palm.

“Spiritual energy?” Du Yu blinked. “You’re saying this thing has spiritual energy on it?”

“Yes,” You Si nodded. “I noticed it the last time I picked it up for you. It contains a bit of spiritual energy, but it is on the verge of dissipating.”

‘Dissipating…’ Du Yu blinked rapidly. If he hadn’t seen A’xiang’s phantom, it probably wouldn’t have been long before he lost this chance forever. But what exactly was this opportunity?

Du Yu paused for a moment before declaring, “You Si! Inject some spiritual energy into the stone!”

Du Yu knew that no matter what this stone represented, he absolutely could not let its spiritual energy fade away.

After all, the owner of this spiritual energy was highly likely to be A’xiang.

“Inject spiritual energy?” You Si pondered for a moment. “But why do you want to do that? Does this have something to do with letting you leave this cave?”

“Yes…” Du Yu nodded. “This might be the highest chance I’ve had to leave in all of history.”

Although You Si didn’t quite understand, she still followed Du Yu’s instructions, attaching a sliver of spiritual energy to the stone.

The stone instantly lit up with a faint glow.

Du Yu had originally only wanted You Si to preserve the spiritual energy on the stone from scattering, but he never expected that the stone, stimulated by You Si’s spiritual energy, would project an image.

The projection displayed a triangle and a square.

The two shapes floated in midair, hovering directly above the stone.

“This…?” Both You Si and Du Yu were a bit baffled. “What is this?”

Du Yu stared at the triangle and square floating in the air, his mind racing.

‘Could it be that A’xiang has something to say?’

‘Did she leave these two shapes behind to convey some kind of message to me?’

‘A stable triangle and a symmetrical square. What on earth do they represent?’

Du Yu knew that if he wanted to decipher the meaning of these two patterns, he needed to look at it from A’xiang’s perspective.

If the person who left these two shapes really was A’xiang, they definitely wouldn’t be anything overly profound.

After all, if they were even slightly complex, A’xiang wouldn’t have understood them herself.

These two shapes needed to have a certain logic, yet lack any deep philosophical meaning.

So, the triangle and square before his eyes…

Du Yu thought of many possibilities but shook his head, rejecting them all.

He always unconsciously overcomplicated things, but A’xiang wouldn’t do that.

After a long time, it finally hit Du Yu. He gradually raised his eyebrows.

“I got it! They’re the play button and the stop button!”

That was it. It had to be!

This was absolutely something A’xiang would do!

“Play button?” You Si froze. “What is that?”

“You Si, place your finger on the triangle.”

Following Du Yu’s instructions, You Si slightly lifted her slender finger and slowly pressed it against the holographic triangle.

To their surprise, a voice echoed out from the stone.

“Click. Clack. Tap.”

Immediately following that, a young girl cleared her throat.

“Moshi moshi, moshi moshi! My name is Shiranui Asuka… I… ah, hehe, who am I even introducing myself to?”

“But… well, I just wanted to find something to do. This stone is different from the two ‘gossip’ stones from earlier! Originally, I wanted to use this stone as an alarm clock to wake me up regularly; otherwise, I’d go crazy… But then I thought it would be pretty nice to record it as a diary… Just in case I forget why I came here in the future, I can still flip through my diary. Hehe.

“So, I hereby declare that the ‘Little Xiang Wake-up Service’ carved into this stone is officially voided, and renamed the ‘Little Xiang Diary Service’! Applause, everyone!!”

He waited for a long time, but the other end of the recording remained exceptionally quiet.

Shiranui Asuka let out a deep sigh, her voice laced with an unsuppressable sense of loss as she slowly continued.

“It’s so boring… I don’t even know if I’ve been sitting here for hundreds of thousands of years. I might just keep sitting here forever and ever. You can come into this cave, but no one knows how to get out. I guess… this might just be how I spend the rest of my life.”